Executive Action: Emergency ban on gun sales?

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Friday December 04, 2015 · 12:00 PM PST

2015/12/04 · 12:00

Yesterday I published a diary suggesting that President Obama declare an emergency that would allow him to ban gun sales until such time as Congress would enact some kind of meaningful gun control. The comments below have persuaded me that even though I was advocating a very temporary action designed to wake up a country and a Congress that truly believes nothing will ever be done, I was wrong to suggest it. The downside of any kind of “state of emergency” outweighs the good that would come from forcing the Congress to act. Therefore, I withdraw the suggestion, insofar as it’s possible to do so. But I still hate the thought that the response to the two mass killings in the last four days will be, yet again, a national shrug of the shoulders. In that way, I suppose it’s a terrible example that elections have consequences.

wilky

Word-killing time: "Entitlements" must go!

wilky

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Thursday October 17, 2013 · 3:55 AM PDT

2013/10/17 · 03:55

With the shutdown behind us, the next two months will be spent on negotiations of the infamous "grand bargain," which to the Village insiders means cuts to social security and medicare. We must fight this, and we should start with the word "entitlements." These are social insurance programs, but they're more than that. They are retirement and medical funds that are really reimbursements to those who invested. Some will get back more than they put in, others less. But people do not receive them because they feel "entitled." They are open to anyone eligible. I don't believe benefit cuts are necessary in either program, but many do, including President Obama, so it's going to be a tough battle.

Let's fight the "E" word! No more cuts in Reimbursement Programs!

Our top priority for the next 4 years

wilky

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Tuesday November 06, 2012 · 7:32 AM PST

2012/11/06 · 07:32

I just voted in Bloomington, Indiana. It was a pleasure, a perk of privilege. Using my passport as the required ID, I noticed that its signature was matched against my signature on the voter registration form I filled out last summer, which was matched against the signature I made in the voting book as I went through the line. The picture on my passport, from only two years ago, raised no questions of resemblance.

So I'm lucky: I have traveled overseas so I have my up to date government ID, and I live in a precinct where there are short lines and friendly poll workers.

The stories around the country of long lines, "True the Vote" challenges against legitimate voters, threatening phone calls and bill boards, and other strategies of voter suppression fill me with rage. It becomes clear that our top priority has to be access to voting and the information that is the foundation of a functioning democracy.

More below.

wilky

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Wednesday October 24, 2012 · 7:42 AM PDT

2012/10/24 · 07:42

Partisan Democrat here who thinks President Obama will be re-elected. Having said that, I wanted to muse about why the grand strategy of demonizing Romney as a caricature of a human being, a goofy, unqualified robot, failed as soon as the two candidates were on stage together.

Leaving aside the questions of why Obama performed the way he did that first debate, I think of Jimmy Carter and Al Gore, whose campaigns depended similarly on the demonization strategy. Both Reagan and GW Bush, it was held, were too stupid and too crazy to be President. That set a low bar for two experienced politicians to take the stage and prove they were neither (or at least pretend convincingly they were neither). So it was with Mitt Romney. The Daddy Warbucks-with-foot-in-mouth didn't show up because that caricature doesn't give Mitt enough credit. More below...

wilky

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Thursday October 18, 2012 · 1:21 PM PDT

2012/10/18 · 13:21

Or even a race between two people. It's not an alpha male fight. It's not even about what legislation will get passed and signed (or vetoed). It's a question of who will be at the table when the ideas are considered and the decisions are made on every conceivable issue and in every conceivable area that government touches. The President controls thousands of appointments -- all of them at the top level of every department, agency, arm, toe and pinky of the federal government.

Further, we don't know what the big issues will be two years from now, or what crisis will happen at 3 a.m. in 2015. So we need to talk to our friends and relatives about this fundamental question: who do you wish would be consulted on decisions in the areas you care about the most? Who do you want deciding on direction? Big business? Activists? Nonprofits?

This is what's at stake, and what's never mentioned in our sportslike media coverage.

Kaili Joy Gray appreciation diary

wilky

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Thursday October 04, 2012 · 6:54 AM PDT

2012/10/04 · 06:54

Kaili Joy Gray first came to my attention when she published a heartbreaking diary about the death of a close friend. It was raw, passionate and illuminating all at once. I was in awe of her power, and truly moved by the depth of her loss.

Since then, she's become a regular front-page Kos writer. I've never met Kaili in person, never even exchanged an email with her...but reading her for months as she covers the Romney/Republican attack on women, with precision, humor and a memorable edge... I just want to say, keep it up. Thank you for enlightening and entertaining me, and I have a hunch I speak for a lot of kossacks on this: there's something about your writing that's as moving as it is informative. And look out, Mitt -- she's onto you.

DNC: Where are the business owners?

wilky

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Wednesday September 05, 2012 · 6:59 AM PDT

2012/09/05 · 06:59

I don't mean this as snark -- last night was one of the most powerful and empowering nights of speeches I've ever seen. I was reminded of why I thought so highly of these people (especially President Obama) four years ago and that being disappointed from time to time by this administration is nothing compared to the spectre of another four years under the Republicans. The essential goodness of the man, his people, and the mission shone through.

Speaker after speaker comes from politics, universities, activist organizations, etc. Bravo for that. But every American secretly dreams, at least once in a while, of owning a business and become well off from it -- "why didn't I think of that (fill in blank of great business idea)?"

I wish the DNC featured a few people who built businesses and who could talk about the importance of a real government and a social fabric. That's all.

how much money does the military have?

wilky

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Thursday July 21, 2011 · 11:13 AM PDT

2011/07/21 · 11:13

Thanks to other diarists, we've seen all the charts and graphs that show the data: Defense spending doubling in real terms in ten years, Afghanistan a billion dollars a day, etc.

For the non data driven, how about an anecdote? Last night's humdrum midweek DC United soccer game featured a pre kickoff flyover by four state of the art fighter jets from a nearby airbase. The halftime entertainment (I promise I am not making this up) was not a military band (though we pay about half a billion for those), but a Marine Corps "Silent Drill Team." Everyone loves a cool jet, and the drill team was quite polished in its presentation, but ....

...we're taking food and medicine away from people and we can't even trim the mllitary? Come on.

President Boehner restarts the culture wars

wilky

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Tuesday November 30, 2010 · 5:59 PM PST

2010/11/30 · 17:59

Yes, it's true. Incoming speaker John Boehner and majority leader Eric Cantor are demanding that the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery close its featured current exhibit, which includes works by Georgia O'Keeffe, Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns, among many other evil communist America-hating artists. The Hill http://washingtonscene.thehill.com/...has the full story, in which the two new Art Critics-in-Chief of the World accuse the Smithsonian of conspiring to time the exhibit "to attack Christians during the Christmas season."

The article is a good if horrifying read, and it simply confirms the level of assclownery that is about to take place in Washington. The GOP has no ideas except retreads of its greatest hits, but we're all going to pay nonetheless, and, well, why not start with the arts?

Arts Need Major Support This Year (w/poll)

wilky

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Thursday April 08, 2010 · 10:14 AM PDT

2010/04/08 · 10:14

The coalition that swept the Democrats and Barack Obama into power consisted of a lot of different interests, demanding great change in the federal government. Thanks to the Culture Wars of the 1980s and 1990s, the more than 2 million people who identified themselves as artists on their tax forms are overwhelmingly Democratic. Yet the increases in the National Endowment for the Arts budget are small, and some federal arts programs are proposed for elimination under the next Obama budget.

Like education, health care, housing, and poverty relief, the arts are an integral part of the social matrix and need a major infusion of government support, especially after the brutal recession of the last two years. Join me in insisting on transformative change for the arts!

Poll

38 votes Show Results

Should government increase support for the arts?

38 votes Vote Now!

Should government increase support for the arts?

Yes, by at least doubling or tripling

22 votes

Yes, but only a little, as the deficit is a problem

3 votes

Leave the arts budget where it is. The arts are getting by, and that's okay.

1 vote

No, there are so many other more important priorities.

3 votes

No, the arts are a private matter. I don't want to subsidize your fun.

6 votes

Hell no! Government has no business in the arts. Eliminate the NEA!

3 votes

why tomorrow makes me disgusted to read DailyKos

wilky

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Tuesday December 15, 2009 · 9:31 PM PST

2009/12/15 · 21:31

I don't know why, I just thought I would get a head start. But the rate this health care thing is going, I feel that I am on solid ground with this title. Let's think: tomorrow it will be, what? immense bonuses for bankers? Lieberman turning the health care bill into a declaration of war on Venezuela? A ban on pie? I am sore afraid.

Poll

63 votes Show Results

If Joe Lieberman were a pie, he would be

63 votes Vote Now!

If Joe Lieberman were a pie, he would be

goose liver pie

5 votes

mincemeat pie

3 votes

hedge apple pie

6 votes

uncherry pie

4 votes

voldemort pie

27 votes

yellowtooth pie

1 vote

vampie

17 votes

Democrats want to lose in 2010

wilky

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Tuesday December 15, 2009 · 6:31 AM PST

2009/12/15 · 06:31

Well, I don't really believe my own title on a conscious level, but what other explanation can there be for the health care bill? It will pass, Obama will sign it, taxes will be levied, and it will be apparent by the next election, or certainly by 2012, that it amounts to a gigantic fee (tax?) increase on millions of Americans with virtually no benefits, since all the loopholes within it mean insurance companies won't have to change anything.

And the GOP can say: none of us voted for it. We knew it was bad news. We were on the side of the people.

If an ordinary person like the thousands of us on DailyKos can see this, why can't our esteemed Senators? Do they really think this kind of legislation will get them re-elected? Are they that dumb, or just gifted with way too much self-esteem?

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Executive Action: Emergency ban on gun sales?

Word-killing time: "Entitlements" must go!

Our top priority for the next 4 years

Romnmentum: why demonization backfires

It's not a personality contest

Kaili Joy Gray appreciation diary

DNC: Where are the business owners?

how much money does the military have?

President Boehner restarts the culture wars

Arts Need Major Support This Year (w/poll)

why tomorrow makes me disgusted to read DailyKos

Democrats want to lose in 2010