What is up for consideration is how to improve a broken system that literally allows illegal aliens, drug traffickers, child molesters, rapists, felons, members of al-Qaida cells and mentally deranged persons to buy firearms. If you believe the Second Amendment gives these people the right to arm themselves then we have an irreconcilable difference of opinion.
Senator Tom Coburn, R-OK
Well you have to hand it to ol' Tom. Even when he disagrees with the lunatic right and they come down on him with all the wrath of a wounded Cape Buffalo he knows how to push every xenophobic and law and order hot button they love so dearly.
In today's, The Oklahoman, OKC's daily paper, Washington bureau chief Chris Casteel reports that Coburn's Facebook page has been hit with a barrage of outrage and obscenities from the we can't get a hard on unless we own a lot of guns crowd. Casteel writes that the word traitor is among the kinder things he is being called.
All this not because Coburn voted in favor of some sort of ban on assault style weapons, high capacity magazines, or even expanded background checks, but because he voted to simply allow a debate about pending legislation that would require background checks before a gun sale could be completed either over the internet, or at a gun show.
The level of education found in the posts is apparently not quite that of the first graders who were murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary in December. Casteel reports that many of the correspondents swore they would work tirelessly to make sure Coburn would be defeated when he runs for re-election. Coburn has stated repeatedly over the last few years he would not seek another term in the Senate. With friends like these who can blame him?
Meanwhile Mr. Tony Perkins, the president of The Family Research Council fired off an email to that groups supporters saying they, "shouldn't send them a dime of your hard earned money until republicans grow a backbone." This is because a handful of republican lawmakers have shifted their stance on gay marriage. Perkins promised the GOP that Born Again activists would, "move to create a third party" if the republican leadership approves any law that would allow such a thing.
The Family Research Council web site provides reading material such as, "The Southern Poverty Law Center and Its So Called Hate Groups." An article by Sr. VP Rob Schwartzwalder rambles on about, "...world views and values cloven by the blunt maul of post modernism, secularism, neo paganism, scientific rationalism, etc. in our time." And one would suppose, lions, tigers, and bears: oh my.
It would certainly seem a line has been drawn in the sand. However best guess is that when Hilliary Rodham Clinton is nominated as a presidential candidate the panic will be such that it and any others will be thoroughly ignored.
Finally here in Oklahoma again, the great debate is over whether Sooner Tea Party head, Al Gerhart's threatening email to a republican lawmaker is free speech, or a crude attempt at blackmail. Most of the old guard republican elite, such as Mike McCarville and The Oklahoman op-ed staff tend to believe that Gerhart stepped over the legal line, while many of the grass root hoi polloi think he didn't. The only thing all of them seem to agree on is that Gerhart is an asshole.
Al himself has been keeping a low profile. In fact there is a chance he has taken it on the lam. He was charged with two felonies on Tuesday, but as of late Thursday afternoon he had not surrendered himself, or been picked up by authorities. A quick check of the on line OKC police blotter this morning shows that his name was not included on the list of those booked into the county jail yesterday and there was no mention of his status in the paper today. Perhaps he has fled to the hills of southeast Oklahoma with a few armed supporters to begin the revolution. Or it might be he simply can't find a lawyer who can put up with him for more than ten minutes.
The weekend has arrived, so I suppose we can all catch our collective breath for a few moments while we wait on the North Koreans to launch a missile or two. If you don't think Li'l Kim will just ask the people who wrote those vitriolic posts to Coburn. After all, as they know so well, the bigger the bang the larger the penis.
Thank God for Samuel Adams and pulled pork sandwiches.
Over and out.
4-13-13
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