The NRA serves those who profit & benefit from gun violence. They don’t represent responsible gun owners. Anyone responsible who owns a gun owns it for hunting or for some sort of occupational or residential protection. That means you pull out your gun when it’s [insert animal here] hunting season, to shoot large or dangerous wild animals on your property, or to confront/deter potentially violent human intruders.

Anyone who owns a corner store in a bad neighborhood would like to find ways to make it harder for folks who are mentally ill, drug addicted and psychopathic to get their hands on a gun. Any parent who drops their kid off at school wants that too.

Anyone organized group who opposes those basic measures as policy must thrive from an environment of fear that drives people to buy more guns. That’s it. Wayne LaPierre proved that in his press conference and should be treated as such. The only ones who profit from gun violence is gun makers. Each and every mass shooting means more guns bought.

Police and Fire Unions have a lot of gun owners and they have to deal with the effects of violence culture mixed with easy access to firepower for those inclined to be violent. They along with prosecutors need to be the political front line against the NRA.

Sarah Palin and Paul Ryan acquitted themselves poorly. It’s instructive that much of the Republican party felt comfortable elevating Palin as the voice of the Tea Baggers from 2008 until December 2012 when Fox News kicked her to the curb. It’s also instructive that after basically being banished to campaign in Red States after being ruined by Joe Biden in the 2012 VP debate, Paul Ryan is still the golden boy of “starve the babies, the poor and everyone else” Republican austerity economics. Note, Republicans aren’t talking about changing their platform, they are just advocating changing how they talk about their platform. Mark my words, look for legitimate rape to become high risk dating or something equally condescending but empirically less vulgar. Bobby Jindal says to his fellow Republicans “we have to stop being the stupid party”. This is the same guy who normally talks like a bonafide confident southern governor and yet sing-song-ed through a State of the Union response speaking like Kenneth the Page from 30 Rock and is supporting legislation teaching creationism in science class. They are just going to learn to say intelligent design instead of creationism.

Liberals can be pretty smug about this. Not because we don’t have idiots and fellow ideologues that support them (see John Edwards after getting eaten alive by Dick Cheney being pretty popular in 2008 – pre scandal he was #2 most popular VP pick for Obama). We can be smug because these idiots don’t form a plurality within our political base. La Rouche Democrats, Communists and the like really don’t run shit in the Democratic party. Tea Baggers are equal partners with ultra conservative Republicans (see McConnell, Boehner) and as a result their efforts continue to cleanse their party of moderation.

It’s like the Republican party is a person suffering from a flesh eating bacteria they contracted by using sewage as skin lotion. This suffering fool, trying not to be eaten alive, then cuts off the good flesh they have so the bacteria has nothing left to eat.

Nothing to say except for a lot of his first term his liberal agenda items got attention. The fact that he ran out a mostly liberal speech means that he probably sees less to compromise on in general and a mandate to get things done. I feel it will be uglier with house Republicans who were voted in even in the Democratic wave. Obama is playing for 2014 midterms, they are playing for 15th of next month.

Senator Manchin is on Morning Joe complaining that no one in congress works together aka “reaches across the aisle”. As a result he joined Mark Mckinnon’s “No Labels”, an imaginary caucus that has an imaginary constituency based on the idea that the real problem with Washington is that everyone whose job title is “politician” is wrapped up in “politics” that they can’t get anything passed.

What doesn’t get said is that Manchin is a member of congress who could you know, take two steps across the actual aisle and approach his colleagues under his own power as is his right and duty without proclaiming that he’s “West Virginia Democrat” who wants there to be “No Labels”.

Chris Christie has no national party.. It’s hard for beltway both-siders to admit, but Chris Christie or any Republican who can win executive statewide office in the North East in the post George W. Bush “you’re with us all the time or against us forever more” era will not be able to take hold. The “debt-ers” and the “my values are opposite black president’s values voters” are the national base of the party. They built it that way. They enabled those people and now they are stuck with these constituencies being the folks who dictate national aspirations. Sheriff Joe is their Sheriff. The Tea Baggers are the soul of their caucus. Grover Norquist their deacon.

You can’t be an AG or a Governor out here, have these cities, transportation systems, schools, hospitals and jails to run and then be against all those things being run by someone who was elected. The Republican plebiscites have shown they are firmly against all of that.

They really are faux outrage pimps. Pay us and we’ll get a bunch of other people walking around mad on your behalf.