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So, Here’s A Great Example Proving (Some) Conservatives Are Living In A Different World

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The world has changed, and now many — if not most — Americans have become so partisan that we can no longer even hear or read the same words and walk away with the same understanding of their meaning.

For example, President Barack Obama’s comments this week on gun control:

“You hear some of these quotes: ‘I need a gun to protect myself from the government.’ ‘We can’t do background checks because the government is going to come take my guns away,’ Obama said. “Well, the government is us. These officials are elected by you. They are elected by you. I am elected by you. I am constrained, as they are constrained, by a system that our Founders put in place. It’s a government of and by and for the people.”

What does that mean to you?

To me, it says that President Obama has every intention of working within our democratic (small “d”) system, including trying to convince Congress of the need for gun reforms, to achieve the results he wants.

Not to conservatives.

To conservatives, apparently, President Obama’s words mean exactly the opposite.

Enter radical conservative Ann Althouse:

As a lawprof, I read that to mean that he is not constrained. He’s juggling a few ideas, but what he’s getting at is: The Founders put into place a system that would be populated by elected officials, who are to act for the sake of the people and as the people want. If what the people want our government to do is control guns, then it is within the power of government to do it.

That’s the constitutional argument he has in mind. It’s an idea of constitutional government as a political system, within which rights are only another manifestation of what the people want. And, in the ultimate scary twist on the idea of rights: Government is not to be regarded as in need of limits, because the government is us. Anything we — the government — want to do is never tyranny, but freedom.

And yes, this is a law professor. Regular readers may remember I’ve written about Ann Althouse before, especially her inhumane response to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s blood clot.

Althouse is a professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School, just as Dr. Ben Carson is a a neurosurgeon and the director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins. Smart, but totally existing in a different world.

What’s sad is Althuse has a huge following, of perhaps not-so-smart readers.

Take a look at some of their comments on Althouse’s post claiming Obama didn’t say what he said:

  • The Constitution expresses limits on the power of government. Obama is saying that the government can do anything it wants because we elected the 535 members of Congress and the President/Vice President (which make up a miniscule fraction of the government as a whole). In short, he’s saying there are no limits on government. That is the rhetoric of a dictator.
  • We can’t do background checks because the government is going to come take my guns away,’ Obama saidUh, nobody, anywhere, ever, said this.

    What a pathetic piece of shit this man is.

  • He opens his mouth and Uncle Saul (or is it Chairman Mao?) always comes out.Translation:

    I am constrained by this system of checks and balances those WHITE MEN put in place to frustrate me, personally, from achieving my goals of turning this into a People’s Paradise with Me as your All-Knowing, All-Wonderful Messiah For Life.

  • I do not see democrats doing ONE damn thing to prevent criminals and felons from obtaining guns. The democrats are obsessed with chipping away at the second amendment — one crisis at a time.
    Law abiding citizens hardest hit.
  • I’m not sure that Ann has captured the fact that the Dear Leader was making his typical sales pitch. His pitch was, “Look, you can trust me and my pinko pals, because we are constrained by the fact that you can toss us out if we abuse this power we want you to give us”.”…….oh, and I promise to call y’all in the morning after we bone you in your rosy plump rumps”.

    Hitler pretty much made the same pitch. It’s odd how goofy we are as a society when we so quickly forget how tyrants acquired, then abused AND kept their powers through elections. I’m sure that as long as Jimma is around to certify the results, none of us has a single thing about which to worry our little shaggy sheep heads.

  • thankfully, the constitution also limits this turkey to two terms.I wager that a trial balloon will be floated in regard to Obama seeking a third term. It will be suggested. You watch.
  • This is the Marxist argument that Obama is making… He has the ethics and soul of a dictator. The only thing keeping him in check are our traditions and the vestiges of our laws.

And on and on and on.

So, what do you think? Have we become so different we are no longer speaking the same language?

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News

‘Terrorist Attacks’: Murphy and Cornyn Slam House GOPers Over McCarthy Ouster

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October 3, 2023

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After U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and seven of fellow far-right House Republicans voted to oust their own Speaker of the House for supporting a bipartisan vote to keep the federal government of the United States from a shutdown, a powerful Senate Republican and Democrat are both strongly denouncing the work of the few GOP extremists who toppled Kevin McCarthy.

U.S. Senator John Cornyn, a hard-core Republican of Texas and a former member of the Senate Republican leadership team, blasted the eight House Republicans for their “terrorist attack,” and warned it will happen again.

“We saw a similar thing happen to Boehner, Ryan, and now McCarthy. I’m sure the next speaker is going to be subjected to the same terrorist attacks,” Senator Cornyn said, according to HuffPost’s Igor Bobic.

Responding to a Texas radio talk show host from his official social media account, Sen. Cornyn added, “A handful [of] House members just want to blow up the institution and themselves in the process. Sad.”

READ MORE: McCarthy Ousted as Speaker in Historic First as Republicans Vow Vengeance Against Gaetz: ‘Kiss My A–’

U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) called the ouster “a deeply embarrassing moment for America. A consequence of a Republican Party that has become so radicalized that it can no longer function as an organized political party.”

“Nobody should be rooting for this circus,” added Sen. Murphy in video recorded as he watched the House voting to remove McCarthy as Speaker. He warned that the ouster of McCarthy will now take the House away from the critical work of keeping the government open after November 17, “instead of working on a budget.” And he warned that no new funds to help Ukraine defend itself against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war have been authorized.

“These are life and death stakes,” Murphy said, lamenting this “makes us look so weak and foolish around the world.”

Watch Sen. Murphy’s remarks above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Part of the Authoritarian Playbook’: Trump’s Courthouse Rant Slammed by Fascism Scholars

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McCarthy Ousted as Speaker in Historic First as Republicans Vow Vengeance Against Gaetz: ‘Kiss My A–’

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3 hours ago

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October 3, 2023

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U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has been ousted as the elected Speaker of the House of Representatives after a weeks-long campaign by his fellow Republican, Congressman Matt Gaetz. The Republican Florida lawmaker vowed over the weekend to put a “motion to vacate” on the House floor, which he did Monday night. Tuesday afternoon McCarthy lost the support of the majority in a full House vote.

No Speaker of the House has ever been ousted by a motion to vacation, according to the Associated Press, until McCarthy.

“The Office of the Speaker of the House of the United States House of Representatives is hereby declared vacant,” the presiding Republican lawmakers declared. The final vote was 216-210.

No Democrats voted to support McCarthy as Speaker.

Overall House Republicans are furious with Gaetz, with some vowing to expel him should the House Ethics Committee submit a negative report on their investigation into his alleged, possible sexual misconduct, unlawful drug use, and public corruption.

In addition to Gaetz, other House Republicans who voted to oust McCarthy include Andy Biggs, Ken Buck, Tim Burchett, Eli Crane, Bob Good, Nancy Mace, and Matt Rosendale.

READ MORE: Trump Has Now ‘Crossed the Line Into Criminal Threats’: Top Legal Scholar

“After talking to a few House Republican lawmakers and aides,” during the vote to oust McCarthy as Speaker, Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman reported he “would not be surprised to see someone move to have Gaetz expelled from the House Republican Conference.”

U.S. Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) in a profane rant slammed Gaetz, in a recorded video, saying, “You want to come at me and call me a RINO you can kiss my ass! You go around talking your big game and thumping your chest on Twitter. Come in my office and have a debate mother —!”

U.S. Rep. Sam Graves (R-LA) help up his phone while delivering remarks against Gaetz, chastising him for fundraising off his efforts to oust McCarthy.

“Using official actions to raise money. It’s disgusting!” he told his colleagues.

What happens next? According to The New York Times on Tuesday, “If McCarthy is removed, the House would be paralyzed.”

“A vacancy in the speaker’s chair would essentially paralyze the House until a successor is chosen, according to multiple procedural experts. An interim speaker would be chosen from a list prepared by Mr. McCarthy and his staff at the beginning of the year, but staff intimately familiar with House rules say the role of that person would be to oversee a speaker election and little more.”

As for McCarthy, he has said if removed as Speaker he would not resign from Congress. On Tuesday he suggested he would definitely run again for Speaker.

READ MORE: ‘Fool or a Liar’: GOP Knives Out for ‘A–hole’ Matt Gaetz as Vote to Oust McCarthy Appears Likely to Succeed

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‘Fool or a Liar’: GOP Knives Out for ‘A–hole’ Matt Gaetz as Vote to Oust McCarthy Appears Likely to Succeed

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7 hours ago

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October 3, 2023

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House Republicans are expressing outrage at one of their own, U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who by day’s end may succeed or come close to ousting Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy for relying on Democrats’ votes to keep the federal government from shutting down Saturday night.

“I prefer, you know, common sense over chaos,” Republican Congressman Anthony D’Esposito, who referred to Congressman Gaetz as an “a–hole,” told Fox News on Tuesday.

“I think that we should be focused on governance rather than grandstanding, and the fact that we have one a–hole that is holding us up and holding America up is a real problem,” D’Esposito added.

Far-right Republican Derrick Van Orden told CNN’s Manu Raju that Gaetz is “either a fool or a liar.”

“I’m telling you,” warned Republican Andy Barr of Kentucky, “it definitely puts the majority in jeopardy when you see disunity.”

READ MORE: Trump Has Now ‘Crossed the Line Into Criminal Threats’: Top Legal Scholar

GOP Rep. Steve Womack of Arkansas said, “I think it’s sending a terrible message to the electorate in advance of the 2024 election that this Republican majority could not govern itself.”

On camera, another Republican called Gaetz “a chaos agent,” and another said: “I don’t have tolerance for some pseudo psycho political fetish.”

Still another warned, “I think it’s sending a terrible signal to the electorate in advance of the ’24 election, that this Republican majority cannot govern itself.”

Watch below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Sodom and Gomorrah’: ND Republican Unleashes Anti-LGBTQ Christian Nationalist Rant Calling for ‘Christ Is King’ Laws

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