Month: April 2012

Hah hah

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

Florida: Land of the free, home of the brave… and cradle of gun insanity. Even though I’m sure most anti-Republican protesters will be sensible enough to resist the temptation, it seems inevitable that at least some of them will try some political theater – you know, like an open-carry rally for liberals? (Not that there’s anything wrong with that…) I just don’t believe in giving cops excuses for breaking your ribs when they’re already so good at just making them up:

TAMPA — If Tampa’s proposed rules for the Republican National Convention are passed, protesters could not bring squirt guns into a designated protest zone.

But they could bring real guns if they have concealed weapons permits.

That’s because state law does not allow local governments to enact laws regulating guns, City Attorney Jim Shimberg Jr. said.

“Even if we tried to regulate it, it would be null and void,” Shimberg said Monday.

Not that the city didn’t consider it.

The first draft of Tampa’s proposed temporary ordinance laying out rules for the convention did include restrictions on guns inside the city’s proposed “Clean Zone,” which will cover all of downtown, including a designated protest area.

“It was just kind of common sense,” Assistant City Attorney Mauricio Rodriguez said. “We felt if we’re going to regulate people carrying sticks and poles, why wouldn’t we regulate people carrying firearms, because those could pose significant risks to police and other protesters.”

But later, city attorneys removed the ban on guns after finding that Florida Statute 790.33 prohibits local governments from enacting any laws on the sale, purchase, transfer, taxation, manufacture, ownership, possession, storage or transportation of guns or ammunition.

Passed last year, the state law allows judgments of up to $100,000 against local governments that enforce local gun ordinances. It also says local officials could be removed from office and fined $5,000, with no representation from the city or county attorney.

After the Legislature passed the law, municipalities scrambled to revise local ordinances. Tampa repealed a ban on discharging a firearm in city limits, though it’s still against state law.

There is, however, one place where guns won’t be allowed.

That’s the convention itself, and it’s because the U.S. Secret Service has authority to make the rules inside the convention, which is scheduled for Aug. 27-30.

Itching for a fight – finally?

~ susie ~ 7 Comments

Sounds like Obama’s itching for a showdown with the Roberts court if they decide to overturn the healthcare act, either in part or in whole. It’s about time he stood up to these SCOTUS clowns, the conservative majority of which has never seen a judicial overreach they didn’t like. In addition to that, I can’t think of one good reason why citizens shouldn’t be mobilizing to impeach Clarence Thomas and Tony Scalia:

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Monday issued a rare, direct challenge to the Supreme Court to uphold his historic health care overhaul, weighing in with a vigorous political appeal for judicial restraint. He warned that overturning the law would hurt millions of Americans and amount to overreach by the “unelected” court.

Obama predicted that a majority of justices would uphold the law when the ruling is announced in June. But the president, himself a former law professor, seemed intent on swaying uncertain views in the meantime, both in the court of public opinion and in the minds of the justices about not overstepping the high court’s bounds.

“Ultimately, I’m confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress,” Obama said at a Rose Garden news conference.

The majority he referenced was not quite that strong; Congress approved the law two years ago in hard-fought party-line votes after a divisive national debate. Republican presidential contenders say they will make sure it is repealed if the Supreme Court doesn’t throw it out first.

For a president to weigh in so forcefully about a case currently under deliberation by the Supreme Court is unusual, and it speaks to the stakes at hand.

The law is the signature domestic achievement of Obama’s term and already a prominent source of debate in the presidential campaign. The Supreme Court will decide whether to strike down part or all of the law, including its centerpiece requirement that nearly all Americans carry insurance or pay a penalty.

Obama essentially sought to reset the public view of the case to where the White House thought the baseline lay before the attention-grabbing court arguments and the commentary that followed — that striking down the law would be a surprising reach for the court, and that the heart of the law is likely to be upheld.

The last throes of Mercury retrograde

~ susie ~ 4 Comments

So last week I was having a very bad echo on my old iPhone and when I called the ATT tech support, they told me it was my phone. I went to the ATT store and got a new iPhone for $1 and took it home. Now the echo problem is even worse. I called tech support again and now I’m told, “Our engineers were not able to reproduce the problem, so that points to equipment.”

“This is like when a doctor says nothing shows up on the tests, so you’re not sick,” I told her. “It doesn’t mean there’s nothing wrong, it means you didn’t find it.”

So now I’m going to cancel the ATT contract and hope against hope that I can find another carrier that won’t cause so much aggravation. Anyone have any recommendations?

Remember

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

General strike, May 1st:

Occupy supporters and members of the 99% are being urged to stay away from workplaces, walk out of school, refuse to perform domestic labor and refuse to purchase any goods. Without participating in capitalism, there are a variety of ways we can take care of each other using mutual aid: Folks are encouraged to set up mobile street kitchens, free stores and free medical clinics, as well as occupy their schools and workplaces and make their goods and services available to all who need them. A general strike is the people’s opportunity to prove that while capitalism and the state require our complacency to function, we do not need them to survive.