You don’t get any more coldhearted than that. You don’t insult Gabby Gifford any more loudly than that. You don’t spit in the faces of all those dead children and school leaders in Newtown than that. You don’t say any more clearly or crassly that it’s the GUNS you’re trying to protect, not the PEOPLE. You don’t broadcast more clearly that you’re a fanatical gun nut who should never have been trusted with a public office.

Oh please, isn’t her term almost over? I can’t take much more of this Wicked Witch of the West.

“Moments ago, the U.S. Senate decided to do the unthinkable about gun violence — nothing at all.

Over two years ago, when I was shot point-blank in the head, the U.S. Senate chose to do nothing. Four months ago, 20 first-graders lost their lives in a brutal attack on their school, and the U.S. Senate chose to do nothing.

It’s clear to me that if members of the U.S. Senate refuse to change the laws to reduce gun violence, then we need to change the members of the U.S. Senate.”

As President Obama said this afternoon, the NRA “willfully lied” about the compromise bill. When will we elect people with the guts to stand up to those thugs and bullies? I’m disgusted with our Senate. Republicans and Democrats alike who didn’t have the guts to stand up to the NRA. You people are marked for defeat. You don’t deserve a place of power and leadership in this nation.

–That the NRA and their Republican lap dogs opposed any limits on assault rifles and large-clip ammunition.
–That the NRA and their Republican lap dogs even opposed universal background checks–closing the gun sale and internet sale loopholes and requiring everyone who buys a gun to show they aren’t a felon, a terrorist or a mentally ill patient–even though that is the Bottom Line change to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and wachos.
–That the NRA and their Republican lap dogs didn’t want ANY public debate in Congress over gun control; with Republicans threatening to use the ridiculous rules on filibuster (rules the Democrats could have erased earlier this year, but didn’t, a stupid, stupid, stupid mistake.) Oh, what a big deal when some Republicans came around and the filibuster wasn’t used–how disgusting is it that it’s a VICTORY just to discuss gun control in America?
–That the NRA opposed an international UN Treaty to make it illegal to sell guns to terrorists. (How you gonna explain THAT one, boys??)
–That the NRA thought Sandy Hook was a mere blip in the nation’s insatible hunger for guns, when in fact, it was the moment America woke up to just how out of control the NRA is and how its guns-guns-guns mentality is warped.

Those of us who aren’t paranoid see the Second Amendment as the right to bear arms–not the right to own military weapons of mass destruction; not the right to ignore every single thing to be sure bad people don’t have guns; not the right to fight even the Chiefs of Police association that long ago realized the NRA wasn’t their friend, (I think that was about the time the NRA opposed the outlaw of hollow point bullets that could go through police bulletproof vests.)
No, we won’t forget. Especially not at the ballot box, where I see the day quickly advancing where being a supporter of the NRA is going to be a black mark against a candidate.

I maintain that the only one lacking integrity here is Kimberly Yee. I hope her constituents in District 20–northern Phoenix and parts of Glendale–are also outraged that the ONE bill that offered some hope against future mass shootings in Arizona was crushed under her heel.

I hope the rest of the legislature shows the kind of INTEGRITY Arizona demands on this issue and ignores Sen. Yee and reinstates this bill, and funds it to make sure we have this level of protection.

And Sen. Yee: You couldn’t be any more wrongheaded in killing this bill.

It was 1994. He was running for governor. I had recently written “The Trunk Murderess: Winnie Ruth Judd.” To my surprise, Winnie Ruth, who had secretly moved back to Phoenix, called me one day and asked for a “favor.”

“Will you please vote for Eddie Basha for governor,” she said over the phone in her tiny voice, and I laughed at first, wondering where this was coming from. “Why?” I asked, not letting on that Eddie already had my vote.

“Because during my trial [in the 1930s] my parents moved here and they were very poor and Eddie Basha’s father gave them a turkey and they’d never had a whole turkey before. So please vote for him to thank him for his father.”

I called Eddie to tell him the story. I could hear the tears over the phone, as his pride in the father he adored just grew another branch. And I cried too, that a simple kindness 60 years ago could still inspire a “thank you.” And it made me understand Eddie better–he’d learned at the knee of a kind man and he made kindness an art form.

Eddie’s father would have been proud of the son the state of Arizona and people around the nation are mourning today. His wife and sons and grandchildren should burst with pride that they shared this earth with that wonderful man. His friends came from the highest and most respected in the state, to those whose names we’ll never know.

He will never be replaced, but he will never be forgotten, either.

The President so clearly held the door wide open for all in this nation as we go forward, showing his breakthrough election and then reelection was just the start.

My heart soared when he cited the big three civil rights moments: Seneca Falls for women; Selma for Blacks, and Stonewall for gays. This indeed is a new day in America.

Here’s how toothless this tiger really is: In the November election, as the NRA was screaming the reelection of President Obama would mean the end to America as we know it, the NRA spent $11 million on candidates it favored. It noted how incredibly important this election was to advance their cause, and urged each of its members to get out in force to vote their way.

Know what their return on investment was? 99 percent of the money they spent went to candidates and issues that LOST THE ELECTION. Their “win” rate was 0.82 percent. It is the most pitiful of all the special interest groups in spending a fortune and losing everything.

So I’m wondering why everyone is so cowering under the thumb of the NRA. They have clearly lost touch with their own members, as well as most of America.

About time, too, since they’ve been such a two-faced organization. You know what the NRA says: if we have stricter gun laws, the criminals will STILL get the guns and decent, law-abiding people will be in danger. Then explain to me why the NRA has GUARANTEED that criminals get their hands on guns!

Over 40 percent of the gun sales in this nation are private or at gun shows–NONE of which require a background check. The other sales are from federally-licensed dealers, where every purchase must include a background check (although the NRA has tried to soften that up, too.) So guess where the criminals go to get their guns? Certainly not at a licensed dealer. Of course not. They don’t want a background check. So they go to private dealers or gun shows. So the reality is that the NRA is responsible for criminals having easy acess to guns–all to the detriment of the American people.

I was thrilled with President Obama’s announcement yesterday on his “common sense” safety measures on guns. And how it spotlighted what we must do to curb this gun-crazy mania that has left so many defenseless, innocents dead.

The tide has definitely turned in America. We are going to have new laws. We are going to fight back against the paranoia of the NRA.

Holly, it is President Obama that will most HELP your family. Mitt Romney as President would have given great tax breaks to the rich and left the middle class in the lurch. You know, the “47 percent” he thinks are takers who aren’t worth worrying about? Bet you fit in that category, Holly. And yet you thought this man would help your struggling family?

What, do you only listen to Fox News and Rush Limbaugh? Is that where you got your positions backwards on which candidate was looking out for the middle class?

Have you heard President Obama lately, clearly telling Republicans he won’t let them try and balance the budget on the backs of the middle class, but demanding the rich in this nation pay a little more? They can afford it. It won’t mean the difference between bread on the table or not. The middle class can’t afford the tax hikes the Republicans favor–you didn’t know that when you ran down your husband?

I’d feel sorry for you if there wasn’t plenty of other media besides the right-wing bubble of Fox-Limbaugh to set you straight. I do feel sorry for your husband, who will suffer the rest of his life because you were so ridiculously misinformed.

The word is important because it summarizes the bizarre and irresponsible response from the State Capitol to the shooting rampage in Tucson on January 8, 2011. The one that killed six innocent people and wounded 19 more, including U.S. Rep. Gabby Gifford, who miraculously recovered.

As killer Jared Loughner was sentenced to forever in prison this week, Gabby’s husband, Mark Kelly, read a statement to the court. It included these words:

“We have a political class that is afraid to do something as simple as have a meaningful debate about our gun laws and how they are being enforced. We have representatives who look at gun violence, not as a problem to solve, but as the white elephant in the room to ignore. As a nation we have repeatedly passed up the opportunity to address this issue. After Columbine, after Virginia Tech, after Tucson and after Aurora we have done nothing.

“In this state we have elected officials so feckless in their leadership that they would say, as in the case of Governor Jan Brewer, ‘I don’t think it has anything to do with the size of the magazine or the caliber of the gun’. She went on and said ‘Even if the shoorters weapon had held fewer bullets, he’d have another gun, maybe. He could have three guns in his pocket’–she said this just one week after a high-capacity magazine allowed you to kill six and wound 19 others, before being wrestled to the ground while attempting to reload. Or a state legislature that thought it appropriate to busy itself naming an official Arizona state gun just weeks after this tragedy occurred, instead of doing the work it was elected to do: encourage economic grouth, help our returning veterans and fix our education system.”

His words should be the rallying cry for a serious discussion about our gun laws. Nobody wants to infringe on the Second Amendment, but the Second Amendment does not say mentally ill people like Jared Loughner should have easy access to high-capacity magazines that allow them to do such carange in a matter of seconds. That isn’t a constitutional “right”; it’s a clear “wrong” inspired by the paranoid National Rifle Association, which has stopped any discussion on guns.

It’s time we deal with this issue. The last election clearly showed the NRA and their “angry white men” no longer have a stranglehold on American elections–in fact, as Benson’s cartoon suggests today, they have fallen off the cliff, as a wider range of Americans take hold. If there were ever a time to have an open and honest debate, NOW is the time.

And Mark Kelly’s moving words should be the opening anthem.