Big Lie

Oppose War with Syria

"The war-making power belongs solely to Congress. It cannot be delegated to the Executive Branch, in any blanket way, through any kind of war powers act. If you fail to restrain the President, then you will be complicit in the President’s crimes. His planned actions violate the Constitution. They also break other written laws. This makes them inherently criminal. The President is trying to fix something that cannot be solved by outsiders dropping bombs. This will not protect innocent people. It will kill innocents. Their blood will be on the President’s hands, and on your hands, unless you use your powers to resist. I am doing what I can to resist. I do not want these criminal acts committed in my name." Continue reading →

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Obama executive order to kill 110-year-old Civilian Marksmanship Program

"The Civilian Marksmanship Program was administered by the United States Army from 1916 through 1996 when it was changed to the Corporation for the Promotion of Rifle Practice & Firearms Safety, a 501(c) (3) organization federally chartered by the U.S. Congress. There are no data indicating any of the weapons involved in homicide were imported surplus military rifles. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s homicide crime statistics, rifles accounted for only 323 deaths out of 12,664 homicides in 2011, the most recent data set provided by the FBI. The rifles that the Executive Order would affect are typically from U.S. allies and are pre-Vietnam era." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingObama executive order to kill 110-year-old Civilian Marksmanship Program

Gangs Remain Key Unaddressed Problem in Gun Debate

"Gun homicides are overwhelmingly tied to gang violence. In fact, a staggering 80% of gun homicides are gang-related. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), gang homicides accounted for roughly 8,900 of 11,100 gun murders in both 2010 and 2011. That means that there were just 2,200 non gang-related firearm murders in both years in a country of over 300 million people and 250 million guns. Cities such as Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Cleveland, and New Orleans all have very high per-capita murder rates. Individual police estimates usually find at least 65% and often more than 80% of all murders in those cities are gang-related." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGangs Remain Key Unaddressed Problem in Gun Debate

Harvard Study: No Correlation Between Gun Control and Less Violent Crime

"The authors of the study conclude that the burden of proof rests on those who claim more guns equal more death and violent crime; such proponents should 'at the very least [be able] to show a large number of nations with more guns have more death and that nations that impose stringent gun controls have achieved substantial reductions in criminal violence (or suicide).' But after intense study the authors conclude 'those correlations are not observed when a large number of nations are compared around the world.' In fact, the numbers presented in the Harvard study support the contention that among the nations studied, those with more gun control tend toward higher death rates." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHarvard Study: No Correlation Between Gun Control and Less Violent Crime

Mexican Cartels Not in “Over 1,000 US Cities,” Report Finds

"The refrain that Mexican drug cartels 'now maintain a presence in over 1,000 cities' has been widely heard ever since the claim was first made in a 2011 report by the now defunct National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC). But the Washington Post reported Sunday that it isn't true. The figure is 'misleading at best,' law enforcement sources and drug policy analysts told the Post. The number was arrived by asking law enforcement agencies to self-report and not based on documented criminal cases involving Mexico's drug trafficking organizations, the so-called cartels." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMexican Cartels Not in “Over 1,000 US Cities,” Report Finds

Glenn Greenwald: David Frum, the Iraq war and oil

"Wars rarely have one clear and singular purpose, and the Iraq War in particular was driven by different agendas prioritized by different factions. To say it was fought exclusively due to oil is an oversimplification. But the fact that oil is a major factor in every Western military action in the Middle East is so self-evident that it's astonishing that it's even considered debatable, let alone some fringe and edgy idea. Yet few claims were more stigmatized in the run-up to the Iraq War, and after, than the view that oil was a substantial factor. In 2006, George Bush instructed us that there was a 'responsible' way to criticize the US war effort in Iraq, and an 'irresponsible' way to do so, and he helpfully defined the boundaries." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGlenn Greenwald: David Frum, the Iraq war and oil

The Real Reason for the Iraq War

"Like most lefty journalists, I assumed that George Bush and Tony Blair invaded Iraq to buy up its oil fields, cheap and at gun-point, and cart off the oil. We thought we knew the neo-cons true casus belli: Blood for oil. But the invasion was not about 'blood for oil', but something far more sinister: blood for no oil. War to keep supply tight and send prices skyward. Oil men, whether James Baker or George Bush or Dick Cheney, are not in the business of producing oil. They are in the business of producing profits. And they've succeeded. Iraq, capable of producing six to 12 million barrels of oil a day, still exports well under its old OPEC quota of three million barrels." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Real Reason for the Iraq War

President Obama: ‘I Have Not Made a Decision’ on Syria

"And if, in fact, we can take limited, tailored approaches, not getting drawn into a long conflict, not a repetition of, you know, Iraq, which I know a lot of people are worried about – but if we are saying in a clear and decisive but very limited way, we send a shot across the bow saying, stop doing this, that can have a positive impact on our national security over the long term, and may have a positive impact on our national security over the long term and may have a positive impact in the sense that chemical weapons are not used again on innocent civilians." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPresident Obama: ‘I Have Not Made a Decision’ on Syria

President Obama: ‘I Have Not Made a Decision’ on Syria

"And if, in fact, we can take limited, tailored approaches, not getting drawn into a long conflict, not a repetition of, you know, Iraq, which I know a lot of people are worried about – but if we are saying in a clear and decisive but very limited way, we send a shot across the bow saying, stop doing this, that can have a positive impact on our national security over the long term, and may have a positive impact on our national security over the long term and may have a positive impact in the sense that chemical weapons are not used again on innocent civilians." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPresident Obama: ‘I Have Not Made a Decision’ on Syria

President Obama: ‘I Have Not Made a Decision’ on Syria

"And if, in fact, we can take limited, tailored approaches, not getting drawn into a long conflict, not a repetition of, you know, Iraq, which I know a lot of people are worried about – but if we are saying in a clear and decisive but very limited way, we send a shot across the bow saying, stop doing this, that can have a positive impact on our national security over the long term, and may have a positive impact on our national security over the long term and may have a positive impact in the sense that chemical weapons are not used again on innocent civilians." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPresident Obama: ‘I Have Not Made a Decision’ on Syria