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Michigan Republicans Really, Really Want to Allow Concealed Guns in Schools

by hanhuogekennog Posted on February 11, 2013

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Damn the veto, full speed ahead for more guns in schools!

That may as well be the rallying cry for some Republican lawmakers in Michigan. GOP Gov. Rick Snyder vetoed legislation in mid-December that would have allowed concealed guns on the grounds of schools, churches, and daycare facilities. But State Rep. Greg MacMaster (R) is undeterred. He recently introduced the “Michigan School Protection Act,” which would allow licensed teachers and administrators to carry concealed pistols at school, the Associated Press reports. MacMaster, whose legislation has the support of numerous state GOP lawmakers, told the AP that his bill would let schools decide how to implement on-campus concealed carry policies. The speaker of the Michigan House, Republican Jase Bolger, has yet to embrace the new bill, saying lawmakers need to “take a breath” before moving ahead on the measure. But Bolger has also questioned the wisdom of making schools gun-free zones, suggesting he might be open to MacMaster’s legislation.

On December 13, the day before the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., the GOP-controlled Michigan legislature approved concealed-carry legislation for schools, churches, and daycare centers. Post-Newtown, citizens barraged Snyder’s office with emails and phone calls urging him to veto the bill, which he did. “While we must vigilantly protect the rights of law-abiding firearm owners, we also must ensure the right of designated public entities to exercise their best discretion in matters of safety and security,” Snyder said in a statement. “These public venues need clear legal authority to ban firearms on their premises if they see fit to do so.”

Snyder did sign two other gun-related measures at the time, one streamlining the background check process for handgun purchases and another easing the sale of rifles and shotguns between buyers and sellers in states bordering Michigan. During a recent visit to an elementary school, Snyder sounded bearish on the idea of more guns in schools. “I don’t view dwelling on guns as the big conversation we should be having,” he told MLive.com. “If you look at the tragedy at Sandy Hook and the issues there, one of the big things we need to look at is the issue of mental health, and the issues of how do we help kids that have needs and different challenges in their life.”

MacMaster’s isn’t the only divisive gun bill introduced by Michigan GOPers lately. In mid-January, 13 Republican state senators offered the “Michigan Firearms Freedom Act,” a measure that would exempt guns or ammunition made in Michigan from federal regulations. Michigan joined nearly three-dozen other states in introducing such legislation. The measure is, for now, a purely symbolic one: There are no gun or ammo makers in Michigan.

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Michigan Republicans Really, Really Want to Allow Concealed Guns in Schools

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Even Tom Tancredo’s Successor Endorses Path to Citizenship

by trasze2aja Posted on February 11, 2013

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This is what a political wave looks like. In 2011, Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Col.), who had previously sought to repeal a portion of the Voting Rights Act mandating that ballots be printed in multiple languages, went on a local talk radio station and warned that President Barack Obama planned to steal the 2012 election by granting blanket amnesty to some 12 million undocumented residents. On Sunday, Coffman, who succeeded Rep. Tom Tancredo, a notorious opponent of illegal immigration, in Congress in 2008, endorsed a path to citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants—and legal status for everyone else. That announcement came just two weeks after Coffman introduced a new bill to allow Deferred Action Childhood Arrivals (i.e. formerly undocumented residents who were brought to the United States as kids) to serve in the military legally and be put on the path to citizenship.

So what’s eating Mike Coffman? It’s pretty simple, really: He heard footsteps. The reconfigured sixth congressional district is now 20-percent Latino (it was previously 9-percent Latino before dicennial redistricting). It went to Obama by five points in November. The Democratic House Majority PAC has put Coffman as one of its top-10 targets for 2014. And the Dems have secured a top recruit, former state speaker of the house Andrew Romanoff, to run against him.

Whether the immigration evolution will be enough for Coffman to keep his seat is unclear. Coffman is still a bit cagey as to whether he’d support a path to citizenship for non-DACAs, which, as Washington Post‘s Greg Sargent points out, still puts him at odds with the majority of voters. But for immigration reform advocates wary of another hardliner insurrection, it’s an encouraging sign.

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Even Tom Tancredo’s Successor Endorses Path to Citizenship

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5 Questions John Brennan Dodged in His CIA Confirmation Hearing

by rikkiqlyons Posted on February 7, 2013

President Barack Obama with John Brennan, his nominee to lead the CIA Fang Zhe/Xinhua/ZUMAPress

The Senate intelligence committee hearing on John Brennan’s nomination to head the Central Intelligence Agency was interrupted five times by protesters before Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who chairs the committee, ordered the chamber emptied. One of the protesters, as she was being hauled off by police officers, urged members of Congress to “do your job.”

The members of the Senate intelligence committee tried. But Brennan, the White House’s top counterterrorism adviser, has spent most of his life in the US intelligence community. He knows how to dodge a direct question. Here are five key questions Brennan avoided throughout the course of the hearing:

Did torture lead to the capture of Osama bin Laden?

Feinstein began the hearing by asking whether Brennan had read the Senate intelligence committee’s recently completed investigation into coercive interrogation techniques used by the Bush administration. After Brennan said he had read the 300-page summary of the report, Feinstein asked whether torture led to the operation to kill Osama bin Laden. Brennan never actually said yes or no, simply saying that he looked “forward to hearing from the CIA on that and coming back to this committee and giving you my full and honest views.”

Did torture work?

Under questioning by Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), Brennan admitted to being undecided on whether torture worked, while saying he opposed it on moral grounds. Brennan said that while he was at the CIA, he was under the impression that torture worked, but that the Senate intelligence committee report made him question that. “I don’t know what the truth is,” Brennan said.

Will Brennan reduce the CIA’s paramilitary role?

U.S. Air Force photo/Lt Col Leslie Pratt/Wikipedia

At the beginning of her questioning, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) noted dryly that she had been “jerked around” by every CIA director she’d known as a legislator, with the exception of Leon Panetta. Brennan assured her “truthfulness is a value that was inculcated in me in my home in New Jersey.” But when Mikulski brought up about the CIA’s increasing role in paramilitary operations, describing that as “mission creep” and asking whether Brennan would steer the Agency back towards its more traditional intelligence-gathering role, Brennan said only that he would “take a look at the allocation of that mission,” before saying that the CIA “should not be involved in traditional military activities.” But Mikulski was talking about paramilitary activities such as drone strikes. No one actually accused the CIA of engaging in “traditional military activities.”

Is waterboarding torture?

Asked whether waterboarding was torture, Brennan gave the same kind of answer Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) gave when asked the age of the Earth: He lacks the expertise to answer the question. Namely, Brennan said, he’s not a lawyer and therefore can’t say whether waterboarding is torture, because that would suggest that the CIA had committed a crime. Pressed on the fact that Attorney General Eric Holder had called waterboarding torture, Brennan alluded to the Bush-era torture memos saying that it wasn’t. “I’ve read a lot of legal opinions,” Brennan said. Despite not being a lawyer, however, Brennan has been perfectly happy to defend the administration’s targeted-killing program as legalâ&#128;&#148;including in the hearing itself, when he said that Obama had insisted that the government make sure “any actions we take are legally grounded.”

Do American citizens have a right to know when they might be killed on suspicion of terrorism?

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) James Berglie/ZUMAPress

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who has led congressional efforts to compel the Obama administration to disclose more information about targeted killing, pressed Brennan on whether or not the United States was obligated to offer an American citizen suspected of joining Al Qaeda an opportunity to surrender before killing him or her. Brennan said “any member of Al Qaeda, whether it be a US citizen or non-US citizen, needs to know that they have the right to surrender anytime anywhere throughout the world, and they can do so before that organization is destroyed.” That doesn’t address the core of Wyden’s question, however. Brennan never revealed how the US determines someone has joined Al Qaeda. Brennan also never explained how someone who wasn’t actually a member of Al Qaeda might inform the US government of that fact before being killed by a Hellfire missile. “Our Constitution fortunately gives the president significant power to protect our country in dangerous times,” Wyden said, “but it is not unfettered power.”

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5 Questions John Brennan Dodged in His CIA Confirmation Hearing

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Poll: Drone Strikes on American Terror Suspects No Longer Popular

by wqds234der Posted on February 7, 2013

A poll from Fairleigh Dickinson University released Thursday finds that a plurality of Americans think drone strikes on American citizens suspected of terrorism are illegal. According to the poll, 48 percent of Americans think it is illegal to “target US citizens living in other countries with drones,” while 24 percent think it is legal. The poll nevertheless finds majority approval for the use of drone attacks against “people and other targets deemed to be a threat to the US” whether carried out by the CIA or the military, as long as those targets are not American citizens.

The poll’s findings seem to be at odds with another survey published last year by the Washington Post, which found that an overwhelming majority of Americans, 89 percent, approve of the use of drones to kill terror suspects abroad, and of those who approve 79 percent also believe it is legal to kill those terror suspects if they are American citizens. Different wording of the relevant questions in each poll may account for the disparate results: The Fairleigh Dickinson poll asks if “Americans living abroad” can be legally targeted, while the Washington Post survey asks whether “suspected terrorists” who “are American citizens living in other countries” can be legally targeted. (Most people think of unmanned drones when they think of targeted killing, but targeted killings can be carried out by other means. The government can also send human assassins to do the job, or fire missiles from ships or manned aircraft.)

Polls are most accurate when aggregated, so it’s still difficult to know exactly how Americans feel about targeted killing. It is possible, however, that increased media scrutiny of the practice has lead to a shift in public opinion.

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Poll: Drone Strikes on American Terror Suspects No Longer Popular

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Corn on Hardball: Drones Under Scrutiny

by Pauline80x Posted on February 7, 2013

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With a leaked Justice Department memo giving legal justification for killing US citizens, drone strikes are getting increased scrutiny. How does Obama’s extrajudicial record compare to Bush’s? David Corn talks about targeted killings with Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s Hardball.

David Corn is Mother Jones’ Washington bureau chief. For more of his stories, click here. He’s also on Twitter.

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Corn on Hardball: Drones Under Scrutiny

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New York hires seismologist with fracking industry ties to do fracking research

by Obeey99 Posted on February 6, 2013

New York hires seismologist with fracking industry ties to do fracking research

By Philip Bump

citizenactionny

New York state’s tortuous, interminable process of deciding whether or not to approve fracking continues; it slowly lifts one foot out of molasses, considers it for an hour or two, and then places it down again with a squelch one centimeter in front of the other foot. The last microstep we reported on was actually a step backward, as Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) moved to restart the state’s analysis of fracking’s health effects.

But now a real step: New York has hired a geologist to conduct a study of the seismological repercussions of fracking. As you may recall, drilling into shale and breaking it apart with high-pressure water has been linked to earthquakes. So the state is looking into that, since the very last thing New York wants is to be any more like California. The man hired for the job, to ensure that New York doesn’t crumble into the sea if it allows fracking? A guy who used to work for fracking companies.

From Bloomberg:

Robert Jacobi was picked by the Department of Environmental Conservation for a seismology study as part of its environmental review of the drilling process known as fracking, Lisa King, an agency spokeswoman, said in an e-mail. Jacobi is a University at Buffalo professor and has advised drillers for two decades. …

Jacobi, who has taught at the state university for more than 30 years, has advised various gas drillers since 1994, according to a resume released by the university. He has been a senior geology adviser for Pittsburgh-based EQT Corp., a natural gas drilling company, since last year.

But don’t worry, guys: “Jacobi said his EQT role doesn’t pose a conflict with the state work.”

“I was contracted by EQT to provide consulting services relating to their geology program, projects and initiatives,” Jacobi said in an e-mail. “In the same manner, I was hired as a consultant to provide services for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.”

Jacobi has also worked for opponents of fracking and, according to the DEC, is “considered the premier geologist on fault lines in New York state.” Fair enough.

This isn’t the first time the state has been criticized for selecting a consultant with ties to the industry. As Bloomberg notes, a 2011 study on the economic impacts of fracking was done by a firm that works to secure permits for gas companies.

But that was about three steps ago. Old news. In just another few months or years or decades, all of this will be behind us and we can celebrate a decision on fracking, whatever it may be, assuming that the state hasn’t already crumbled into the sea through the sheer inexorable entropy the universe.

Philip Bump writes about the news for Gristmill. He also uses Twitter a whole lot.

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New York hires seismologist with fracking industry ties to do fracking research

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Who Can the President Kill?

by greenenergy4 Posted on February 6, 2013

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Last night, NBC’s Michael Isikoff disclosed a 16-page memo that laid out the Obama administration’s legal justification for targeted killings of U.S. citizens abroad. Roughly speaking, the memo claims that the Authorization for Use of Military Force, passed after 9/11, gives the president the power to wage war against al-Qaeda, and he thus has authority to take action against any “senior al-Qaeda leader” who poses an imminent threat to the United States.

In the past, most of the anger over this, including from me, has centered on the idea that the president can order the killing of an American citizen who hasn’t been provided with any kind of due process. But Scott Lemieux says this is misguided:

Much of the coverage of the memo, including Isikoff’s story, focuses on the justifications offered by the Obama administration for killing American citizens, including Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan (two alleged Al Qaeda operatives killed by a 2011 airstrike in Yemen.) In some respects, this focus is misplaced. If military action is truly justified, then it can be exercised against American citizens (an American fighting for the Nazis on the battlefield would not have been entitled to due process.) Conversely, if military action is not justified, extrajudicial killings of non-Americans should hardly be less disturbing than the extrajudicial killing of an American citizen. The crucial question is whether the safeguards that determine when military action is justified are adequate.

The more I’ve thought about this, the more I’ve come to agree with this position: If we’re at war, and if targeted killings of enemy combatants are legal, then U.S. citizenship is irrelevant. If you’ve joined up with enemy forces, you’re fair game. Conversely, if the justification in the memo is inadequate, that means the justification for targeted killings in general is inadequate. Either the entire program is justified, or none of it is.

But….even if this makes sense, I’m not sure it feels right. Comments?

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Who Can the President Kill?

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Michigan Tea Partier: Charter Schools Are for Kids From "Ethnically Challenged Families"

by u60uurf Posted on February 4, 2013

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A few weeks ago, the Michigan chapter of Americans for Prosperity, the Koch-backed conservative advocacy group, held a “citizen watchdog training” in a suburb of Detroit. The training was billed as a workshop for regular folks to learn “the best tools and techniques in investigative journalism, social media, and opposition research.” Featured speakersâ&#128;&#148;including local activists, conservative state legislators, and Scott Hagerstrom, AFP-Michigan’s directorâ&#128;&#148;would also speak about efforts to “reform” Michigan’s schools.

Among the AFP set, reforming public schools usually means converting them into non-union, privately-run charter schools. Nationally, AFP is a vocal proponent of charters and “school choice.” And at the Michigan citizens training, one of the featured speakers, Norm Hughes, a member of the North Oakland Tea Party Patriots, offered this take on charters:

Kids aren’t going to charter schools if they’re “A” students. They go to charter schools because they’re failing students and, by and large, the charter schools have a higher percentage of poor families, ethnically challenged familiesâ&#128;¦

Ethnically challenged? Hughes did not explain what he meant, but you won’t find that take on charters anywhere in the AFP literature. (Listen here to the audio of Hughes’ comment, grabbed by Progress Michigan, a liberal advocacy group.)

Whatever Holmes’ view of charters, AFP’s agenda in Michigan is cause for concern for Michigan’s public schools and teachers unions. AFP played a central role in ramming through so-called right-to-work legislation for public- and private-sector workers in Michigan in December. Right-to-work legislation is central to AFP’s agenda, and its passage in Michigan, a cradle of organized labor, was a major victory for movement conservatives.

If the January 19 event is any indication, a big push for charters is next up for AFP and its allies in the Michigan legislature. But before they go whole-hog on charters, AFP conservatives might want to give their conservative bedfellows, like Norm Hughes, a few tips about messaging.

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Michigan Tea Partier: Charter Schools Are for Kids From "Ethnically Challenged Families"

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Karl Rove’s New Super-PAC: Republicans Attacking Republicans!

by 9ji7g4x Posted on February 4, 2013

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No more Todd Akins. No more Richard Mourdocks. No more Republican primaries that produce divisive, gaffe-spewing GOP candidates.

That’s the aim of a new super-PAC, the Conservative Victory Fund, spearheaded by Karl Rove and his big-money juggernaut, American Crossroads. Rove’s new project plans to raise millions of dollars from the biggest GOP donors and then spend it on hard-hitting television ads and mailers during GOP primaries in marquee Senate races. The goal, as the New York Times reported this weekend, is blocking future Akins and Mourdocks from winning Senate primaries, while paving the way for less-divisive candidates with broader appeal and better odds of winning the general election. “We don’t view ourselves as being in the incumbent protection business, but we want to pick the most conservative candidate who can win,” Steven Law, the president of American Crossroads and a force behind the Conservative Victory Fund, told the Times.

Law singled out Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), who could run to replace outgoing Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin, as a controversial candidate the Conservative Victory Fund might target. King has a penchant for howlers: He’s hinted at questions about President Obama’s US citizenship, claimed minority students all “feel sorry for themselves,” insisted that the idea of diversity making American stronger “has really never been backed up by logic,” and compared illegal immigrants to dogs. “We’re concerned about Steve King’s Todd Akin problem,” Law said. “All of the things he’s said are going to be hung around his neck.” (King, for his part, said choosing the candidate to replace Harkin “is a decision for Iowans to make and should not be guided by some political staffers in Washington.”)

The Conservative Victory Fund’s creation threatens to stoke an already fiery internal battle over the future of the Republican Party. There are the Roves and Laws of the GOP, the pragmatic Beltway operators who backed Mitt Romney and who believe the party must tone down the demagoguery on immigration and social issues if they ever want to control of Congress and the White House again. On the other side are the ideologues, the GOP’s conservative wing, the Koch-backed groups and tea partiers and Grover Norquist acolytes who believe the party’s future lies in veering hard to the right and doubling down on pure conservative ideals.

With Rove’s new super-PAC in the mix, the GOP’s slate of 2014 primaries will be even nastier than expected in states such as Iowa, Georgia, and Kentucky, among others. The GOP needs to win six seats in 2014 to take back control of the Senate, and if that requires some intraparty combat, the Conservative Victory Fund looks ready to go to war. By the end of 2014’s primary season, don’t be surprised, to borrow a phrase from Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, to see quite a lot of blood and teeth left on the floor.

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Karl Rove’s New Super-PAC: Republicans Attacking Republicans!

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The 2012 Election’s Price Tag: $7 Billion

by marinavhunt Posted on February 1, 2013

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The final campaign filings are in, and we can now put a price tag on the 2012 elections: $7 billion.

That’s how much candidates, parties, PACs, super-PACs, and politically active nonprofits spent last year to influence races up and down the ballot. As Politico reported, Ellen Weintraub, the chairwoman of the Federal Election Commission, announced the $7 billion figure this week. Candidates spent the bulk of the 2012 total, at $3.2 billion, while parties spent $2 billion and outside groups $2.1 billion.

The FEC’s $7 billion figure is about a billion dollars more than what transparency groups had projected for 2012. It’s the most money ever spent during one election cycle in US history, a cycle in which Barack Obama became the first $1 billion candidate, both Obama and Romney rejected public financing, and outside spending soared to levels never before seen in the post-Watergate era.

Here’s more from Politico on 2012’s $7 billion price tag:

“It’s obviously only an estimate,” Weintraub told Politico. “It’s really hard to come up with ‘the number.'” And Weintraub said future elections could see even more spending.

“It’s a lot of money. Every presidential election is the most expensive ever. Elections don’t get cheaper,” she added. Spending in the first post-Citizens United presidential election exploded as the FEC remained gridlocked on critical issues. Three years after the Supreme Court ruling that changed the campaign finance system, the FEC has yet to change its regulations to address the decision.

The agency also found that despite the proliferation of super PACs, traditional political action committees outspent the new breed. Of the total spending by outside committees, $1.2 billion was spent by traditional PACs and $950 million was spent by super PACs.

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The 2012 Election’s Price Tag: $7 Billion

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