Let's Investigate every Mass Shooting as if it were Benghazi

Noted aphasia sufferer Republican Kevin McCarthy stated today, "Let’s be very clear: Benghazi is not political. It was created for one purpose and one purpose only: to find the truth on behalf of the families of the four dead Americans. Period."

Well, as we all know the current Benghazi Committee was created for the express purpose of hurting Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary R. Clinton. As McCarthy accidentally admitted last week,

"Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable right? But we put together a Benghazi Special Committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Cause she’s untrustable. But no one would have known any of that had happened had we not fought and made that happen."

Ignoring the fact, that McCarthy has this odd Michele Bachmann speaking impediment, as with Mitt Romney's 47% speech and so many other Republicans, McCarthy spoke out loud that which Republicans must never say, that the entire Republican Party is nothing more than a tawdry collection of ghouls, bigots, lunatics, and plutocratic hatchet men, whose only goals are to get as rich as possible and advance the Conservative Agenda of Oppression, Intolerance and Adulation of the Rich.

Benghazi is nothing more than a Political Witch Hunt. 4 Americans lost their lives and this is terrible, but they were engaged in a CIA operation, working at the Tip of the Spear, in a hostile environment and literal warzone.

30,000 Americans die every year from Gun Violence on U.S. soil, with spectacular Mass Shootings taking more American lives more and more frequently, every year.

If, McCarthy and the Republican Party cared about American lives and were not just using the dead to advance the evil Conservative Agenda, then every Mass Shooting in America would receive 13 special investigations and have 3 years of non-stop Faux News coverage and now have a special sub-committee expending millions of dollars to investigate the deaths of 4 Americans.

But, none of the Mass Shootings are being investigated in this manner. It puts paid to the lie that Republicans care about American Lives. The Republican Party does not care about American Lives and has no interest in protecting the American People but, will instead use (in every sickening sense of the word) Americans to enrich their Political Owners.

Just note that after every shooting, every Republican rushes forward to declare this is not the time to discuss Guns and offers up their worthless 'Thoughts and Prayers'. They literally do nothing about the deaths of Americans.

After a week or so passes, Republicans declare the problem is the murdered victims are to blame for their own deaths and blame Mental Health problems in the country. Then the Republicans proceed to do absolutely nothing about Mental Health and empower no one to do anything about the mentally ill.

And Conservatives greedily lap up the Kabuki theater, the Republicans Stage as they wed themselves more and more to a cadre of Rich Guard Dogs whose goal is to enshackle the entire populace into Wage Slavery and Corporate Bondage, while We, the People live in a state of abject terror wondering if this is the day, some Right-Wing Domestic Terrorist is going to run amuck and gun us down.

Another Second Amendment Hero shoots up Washington DC Naval Yard

“He turned our way and started firing, and we ran downstairs to get out of the building,” Todd Brundidge a civilian employee at the Naval Sea Systems Command building said. “No words. He raised the gun and started firing.”

Well... Let's see. How does a Plutocracy destroy a Nation? Well, Shock & Awe are really only useful for Foreign Lands. At home the Rich get the Working Class to destroy itself.

President Ronald Reagan, that mentally-addled, terrorist-loving, cut-and-run Chickenhawk, tax-raising, war criminal, tool of the Plutocrats first set about destroying the Social Safety Net and aiding the Rich in their conquest of America.

In 1977 President Jimmy Carter created President's Commission on Mental Health, charged with assessing the particulars of mental health services and making specific suggestions on how things should be changed. On August 13, 1981 President Reagan rescinded the law.

So, Mental Health screenings don't exist in this country. By turning it over to the States, Reagan and his Rich Controllers knew the problem would get kicked around and then ignored often left to family members calling their local police departments and the responding Officer telling the family member if they don't agree to go voluntarily and haven't made any statements about harming themselves or others there's nothing we can do.

Now, that we have thousands of mentally ill persons homeless and not receiving medications let's ensure Working Class people can't possibly take care of their sick family members by stagnating their wages for the last 35 years. Then we can also remove trade restrictions and allow Companies to offshore jobs and factories to increase Corporate profits, further stressing the Working Class. And of course, if this isn't enough, the Rich then swindle the Nation and set up the Wall Street Financial Crisis and get Trillions in taxpayer welfare stolen from the rest of us, which they neatly place in their pockets and transfer down to their Cayman Islands bank accounts.

Let's add into the mix 350 million firearms in this Nation, specifically the AR-15, the original platform having been created for Vietnam but now finding use on the Homeland in multiple mass shootings.

So, our current Hero of the Second Amendment brought an AR-15, shotgun and handgun and killed 4 people while wounding another 6 before being killed by SWAT. Searches for additional gunmen on the sprawling facilities are on-going.

And what will be the resolution from this? The gun hugging lovers of Unrestricted Firearm Violence will call for more weapons in the hands of "good guys" and underlying causes will never ever be addressed let alone solved.

So, just as with Sandy Hook, Aurora, Virginia Tech expect more and more Gun Violence and more and more intractability by the insane Cult of the Gun.

NRA Terrorists and Gun Nuts in America want Anarchy

Once Rockets go Up
Who cares where they come Down
That's not my Department
Says Werner Von Braun

Gun Nuts like to claim that new laws or even current laws can stop Gun Violence. That's true but that's true of every law. No Law, in and of itself, has ever stopped a crime.

**Update: Connecticut lawmakers, in March 2011, tried to ban the magazines used by the Newton Murderer. I wonder if that Law which the NRA, Firearm Makers and Gun Nuts fought visciously against may have helped some of the murdered children survive.**

Enforcement and societal controls are what are needed. We have neither. The Second Amendment is being used by Gun Right's Fanatics to Destroy the Country. ALEC and NRA Terrorists represent the interest of Gun Manufactures over Americans. Profits over People. It's the Right-Wing response to everything.

What is obvious is the massive influx of guns into American society is the driving the gun violence.

As a result, here are Homicides by Firearms in so-called First World Nations:

• USA 9168
• Canada 173
• Germany 168

Gun Violence is being fueled by a confluence of events, Gun Makers pursue profits over people by flooding the Nation with firearms, we've allowed bought politicians to slash the Social Safety Net, and current laws are ignored and curtailed.

Gun Makers have flooded the Nation with firearms. We have over 250,000,000 guns in the country.

Additionally, the Right has been advancing arguments undercutting the authority and legitimacy of the Federal Government for the past 30 years, "Government is not the solution to our problems. Government is the problem."

As California Governor, Reagan closed down the State's Mental Hospitals. California's homeless population exploded as a result. As President, within a month of Reagan's inauguration, the Office of Management Budget announced it would curtail the budget of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Inside of 2 years Reagan had gutted the Mental Health Systems Act of 1980 and instead, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (1982) would merge money for mental health programs into block grants, with fewer dollars going to the states.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel at the bidding of his Plutocratic Masters shut down 6 of 13 Mental Hospitals in the city, to save $3 Million dollars, that the evil Rich belive are being stolen from them by greedy poor people.

While there is a tiny lunatic fringe who yearn for Anarchy, a Glenn Beck-inspired Overton Window, who want the Government to fail because it will allow them to fulfill their murder fantasies against the Moochers, Liberals and Government "Tyranny".

It's the legally purchased guns which owners don't safeguard that are fueling the danger. One of the top 3 items stolen in every Residential Burglary are guns.

After Chicago Police officers confiscated 125 guns in a series of citywide stings in late August, the department went to work investigating the path each weapon took from store to street. 

Authorities were able to trace 54 of those guns to their original point of sale. Thirty percent were from Indiana, 26 percent from Illinois and 6 percent from Kentucky, the analysis found. 

The police analysis found at least four of the 125 recovered guns were stolen from gun stores. 

One gun was snatched from Maxon Shooters Supplies and Indoor Range in northwest suburban Des Plaines, where at least 140 guns were stolen in January.

The guns used by Adam Lanza in his murderous spree were evidently legally purchased by his mother and first victim, Nancy Lanza. A quiet divorced woman who apparently in the last 3 years let the Faux News fueled Fear Factory of American Collapse drive her towards survivalist thinking.

Most gun owners want responsible ownership, yet they don't know that Background checks are not universal. Most don't know that the NRA fought against the Federal Government attempts to stop gun sales to those on the FBI's terrorist watch list.

Most don't know that in 2011 Republicans in Illinois, in direct opposition to the health and safety of their constituents, voted to put guns in the hands of Terrorists:

Republicans on the House Judiciary panel shot down a proposal Thursday to prevent weapon sales to suspected terrorists.  

In a party-line vote of 21-11, the committee Republicans killed an amendment from Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) that would have blocked firearm purchases by those on the FBI's terrorist watch list.

The Gun Rights of Terrorists and Criminals are more important to Gun Nuts, Republicans (Michele Bachmann fits both categories), ALEC and NRA Terrorists than the safety and lives of American children.

But, the Constitution is NOT a Suicide Pact. The Second Amendment itself calls for 'Regulation'. Use that term in every Gun Control Law.

There is no reason for an American to have an Assault Weapon with 100 round drum magazines or 32 round extended clip Glock magazines unless they truly believe they are going to use them to kill National Guardsmen, ATF Agents and UN Blue-Helmeted soliders trying to take away their Country from them.

Regulate every weapon. Regulate every firearm owner. Regulate every Gun Maker. Make Firearm Owners and Manufacturers liable for them. Make people prove they have control of their weapons every year. If a weapon is used in the commission of a crime make the purchaser and seller potentially liable. Sig Sauer CEO Ron Cohen should be sued by every family in Newton, CT. Chain guns to their lovers.

They have the money and the ruthless desire to enforce their Killing Machines into every corner of American Society. What do we have? What are we as a people willing to do to stop them?

The Dark Night in Colorado and America's Mental Health

"The white man, that landed here; He came with two great weapons. One is the bible and the other was the gun. If he didn't humble you with the bible, he'd crumble you with the gun. And he's still praising the lord and passing the ammunition." - Lewis H. Michaux

As the media engages in the morbid coverage of The Dark Night of Colorado the Pro-Gun Lobby has conditioned America to simply treat these increasingly murderous sprees as "natural disasters".

We should feel sympathy for the victims and horror at the tragedy but, simply go back to our daily routine while awaiting the next shooting as though it's simply part of the societal landscape, like toronadoes, droughts, and Oil Spills.

But question the sanity of allowing someone to purchase 6000 rounds of ammunition? No, we can not do that, because the Holy Second Amendment. We are being held hostage to a warped vision of an idea. But, according to right-wing loonies these gun rampages are a god given immutable law and thus man can not change it. This is all just collateral damage of Freedom.

The writers over at Lawyers, Guns, and Money show how Conservative scum Glenn Reynolds immediately politcized the tragedy. Like most of the despicable tactics of right-wings it's brilliant. Use this horrific gun-fueled terrorist assualt as a political battering ram all the while bemoaning that Liberals are going to use it as a political battering ram.

Reverend Rick Warren tweeted shortly after the shooting, "When students are taught that they are no different from animals, they act like it." Nice christian compassion there Rick, you fat pile of putrid garbage, go back to bashing poor people for not paying enough taxes.

This incident is going to resonate for decades. A dozen murders, 59 wounded, hundreds more exposed to the carnage. Decades from now people and extended families will be dealing with the fallout and emotional damage.

But, that means nothing to right-wingers and gun loving loonies. No, they must retreat into a pseudo-philosphical realm where the death and devastation of unfettered access to guns is just some thought experminent.

Well, as always the first proposition of gun loonies is to claim if someone in the theater was packing this would have all been avoided. The way to combat gun violence is with *moar* guns!

This is, of course, ridiculous because James Holmes was "Acting" and any armed patron would be "Reacting". Action beats Reaction 99% of the time. But, when taking into account the number of people, the darkened conditions, the confusion, the smoke, the panic, and the up-armored murderer Holmes, how many rounds would be needed to drop him? But, such considerations are purposefully avoided by deluded gun loonies who would have you believe and probably believe themselves that they could draw, fire 2 rounds center mass and holster in 3 seconds all the while you enjoy the show.

Now, moving beyond the right-wing one-shot, one-kill Death Wish fantasy scenarios, gun loonies often claim that the mere thought that an intended gallery of victims would included a preponderance or even several armed persons would be enough to dissaude the attacker. And this is why famously Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday and Bat Masterton never had to fire their guns or even pull their pistols in the old west because everyone was armed. But, if as every gun owner wants to claim Holmes was "crazy, sick, demented" then a logical fear of others having guns isn't going to stop him.

James Holmes obviously suffered a pyschotic break and based on his preperations he knew it. It's probable his study of the brain provided him with the edge in this incident. He was acting and knew the reaction times of his victims would be slowed and flawed.

More and more often in my daily duties as a Police Officer, I come into contact with people suffering from untreated mental disorders or diminished capacity. But, Police Officers should not be regularly tasked with responding to people suffering from reduced capacity or mental problems. When your only tool is a hammer, then everyone becomes a nail.

The Mental Health of members of society needs to be addressed by society. But, more and more "society" lets these people fall through the cracks because family counselors, DCFS workers, and mental health professionals are understaffed and overworked. While local and state governments choose to cut funding for those workers because budgets are squeezed.

And budgets are squeezed because the 1% in this Nation see no reason to invest in it. More and more superrich bastards, like Mitt Romney, ferret away Billions into off-shore tax havens.

The 1% have no reason to have a Post Office, no reason to have National Healthcare, no reason to have a Social Security safety net, no reason to regulate gun sales or control access to ammuntion. The 1% who control 50% of this country's wealth see no point in having a Nation.

They have the assets to set themselves up in little fiefdoms. The 1% don't see movies in giant cinemaplexs with the hoi poloi. They don't do downward facing dog with a bunch of middle class housewives. They have private movie studios. Yoga instructors come to their homes.

Society is at risk because the assets of society are being drained to the coffers of the Plutocracy.

LAPD Sheriff Deputy punches mentally challenged woman in the face

"Not all cultures are equal. Not all values are equal." ~ Michele Bachmann

Memo To Rahm Emmanuel: When the Police are your only tool everyone becomes a Perp. Video emerged of an LAPD Sheriff's Deputy punching a woman who is developmentally challenged. I try not to come to a conclusion of what the incident, in and of itself means, or judge the Deputy involved prior to all the facts coming out. The incident came about because the woman reportedly alarmed other people on the bus who dialed 911 because who else are you going to call?

Image is important.

Every Police Officer should be aware a punch oft times is not a good technique for handling a situation, punches aren't designed to get compliance from people. In almost all cases, punches appear to be abuse or an over-reaction. Read what the witnesses said the incident appeared like to them,

"Like they're tired of dealing with her..."

"I can't believe he didn't try to diffuse the situation at all..."

But, why is the Officer in this position at all? Because rich psychopaths who control the Government have deemed spending on Mental Health facilities to be SOCIALISM! Confrontations like this are are the result of the 1% Austerity programs which directly target facilities which are best suited and staffed to help people like this woman.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel's 2012 budget eliminates 7 of the 13 mental health facilities to save a few million bucks. Why? Because the 1% wishes it. They don't need society. The rich are Pyschopaths. So they especially hate mental health workers.

As Bachmann stated not all cultures are equal. Bachmann and her Republicon Ilk have spent decades coarsening American Society in the viscous pursuit of the Ayn Randian Dream-land, the elimination of programs and facilities to aid Americans, for their Plutocratic Masters. Now 21st century American society is the "richest nation in the world" where the poor and unfortunate are left on the other side of the river.

Police Officers should not be the ones tasked with regularly dealing with people suffering from reduced capacity or mental problems. The Mental Health of members of society needs to be addressed by that society. It's a measuring stick of the level of civilization.

And Our Civilization is rapidly declining thanks to the evil 1%, their Republican Marionettes and Austerity programs.

So, Chicago be prepared for more and more incidents like this as CPD is called in to handle mentally disturbed individuals and the Officers don't know what to do so they Taze him and he dies of excited delirium.