[VIDEO] Manchin Rebukes Lewis
Posted: January 14, 2017 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, White House | Tags: Civil Rights, CNN, Democratic Party, Donald Trump, Jake Tapper, Joe Manchin, John Lewis, Left Wing, Legitimate, media, news, Smear Campaign, video Leave a comment
The Washington Post: With A Correction
Posted: June 28, 2015 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, Self Defense | Tags: Charleston SC, Civil Rights, Gun control, Gun rights, Harry Reid, Iraq War troop surge of 2007, Joe Manchin, Mental disorder, Pat Toomey, Republican Party (United States), Sandy Hook, Sens, The Washington Post 1 CommentThe approach is simple: When gun control fails, it proves we need more gun control
AWR Hawkins writes:
On Friday, The Washington Post ran a column asking readers to “look away from the Confederate flag” and look instead at the gun alleged Charleston attacker Dylann Roof held in his hand….
WaPo published a picture of Roof holding a Confederate flag in his left hand and a Glock in his right….
Hawkins continues,
…Ironically, WaPo admits gun control could not stop attacks like Sandy Hook and they admit, implicitly, that it did not stop Roof. Then they quickly point out that this is no reason for “defeatism” among gun control proponents. Rather, gun control should be pursued anyway:
Mr. Roof is not the real face of gun violence in the United States. Gun violence is an everyday problem that has many faces: Abusive husbands who fly off the handle; kids who accidentally shoot their friends — or themselves — while playing with their parents’ weapons; criminals who find it too easy to get illegal guns.
Public policy can’t prevent every gun death. But it can do a lot more than it is now: make it harder for the mentally ill, family abusers or criminals to obtain and keep firearms; crack down on gun trafficking; require proper gun storage; and reconsider laws that seem to encourage people to use guns in situations they consider threatening. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] The Cool Whip Presidency: For a Supposedly ‘Whipped-Up’ Controversy, Bergdahl Concerns Remarkably Bipartisan
Posted: June 5, 2014 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News, White House | Tags: Bowe Bergdahl, California, Dianne Feinstein, George Will, Jay Rockefeller, Joe Manchin, West Virginia, White House 1 Comment[UPDATE: See Jonah Goldberg’s commentary: This is more than a “whipped-up controversy.”]
George Will on Thursday’s Special Report.
“…a recurring theme in his presidency, which is there’s no such thing as honest, intelligent disagreement with him…”
Will couldn’t help but note that it isn’t solely Republican lawmakers taking issue with the conditions of the trade.
“If this is ‘whipped up,’ the project of whipping it up is remarkably bipartisan.”
Will said, pointing to concerns raised by West Virginia’s two Democratic senators, Joe Manchin and Jay Rockefeller. Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California, has also spoken out about the White House’s handling of the situation…(read more)
Poll: Majority of Americans Oppose Expanding Background Checks at Gun Shows
Posted: December 23, 2013 Filed under: Guns and Gadgets, Self Defense | Tags: Background check, Bill Clinton, Gun shows in the United States, Joe Manchin, National Shooting Sports Foundation, NSSF, Twitter 1 CommentAWR Hawkins reports: A poll conducted by McKeon & Associates and released on December 23 by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) shows that “53 percent” of Americans oppose expanding background checks at gun shows.
The percentage of Americans who support expanding background checks sits at 40.
According to the NSSF, these numbers “stand in contrast to the vague claim often reported in the media that ’90 percent of Americans surveyed support [expanded background checks].'”
Support for these expanded checks has been in a slide since hitting a high in January of this year. And NSSF says the drop in support has largely been due to people learning that we already background checks in place. As Breitbart News reported on March 31, the 1993 Brady Bill mandated the start of background checks under Bill Clinton.
THAT Explains it: The Death of the Political Middle, in One Chart
Posted: October 29, 2013 Filed under: History, U.S. News | Tags: Bill McInturff, Joe Biden, Joe Manchin, Lisa Murkowski, Mark Begich, Mark Pryor, Mitch McConnell, Senate 2 CommentsLooking for the political middle in Congress? It’s gone.
Check out this amazing chart courtesy of Bill McInturff of GOP polling firm Public Opinion Strategies — that uses National Journal’s vote ratings to illustrate the decline and near-disappearance of the political middle over the past three decades.
In 1982, there were 344 Members whose voting records fell somewhere between the most conservative voting Democrat and the most liberal voting Republican in the House. Thirty years later, there were 11. That means that in 1982 the centrists — or at least those who by voting record were somewhere near the middle of their respective parties — comprised 79 percent of the House. In 2012 they made up 2.5 percent of the House. So, yeah.
Reality Check: U.S. Has More Guns, Fewer Homicides than Russia
Posted: October 1, 2013 Filed under: Global, Guns and Gadgets, Self Defense | Tags: Gun control, homicide, Joe Manchin, NPR, Piers Morgan, RUSSIA, United States, Washington Navy Yard 1 Comment
I sneer at gun laws. I sneer at America. Bring me that zombie target! No, wait, bring me the Obama target. I hear a phone ringing. Do you hear a phone ringing? Where were we?
AWR Hawkins reports: In an effort to provide Obama with cover and respond to Russian Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Alexei Pushkov’s mocking of the Washington Navy Yard shooting, National Public Radio (NPR) dug up some facts about shootings and gun crime around the world and made a startling discovery–the U.S. has more guns than Russia but fewer homicides.
According to NPR, on the day of the Navy Yard shooting, Pushkov tweeted: “A new shootout at Navy Headquarters in Washington…A clear confirmation of American exceptionalism.”
In response, NPR wrote, “Pushkov sneers at U.S. gun laws, but how to do the stats look in Russia?”
There are fewer than 13 million firearms in circulation in Russia, compared with an estimated 300 million in the United States. That works out to about 9 guns per 100 people in Russia and close to 100 guns per 100 people in America.
[Yet] the most recent homicide statistics for Russia show there were 21,603 [murders in Russia] in 2009… [while] the United States had 13,636 homicides in 2009 with a population that is more than twice as large.
Russia has the type of gun control law Democrats in the United States have being pushing since Columbine. Read the rest of this entry »
Gun-Control People, This is Your Cue to Wet Your Pants: NRA Fundraising Breaks Records
Posted: September 26, 2013 Filed under: Guns and Gadgets, Self Defense | Tags: Friends of NRA, Joe Manchin, John da Silva, Kay Hagan, National Rifle Association, NRA, Shooting sport, Terry McAuliffe 1 CommentThe NRA’s “Friends of NRA” campaign has raised a record breaking amount of money so far this year. “Friends of NRA” is one of the group’s grassroots efforts, sponsoring volunteer events and fundraising banquets around the country.
According to Richmond’s WTVR.com, the program has already raised $51 million, with “more than 200 fundraising events left in 2013.” The amount raised in the first eight and a half months of 2013 is already $1 million more than the entire amount raised in 2012.
What does this say to gubernatorial candidates like Terry McAuliffe, who openly pledge to put Colorado-like gun controls in place if elected?
And what does this portend for pro-gun control Senators who have been fortunate enough to be elected in anti-gun control states? Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kay Hagan (D-NC) come to mind. Read the rest of this entry »
How the Senate Exploits Unpaid Interns
Posted: August 30, 2013 Filed under: Economics | Tags: Harry Reid, Joe Manchin, Lindsey Graham, Mark Udall, Martin Heinrich, Party leaders of the United States Senate, Senate, West Virginia 4 CommentsBarely a third of U.S. senators pay their interns — and embarrassingly for Democrats, a party focused on workplace welfare, most of them are Republicans.
By Stephen Lurie

Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, shown with his interns in July 2012, is one of the few senators who pays his interns — at least in the summer. (Flickr)
If you walk into any of the 100 Senate offices spread across Capitol Hill, there is one consistent element. Marco Rubio’s furniture won’t be the same as Elizabeth Warren’s and Mark Udall’s landscape photographs won’t match Lindsey Graham’s wall hangings. The ubiquitous fixture of every Senate (and House) office is livelier: the young, sometimes bright-eyed, cohorts of interns that flood the Capitol in the summer.