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Remember the angry, bearded, shave-headed wingnut in Tennessee who, shortly after the Newtown Massacre, had a viral video on You Tube saying he was “gonna start killing people” if President Obama issued an executive order on guns. That was James Yeager, CEO of Tactical Response. If you don’t remember, here’s the initial video.

OK, NOW you remember!  According to Talking Points Memo, a short time later, Yeager clarified that he wouldn’t murder anybody “unless it’s necessary.” But that apparently wasn’t enough for the State of Tennessee which suspended Yeager’s carry permit because his comments suggested a “material likelihood of risk of harm to the public,” which sounds like a reasonable enough position.

Not to worry though, Yeager got his permit back last month.

Well. On March 10, one of Yeager’s students — James Gilkerson of Middlefield, Ohio — tried to put his lessons into practice.  First, the section of the coursework that it seems Gilkerson was using as his guide.

You know how to shoot your rifle or subgun now let us teach you how to FIGHT with it! This course is far more advanced than any other rifle course you can attend (with the exception of our advanced course) and covers trajectory, battlesight zero, gear set-up, sling configurations, transitions to pistol, use of cover and concealment, practical ready and firing positions, close- and medium-range snap shooting, weapons handling, urban applications, team drills, firing while moving, multiple targets, plus the tactics required to employ this potent tool in combat. Every student leaves this class with empty mags, a red hot rifle, and a smile from ear to ear! This is one of our most popular courses.

This class is great for nearly any magazine fed rifle or subgun and any traditional military style rifle. We will show you how to run your MP5, AR, AK, RPK, FAL, M1A, G3, VZ-58 or whatever weapon you have!

And how did that work out for Gilkerson? This is a disturbing video, and viewer discretion is advised.

Well, he went down FIGHTING! The police found several books of militia and terrorist related literature — along with eight 40-round magazines for the AK-47. Among the books…

Why, that’s one of those “Tactical Response” manuals that teaches you how to FIGHT with your weapon.

But not to worry. These lunatics are planning to march into Washington, DC, on July 4. Nothing to worry about.

From Think Progress
By Rebecca Leber

Almost 900 (Update, as of 7am today, over 1,400) people are RSVPed for a July 4th march on Washington, D.C. where protesters plan to carry loaded rifles. In D.C., openly carrying guns is against the law. But the organizer of the event, libertarian radio host Adam Kokesh, says the march is an act of “civil disobedience” that attempts to prove gun advocates’ point in the “SUBTLEST way possible.”

The event’s Facebook invitation describes the march as a nonviolent demonstration, “unless the government chooses to make it violent”: (Emphasis added)

This is an act of civil disobedience, not a permitted event. We will march with rifles loaded & slung across our backs to put the government on notice that we will not be intimidated & cower in submission to tyranny. We are marching to mark the high water mark of government & to turn the tide. This will be a non-violent event, unless the government chooses to make it violent. Should we meet physical resistance, we will peacefully turn back, having shown that free people are not welcome in Washington, & returning with the resolve that the politicians, bureaucrats, & enforcers of the federal government will not be welcome in the land of the free.

There’s a remote chance that there will be violence as there has been from government before, and I think it should be clear that if anyone involved in this event is approached respectfully by agents of the state, they will submit to arrest without resisting. We are truly saying in the SUBTLEST way possible that we would rather die on our feet than live on our knees.

It is not exactly clear whether Kokesh will carry through with the event, since he says it needs to reach a critical mass of 10,000 RSVPs first. However, the National Rifle Association is newly reenergized after the Senate filibuster of background check legislation.

Salon’s Alex Seitz-Wald notes that Kokesh has expressed increasingly radical views on his show and on Twitter. Just this week, he called for the abolishment of the U.S. government.

Generally, open carry demonstrations have occurred in places with weaker gun laws, as well as a litmus test for how far gun violence laws can be challenged. Most recently, a group of men brought their rifles to intimidate moms who rallied for action on gun violence. “Another group brought guns into a Virginia public library full of children, while demonstrators in Oregon brandished assault rifles in the State Capitol.

[This article now cross-published by Salon...]

So, wait. It wasn't the Syrian regime, but rather the Syrian rebels who used sarin nerve gas recently? That's the story being reported tonight by Reuters, from actually named sources among U.N. investigators. But will anybody notice? Or, with Israeli airstrikes already under way, and the neo-cons already demanding another new war, is the news too little, too late...again?

The week before last, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, reading from a letter sent by the White House to Congress, announced that the Administration believes that the Syrian government recently used chemical weapons against its own people. If true, it would be a move which President Obama had previously described as a "red line" and a "game changer" in the Administration's policy on the two-year old civil war still raging in that country.

Hagel's statement was somewhat measured [emphasis added]: "Our intelligence community does assess, with varying degrees of confidence, that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale in Syria, specifically, the chemical agent sarin."

A few days later, during a Presidential press conference, Obama himself was also measured, even back-tracking somewhat on the claim that it was "the Syrian regime" which used the chemical weapon, as Hagel had initially announced, setting off "Breaking News!" tweets around the globe.

"What we now have is evidence that chemical weapons have been used inside of Syria, but we don't know how they were used, when they were used, who used them. We don't have a chain of custody that establishes what exactly happened," the President said, seemingly responsibly. "And when I am making decisions about America’s national security and the potential for taking additional action in response to chemical weapon use, I've got to make sure I've got the facts."

He went on to decry "rushing to judgement without hard, effective evidence," that he planned to work with "neighboring countries to...establish a clear baseline of facts", and that he had "called on the United Nations to investigate."

But the war genie was already out of the bottle. At least for many in both the corporate media and the neo-con Right...

Sen. John McCain, for example, as is his wont, rushed to whatever TV cameras he could find to announce that the intel, as is, was "a compelling argument for the president to take the measures that a lot of us have been arguing for all along."

Syrian rebels, McCain ominously warned on CNN, need to be given "a safe zone, we need to supply them with weapons going to the right people, and we need to be prepared to secure these caches of chemical weapons in the event that [Syrian leader Bashar al Assad] uses them."

And then, with the war hawks squawking over the last several days, it is now being reported that Israel has launched a series of airstrikes against Syria, on the outskirts of its capital, Damascus.

To date, there has been very little pushback against Israel for having unilaterally done so. In fact, the response from the usual quarters has been just the opposite.

"Now THAT's a red line," CNN's paid contributor and former George W. Bush Press Secretary (and current apologist) Ari Fleischer tweeted in response to news of the first Israeli attack inside of Syria on Friday.

"Next time Pres O says he's drawn a red line, ask if he used invisible ink," tweeted Fleischer the week before, after the Administration's initial announcement of the use of sarin in Syria.

Today, the same man who fought so hard to push the nation towards war over invisible weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, kept up his courageous war of words in celebration of the second reported Israeli strike. "The power of a red line: it's bright &easy 2see. Message - don't cross it. They don't come in shades & aren't meant 2b erased," CNN's Fleischer bravely chest-thumped from behind the safety of his home office keyboard.

It seems hard to believe that there would be as much of a celebration, or even collective "oh, well, guess we saw that coming," had Syria, for example, flown warplanes over Tel Aviv or Jerusalem to drop bombs inside of that sovereign nation. But, after all, we've been told Assad is very bad guy who is not only said to have killed some 70,000 of his own people in the two year old civil war there (a fact which few seem to dispute), but now we know he's even crossed a "red line" with the "game changing" use of chemical weapons! Who can blame Israel for taking action where, to hear McCain and Fleischer and friends tell it, Obama is just too weak to do so!

Of course, it's far from clear that Israel's attacks had anything whatsoever to do with taking out chemical weapons facilities or stockpiles in Syria. From the various anonymous U.S. and Israeli officials cited by news agencies, Israel was striking "a shipment of missiles destined for Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement ... a consignment of advanced, long-range, ground-to-ground missiles destined for Hezbollah"

"The shipment did not contain chemical weapons, but the missiles were potentially 'game-changing,' one official told the Associated Press," Washington Post is reporting.

(Without citing evidence, the fully-discredited-yet-still-well-paid Fleischer described the missiles as "delivery systems for chemical weapons".)

So, the use of chemical weapons (by whom, we still do not know) is a "game changer". The President failed to act (as the neo-cons tell us), by asking the U.N. to investigate and gather more information before the U.S. goes to war. In the meantime, Israel strikes against "game-changing" weapons in Syria, according to anonymous sources for unproven reasons. And few, if any, rush to cameras to condemn Israel for doing so. Most, including CNN's paid contributors like Fleischer, celebrate their having done so.

But what of those "game changing" chemical weapons? Lo and behold, a report out tonight, based on information from U.N. investigators, seems to indicate that it's the Syrian rebels --- the one that McCain et al are calling for Obama to support immediately --- who may have used the sarin nerve gas which kicked off this entire sequence of events.

From Reuters tonight:

U.N. human rights investigators have gathered testimony from casualties of Syria's civil war and medical staff indicating that rebel forces have used the nerve agent sarin, one of the lead investigators said on Sunday.

The United Nations independent commission of inquiry on Syria has not yet seen evidence of government forces having used chemical weapons, which are banned under international law, said commission member Carla Del Ponte.

"Our investigators have been in neighboring countries interviewing victims, doctors and field hospitals and, according to their report of last week which I have seen, there are strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof of the use of sarin gas, from the way the victims were treated," Del Ponte said in an interview with Swiss-Italian television.

"This was use on the part of the opposition, the rebels, not by the government authorities," she added, speaking in Italian.

So, it was the rebels, according to actual named sources, not the Syrian regime which may have used the sarin gas that set off the chain of events described above over the past week and a half?

Will anybody bother to notice that report? So far, the courageous Fleischer's Twitter feed has remained silent tonight and Grampa McCain is probably already asleep for the night.

Will McCain and Fleischer and the other war hawks soon retract their chest thumping and sabre rattling in light of the U.N. reports? Will they call for the U.S. to take action against the rebels in Syria who may have used chemical weapons?

Will there be an investigation, any investigation at all, into Israel's aggressive --- some might say, unprovoked --- military actions over the past three days?

Or, as is far more likely, will we all largely ignore the Reuters report on the U.N. investigators' findings entirely and carry on, as is, with our previously scheduled war-mongering and our continuing failure to hold war criminals responsible ... so long as they may potentially include those from either the U.S. or Israel?

* * *

UPDATE 5/6/2013: This statement was released by the U.N.'s commission this morning, in response to last night's news report:

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic wishes to clarify that it has not reached conclusive findings as to the use of chemical weapons in Syria by any parties to the conflict. As a result, the Commission is not in a position to further comment on the allegations at this time.

The Chair of the Commission of Inquiry, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, reminds all parties to the conflict that the use of chemical weapons is prohibited in all circumstances under customary international humanitarian law.

In line with its mandate, the Commission is currently investigating all allegations of violations of international law in the Syrian Arab Republic and will issue its findings to the Human Rights Council on 3 June 2013, as mandated by resolution 22/24

More details on the work of the commission can be found here.

At the same time, the Jerusalem Post is reporting today that at least 40 Syrian soldiers were killed, and another 100 are still missing, after air strikes by Israel over the weekend, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The paper also notes that, according to Kuwait's daily Alrai, Syrian President Assad has "threatened retaliation without warning to any further attack on his country." Assad is said to have notified both Washington and Moscow "that orders had been given to allow deployed ground-to-ground and ground-to-air missile batteries to be used against Israel without advance notice in the event of another attack."

ALSO very much worth noting today... FAIR has issued a report this morning on the lack of skepticism by U.S. media about the government's claims about the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government. It also notes that both the New York Times' Bill Keller and ABC's Cokie Roberts over the weekend, expressed the view that wariness by the U.S. public over the claims, in light of similar claims about Iraq which turned out to be bogus, is a "problem" for those who feel "we need to have every single option available in a very dangerous world."

* * *

UPDATE 5/6/2013 12:42pm PT: Despite the U.N. commission's call for caution in light of last night's report, investigator Carla Del Ponte --- "a former Swiss attorney general who also served as prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia" --- is standing by her initial assertions today, according to this Reuter's update:

In comments posted in English on Monday, she repeated the assertion, saying that witness testimony made it appear that some chemical wepaons had been used.

"What appears to our investigation is that it was used by the opponents, by the rebels," she said. "We have no indication at all that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons."

These guys recently called me "a gatekeeper". That's not fair. I run these messages because they are important, not because The Empire tells me to. That part is just incidental.

An ambitious election reform bill supported by state Democrats and the Colorado County Clerks Association, which is largely made up of Republicans, will soon land on the desk of Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper, despite the objections of Republican lawmakers and the state's extraordinarily partisan Republican Sec. of State.

The bill has now been approved by both chambers of the Colorado legislature --- along party lines in each --- but must be approved again in the House due to "technical" amendments from the Senate. But while it may be too late, partisans and lawmakers would have been wise to look carefully before leaping in support of this bill which offers both excellent reforms and reasons to be very concerned about one of its central provisions.

John Tomasic of the Colorado Independent offered a detailed report earlier this week on the major concerns and somewhat confusing partisan divides on both sides of this particular piece of legislation.

There's a lot of good, long-overdue provisions in the sweeping, 126-page bill [PDF] (mercifully summarized on pages 2 through 4). The key provisions --- and main points of contention --- are summarized this way by Tomasic:

House Bill 1303 seeks to expand voter participation mainly by establishing a system that includes same-day registration up to Election Day and that mails ballots to all eligible voters in the state. Under the proposed law, voters would choose whether to mail their ballots back to the clerks, drop them off at early voting centers or fill them out at the polls on Election Day.

Tomasic goes on to explain that the bill, dubbed "The Voter Access and Modernized Elections Act", is sponsored by Democrats in both the CO House and Senate, but it's "based on a plan approved by a large bipartisan majority of clerks who run the state’s elections county to county. The Colorado County Clerks Association reports that 75 percent of the 64 clerks in the state support the bill. The Association is anything but a left-wing cabal: At least 44 of the clerks, some 70 percent, are Republican officeholders."

The politics on this one may be understandably confusing to some --- particularly with a former Republican Sec. of State favoring the bill, and the current Republican Sec. of State ardently opposing it --- but the professed concerns of the latter (that the expanded registration provisions will lead to "voter fraud") are largely nonsense. While the advocacy of the former (pushing broad expansion of vote-by-mail ballots to every voter in the state) ignores very real fraud concerns...

SoS v. SoS

One of the supporters of the election reform bill is the Clerk's Association Executive Director Donetta Davidson, a former Republican Sec. of State in Colorado, as well as a former George W. Bush-appointed Commissioner and Chairwoman of the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission (EAC).

The BRAD BLOG has detailed Davidson's embarrassing failures as EAC Chair many times over the years during the course of our investigative reports based on public records requests and much more. Those reports have detailed, among other things, Davidson's inappropriately cozy relationship with voting machine manufacturers and representatives, both as CO SoS and in her position at the EAC, and her willingness to overlook massive failures by the supposedly independent testing labs tasked with (poorly) testing and certifying virtually all of the electronic voting systems now in place around the country.

She also played a central role in one of our investigative reports, published exclusively as a chapter in Mark Crispin Miller's 2008 book, Loser Take All: Election Fraud and The Subversion of Democracy, 2000 - 2008, about how 100% unverifiable touch-screen voting systems with so-called "paper trail printers" were illegally certified by the state of Nevada's then Sec. of State (now-Senator) Dean Heller, for first-time use during the contentious 2004 Presidential Election, after being inappropriately approved for use by the EAC, in direct contravention of their own long-standing requirements. Suffice to say, during an hour-long conference call with Davidson and others at the EAC, as requested by the federal agency prior to publication of our report, we were absolutely floored by her astounding apparent lack of knowledge of the very voting systems and the testing processes she was tasked, at the time, with overseeing on behalf of the federal government.

Davidson favors the new CO election reform bill, but don't hold that alone against it.

In the meantime, CO's current Republican Sec. of State, Scott Gessler, who has proven to be an absolute embarrassment to the state since taking office in 2010, strongly opposes it.

Gessler has also made his share of ignominious appearances at The BRAD BLOG over recent years. For example, last year he attempted, then aborted, a shameful last-minute voter purge initiative of what he described as thousands of suspected non-citizen voters on the rolls. The effort to remove as many as 11,000 voters from the rolls, the number he cited during the first year he took office, was called off when it was found that almost every single of them were, indeed, citizens.

"In the end," Tomasic notes, citing an AP report finding just 12% of those on his hit-list were registered as Republicans, "Gessler offered an unconfirmed shriveled list of 35 non-citizens who may have cast votes in past elections." Emphasis there should be on "unconfirmed" and "maybe". That, out of millions of legal votes cast in the period even since Gessler has taken office.

That's not all, of course. His extraordinarily partisan behavior in advance of last year's Presidential Election in the pivotal swing-state is just one of many reasons that both the Democrats and the Clerks Association reportedly shut Gessler completely out of the process as they were crafting their bill. Another example was on display in the days before last year's election, as actual GOP voter registration fraud cases began appearing across the country, including in Colorado, allegedly carried out by workers for a firm hired by the Republican National Committee. As the scandal was quickly spreading, Gessler was busy joining Tea Party wingnut conspiracy theory conferences to speak on panels where he offered unsupported falderal about "organized" Democratic voter fraud schemes, even while ignoring real fraud schemes happening in his own state, by employees of his own political party.

One more point worth noting here on Gessler, before explaining how he's correct to worry about fraud because of this bill, but not for the main reasons he and Republican state legislators have so far offered. Here's Tomasic again:

When Secretary Gessler issued an elections rule in 2011 that sought to prevent clerks from sending mail ballots to "inactive voters" — registered voters who failed to cast a ballot in the previous election — Democrats called foul. The preceding election had been the Tea Party/Republican-wave election in which GOP turnout was high. That meant that an unusually large percentage of the state’s "active voters" — the only ones entitled to mail ballots in 2011, under Gessler’s rule — would be Republican voters. Clerks overseeing the state’s large, mostly Democratic-leaning, urban constituencies — citizens who tend to vote less regularly but who nevertheless depend on receiving their ballots for general elections — had made it policy to send ballots in all elections to inactive as well as active voters. Gessler’s rule would have barred those clerks from doing that. In the court case that followed, a judge ultimately ruled that Gessler’s interpretation went against the spirit of the law.

So, suffice to say that Gessler is a hard Rightwing partisan who attempts, over and over again, to couch his efforts at restricting perfectly legal Democratic-leaning voters from being able to cast their vote, behind repeatedly discredited claims of "voter fraud" being carried out by, or on behalf of, the Democratic Party.

His wolf-crying routine has largely, and deservedly, earned him utter irrelevance in the state's election reform lawmaking process in the bargain.

This time, with the possibility of massive (gasp!) voter enfranchisement likely to occur, thanks to expanded voter registration, right up to Election Day, and convenient Vote-by-Mail ballots arriving in the mailbox of every Colorado voter, Gessler is scrambling to find something, anything, with which to discredit the bill.

Too bad he seems to be missing the most obvious reason to do so.

Opening Pandora's Ballot Box

Gessler, and other opponents of the bill, have decided to focus largely on the expanded voter registration deadline as reason to oppose it. They say that it will either lead to fraudulent registrations, or that it can't be safely implemented in time for the 2013 elections, as currently set in the bill, because, as a Denver Post editorial misleadingly describes, the system for doing so "relies on technology that hasn't been tested."

Tomasic's article quotes Boulder’s Democratic Clerk Hillary Hall thoroughly undermining that argument, which she says she finds "baffling"....

She said the bill doesn’t propose using any untested technology. She said that for this November’s election, clerks would continue to use SCORE, the state’s electronic voter registration and election management system, which has been in place since 2008.

"We already have statewide connectivity for early voting," she said. "We use it right now and have for years in the weeks before Election Day. We’re simply extending that registration period by 29 days."
...
"If the concern is tied to same-day registration and voting, well, this bill doesn’t just put in same-day registration. That piece joins with a larger system that, again, draws on functions and practices already in place," Hall said.

While close attention, and independent testing by world-class computer science and security experts, needs to be a part of any online voter registration system, the technology for such a system is not that difficult, and is not, in and of itself, a recipe for fraud, if properly executed. So Gessler's, and other opponents, charges on those grounds seem to be baseless.

Gessler has also offered the ridiculous argument that there is no need to increase participation in Colorado's elections, because the state's voter turnout is, apparently, already good enough. (He reportedly told lawmakers that the state was number one in the country, according to Tomasic. In fact, it's number three, according to a recent study. Still, while that's a very good turnout, it's hardly reason to not expand participation as secure options may allow.)

So Gessler, it seems, has got nothing. Too bad. Because, even with everything that is good about this bill, there is every reason to be very concerned about the door it really will open for fraud via Vote-by-Mail ballot.

The BRAD BLOG has --- along with many others in the Election Integrity community --- long decried the broad use of VBM for a number of reasons. Many of those reasons are quickly bullet-pointed in our short article from some years ago, entitled "Why 'Vote-By-Mail' Elections Are a Terrible Idea for Democracy".

In short, while the type of voter fraud that Republicans disingenuously claim to be rampant (voter impersonation at the polling place, with restrictive Photo ID laws that disproportionately disenfranchise Democratic-leaning voters needed to combat it, as they argue) is virtually non-existent, where ballot fraud by voters actually does occur in American elections is almost entirely via absentee/Vote-by-Mail. Whether its voter intimidation, vote buying and selling, filling out mail ballots by someone other than the voter who it belongs to, Vote-by-Mail should be a very serious concern for those worried about fraud in U.S. elections.

Unfortunately for Republicans, whose polling place Photo ID restriction laws have absolutely nothing to do with absentee voting, their arguments against the CO bill almost completely miss the mark on the real concerns about fraud from this bill. Their pretend fixation on "voter fraud" at the polls (little more than a pretend scam meant to keep legal, if Democratic-leaning voters from voting), means that few of them seem to notice how this legislation really may open up the door to fraud.

Expanding Vote-by-Mail it to every voter in the state, whether they've requested a VBM ballot or not, would seem to be a recipe for disaster.

We are quoted and cited a couple of times in Tomasic's article. Here is one of those cites...

For some critics who otherwise support the election-reform bill, it’s the provision allowing clerks to send ballots to all registered voters in the state that raises concerns.

Friedman, the elections analyst at the influential BradBlog, has long cautioned against the growing movement in the U.S. toward mail elections. He has argued that mailing ballots extends the chain of custody, presenting greater opportunity for election fraud — the kind committed by overzealous campaign staffers, incompetent poll workers and corrupt special interest groups.
...
Mary Eberle, a longtime volunteer Colorado poll watcher, testified against the election-reform bill this month for the same reasons she has protested other recent changes to election administration in the state. She sees home mail boxes, post offices, ballot-sorting-and-reading machines and the rooms where they’re housed as democratic dark areas that invite abuse, places where citizens like herself can’t properly measure ballot integrity.

So, where Gessler is absolutely wrong to oppose this bill for the reasons he is putting forward, his predecessor Davidson, and the Democratic lawmakers who often seem to support increased turnout at any cost (we hope to have more on that in the near future) are similarly wrong in supporting it without paying careful attention to the Pandora's Ballot Box of fraud that they could be opening by expanding Vote-by-Mail to all...even to voters who don't want it, and haven't requested it. There are about to be a whole lot of blank ballots just floating around the state of Colorado. That is not a very good idea at all.

There is much more in Tomasic's piece at Colorado Independent worth checking out, in order to appreciate the broad election reforms likely to hit the Centennial State very soon. Many of those reforms are already in place elsewhere in the country, and many are likely to spread to your state as well. So understanding the lay of the land on these reforms --- both political and factual --- makes sense. Coloradans are lucky to have a smart, detail-oriented reporter like Tomasic there to help them do so.

* * *Please support The BRAD BLOG's fiercely independent, award-winning coverage of your electoral system, as available from no other media outlet in the nation --- now in our TENTH YEAR! --- with a donation to help us keep going (Snail mail, more options here). If you like, we'll send you some great, award-winning election integrity documentary films in return! Details right here...

Actually, that’s not a fair headline. A tub of industrial grade lard would be a step up from the birther, Civil War denying pile of goo who assumes the title of President of the National Rifle Association.

It’s hard to believe, but Jim Porter makes outgoing President David Keene and Spokesperson Wayne LaPierre look statesman like by comparison.

Today, the publication Alter Net listed five things we need to know about the new Leader of the Whack.

1.   Meet The New Boss, Same As The Old Boss. Don’t expect Porter to be a breath of fresh air bringing with him a new way of doing things. As is  traditional, Porter will come to the presidency following two years as first vice president and two years as second vice president of the organization. He has  also been the head of the NRA’s legal affairs committee and a trustee of the NRA Civil Rights Defense Fund. Porter’s father was the  NRA’spresident from 1959 to 1961 and  chaired the 1977  annual meeting  at which hardliners took over the organization and began transforming it into the no-compromise lobbying powerhouse the group remains today.

2.   Porter Believes “Un-American” Eric Holder And Hillary Clinton Tried To “Kill The Second Amendment At The United Nations.” Porter said during a  June 2012 speech at the New York Rifle & Pistol Association’s Annual Meeting that Attorney General Eric Holder, who he termed “rabidly un-American,” was “trying to kill the Second Amendment at the United Nations” with the help of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. He attributed this to the proposed United Nations Arms Trade Treaty, which he claimed would “make it illegal for individuals all over the world to own firearms.” This is a  blatant misrepresentation of the treaty, which deals with the international arms trade, not private ownership.

3.  Porter Calls The Civil War The “War Of Northern Aggression.” Explaining the NRA’s roots during the same June 2012 speech, Porter said, “NRA was started 1871 right here in New York state. It was started by some Yankee generals who didn’t like the way my Southern boys had the ability to shoot in what we call the ‘War of Northern Aggression.’ Now y’all might call it the Civil War, but we call it the ‘War of Northern Aggression’ down south.”

4.  Porter Thinks President Obama Wants European-Style Socialism. In a February 2011  interview with NRA News, Porter said: “I think everybody had a wake-up call after the Democrats took over Congress in 2006, and I think they had a huge shock when President Obama was elected in 2008. Most folks never would believe that there would be a run on our rights, our individual rights like there’s been in this country. And people are so concerned that where this government wants to take us is to a European socialistic, bureaucratic type of government. And it’s been a wake-up call.”

5.  With Porter As President, We’ll See More Of Wayne LaPierre. In recent months, current NRA President Keene has split major media appearances with Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre. But unlike Keene, Porter doesn’t have a  great deal of experience as a media personality, and reportedly plans to “serve a behind-the-scenes role” and let LaPierre, known for his fiery speeches and  apocalyptic conspiracies, be the “face of the organization.”

From “The Tennessean” — May 1, 2013

A Coffee County commissioner’s Facebook post suggesting Muslims are best greeted from behind a rifle barrel is prompting demands for an apology.

Commissioner Barry West’s post follows a string of anti-Muslim acts throughout Middle Tennessee in recent years, including at least four incidents of mosque vandalism. Opposition to a new mosque in Rutherford County was so strong it took federal Justice Department intervention to open it last year.

West played no active role in any of those incidents. He just put an image on his Facebook page, which shows a man aiming a shotgun under the phrase “How to wink at a Muslim.” But even that put a chill through Muslims in Middle Tennessee.

Muslim groups tweeted a screen grab of his post and it went viral.

West, who lives in Manchester, removed it about an hour later. He did not apologize, instead questioning how his tweet had become the focus of attention.

West responded with this email: “No I did not Twitter this … no I did not create this picture … yes I shared it … so why am I being singled out?”

It’s particularly troubling when elected officials post such Internet memes because they set the tone for how constituents should behave, said Drost Kokoye, an American Muslim Advisory Council board member. The statewide group was created to promote communication between Muslims and Tennessee law enforcement and government.

“This may just be a picture to him, but for us it is very threatening,” said Kokoye, an Antioch resident who has lived in Tennessee for 17 years. “Muslims in Coffee County should not feel safe to walk outside their homes.”

She said it was important for her group and others to expose and condemn the post to show it isn’t funny and could be dangerous.

More violence

The Boston Marathon bombing prompted a nationwide uptick in invitations to violence against Muslims, said Hatem Bazian, director of the Islamophobia Research & Documentation Project at the University of California Berkeley.

The group tracks social media posts, comments on online news articles, TV coverage and radio talk shows.

“Racists will always find a way to express their sentiments,” Bazian said. “They use these events as a reason to come out with it. People who are in the silent majority have to reclaim the public space and say this is unacceptable.”

A message from Mayor David Pennington on the Coffee County website extends the hand of hospitality. West’s Facebook post doesn’t change that, Pennington said, and Coffee County shouldn’t be judged based on it.

“I have no control on what a commissioner does when he leaves the commission meeting,” he said. “I have no idea why he did it.”

He said county government and Muslim business owners have enjoyed a long, supportive relationship that he believes will continue. Pennington said he would admonish commission members at their next meeting to be more careful about what they put on Facebook.

There are fewer than 50 Muslims in Coffee County, said Sabina Mohyuddin, a Nashville native who moved there in 2002. She said West’s post was uncharacteristic of the county, although she senses some residents are disturbed when they see people different from themselves.

She said the post scared her.

“That gun was pointed at me and my family,” Mohyuddin said. “We know that these lead to discrimination and hate crimes in the Muslim community, and we are very wary of that.

“I am a second generation American. My children are third generation. We don’t see ourselves as anything but American.”

The best thing West can do is apologize publicly and meet privately with Coffee County Muslims in an effort to understand them better, said Daniel Tutt, an Episcopalian interfaith activist and a research fellow at the nonprofit Institute for Social Policy and Understanding in Washington.

‘Not acceptable’

“It’s not a shocking thing coming from Tennessee, which in the last few years has produced a number of Islamophobic incidents,” he said. “There was a whole CNN special on Murfreesboro.

“The initial reaction from Muslims will be, ‘This is unfortunate, but we’ve seen a lot of this.’ But it’s not acceptable. If the same thing were done to the Jewish or African-American communities, it would not be tolerated.”

The Al-Farooq Islamic Center on Fourth Avenue South in Nashville suffered vandalism earlier this year and in 2010, when someone spray painted “Muslims Go Home” on the building. Arsonists burned a Columbia, Tenn., mosque to the ground in 2008.

A new mosque opened last year in Murfreesboro after arsonists burned construction equipment on the site and community members sued to stop construction. A federal judge ruled the mosque could open after the Justice Department filed suit to force county workers to inspect and issue an occupancy certificate.

That’s the thing about being a freedom loving American. You can’t pick and choose the parts of the Constitution you like and disregard the parts you don’t much care for.

That’s the message U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder sent to the state of Kansas in an April 26 letter to Governor Sam Brownback, in which he called the new Kansas law saying — in effect — “we don’t gotta obey none of yer Federal laws about guns and ammo on account of this is Kansas”, unconstitutional.  According to a Reuters story:

The law, which seeks to keep guns or ammunition from being subject to any federal regulation – as long they are kept in Kansas – directly conflicts with federal law, Holder wrote in the April 26 letter to Kansas Governor Sam Brownback.

“Federal officers who are responsible for enforcing federal laws and regulations in order to maintain public safety cannot be forced to choose between the risk of a criminal prosecution by a state and the continued performance of their federal duties,” Holder wrote.

The law also bans federal or other agents from enforcing federal regulations in the making or sale of Kansas-made firearms.

Holder said a state “may not criminalize the exercise of federal responsibilities” and that all federal laws remain in effect.

The Reuters story went on to explain Brownback’s reply to holder, which was — in effect — “Oh yeah? Sez you!”

In a letter to Holder late Thursday, Brownback said the law has wide public support as well as bipartisan backing in the state legislature.

“The people of Kansas have clearly expressed their sovereign will,” Brownback wrote. “It is my hope that upon further review you will see their right to do so.”

The chief gun rights lobbyist for the law said Holder’s opinion will not go unchallenged.

“We will stand our constitutional ground,” said Patricia Stoneking, president of the Kansas State Rifle Association. “The federal government has far exceeded its boundaries for a long time and it is time to rein that in.”

Stoneking said the Kansas law is patterned after one in Montana that is now being challenged in federal appeals court, and that similar measures are under consideration in many other states.

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach said in a written statement on Thursday that the federal government cannot regulate guns that have never traveled in interstate commerce, such as those covered by the new state law.

(Not the actual family involved in this senseless, stupid tragedy.)

Op Ed by Andrew Rosenthal
New York Times

There are many legitimate points of intense debate over the regulation of guns – including the question of whether the Second Amendment does or does not confer an individual right to own firearms. But surely there are some things we can agree on.

Here are two: Marketing weapons specifically designed for children is a bad idea. And no legislature should have to rewrite a gun law because Hollywood finds it inconvenient.

Let’s start with small children. Not every parent loves every toy. Some don’t like Barbie because they believe it leads to poor self-image. Others don’t like violent video games. But Keystone Sporting Arms has crossed over every imaginable line by designing and marketing a weapon specifically for children: The single-shot Crickett, sold under the slogan “My First Rifle.” That’s in the news because a 5-year-old boy killed his 2-year-old sister with a “My First Rifle” on Tuesday.

There is no way a 5-year-old can responsibly own a gun. Kids that age can’t even use Easter egg dye without adult supervision.

After the slaughter at Newtown, the National Rifle Association said we should focus on mental illness and violent video games and movies. If animated guns in video games and simulated violence in movies promote killing, then what does giving children real guns do?

Selling guns specifically for children should be illegal. It’s illegal, after all, to market and sell cigarettes or alcohol to children. But I suppose the N.R.A. would consider that an intolerable infringement on our “freedom,” and that their lackeys in Congress would agree. So Keystone should just shut down its preschool firearms trade on its own.

Which brings me to Hollywood, which has been whining about the sweeping gun laws signed by New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo. They want an exemption from the expanded ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines so they can use real ones in shows such as “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.”

This is a bad idea on so many levels. Let’s start with the fact that if Hollywood gets special treatment, tons of other interest groups will lobby for the same.

Ryder Washburn, vice president of Specialists Ltd., which is a leading firearms supplier for movie productions based in New York, says real guns are needed because “weapons are part of our history as a culture as humans.”

That’s ridiculous. If Hollywood can make 8-foot-high blue people who look real or make Iron Man fly, they can use computer graphics to make fake guns look like they’re shooting real bullets.

From the Huffington Post

WASHINGTON — Mary Landrieu should’ve been the tip-off. The Louisiana Democrat is well known for having a fine-tuned political antenna, but the senator’s recent vote in favor of expanding background checks for gun purchasing surprised some observers.

A few weeks later, Landrieu’s calculation appears to have been the correct one — opponents of background checks are tanking in polls, while backers are surging.

A new survey from Public Policy Polling shows that voters are more likely to vote to reelect Landrieu and Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.), two red-state Democrats up for reelection in 2014. Hagan also voted in favor of expanding background checks. Forty-four percent of likely voters are more likely to vote for Landrieu, while 26 percent are less likely. In North Carolina, 52 percent of voters are more likely to vote for Hagan, while 26 percent are less likely.

The poll had the reverse effect for the senators’ Republican counterparts up for reelection in 2016, both of whom voted against the amendment sponsored by Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.). Fifty percent of North Carolinians are less likely to vote for Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), while just 27 percent are more likely. Forty percent of voters in Louisiana are less likely to vote for Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), while 25 percent are more likely.

Burr also declined to attend a dinner this week with family members of shooting victims, citing a busy schedule.

Large majorities of voters in both states favor background checks. Seventy-three percent of North Carolinians support them, while 71 percent of Louisiana voters back them.

“I’m confident that most people understand the importance of closing this loophole while preserving the rights of law abiding individuals to own and use guns for hunting, sport and self-protection,” Landrieu said on her vote.

On the other side, Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) has faced anger at town halls this week over her vote against the background checks. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who also voted against the gun reform measure despite support from a close friend, former Arizona congresswoman and shooting victim Gabby Giffords, acknowledged that his numbers are “below pond scum.”

Here comes the new boss, same as the old boss.

But who is Jim Porter?

James W. Porter II, a resident of Birmingham, Alabama, is the son of Irvine C. Porter, who served as the NRA President from 1959-1960. Porter received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Alabama in 1971, and a law degree from the Cumberland School of Law. While in law school, Porter spent a summer working for John Wilson, who served as outside legal counsel for the NRA in Washington, D.C. Wilson also represented John Ehrlichman and Bob Haldeman during the Watergate hearings in the U.S. Congress. In 2009, Porter was elected as first vice president of the NRA Board of Directors. He had previously served as second vice president and president of the NRA Foundation Board of Trustees. (Emphasis added)

As Huffington Post reports:

Alabama attorney Jim Porter will be the new president of the National Rifle Association, CNN confirmed Wednesday.

Porter is set to take over for outgoing president David Keene on Monday, when his two-year term expires. The leadership change coincides with the NRA’s annual meeting, which kicks off Thursday in Houston, Texas.

“At this stage in the NRA’s history, Jim Porter will be the perfect match for president,” Keene told the Washington Times‘ Emily Miller, who first reported the news. “As we are likely to win most of the legislative battles in Congress, we will have to move to courts to undo the restrictions placed on gun owners’ rights in New York, Connecticut, Maryland and Colorado.”

Porter currently serves as the NRA’s first vice president, as well as the chairman of the group’s Legal Affairs Committee. He has also served as a founding member and president of the NRA Foundation Board of Trustees. His father, Irvine Porter, headed the organization from 1959 to 1961.

Porter is assuming his new role as the NRA finds itself at the forefront of the national debate on gun control. However, the Washington Times reports that the new president is likely to remain out of the spotlight, with Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre maintaining his role as the NRA’s most visible spokesman.

Poor Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH). She was supposed to be the anti-Sarah Palin for the GOP. Telegenic, but with substance. Widely discussed as a potential VP Candidate for the Republicans in 2016.  Too bad about that vote.

The vote. The one where she said “no” to the expanded background checks that polls show are favored by over 90 percent of Americans. Sen. Ayotte is one of the many Republican Senators who took their orders from the NRA and not the people who elected them. And she found herself dodging questions from the daughter of one of the spree killing victims of Sandy Hook Elementary School.

According to the Huffington Post, the Senator didn’t even answer the question — how could she, really. Instead, she offered up platitudes and talking points with a fair amount of “homina homina homina.”

Ayotte’s approval rating dropped by a total of 15 points, according to a survey by Public Policy Polling released last week.

“Where we are right now, my focus has been on wanting to improve our current background check system,” Ayotte said at the top of her remarks. “Frankly, we have fallen down on actually prosecuting gun crimes and violations of our current background check system.”

She emphasized the need to address gaps in the mental health system and take steps to ensure that the mentally ill are unable to obtain firearms.

NBC reported that the discussion of gun control resulted in “a shouting match” between those who supported Ayotte’s vote and those who were more critical. One attendee accused Ayotte of regulating the questions she took during the town hall but refusing to regulate guns.

…

Ayotte isn’t the only senator to take heat for her role in defeating the background check amendment. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) addressed the backlash on Monday, as he and other senators also saw their approval ratings tumble.

When elected representatives so blatantly ignore the stated wishes of 90 percent of the American electorate in favor of a lobbying group that will spend millions of dollars to support or destroy a candidate? Is that the “republic” and “representative government” the Republicans claim to love?

As we noted last week was likely to be the case, when the entire Republican state Senate GOP caucus came on board in support, today marriage equality became the law of the land in Rhode Island.

We'll let Fox "News" tell you about it, since it surely pains them to do so.

RI becomes the 10th state in the union to allow gay couples to enjoy the same constitutionally-protected equal rights to marriage as everyone else.

Our condolences to all of the straight couples in those states who have had their marriages destroyed because of it.

 

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Weather Whiplash: record May snowstorm in Minnesota, early May wildfires in California; Who paid for last year's billion-dollar record crop disaster? YOU did; Myth-busting: 40th anniversary of Newsweek's "coming ice age" blunder; PLUS: Surprise! Fox 'News' lies about the term 'climate change' ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Listen online here, or Download MP3 (6 mins)...

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Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): What would 'wartime mobilization' to fight climate change look like?; You Won't Believe What's in Your Turkey Burger; Most Americans clueless about global scientific consensus on climate change;
Billionaire Koch Bros attack renewable energy standards in the states & launch new front group; Oslo runs out of garbage, imports it from rest of the world; Climate Change: Top Investors Will Feel Heat of New Epoch ... PLUS: Unburnable Fuel: Either governments are not serious about climate change or fossil-fuel firms are overvalued ... and much, MUCH more! ...

STORIES DISCUSSED IN TODAY'S 'GREEN NEWS REPORT'...

• Wacky Weather Whiplash: Record May Snowstorm:
• Historic May snows hit Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa (Dr. Jeff Masters, Weather Underground)
• VIDEO: Snowstorm dumps 15 inches in southeastern MN (KARE-Minneapolis):
  The National Weather Service says the 15.5 inch total registered in Owatonna could be the heaviest May snowfall in Minnesota's recorded history. The previous high snow total was a foot near Leonard, in Clearwater County, Minn. on May 3, 1954. Tower, Minn. saw 10 inches on May 3, 1950.
• VIDEO: All In With Chris Hayes: U.S. spends billions on disaster relief (MSNBC)
• Historic May Snowstorm Buries Rochester, MN (Accuweather)
• Breaking Weather: Heavy Rain Pours Over Florida (Accuweather)
• Unusually cold spring in Europe and the Southeast U.S. due to the Arctic Oscillation (Weather Underground)
• Wild Weather Swings May Be a Sign of Climate Change (Climate Central)
• CA Wildfire Season Off to Ominous, Early, Roaring Start:
• Bad news: Calif. snowpack 17 percent of normal (San Jose Mercury News)
• California fires: Ventura County blaze could reach Pacific Ocean (LA Times)
• VIDEO: Hundreds Flee Southern California Wildfire (CNBC): Winds spurred new wildfires and evacuations near Southern California, with CNBC's Sue Herera.
• California's fire season is more than a month early because of unusually dry conditions and hot temperatures (USA Today)
• California Spring Fire: Unusually Strong Santa Anas, Dryness (Accuweather)
• Extreme Weather Disasters Are Expensive:
• Who Paid For Last Year's Record Crop Disaster? YOU Did: (NPR)
  Here's why it's Cadillac insurance and why it ends up costing taxpayers billions of dollars. Last year, farmers got a poor harvest. At the same time, because corn and soybeans were in short supply, prices soared, which benefited farmers greatly. The insurance, however, paid farmers for the lost yield — but paid them at the higher, post-drought market price. Essentially, farmers reaped the drought's benefits, yet were protected from its harm.
• Update: Exxon's Pegasus Pipeline Spill:
• Exxon Spills Tar Sands Oil Again In Missouri, Can’t Find 126,000 Gallons Spilled In Arkansas (Climate Progress)
• Exxon's Pegasus oil pipe spills crude into Missouri yard (Reuters): Exxon Mobil Corp's near 70-year-old Pegasus oil pipeline spilled a small amount of crude on Tuesday into a residential yard in Ripley County, Missouri, a month after the same pipe spewed thousands of barrels of crude in Arkansas.
• Study finds 'soup of toxic chemicals' in the air near Arkansas ExxonMobil spill site (Russia Today)
• Mythbusting: 40th Anniversary of Newsweek's Ice Age Blunder:
• What were climate scientists predicting in the 1970s? (Skeptical Science)
• FLASHBACK: Newsweek, April 28, 1975: The Cooling World (Denis Dutton.com)
• Closing the Consensus Gap on Climate Change (John Cook, Weather Underground):
  On average, the general public think less than half of climate scientists agree that humans are causing global warming. The reality is 97%. There is a huge gap between public perception of the scientific consensus on human-caused global warming and reality.
• Mythbusting: Fox News Lies About 'Climate Change' vs. 'Global Warming':
• VIDEO: The Global Warming Name Game: Fox Concocts A Conspiracy For The Phrase "Climate Change" (Media Matters.org):





• Debunking The Dumbest Denier Myth (Again): ‘Climate Change’ Vs. ‘Global Warming’ (Climate Progress) [emphasis added]:
  Indeed, it is conservatives who typically change the names of things, as in refusing to say “Democratic” but only “Democrat” and insisting on “death tax” rather than “estate tax,” even though only big estates are taxed, not death.
• In a confidential 2003 memo, Luntz asserted that the Administration and conservatives should stop using the term “global warming” because it was too frightening (Political Strategy Archives, via Climate Progress):
  It’s time for us to start talking about “climate change” instead of global warming and “conservation” instead of preservation. 1) “Climate change” is less frightening than “global warming”.

'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (Stuff we didn't have time for in today's audio report)...

• Unburnable fuel: Either governments are not serious about climate change or fossil-fuel firms are overvalued (The Economist) [emphasis added]:
  Markets can misprice risk, as investors in subprime mortgages discovered in 2008. Several recent reports suggest that markets are now overlooking the risk of "unburnable carbon". The share prices of oil, gas and coal companies depend in part on their reserves. The more fossil fuels a firm has underground, the more valuable its shares. But what if some of those reserves can never be dug up and burned? ... If governments were determined to implement their climate policies, a lot of that carbon would have to be left in the ground...
• What would 'wartime mobilization' to fight climate change look like? (David Roberts, Grist):
  [The] scale and speed seem to demand something like wartime mobilization. That metaphor gets used a lot. I've used it many times myself. But is it apt? And what would it mean to take it seriously? There's been lots of academic attention to the technology side of rapid, large-scale mitigation, but little attention to the governance side. How could a country engineer such a transition? What powers and institutions would be necessary?
• You Won't Believe What's in Your Turkey Burger: Yes, there's fecal bacteria in your ground turkey (Mother Jones)
• Closing the Consensus Gap on Climate Change (John Cook, Weather Underground):
  On average, the general public think less than half of climate scientists agree that humans are causing global warming. The reality is 97%. There is a huge gap between public perception of the scientific consensus on human-caused global warming and reality.
• Why Two Rich Men from Kansas Want to Dismantle Maine's Renewable Energy Policy...And Why
  YOU Should Care [PDF[ (Maine Conservation Alliance): Are We Debating Renewable Energy or the Koch Brothers' Profits?
• Kochs Form New Dark Money Group To Hide Political Activities From Public: Koch's new "Business League" will keep political spending in the shadows. (Alternet)
• Oslo runs out of garbage, imports it from rest of the world (Treehugger)
• Oil drilling technology leaps, clean energy lags (AP) [emphasis added]:
  Technology created an energy revolution over the past decade - just not the one we expected.... Fossil fuels? They were going to be expensive and scarce, relics of an earlier, dirtier age. But in the race to conquer energy technology, Old Energy is winning.
• Climate Change: Top Investors Will Feel Heat of New Epoch (Bloomberg) [emphasis added]:
  Just how great are today's great investors? We might not know, not yet, because they've become great in a great time for investing.
  ...
  "What if there is a future that demands that an investor --- a seemingly great investor --- change course or at least learn new tricks? Ah, now, that would be a test of greatness: the ability to adapt to a new epoch," [Pimco co-founder Bill] Gross wrote. The interesting thing about Gross's choice of words is that in the time he has been an investor, there has been a change of epoch --- a geological epoch --- that might itself prove to be the ultimate test for elite investors.
• Government Study Cites Mix of Factors in Death of Honeybees (NY Times):
  officials in the United States Department of Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency and others involved in the bee study said that there was not enough evidence to support a ban on one group of pesticides, and that the costs of such action might exceed the benefits.
• A Key Experiment to Probe the Future of Our Acidifying Oceans (Yale 360): In a Swedish fjord, European researchers are conducting an ambitious experiment aimed at better understanding how ocean acidification will affect marine life. Ultimately, these scientists hope to determine which species might win and which might lose in a more acidic ocean.
• General Motors urges Obama and Congress to unite on climate change (Guardian UK): Auto giant adds signature to Climate Declaration, which calls on government to pass climate laws that would help economy.
• San Onofre nuclear power plant held together with masking tape, broomsticks (UPI) [emphasis added]:
  An inside source snapped a photo inside the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in San Diego showing plastic bags, masking tape and broom sticks used to stem a massive leaky pipe.
  ...
  Records show SONGS staff reported "hundreds of corrosion notifications" and "degraded equipment." Staff sent a letter to management saying SONGS "clearly has a serious corrosion problem" throughout the plant.
• French Town Has Too Much Money To Spend Thanks To Wind Turbines, Mayor Says (Huffington Post Green) [emphasis added]:
  According to Couzinié, the town's budget has increased more than fivefold in the past three years --- from 400,000 euros (about $523,000) to 2.3 million euros (more than $3 million) --- as a result of the 11 wind turbines that were installed in 2009. For a town with a population of less than 200 people, the available funds are much more than Arfons needs to thrive."It's as if a rain of gold fell on the village," Couzinié told TV station France 3.
• U.S.-born kids have more allergies, asthma (Reuters):
  Kids and teens who are born abroad and immigrate to the United States are about half as likely to have asthma and allergies as those who are born in the U.S., according to a new study.
• How Far Can Climate Change Go?: (Scientific American) [emphasis added]:
  How far can we push the planet?

New Research: World on Track for Climate Disaster:

• COVER STORY: It's Global Warming, Stupid (Businessweek):
  If all that doesn't impress, forget the scientists ostensibly devoted to advancing knowledge and saving lives. Listen instead to corporate insurers committed to compiling statistics for profit.
• Ocean Acidification: Animals are already dissolving in Southern Ocean (New Scientist)
• Global warming targets further out of reach, UN says (Phys.org):
  Based on current pledges, global average temperatures could rise by 3 to 5 degrees Celsius (5.4 to 9.0 degrees Fahrenheit) this century --- way above the two degrees Celsius being targeted, said a UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report.

Essential Climate Science Background:

• Skeptical Science: Get the FULL DEBUNKING of ALL Climate Science Denier Arguments
• VIDEO: James Hansen: Why I must speak out about climate change (TED Talks):
  Top climate scientist James Hansen tells the story of his involvement in the science of and debate over global climate change. In doing so he outlines the overwhelming evidence that change is happening and why that makes him deeply worried about the future.
• VIDEO ANIMATION: Time history of atmospheric CO2 (NOAA Carbon Tracker YouTube channel):
• VIDEO: Animation Charts Modern Global Warming (NYT Green)
• Thinking Big: NREL Study Shows 80 Percent Renewables Possible By 2050 (Climate Progress)
• Part 1: The brutal logic of climate change (David Roberts, Grist) [emphasis added]:
  It's simple: If there is to be any hope of avoiding civilization-threatening climate disruption, the U.S. and other nations must act immediately and aggressively on an unprecedented scale. That means moving to emergency footing. War footing. ...It is unpleasant to talk like this. People don't want to hear it.
• Part 2: The brutal logic of climate change mitigation (David Roberts, Grist)
• How to Buy Time in the Fight against Climate Change: Mobilize to Stop Soot and Methane: A short list of relatively simple actions taken to reduce greenhouse gases other than CO2 could help put the brakes on global warming--if implemented globally (Scientific American)
• World headed for irreversible climate change in five years, IEA warns: If fossil fuel infrastructure is not rapidly changed, the world will 'lose for ever' the chance to avoid dangerous climate change (Guardian UK) [emphasis added]:
  "The door is closing," Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency, said. "I am very worried - if we don't change direction now on how we use energy, we will end up beyond what scientists tell us is the minimum [for safety]. The door will be closed forever."
• Concise Overview: The IPCC report on extreme climate and weather events (Real Climate)
• The Real Global Warming Signal (Tamino)

Yesterday, during his morning press conference, President Obama was asked by CBS' Bill Plante about the ongoing hunger strike by prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.

Obama's response: "Well, I think it is critical for us to understand that Guantanamo is not necessary to keep America safe. It is expensive. It is inefficient. It hurts us in terms of our international standing. It lessens cooperation with our allies on counterterrorism efforts. It is a recruitment tool for extremists. It needs to be closed."

He added that he was planning "to go back at" his effort to close the prison which was blocked back in 2009 by Congress.

But did he really mean any of it? I spoke with Truthout.org's investigative journalist Jason Leopold on the KPFK/Pacifica Radio BradCast about that very question today. Leopold has been covering Gitmo for a decade now, recently returned from a visit there and plans to be heading back soon.

The conversation was both enlightening and enraging, particularly given that, despite his suggestion to the contrary, Obama already has the ability to immediately free about half of the prisoners there who were cleared of all charges at least three years ago, if not longer. He could do it today...if he wanted to...or had the political courage to do it.

Also on this week's show, a bit of a rant on "blaming Bush"; the one woman who could have kept Dubya's disastrous reign from ever happening in the first place; a heads-up on the upcoming 100% unverifiable Special Election for the U.S. House in SC; some Green News with Desi Doyen; and, maybe, I decide to come out as both black and gay...But you'll have to tune in to find out if I do!

Download MP3 or listen online below...
[See post to listen to audio]

An alarming poll, published on Talking Points Memo this afternoon shows, that nearly three in 10 Americans believes that “armed insurrection may be necessary in the near future to protect our liberties.”

And you know who is standing by to sell those shiny new weapons you’re gonna need for the new revolution, right?

Three in 10 registered American voters believe an armed rebellion might be necessary in the next few years, according to the results of a staggering poll released Wednesday by Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind.

The survey, aimed at measuring public attitudes toward gun issues, found that 29 percent of Americans agree with the statement, “In the next few years, an armed revolution might be necessary in order to protect our liberties.” An additional five percent were unsure.

Eighteen percent of Democrats said an armed revolt “might be necessary,” as compared to 27 percent of independents and 44 percent of Republicans. Support levels were similar among males and females but higher among less educated voters.

Dig that last factoid there. More than 4 in 10, FOUR IN TEN REPUBLICANS, believe that armed revolt may be necessary in the next few years.

That wouldn’t have anything to do with the latest right wing scare about Obama buying up all the available ammo, would it?  Probably not.

It’s the perfect gift for the five-year-old on your right wing shopping list! A .22 caliber rifle! It shoots real bullets. And it kills people, just like the five-year-old learned Tuesday, April 30, when he accidentally shot and killed his two-year-old sister.

Talking Points Memo reports that the Burkesville, Ky., child was home with his mom and his little sister and was playing with his new “toy” when… boom.  Dead baby sister.

Kentucky State Police said the toddler was shot just after 1 p.m. CDT Tuesday in Cumberland County and was taken to a nearby hospital, where she was later pronounced dead.

Cumberland County Coroner Gary White told the Lexington Herald-Leader that the children’s mother was at home at the time.

White told the newspaper that the boy received the rifle made for youths last year and is used to shooting it. He said the gun was kept in a corner and the family didn’t realize a shell was left inside it.

White said the shooting will be ruled accidental.

Thank goodness the NRA makes it possible for lethal weapons to be given to four year olds as gifts. Otherwise he would have had to stab her to kill her.

 

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Obama smacks down attempts to politicize science research; EPA smacks down Alaska's proposed Pebble Mine; Europe smacks down bee-killing pesticides; PLUS: Dr. James Hansen smacks back at Canada's "Neanderthal" government ... All those smack downs and more in today's Green News Report!

Listen online here, or Download MP3 (6 mins)...

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Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Portable solar cell sticks to your window; Shocking new numbers on bottled water; French town has too much money, thanks to wind turbines; Tests show pervasive chemicals in Chicago's air; Al Jazeera special report: Fueling geopolitics - the oil saga; China becoming global climate change leader; TN lawmaker says animal-rights activists are like 'rapists'; The 'dark side' of energy independence; Haiti's RE-forestation plan; Obama nominates Charlotte, NC mayor for Transportation; Massive Sacramento Delta water project moves forward; Why do US-born kids have more allergies, asthma?...PLUS: Conservative shoppers like eco-friendly lightbulbs - just don't say it's 'eco-friendly' ... and much, MUCH more! ...

STORIES DISCUSSED IN TODAY'S 'GREEN NEWS REPORT'...

• Extreme Weather Disasters Cost Lots of Money
• VIDEO: All In With Chris Hayes: Six-months after Sandy billions spent on disaster relief (MSNBC)
• NBC Evening News: ‘All Along America’s Coast, People Are Discovering Beach Living May Not Be Sustainable’ http://bit.ly/12eqewJ (Climate Progress)
• 400ppm CO2 - A Climate Milestone:
• Global carbon dioxide levels set to pass 400ppm milestone: The concentration of carbon in the atmosphere over the next few days is expected to hit record levels (Guardian UK):
  "I wish it weren't true but it looks like the world is going to blow through the 400ppm level without losing a beat. At this pace we'll hit 450ppm within a few decades," said Ralph Keeling, a geologist with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography which operates the Hawaiian observatory.
• Climate change: A prehistoric window on Earth's future? (BBC): Scientists believe they have identified a time in history, which provides the most complete picture of how the planet might respond to rising CO2 levels.
• Sea Surface Temperatures Reach Highest Level in 150 Years On Northeast Continental Shelf (Science Daily)
• Closing the Consensus Gap on Climate Change (John Cook, Weather Underground)
• EPA Report Smacks Down Alaska's Proposed Pebble Mine:
• Alaska mine would damage streams and wetlands: EPA report (Reuters):
  Digging a large mine in southwest Alaska would inflict widespread ecological damage, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in a report on Friday that could hurt the chances of a proposed project in that region winning regulatory approval. A large scale open-pit mine in Alaska's unspoiled Bristol Bay region would destroy up to 90 miles of salmon and trout spawning streams, harm thousands of acres of wetlands that support fish and subject local waters to chemical spills and releases of untreated wastewater, the EPA report said.
• EU Imposes 2-Yr Ban on Bee-Killing Pesticides:
• Bee-harming pesticides banned in Europe: EU member states vote ushers in continent-wide suspension of neonicotinoid pesticides (Guardian UK)
• Insecticide firms in secret bid to stop ban that could save bees: Last-ditch lobbying to sway vote in Brussels to halt use of killer nerve agents (Guardian UK)
• Wal-mart Doubles Down on Renewable Energy:
• Adapt or Die: Walmart's CEO doubles down on the company's aggressive bet on renewable energy (E & E News):
  The retail behemoth is throwing its full economic muscle behind energy sustainability. Local utilities that don't get on board with Walmart's green energy programs could be left behind like an old, worn-out shopping center.
• Walmart Announces New Goals for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (U.S. Dept of Energy)
• President Obama Pledges to Protect Science From Partisan Politicization:
• Obama Promises To Protect Science Research From Partisan Politics (Huffington Post Green):
  The president's remarks are particularly timely, coming as the chairman of the Committee on Science, Space and Technology, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), pushes a bill that would essentially politicize decisions made by the National Science Foundation. Smith's proposed legislation would require the NSF director to certify that every grant the federal agency hands out is for work that is "the finest quality, is ground breaking, and answers questions or solves problems that are of utmost importance to society at large."
• New Yorker: ‘Has Obama Already Given Up On Climate Change?’ (Climate Progress)
• VIDEO: President Obama Speaks at the 150th Anniversary of the National Academy of Sciences (WhiteHouse.gov)





• Transcipt: President Barack Obama’s Speech to the National Academy of Sciences (Nat'l Academies Press) [emphasis added]:
  The National Academy soon counted the nation’s top scientists as members. They quickly got to work [on Civil War ships]. ... In fact, it’s fair to say we might not be here had you not — (laughter) — certainly I would not be here. (Laughter and applause.)
  ...
  I will keep working to make sure that our scientific research does not fall victim to political maneuvers or agendas that in some ways would impact on the integrity of the scientific process. That’s what’s going to maintain our standards of scientific excellence for years to come.
• VIDEO: President Obama's Remarks on Natural Disasters, Resilience, at WH Correspondent's Dinner (White House Youtube Channel):
• Transcript: President Barack Obama’s Remarks at the 2013 White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner (TIME)
• Dr. James Hansen Smacks Back At Canada's Resources Minister:
• VIDEO: Top U.S. climate expert calls Conservatives 'Neanderthal' (CBC): Former NASA scientist James Hansen fires back at Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver
• Canada's Joe Oliver slams scientist James Hansen's oilsands claims as 'nonsense' (CBC):
  'Crying wolf' does not advance debate, federal natural resources minister says
• TransCanada Lashes Out at EPA Over Keystone, Asserts Canadian 'Sovereignty' (InsideClimate News)
• Land-locked Alberta mulls oil pipeline to Arctic port (Reuters):
  Canada's oil-producing province of Alberta, trying to deal with a lack of pipeline capacity to the Pacific Coast and the United States, is mulling the idea of building a line north to an Arctic port, the province's energy minister said on Friday.

'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (Stuff we didn't have time for in today's audio report)...

• Just stick this portable outlet to your window to start using solar power: It’s a portable socket that gets its power from the sun rather than the grid. You plug into a window instead of into the wall. It’s easy. (Grist)
• VIDEO: Fuelling geopolitics: The oil saga (Al Jazeera English):
  As the global competition for energy heats up, we examine how new players are rewriting the rules of the great oil game.
• Chemicals on federal radar pervasive in Chicago air (Environmental Health News):
  On the brink of federal regulatory review, chemicals in deodorants, lotions and conditioners are showing up in Chicago’s air at levels that scientists call alarming. The airborne compounds – cyclic siloxanes – are traveling to places as far as the Arctic, and can be toxic to aquatic life. “These chemicals are just everywhere,” said Keri Hornbuckle, an engineering professor at the University of Iowa.
• China becoming global climate change leader: study (AFP) [emphasis added]:
  China is rapidly assuming a global leadership role on climate change alongside the United States, a new study said Monday, but it warned greenhouse gas emissions worldwide continue to rise strongly. The report by the independent Australian-based Climate Commission, "The Critical Decade: International Action on Climate Change" presents an overview of action in the last nine months.
• French Town Has Too Much Money To Spend Thanks To Wind Turbines, Mayor Says (Huffington Post Green) [emphasis added]:
  According to Couzinié, the town's budget has increased more than fivefold in the past three years --- from 400,000 euros (about $523,000) to 2.3 million euros (more than $3 million) --- as a result of the 11 wind turbines that were installed in 2009. For a town with a population of less than 200 people, the available funds are much more than Arfons needs to thrive."It's as if a rain of gold fell on the village," Couzinié told TV station France 3.
• Slaughterhouse-Profiteering State Lawmaker Suggests Animal Rights Activists Are Like Rapists (Think Progress) [emphasis added]:
  The representative in question, Andy Holt (R-Dresden), owns and operates a facility that raises pigs, cows, and goats for slaughter.... Humane Society Public Policy Coordinator Kayci McCloud.. asked Holt to reconsider his support for Tennessee’s recently passed “ag-gag” law. Ag-gag laws contain a variety of provisions (varying from law to law) designed to make it impossible for undercover investigators to document animal cruelty or unsafe farming conditions on farms like Holt’s.
• Bottled Water Sales: The Shocking Reality (Significant Figures by Peter Gleick:
  Thirty-six years ago, this industry didn’t exist.
  ...
  Despite having one of the best municipal tap water systems in the world, American consumers are flocking to commercial bottled water, which costs thousands of times more per gallon. Why?
• The Dark Side of Energy Independence (NY Times) [emphasis added]:
  [E]nergy independence will not spell the end of American engagement in that region. On the contrary, lower energy prices will undermine the stability of the Persian Gulf monarchies, whose hefty oil revenues have allowed them to win their populations’ loyalties through patronage and a lack of taxation. These countries do not always share American values or help advance American interests, but anything that destabilizes them would create problems that Washington could not afford to ignore.
• Haiti aiming to plant 1.2 million trees in a single day: The big dig is planned for May 1. It's part of an ambitious government effort to reforest the country after suffering from landslides and desertification. (CS Monitor)
• Wild Weather Swings May Be a Sign of Climate Change (Climate Central)
• Obama touts Mayor Foxx’s transit leadership for Transportation Secretary:
  Smooth confirmation expected (Charlotte Observer) [emphasis added]:
  "[I]f you ask Anthony how that happened, he’ll tell you that one of the reasons is that Charlotte made one of the largest investments in transportation in the city’s history.” Obama touted Foxx’s leadership on a new streetcar project, expanding the city’s international airport and extending Charlotte’s light rail system. The president said Foxx had demonstrated how investments in infrastructure could create jobs and spur economic growth during tough times.
• The consensus seems to be: Let somebody else fix the Delta (LA Times):
  When it comes to fixing the hub of California’s water system, most parties would prefer it if someone else made the sacrifices.
• BP Posts $4.2 Billion In Q1 Profits As Its Chemical Dispersants Continue To Harm The Gulf (Climate Progress)
• The limits of climate adaptation are social, not physical or economic (David Roberts, Grist):
  Lots of people are averse to large-scale suffering. But lots of people are also averse to substantial mitigation measures. This leaves them placing a great deal of faith in adaptation.
  ...
  Now, on the merits, this is crazy. Our best understanding is that preventing (mitigating) a degree of global temperature rise is much, much cheaper than adapting to it. Compared to adaptation, mitigation is a huge bargain, whether you’re measuring by money, time, disruption, ecosystem integrity, whatever.
• George Will, Anti-Climate-Science Loon, Strikes Again (New York Magazine):
  Any remotely honest person would look at that data and recognize that the trend has been rising.
• U.S.-born kids have more allergies, asthma (Reuters):
  Kids and teens who are born abroad and immigrate to the United States are about half as likely to have asthma and allergies as those who are born in the U.S., according to a new study.
• What If We Never Run Out of Oil? (The Atlantic): New technology and a little-known energy source suggest that fossil fuels may not be finite. This would be a miracle --- and a nightmare.
• None of the world's top industries would be profitable if they paid for the natural capital they use (Grist)
• How Far Can Climate Change Go?: (Scientific American) [emphasis added]:
  How far can we push the planet?

New Research: World on Track for Climate Disaster:

• COVER STORY: It's Global Warming, Stupid (Businessweek):
  If all that doesn't impress, forget the scientists ostensibly devoted to advancing knowledge and saving lives. Listen instead to corporate insurers committed to compiling statistics for profit.
• Ocean Acidification: Animals are already dissolving in Southern Ocean (New Scientist)
• Global warming targets further out of reach, UN says (Phys.org):
  Based on current pledges, global average temperatures could rise by 3 to 5 degrees Celsius (5.4 to 9.0 degrees Fahrenheit) this century --- way above the two degrees Celsius being targeted, said a UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report.

Essential Climate Science Background:

• Skeptical Science: Get the FULL DEBUNKING of ALL Climate Science Denier Arguments
• VIDEO: James Hansen: Why I must speak out about climate change (TED Talks):
  Top climate scientist James Hansen tells the story of his involvement in the science of and debate over global climate change. In doing so he outlines the overwhelming evidence that change is happening and why that makes him deeply worried about the future.
• VIDEO ANIMATION: Time history of atmospheric CO2 (NOAA Carbon Tracker YouTube channel):
• VIDEO: Animation Charts Modern Global Warming (NYT Green)
• Thinking Big: NREL Study Shows 80 Percent Renewables Possible By 2050 (Climate Progress)
• Part 1: The brutal logic of climate change (David Roberts, Grist) [emphasis added]:
  It's simple: If there is to be any hope of avoiding civilization-threatening climate disruption, the U.S. and other nations must act immediately and aggressively on an unprecedented scale. That means moving to emergency footing. War footing. ...It is unpleasant to talk like this. People don't want to hear it.
• Part 2: The brutal logic of climate change mitigation (David Roberts, Grist)
• How to Buy Time in the Fight against Climate Change: Mobilize to Stop Soot and Methane: A short list of relatively simple actions taken to reduce greenhouse gases other than CO2 could help put the brakes on global warming--if implemented globally (Scientific American)
• World headed for irreversible climate change in five years, IEA warns: If fossil fuel infrastructure is not rapidly changed, the world will 'lose for ever' the chance to avoid dangerous climate change (Guardian UK) [emphasis added]:
  "The door is closing," Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency, said. "I am very worried - if we don't change direction now on how we use energy, we will end up beyond what scientists tell us is the minimum [for safety]. The door will be closed forever."
• Concise Overview: The IPCC report on extreme climate and weather events (Real Climate)
• The Real Global Warming Signal (Tamino)

From The Huffington Post

Senators in several states who voted earlier this month against increasing background checks for gun buyers have since seen their approval ratings noticeably drop, according to new polls released Monday by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s (R-Alaska) net approval rating dropped 16 points, as she shed much of her previous cross-party appeal. Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) saw his numbers dive 18 points, from a positive to a negative rating.

Not all of the change can be attributed to the vote. Portman, for instance, saw his approval drop among Republicans when he announced his support for gay marriage in March. But in Alaska, Arizona, Nevada and Ohio, at least 60 percent of voters supported background checks, and many expressed disappointment with politicians who voted otherwise.

Fifty-two percent of Arizona voters said they were less likely to support Sen. Jeff Flake (R) for reelection due to his “no” vote, while 46 percent of Nevadans said the same of Sen. Dean Heller (R). More than a third of voters were less likely to back Portman as well as Alaska Sens. Mark Begich (D) and Murkowski. A previous PPP poll found that Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) also saw her ratings tumble 15 points, likely due in part to her vote against background checks.

Much of the lost support comes from independent or moderate voters.

PPP hasn’t yet conducted polling on how senators who supported the bill have fared. But Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), who cosponsored background check legislation, saw his approval rating increase by a net 7 points, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Friday.

Nationally, most polls taken since the shooting in Newtown, Conn., have found that upwards of 80 percent of people support gun background checks, and that there is relatively little partisan division on the issue.Opinions were less unified on the actual legislation considered in the Senate, but most still say they wish it had gone through. A 65 percent majority of Americans said the measure should have passed, including 45 percent of Republicans and a majority of Democrats and independents, according to a Gallup poll released Monday.

 

 

 

 

"Maybe"? Ya think?! From Chicago Tribune, on their recent interview with former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor about 2000's infamous Bush v. Gore case...

Looking back, O'Connor said, she isn't sure the high court should have taken the case.

"It took the case and decided it at a time when it was still a big election issue," O'Connor said during a talk Friday with the Tribune editorial board. "Maybe the court should have said, 'We're not going to take it, goodbye.'"

The case, she said, "stirred up the public" and "gave the court a less-than-perfect reputation."

"Obviously the court did reach a decision and thought it had to reach a decision," she said. "It turned out the election authorities in Florida hadn't done a real good job there and kind of messed it up. And probably the Supreme Court added to the problem at the end of the day."

"Probably"?! Ya think?! The paper goes on to explain that O'Connor's "vote in the 5-4 Bush v. Gore decision effectively gave Republican George W. Bush a victory over his Democratic opponent, then-Vice President Al Gore." That, after the U.S. Supreme Court had stopped the public hand-counting of the votes cast by the people of Florida.

Had O'Connor and friends not stopped the state-wide hand count, they would have found, as a consortium of media and academics did afterwards, that Gore defeated Bush by every conceivable counting standard in the state of Florida.

Contrast O'Connor's thoughtful, if ridiculously-too-late response to the question of the controversial Bush v. Gore, with that of the still-serving U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who was seen over the weekend yucking it up with Bill O'Reilly of Fox "News" at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. When asked, in 2007, about the case which allowed five Supreme Court justices to install a U.S. President over the will of the people, he responded that it was "water over the deck", and Americans just need to "get over it."

Four years after Bush v. Gore, in 2004, Democrats vowed not to let that happen again, of course. Their Presidential nominee that time, then Senator John Kerry, promised he would not concede until every vote was counted. Despite massive reports of fraud, particularly in Ohio, and Exit Polls finding he had won in swingstate-after-swingstate, countering the still-unverified electronic results reporting that he had lost in many of those same states, Kerry flip-flopped and conceded the day after the election.

Remarkably, now that an unverified and unverifiable election in Venezuela has recently resulted in the U.S. Government's favored candidate being announced the loser, Kerry, now serving as Sec. of State, is calling for a full hand-count of "paper receipts" in that country because he claims to be concerned about the "confidence of the Venezuelan people in the quality of the vote," as our own Ernie Canning detailed earlier today. Yes, that's what Kerry really said.

Do you suppose he, like O'Connor, may someday realize that "maybe" he made a mistake too?

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