The Commentariat -- June 23, 2015

Internal links removed.

Afternoon Update:

Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "The Senate narrowly voted Tuesday to end debate on legislation granting President Obama enhanced negotiating powers to complete a major Pacific trade accord, virtually assuring final passage Wednesday of Mr. Obama's top legislative priority in his final years in office.The procedural vote, 60 to 37, reached the minimum threshold needed, but final passage will require only 51 votes."

Eric Yoder of the Washington Post: "The computer upgrade that federal officials tout as having detected -- although not prevented -- a massive breach of information on federal employees is itself at high risk of failure, according to a new internal audit. The independent inspector general's office within the Office of Personnel Management is conducting a thorough review of the upgrade but issued a 'flash audit alert' to top agency leaders 'to bring to your immediate attention serious concerns we have' that require 'immediate action.'" ...

... CW Suggestion: Cut a deal with Ed Snowden to get him to lead a time to design a hack-proof (or at least hack-averse) system.

*****

NEW. Charles Pierce predicts the future: "Now, of course, we will hear a lot of ahistorical braggadocio about how it was Republicans who freed the slaves, and passed the civil rights acts in the 1960s, Party Of Lincoln and all that. And we will hear about how great we are in general because we have all come together to agree that, in 2015, we decline to further glorify the symbol of a bloody insurrection launched in defense of chattel slavery. We rock. We are so very awesome. I give it a couple of weeks before the conventional wisdom congeals that we have 'moved past the controversy' and we can all get back to gutting the Fair Housing Act and undermining voting rights and performing all the rites and rituals that have come to mark the Day of Jubilee." ...

... Oliver Knox of Yahoo News: "President Barack Obama on Friday will deliver the eulogy for pastor and South Carolina state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, one of the nine victims of the mass shooting at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston last week. Vice President Joe Biden will also attend the service." ...

... The White Supremacy Party. Michael Wines & Lizette Alvarez of the New York Times: "The Council of Conservative Citizens opposes 'all efforts to mix the races,' and believes 'that the American people and government should remain European in their composition and character.' It would severely restrict immigration, abolish affirmative action and dismantle the 'imperial judiciary' that produced, among other rulings, the 1954 Supreme Court decision that integrated American education.... Now the massacre of nine black parishioners in a Charleston, S.C., church has propelled the organization, which in recent years seemed in decline, back onto the national stage and embroiled the Republican Party in new questions about its ties to the group." ...

... Olivia Nuzzi & Jon Avlon of the Daily Beast have more on the history of the Council of Conservative Citizens & their friends in high places.

... "The Condition of Black Life is One of Mourning." Claudia Rankine in a New York Times front-page essay: "Black Lives Matter, the movement founded by the activists Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi, began with the premise that the incommensurable experiences of systemic racism creates an unequal playing field. The American imagination has never been able to fully recover from its white-supremacist beginnings." ...

     ... CW Correction: Actually, this is a NYT Magazine piece, which the Times had on its online front page, as it often does with Magazine pieces. ...

... Wonders Never Cease. Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Senator Lindsey Graham, the Republican presidential candidate from South Carolina, will call on Monday for the Confederate battle flag to be removed from the state's Capitol, according to a source familiar with his decision. Mr. Graham is expected to make the announcement during a 4 p.m. news conference with Gov. Nikki Haley, who is also expected to call for the flag's removal, The Post and Courier of Charleston reported on Monday. The paper also said South Carolina's other senator, Tim Scott, a Republican, would call for the flag to come down.... Mr. Graham initially said that he would be fine with it being taken down but acknowledged that the flag was 'part of who we are.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Update: Frances Robles, et al., of the New York Times: "Gov. Nikki R. Haley called on Monday for South Carolina to do what just a week ago seemed politically impossible -- remove the Confederate battle flag from its perch in front of the State House building here. She argued that a symbol long revered by many Southerners was for some, after the church massacre in Charleston, a 'deeply offensive symbol of a brutally offensive past.'" ...

... Calculated Rectitude. Eli Stokols & Katie Glueck of Politico: "After a weekend that proved to be a political disaster for the GOP -- Republican presidential candidates were knocked back on their heels..., top party officials and several campaigns quickly fell in line behind the decision to remove the flag. And for South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Sen. Lindsey Graham and the state's new Republican Party, the wrenching debate provided an opportunity, both politically and economically.... On Saturday evening..., Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker wasn't yet ready to say whether he thought the Confederate flag was a symbol of racism, saying he had been asked by 'a number of people' to hold off on expressing his views. Asked who made that request, Walker replied that he'd spoken with Haley, and suggested she was preparing to take action." ...

... Clay Chandler of the Jackson, Mississippi, Clarion-Ledger: "Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn said Monday night that the Confederate emblem in the state's official flag has to go.... It's the first time a Mississippi Republican elected official has publicly called for the removal of the emblem that served as the battle flag flown by the Confederate army during the Civil War. Later, it was adopted by anti-Civil Rights groups." ...

... NEW. Nick Gass of Politico: "A day after South Carolina's governor repudiated the Confederate battle flag, the drive to eradicate the divisive Civil War symbol is expanding to new targets. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe on Tuesday said he was taking steps to remove the Confederate flag from his state's license plates, saying the image sends the wrong message to the rest of the world." ...

     ... CW: Luckily, the Supremes just decided that would be cool. ...

... M. J. Lee of CNN: "Walmart and Sears, two of the country's largest retailers, will remove all Confederate flag merchandise from their stores.... As of Monday afternoon, Walmart.com carried the Confederate flag as well as attire featuring the flag's design, such as T-shirts and belt buckles.... [Sears] does not currently sell confederate flags at its stores, Sears Holdings spokesman Chris Brathwaite told CNN." ...

... ** Ta-Nehisi Coates of the Atlantic: "The Confederate flag is directly tied to the Confederate cause, and the Confederate cause was white supremacy.... Over the next few months the word 'heritage' will be repeatedly invoked. It would be derelict to not examine the exact contents of that heritage.... Nikki Haley deserves credit for calling for the removal of the Confederate flag. She deserves criticism for couching that removal as matter of manners." ...

... Chico Harlan of the Washington Post: "Lee Bright, a South Carolina state senator with a Confederate flag framed above his office sofa, saw his inbox ping with hundreds of e-mails calling for the flag to come down from the statehouse grounds. He said the rebel symbol was threatened by a 'war of political correctness' run amok." ...

... Steve M. has more on Bright. ...

... See also links under Presidential Race below.

Alicia Parlapiano, et al., of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court under Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has been a conservative court. But even conservative courts have liberal terms -- and the current term is leaning left as it enters its final two weeks. The court has issued liberal decisions in 54 percent of the cases in which it had announced decisions as of June 22, according to the Supreme Court Database, using a widely accepted standard developed by political scientists." CW: Don't count on it. These "liberal" decisions, including the a possible upcoming opinion upholding same-sex marriage as a Constitutional right, may be designed to provide cover for whacking the ACA. ...

... Michael Shear of the New York Times: "... many [Republicans] say they are gleeful that the court may do with a single decision what Republican lawmakers could not accomplish in five years: cripple one of [President] Obama's signature achievements. 'This is the beginning of the end of the Affordable Care Act,' Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said in an interview." ...

... Mark Blumenthal & Jonathan Cohn of the Huffington Post on why so many Americans dislike ObamaCare: "... people are holding the law responsible for all of the problems of the health care system -- including those like rising deductibles, narrowing hospital networks, or even long waits at the doctor's office that most experts believe have little or nothing to do with the law itself.... Many people assume the Affordable Care Act is to blame (or, in some cases, to thank) for the changes they are seeing. By enacting such sweeping legislation, Obama and his allies tied their law to everything that happens in health care -- good and bad and in between."

... Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court ruled Monday that a Depression-era government program that allows the government to take raisins from growers to boost market prices is an unconstitutional taking of private property. The court ruled 8 to 1 that the government could not take the raisins without adequate compensation.... Justices will issue more opinions on Thursday and Friday, and end their work for the term next week." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "President Obama scrambled for votes Monday as Democratic support trickled in for his trade agenda, despite strong pressure from unions."

CW: I couldn't agree more with Larry Wilmore. A number of media outlets -- not just Fox "News" -- led their stories on Marc Maron's interview of the President with the "big news" that Obama had used the word "nigger," which, in context, was both appropriate & unremarkable.

Scott Wong of the Hill: "A band of House conservatives is discussing whether to retaliate against GOP leaders for punishing rank-and-file lawmakers who voted against a procedural vote on trade earlier this month. Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), one of several conservatives targeted by leadership, said members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus will discuss whether to block legislation or try once again to oust Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) from power."

Ovetta Wiggins & Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "An emotional Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan disclosed Monday that he has been diagnosed with late stage 3 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, which he called 'a very advanced and very aggressive' form of cancer."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Jack Mirkinson in Salon on "the racist insanity of 'Meet the Press' ... We had no right to expect better from a show that represents one of the most entrenched bastions of whiteness in the media world today. If you're looking for a symbol of why that world is in desperate, immediate need of a diversity shakeup, you would be hard-pressed to find one better than Sunday's 'Meet the Press,' because when you have more kinds of people around the table, you're more likely to avoid monumentally stupid screw-ups like the one Chuck Todd just made." CW: I can't get over Todd's idiocy. Also, too, great choice to invite David Brooks to contribute to the panel discussion. As Mirkinson notes, "If Charleston isn't enough for 'Meet The Press' to bump David Brooks, what in God's name is?"

Presidential Race

Profiles in Cowardice (and Outright Racism). Philip Rucker & Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "The Republican [presidential] hopefuls mostly stammered and stumbled in response to the shootings [in Charleston, S.C.]. At first, some resisted calling the massacre racially motivated, only to reverse course when it became obvious it was. Most stopped short of calling for South Carolina leaders to remove the Confederate battle flag from the grounds of the state capitol in Columbia. Some, like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, declined to comment at all. Only after South Carolina's Republican governor, Nikki Haley, emotionally declared Monday that the flag should come down did most GOP candidates join the chorus. Some also lacked sensitivity. Sen. Ted Cruz joked Friday -- less than two days after the slayings -- that in his home state of Texas, gun control means 'hitting what you aim at.' The next day, he campaigned at a shooting range. Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton, by contrast, has forcefully initiated a conversation about race and bigotry in recent days." ...

... David Edwards of the Raw Story: "Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee declared on Tuesday that racism had been solved.... 'I keep hearing people saying we need more conversations about race,' the former Arkansas governor opined. 'Actually we don't need more conversations. What we need is conversions because the reconciliations that changes people is not a racial reconciliation, it's a spiritual reconciliation when people are reconciled to God.... It's solved!'" ...

... Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: "... Mike Huckabee once refused to give a speech to the group that inspired alleged Charleston shooter Dylann Roof, but he did send them a videotaped message." After the Arkansas media got wind of Huckabee's planned speech to the racist organization, he begged off, saying, 'I will not share the stage or platform with someone who thinks the Holocaust didn't happen." CW: But no problem with the group's white supremacist mission.

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Dick Van Patten, the genial, round-faced comic actor who premiered on Broadway as a child, starred on television in its infancy and then, in middle age, found lasting fame as the patriarch on TV's 'Eight is Enough,' has died."

New York Times: "The husband of a prison employee who is accused of aiding two convicted killers in their escape said the inmates threatened to kill him if she did not follow through with their getaway plan. In his first extensive remarks on the escape, the husband, Lyle Mitchell, told the 'Today' show on NBC in an interview televised on Tuesday that his wife, Joyce E. Mitchell, was drawn to the inmates by the 'attention' they gave her, but that she realized she was in over her head when they began threatening to hurt him." CW: This is mighty different from the first stories that came out, which suggested that Joyce Mitchell agreed to help the convicts on condition they would murder her husband. No way to know, I guess.

Washington Post: "James Horner, an Academy Award-winning composer best known for scoring the 1997 blockbuster 'Titanic,' is missing and feared dead after one of his planes crashed in Southern California on Monday." ...

... Hollywood Reporter: "James Horner, the consummate film composer known for his heart-tugging scores for Field of Dreams, Braveheart and Titanic, for which he won two Academy Awards, died Monday in a plane crash near Santa Barbara. He was 61. His death was confirmed by Sylvia Patrycja, who is identified on Horner's film music page as his assistant." (CW Note: the Hollywood Reporter piece predates the WashPo story.)

The Commentariat -- June 22, 2015

Internal links removed.

Afternoon Update:

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court ruled Monday that a Depression-era government program that allows the government to take raisins from growers to boost market prices is an unconstitutional taking of private property. The court ruled 8 to 1 that the government could not take the raisins without adequate compensation.... Justices will issue more opinions on Thursday and Friday, and end their work for the term next week."

Wonders Never Cease. Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Senator Lindsey Graham, the Republican presidential candidate from South Carolina, will call on Monday for the Confederate battle flag to be removed from the state's Capitol.... Mr. Graham is expected to make the announcement during a 4 p.m. news conference with Gov. Nikki Haley, who is also expected to call for the flag's removal, The Post and Courier of Charleston reported on Monday. The paper also said South Carolina's other senator, Tim Scott, a Republican, would call for the flag to come down.... Mr. Graham initially said that he would be fine with it being taken down but acknowledged that the flag was 'part of who we are.'"

The Supremes will be issuing some orders & at least one opinion this morning. ScotusBlog is liveblogging the proceedings, beginning at 9 am ET. ...

... UPDATE: No huge opinions today. One important Fourth Amendment case -- Patel. Still waiting to find out when the Court will meet next.

NEW: Michael Shear & Christine Hauser of the New York Times: "... President Obama said the legacy of slavery still 'casts a long shadow' on American life, and he said that choosing not to say the word 'nigger' in public does not eliminate racism from society. In a wide-ranging conversation about race, including his own upbringing as a man born to a black father and a white woman, Mr. Obama insisted that there was no question that race relations have improved in his lifetime. But he also said that racism was still deeply embedded in the United States. 'The legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination in almost every institution of our lives, you know, that casts a long shadow, and that's still part of our DNA that's passed on,' the president said during an interview for Marc Maron's 'WTF' podcast that was released on Monday." Maron's interview is here. His pages are very slow-loaders today, so I didn't have time to wait for the page to come up. The Website's front page is here. ...

... DeNeen Brown & Abby Phillip of the Washington Post: "Emanuel AME Church swung open its doors for services Sunday, four days after a 21-year-old white man who told police he wanted 'to start a race war' allegedly killed the pastor and eight congregants attending a Bible study in the church basement. Hundreds lined up in the hot Charleston sun to climb the stairs to the sanctuary of 'Mother Emanuel,' one of the country's oldest African American churches and one with a rich history of resilience." ...

... "The Home of Racism." Paul Lewis & Oliver Laughland of the Guardian: "The prisoner in cell 1140B at Charleston County detention center is Michael Slager, 33, the North Charleston police officer who was charged with murder 10 weeks ago, after video footage surfaced showing him shooting a black man, Walter Scott, in the back as he fled, unarmed. On Thursday, Slager was joined in the Administrative Segregation Unit by Dylann Roof, less than 48 hours after the 21-year-old allegedly walked into a historically black church in the city, prayed with worshipers and then opened fire." ...

... ** Yoni Appelbaum of the Atlantic: "It was in Charleston, South Carolina that the fiery secessionist Edmund Ruffin fired the first shot of the war. And on June 17, 1865 -- exactly 150 years before the Charleston attacks -- Ruffin learned of the South's surrender, reportedly wrapped himself in a Confederate flag, and then took his own life rather than accept defeat. Those, like Roof, who now want a secessionist banner of their own can order one from the Ruffin Flag Company.... [The history of the confederate flag] is not seriously contested.... The flag was created by an army raised to kill in defense of slavery, revived by a movement that killed in defense of segregation, and now flaunted by a man who killed nine innocents in defense of white supremacy." CW: See also Presidential Race below. ...

... E. J. Dionne: "If this history is all about yesteryear, why does South Carolina continue to fly the Confederate battle flag on the grounds of its state Capitol?... And remember: The flag was put up in 1962 as the civil rights movement gained strength. White supremacy is central to the flag's heritage." ...

** ..."Original Sin." Paul Krugman: "... the racial divide is still a defining feature of our political economy, the reason America is unique among advanced nations in its harsh treatment of the less fortunate and its willingness to tolerate unnecessary suffering among its citizens.... Political scientist Larry Bartels ... showed that the working-class turn against Democrats wasn't a national phenomenon -- it was entirely restricted to the South.... Race made Reaganism possible.... [A second study, by conservative writers,] concluded that race is central, because in America programs that help the needy are all too often seen as programs that help Those People.... More than 80 percent of the population in [ACA] Medicaid-refusing America lives in states that practiced slavery before the Civil War." ...

... Dylann Roof, Global Terrorist. Morris Dees & Richard Cohen of the Southern Poverty Law Center, in a New York Times op-ed: "When, according to survivors, Mr. Roof told the victims at the prayer meeting that black people were 'taking over the country,' he was expressing sentiments that unite white nationalists from the United States and Canada to Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Unlike those of the civil rights era, whose main goal was to maintain Jim Crow in the American South, today's white supremacists don't see borders; they see a white tribe under attack by people of color across the globe." ...

     ... See also yesterday's Commentariat, re: FBI Director James Comey's remarkable cluelessness. ...

... Over on Breitbart, someone called AWR Hawkins helpfully explains that the reason mass murderers target churches & schools instead of NRA meetings is that people in churches & schools aren't likely to be armed. So forget all the other links above. Hawkins has the key. Wonder if s/he has any idea that the NRA does in fact commonly restrict or ban guns at their meetings. ...

... What if you're a black person & the volunteer fireman charged with rescuing you from a burning building thinks murdering black people is a "good deed"?

Reed Abelson of the New York Times: "Their industry already upended with the passage of the federal health care law, insurance companies are facing another upheaval if the Supreme Court rules that millions of Americans are not eligible for subsidies to help defray the cost of their coverage."

Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Obama, whose cool, no-drama style has for years set him apart from the extroverted politicians so common in Washington, has been getting emotional lately. It has happened at the White House and on Capitol Hill as he makes the case for parts of his legacy that are at risk, like his health care law and trade agenda, or when he speaks about slain hostages, civilians killed by drones and racially motivated shootings."

The Enforcers. Matt Fuller of Roll Call: "After three conservative House Republicans were kicked off the whip team as a result of voting against a rule for trade legislation on June 11, a new round of punishment is being meted out: Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Jason Chaffetz has taken away the gavel of Subcommittee Chairman Mark Meadows."

Reuters: "People who manufacture weapons or invest in weapons industries are hypocrites if they call themselves Christian, Pope Francis said on Sunday."

Ian Traynor & John Hooper of the Guardian: "Greece's international creditors are aiming to strike a deal to stop Athens defaulting on its debt and possibly tumbling out of the euro by extending its bailout by six months and supplying up to €18bn (£12.9bn) in rescue funds. The negotiators representing Greece's lenders are also proposing to pledge debt relief for the austerity-battered country -- but officials stressed that a breakthrough hinged on a positive response from the Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras."

Isabel Kershner of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Sunday rebuffed the French idea of restarting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process with international support and the backing of a United Nations Security Council resolution."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd., NBC Racist Edition. Samantha Page of Think Progress: "While the country -- and South Carolina, in particular -- is once again debating racism in America, NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday offered a video of men in prison expressing regret for their own gun violence. All of the men in the video are black. The segment was part of Sunday's show, which focused on the recent killing of nine black people at a bible study group in Charleston, South Carolina.... '... we simply ask you to look at this as a colorblind issue,'" host Chuck Todd said. Emphasis added. Includes video. ...

... Chuck Todd's Idea of a Mea Culpa: Um, we put this together before a white guy shot & killed nine people in church. We discussed not airing it in light of the massacre, but decided what the hell. No use wasting great footage. "I hope folks view the gun video as a part of the conversation we should all be having and not the totality of it." ...

... John Cole of Balloon Juice: "Are there no black people working in positions of authority at NBC? I mean, seriously. Just one black friend is all he needed to tell him how fucking tone deaf and stupid it would be to show this THIS weekend."

... digby: "I honestly don't know what to say.... What in the world was he thinking talking about it in the context of black murderers when we haven't even buried the 9 people who were gunned down by a white supremacist? Good lord."

Presidential Race

Party of the Confederacy. Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Even after online pictures of the suspect in the massacre, Dylann Roof, holding the Confederate flag and a gun surfaced on Saturday, none of the [Republican presidential] candidates who appeared on Sunday's political television programs were willing to say flatly whether it should continue to fly at the South Carolina Capitol. The most prominent Democratic contender, Hillary Rodham Clinton, said in 2007 that the flag should be removed." ...

... Party of Avowed Racists. Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "The leader of a rightwing group that Dylann Roof allegedly credits with helping to radicalise him against black people before Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Rick Santorum. Earl Holt has given $65,000 to Republican campaign funds in recent years while inflammatory remarks -- including that black people were 'the laziest, stupidest and most criminally-inclined race in the history of the world' -- were posted online in his name." ...

... Here's a New York Times update by Eric Lichtblau: Cruz said he would return Holt's campaign donations. ...

... Steve M. has more on Earl Holt, his disgusting views, & the many GOP candidates he's backed with bucks.

News Ledes

New York Times: "DNA matching that of two escaped killers was found in a cabin in the remote resort of Mountain View, N.Y., 15 heavily wooded miles west of the state prison in Dannemora, an official briefed on the investigation said on Monday morning.... The forensic evidence indicated that the men had been there within the last 48 hours.... A pair of prison-issued underwear was also found in the cabin...."

The New York Times has a "breaking news" banner that the U.N. has found that both Israel & Palestine may be guilty of war crimes. No story as of 7:35 am ET. ...

     ... Update: "A United Nations investigation found 'serious violations of international humanitarian law' that 'may amount to war crimes' by both Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip during their bloody battle last summer, according to a report released on Monday in Geneva."

Washington Post: "A key Army commander in the U.S. war against the Islamic State has been reprimanded by the Pentagon for steering a defense contract to a firm run by two of his former classmates at West Point, becoming the latest high-ranking officer to land in trouble for personal misconduct. Maj. Gen. Dana J.H. Pittard, who as the Army's deputy commander for operations in the Middle East oversaw the training of Iraqi forces, was formally reprimanded in February after a three-year investigation by the Army's inspector general."

Washington Post: "Walter Scheib, the 61-year-old former White House executive chef who had been missing in New Mexico's rugged Sangre de Cristo Mountains for more than a week, was discovered dead late Sunday night by a search and rescue crew."

Ceasefire

CW: Kate Madison wrote this comment today. I'm repurposing it as a post for reasons that will be obvious when you read it.

By Kate Madison

Picking up on the gun control comment section of yesterday: I am a member of Central Coast Oregon Ceasefire--a local group of gun control activists (mostly women, ahem!), which is affiliated with the Oregon chapter, and more loosely with the national chapter. We are said to be the most active and involved local chapter in the nation, and I believe it.

First of all, Central Coast Oregon is "purple," thanks to the old hippies who live in Newport--but we are in the middle of Bright Red 2nd Amendment crazies. We sponsored a gun "buy-back" in Newport in April, but changed the title to gun "turn-in" when the local police got nervous. We held our "turn-in" at the Newport Police Station, under the direction of the Police Chief. CCCO members were not allowed to touch the guns being turned in (for vouchers at local businesses), which would be melted down to sell. So we kept track of the number of guns--an amazing 345, in a small city of 12,000--and issued the vouchers. I was one of the volunteers and I learned a lot about tragedy and crazy.

First of all, when I arrived at the Police Station on a chilly, rainy Saturday AM, there were already over 100 people waiting on the steps for the Police Dept. to open. These were the "protesters," who had come from not just Oregon--but Nevada, Idaho, Montana and even Wyoming--to meet people who had come to turn in their guns-- before they got in the doors--and to offer them a higher price. They carried posters which touted the 2nd amendment, and portrayed us as "Pussies on Crime, etc." (As I walked in, they chanted, whistled and gave obscene gestures.) I felt like an employee at an abortion clinic in Kansas.

That we actually got 345 guns is nothing short of amazing, because these protesters were quite verbal and pushy with people trying to get in the doors. I talked with all of them, and every person turning in a gun referred to personal experience with gun violence. One person had accidentally shot and killed a friend while cleaning his gun. All had become believers in the necessity of strict gun control and felt hopeless about our government ever doing the right thing.

I tell you this, because I am a believer, obviously, in the necessity of gun control and will continue my work against most odds--except in Oregon. We are lucky right now to have a Democratic governor and a totally Democratic legislature--albeit with a lot of Blue Dogs. Two weeks ago they passed a Universal Background Checks bill and this week a Domestic Violence bill (which includes banning gun possession by abusers). Our Democratic representative joined our Ceasefire celebration last Sunday and regaled us with stories about the hate mail he has received--from all over the U.S.

However.....this is a start. I am not hopeful that this legislation will be the answer to gun violence in Oregon, but it is a beginning. The sad part to me is that it has taken a completely Democratic controlled state to get ANYTHING passed.

America is to me the land of deliberately missing the point. Sad.