The Political Junkie offers an outside-looking- in view of the US. Each day, we will highlight news and opinion pieces from around the world that are focused on US politics and policy. Agree or disagree with the opinions you will read but take a few minutes to see yourselves as others see you.
The Republican congressmen who use New York as a campaign ATM, but turn
a blind eye to suffering here must be held accountable, writes John
Avlon.
Slap a scarlet “S” on these callous conservatives. Sixty-seven members of Congress–all Republicans—voted against even $9 billion of Hurricane Sandy relief yesterday.
Remember their names, and hold them accountable.
A laborer empties debris from a home damaged by Superstorm Sandy on
January 4, 2013 in the Midland Beach area of the Staten Island borough
of New York City. More than two months after the storm, Congress passed
legislation that will provide $9.7 billion to cover insurance claims
filed by people whose homes were damaged or destroyed by Sandy. (John
Moore/Getty)
Twelve
of the scarlet 67 voted for Hurricane Katrina relief—which passed ten
days after that devastating Gulf Coast storm—but against Hurricane Sandy
relief 69 days after its landfall in the Northeast. Their names: Trent
Franks (AZ), Ed Royce (CA), Sam Graves (MO), Steve Pearce (NM), Steve
Chabot (OH), Jimmy Duncan (TN), Kenny Marchant (TX), Randy Neugebauer
(TX), Mac Thornberry (TX), Bob Goodlatte (VA), Tom Petri (WI), and Paul
Ryan (WI).
These
congressmen are content to use New York City and the tri-state area as
an ATM when they are looking for campaign funds, yet they willfully turn
a blind eye when hundreds of thousands of homes and small businesses
are damaged or destroyed and more than 100 Americans are dead.
Note
the name of last year’s vice presidential nominee and potential 2016
presidential candidate Paul Ryan on this list. Donors would do well to
ask him about this vote. The Texas delegation likewise asked for federal
funds when hurricanes have devastated their state, yet are ignoring
suffering in the Northeast. But then conservatives often become liberal
when an issue affects them personally. Just two years ago, Missouri
Congressman Sam Graves begged President Obama for an emergency declaration to deal with flooding in his district—now he is afflicted with convenient amnesia.
Officials challenge NRA’s claims about Israeli gun policies
AMY TEIBEL
JERUSALEM — The Associated Press
Far from the image of a heavily-armed population where ordinary
people have their own arsenals to repel attackers, Israel allows its
people to acquire firearms only if they can prove their professions or
places of residence put them in danger. The country relies on its
security services, not armed citizens, to prevent terror attacks.
Though
military service in Israel is compulsory, routine familiarity with
weapons does not carry over into civilian life. Israel has far fewer
private weapons per capita than the U.S., and while there have been
gangster shootouts on the streets from time to time, gun rampages
outside the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are unheard of.
The
National Rifle Association responded to the Dec. 14 killing of 20
first-graders and six adults at a Connecticut elementary school by
resisting calls for tighter gun control and calling for armed guards and
police at schools. On Sunday, the lobby's chief executive, Wayne
LaPierre, invoked his perception of the Israeli school security system
to back his proposal.
“Israel had a whole lot of school shootings
until they did one thing: They said, ‘We're going to stop it,’ and they
put armed security in every school and they have not had a problem since
then,” Mr. LaPierre said on the NBC News show Meet the Press.
PJ: Rational thought does exist in America as the following article proves. Sadly up until now, those thoughts have been mere whispers compared to the powerful shouts of the nation's gun lobbies who want guns...more and more guns...without regulations in place for their purchase, possession and use.
For decades gun advocates have distorted the Constitutional Second Amendment which simply states:
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free
State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be
infringed."
Hmmmm...A WELL REGULATED MILITIA....
Hmmmm...the founding fathers wanted regulation of firearms...? Who would'a thunk it?
Slate Magazine
When Gun Nuts Write Gun Laws, Nuts Have Guns
We are living in the world the NRA has made.
By Tom Scocca So this is what Wayne LaPierre came up with,
with a week to reflect on the news that a law-abiding gun owner's
legally purchased rifle, in the hands of her firearm-trained son, had
been used to slaughter 20 kids: more guns, more law-abiding gun owners,
more more more lead-spraying death machinery, more killing to stop the
killers until all the killers have been killed. Only when we have
eliminated the threat of "gun-free school zones," the danger and horror
of children going through a school day unsurrounded by the implements of
death, will we all feel safe.
