gun control legislaion supported by the NRA?!

file this under "things i never thought I'd read"

via rawstory:

The US Congress, spurred into action by the Virginia Tech shooting rampage in April, approved Wednesday a measure broadening background checks for gun buyers.

The measure, the first major gun control legislation approved since 1994, passed by voice vote in both the Senate and House of Representatives

The legislation provides funds to improve the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), the main US background check system for gun purchases, and to encourage states to broaden checks on local gun owners.

"A credible ... federal database to provide accurate background checks benefits everyone," said Senator Patrick Leahy, one of the bill co-sponsors.

Improving the background check system "will help curb the number of firearms that get into the hands of troubled individuals," he said.

The measure was supported by the powerful gun lobby, the National Rifle Association (NRA), and now awaits President George W. Bush's signature to become law.

"The end product is a win for American gun owners," the NRA said in a statement, describing the measure as "pro-gun legislation."

the thanksgiving pardoning of turkeys (but not pigs)

i'm sorry, but i can't get behind ham for thanksgiving...
via wonkette.com:
A group of Virginians are claiming that Virginian settlers held the first Thanksgiving in 1619, a full year before the better-know Puritans broke their bread of thanks. Also, there was no turkey served, but there was probably ham. So, a children’s author in Virginia Beach, Lisa Suhay, is trying to get President Bush to pardon a pig in addition to the regular Thanksgiving turkey. The White House is saying no dice (because bacon tastes good and pork chops taste good), but Bush did head down to the less No. part of Va. yesterday to acknowledge that they are saying that their Thanksgiving was first and then came back here for his obligatory photo op with two turkeys. No, he’s not posing with any of the Presidential candidates.

So, this week the President once again pardoned a turkey (no, not scooter libby), which always makes me think of how this barbaric and silly photo op was so wonderfully enacted on The West Wing (as so many things are)...

CJ : I need you to pardon a turkey.

Bartlet : I already pardoned a turkey... aren't I gonna get a reputation for being soft on turkeys?

CJ : They sent me two turkeys. The most photo-friendly of the two gets a Presidential pardon and a full life at a children's zoo. The runner-up gets eaten.

Bartlet : If the Oscars were like that, I'd watch.

At least the President did better this year...we all remember how last year, the pardoned turkey proved to, um, choose an interestingly humorous pose during his photo op with the President. *(insert your own gobble gobble joke here)

right-wing idiots blame the victims of the va tech shootings

so basically, it's the students' fault they died cause they didn't rush the shooter or weren't packing themselves? wow...forget simon cowell rolling his eyes, these are the folks really disrepecting the victims.

syndicated radio host neal boortz: "I would love to get some psychological or somebody in the business that can answer this question: How the hell do 25 students allow themselves to be lined up against the wall in a classroom and picked off one by one? How does that happen, when they could have rushed the gunman, the shooter, and most of them would have survived?"

columnist and foxspert michelle malkin: "Instead of encouraging autonomy, our higher institutions of learning stoke passivity and conflict-avoidance. And as the erosion of intellectual self-defense goes, so goes the erosion of physical self-defense."

nathaniel blake of the publication human events: "The students at Virginia Tech should be heartily ashamed of themselves. College classrooms have scads of young men who are at their physical peak, he writes, and none of them seems to have done anything beyond ducking, running, and holding doors shut. Something is clearly wrong with the men in our culture."

but, the worst of the worst has to be the national review's john derbyshire, who not only insults the victims of the massacre, but her even drops a 9/11 reference in there for no reason...maybe he can get a gig writing speeches for the president: "Where was the spirit of self-defense here? Setting aside the ludicrous campus ban on licensed conceals, why didn't anyone rush the guy? It's not like this was Rambo, hosing the place down with automatic weapons. He had two handguns for goodness' sake -- one of them reportedly a .22. At the very least, count the shots and jump him reloading or changing hands. Better yet, just jump him. Handguns aren't very accurate, even at close range. I shoot mine all the time at the range, and I still can't hit squat. I doubt this guy was any better than I am. And even if hit, a .22 needs to find something important to do real damage—your chances aren't bad. Yes, yes, I know it's easy to say these things: but didn't the heroes of Flight 93 teach us anything? As the cliche goes—and like most cliches. It's true—none of us knows what he'd do in a dire situation like that. I hope, however, that if I thought I was going to die anyway, I'd at least take a run at the guy."

what supreme doucebaggery....

kudos to mediamatters.com and "countdown" for compiling these.

short thought on the virginia tech shootings

the horrible events of today in virginia only elicited a short response from the president saying he was "shocked and saddened." personally, i wanted a lot more than this from the president, but i suppose i shouldn't be surprised. the real heroes are the kids and police on site in virginia who tried to help, and as i was thinking about it, i could not help but think of what another president said after 44 people were killed by a bomb at an american college:

"The streets of heaven are too crowded with angels tonight. They're our students and our teachers and our parents and our friends. The streets of heaven are too crowded with angels, but every time we think we have measured our capacity to meet a challenge, we look up and we're reminded that that capacity may well be limitless. This is a time for American heroes. We will do what is hard. We will achieve what is great. This is a time for American heroes and we reach for the stars. God bless their memory, God bless you and God bless the United States of America...'Joy cometh in the morning,' scripture tells us. I hope so. I don't know if life would be worth living if it didn't. And I don't yet know who set off the bomb at Kennison State. I don't know if it's one person or ten, and I don't know what they want. All I know for sure, all I know for certain, is that they weren't born wanting to do this. There's evil in the world, there'll always be, and we can't do anything about that. But there's violence in our schools, too much mayhem in our culture, and we can do something about that. There's not enough character, discipline, and depth in our classrooms; there aren't enough teachers in our classrooms. There isn't nearly enough, not nearly enough, not nearly enough money in our classrooms, and we can do something about that. We're not doing nearly enough, not nearly enough to teach our children well, and we can do better, and we must do better, and we will do better, and we will start this moment today! They weren't born wanting to do this."

yeah, that's president bartlet, again making me think the bush administration should at least hire aaron sorkin to write some speeches for the president.