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‘Pro-Life’ Governor Determined To End Abortion Enables Gun-Running Killers

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Bob McDonnell believes that “pro-life” only applies to the unborn. Once you’re born, he’s more than happy to enable your killers.

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell has made a name for himself as an extreme conservative, and today we can add the words “insensitive” and “heartless” to his resume — along with “hypocritical wholesale enabler of gun runners.” On Monday morning this week, in a horrific tragedy, five teenagers were shot in their Ohio high school cafeteria, with one dying on the scene. The following day, Tuesday, another teenager died, and one was pronounced brain dead. Hours later, that teen died as well, raising the death toll to three.

Also on Tuesday, Bob McDonnell, Governor of Virginia, home to the Virginia Tech Massacre, the deadliest shooting incident by a single gunman in U.S. history, sat down and signed a bill into law removing Virginia’s one gun per month limit on hand gun purchases.

Last week, Governor McDonnell held a conference call — not even an in-person meeting, but a conference call — with the families of the victims of the Virginia Tech Massacre, after they urged him to meet with them. One person who was on the call, Paul Read, who lost his daughter in the Virginia Tech Massacre, said the call lasted only 30 minutes and Governor McDonnell’s opening statement included expressing his “duty to protect the Second Amendment.”

One wonders why Governor McDonnell felt so strongly about protecting the Second Amendment, and not any of the others. As Eric Segall at Slate recently wrote, “the Supreme Court, made up of all men, ruled that the use of contraception is a fundamental right protected by at least five provisions of the United States Constitution.”

Before the 19-year old gun law that Governor McDonnell Tuesday signed out of existence, Virginia was known as the “firearms supermarket.” The Virginia Tech Massacre left 33 people dead — many almost the same age as the three Ohio teens who were shot to death with guns — and another 25 wounded, and took place less than five years ago. How soon some forget.

Before you begin your “if those student were armed less would have died diatribe, read this. In part, it states:

In one year on average, almost 100,000 people in America are shot or killed with a gun.

A 2009 study found that people in possession of a gun are 4.5 times more likely to be shot in an assault.

U.S. homicide rates are 6.9 times higher than rates in 22 other populous high-income countries combined, despite similar non-lethal crime and violence rates. The firearm homicide rate in the U.S. is 19.5 times higher.

Bob McDonnell began his tenure as Virginia’s chief executive just two years ago, immediately inaugurating his new job by signing an executive order removing gay men and lesbians from his state’s anti-discrimination policy, an addition instituted by his predecessor.

All of a sudden, if you were, say, a college professor and gay, one day, you could go to work knowing you could not be fired for being gay. The next day, you no longer could. Governor McDonnell literally made it possible for you to be fired for a mere accident of birth.

Speaking of birth, last year, Governor McDonnell attempted to make it illegal for gays and lesbians to adopt. He didn’t get his wish last year, but shortly he will sign a bill into law making it legal for adoption agencies to turn away gays and lesbians who want to adopt, merely because they are gay or lesbian.

McDonnell last week also said gay parents threaten the ability of their children to achieve the American dream, and only straight parents can give children the right start in life.

And, of course, we ll now know what the term “transvaginal” means, right Governor McDonnell?

Pro-life, Governor McDonnell, is not a phrase that has an expiration date. You don’t get to choose which lives, what age, sexual orientation, race, or any other categories of the zygote you claim to want to protect at conception, are. Pro-life means pro-life, from conception — since that’s your standard — to death. And not a death hastened by someone who buys guns by the barrel. Or by someone who enables them.

Image: the M1911

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Acting Speaker McHenry Did Not Have Authority to Evict Pelosi Says Top Rules Committee Democrat

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October 4, 2023

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U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), Kevin McCarthy’s hand-picked temporary successor and acting Speaker, operated outside of carefully crafted House rules when he evicted Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer, the former Democratic Majority Leader, from their Capitol Hill offices just hours after Republicans ousted McCarthy as Speaker.

That’s according to the top Democrat on the powerful House Rules Committee, Ranking Member Jim McGovern (D-MA), who previously served as the Chair of the Rules Committee. He says the “Speaker pro tempore” has one job only: help elect a new Speaker of the House.

“I want to clear up some confusion,” McGovern wrote late Wednesday afternoon.

“As an unelected acting Speaker pro tempore, @PatrickMcHenry’s job is to guide the House toward the election of a new Speaker. That’s it.”

“His power is constrained by the plain text of Rule 1, Clause 8 of the Rules of the House,” said McGovern.

READ MORE: ‘My Job Is Not to Put Pool Noodles Around Hard Corners for Republicans’: AOC Blasts Critics Over McCarthy Vote

Rep. McGovern said he is “alarmed” by McHenry’s order evicting Pelosi and Hoyer.

“Given the plain text of the rule, I don’t think he has that power,” McGovern added.

McGovern further explained, “The rule says he can only exercise as much authority as is ‘necessary and appropriate’ towards the end of electing a Speaker. The Rules Committee narrowly described this rule in 2004: an acting Speaker pro tempore serves ‘for the sole purpose of electing a new Speaker.'”

“These rules were put into place after 9/11 to ensure continuity of government & quick election of a new Speaker in an emergency. Not to provide for a short-term Speaker due to Republican dysfunction,” concluded McGovern, who has served in Congress since 1997.

READ MORE: Pelosi Delivers Brutal Response After McCarthy’s Acting Replacement Orders Her to Vacate Her Office Immediately

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‘My Job Is Not to Put Pool Noodles Around Hard Corners for Republicans’: AOC Blasts Critics Over McCarthy Vote

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October 4, 2023

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U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) blasted critics across the political spectrum who are angered House Democrats did not vote to keep Kevin McCarthy as Speaker, after Republicans ousted him on Tuesday.

“Contrary to how McCarthy’s defenders are behaving, men failing up is not a Constitutionally protected right,” Ocasio-Cortez said on social media. “The man made risky decisions and faced the natural consequences of them. I am not his mom, and my job is not to put pool noodles around hard corners for Republicans.”

AOC also blasted 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang, who is now a former Democrat, after he criticized Democrats on CNN.

READ MORE: Karine Jean-Pierre Schools Peter Doocy for Asking if White House Is ‘Loving’ GOP House Chaos

“Why did Dems vote along party lines to oust Kevin McCarthy? Not because they thought it was good for the country but because that’s what they were told to do,” Yang said on social media when posting his remarks.

“Yes,” Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez responded, “because strengthening someone who voted to overturn the election, held the entire US economy hostage, launched a baseless impeachment inquiry without a vote, and refuses to honor his word is what is in the best interest of this country.”

“Do some of you hear yourselves?” she asked rhetorically.

READ MORE: Pelosi Strikes Back After New House GOP Leadership, in Act of ‘Revenge’ Immediately Targets Top Democrats

Tuesday night she also defended Democrats for not, as some have put it, “saving” McCarthy.

“Does anyone believe for one minute that McCarthy would help elect a Dem speaker ‘for the institution’?” she asked. “McCarthy’s hubris is a theme. He loudly stated he wouldn’t negotiate w/Dems, called virtually none, trashed those who helped w/CR, and then expected Dem votes for free?”

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Karine Jean-Pierre Schools Peter Doocy for Asking if White House Is ‘Loving’ GOP House Chaos

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October 4, 2023

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In the middle of an interview with U.S Senator John Kennedy, Fox News interrupted the Louisiana Republican for some “breaking news,” as the right wing cable network’s Peter Doocy began to ask White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about the chaos far-right wing Republicans caused by ousting Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday.

“All right. Senator, thank you for joining us. We got a little bit of breaking news here. We got to jump back to the briefing. Our Peter Doocy is questioning the Press Secretary,” John Roberts told viewers as the camera cut to the White House Press Briefing Room.

“Is any part of the West Wing here, just loving the fact that Republicans don’t appear to be able to govern the one part of the government that they actually control?” Doocy asked.

“Nobody’s ‘loving’ anything when it’s when we’re not when we’re not able to deliver for the American people. Nobody’s loving that,” Jean-Pierre replied, as she explained to Doocy what the White House believes is actually important.

READ MORE: Jim Jordan, a ‘Significant Player’ in Trump’s Efforts to Overturn Election Results, Running for Speaker of the House

“It is important for Congress to work, not for us, but on behalf of the American people. It is important to make sure that we meet the challenges of the American people. That’s what’s important. What we saw, you heard from the President, what we saw on Saturday should have never have happened, but we’re glad that a deal was made. We’re glad that we’re not in a shutdown. But House Republicans should have never gotten us that far.”

Jean-Pierre went on to tell Doocy that since Republicans “are the majority in the House, they can fix this.”

“They’re creating the chaos. That is not helpful to the American people.”

“That’s why you saw the President today talk about student debt relief, and talk about what else he’s doing to make sure that we’re giving a little bit of breathing room to the American people. That’s why you heard from the President yesterday talking about or our announcement, talking about how we’re continuing to beat Big Pharma so we can lower prescription drug costs for the American people. That’s what the President cares about. That’s what he wants to see – what can we continue to do to help Americans as they face really tough challenges? So this is not, we’re not loving it. It is not helpful to any any American across the country.”

READ MORE: Pelosi Strikes Back After New House GOP Leadership, in Act of ‘Revenge’ Immediately Targets Top Democrats

Doocy, went on to ask if “anybody in the West Wing has heard anybody talking about the possibility of ‘Speaker Trump.'”

Watch below or at this link.

 

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