So much to rant about, it's tough to pick an appropriate starting point

So lets start with bitchslapping a truly loathsome group, one that, when their voice was most needed, decided instead to imitate Marcel Marceau

The National Rifle Association

In an act of political whoredom absolutely no less garish than passing-at a cost to the Financial Services Industries, ESPECIALLY the parasitic Credit Card Industry of $40 Million-the much nastier bankruptcy laws overhaul, the House today voted to give the Gun Industry complete & total immunity from almost any & all lawsuits


Congress gives gun industry a lawsuit shield

Congress gave the gun lobby its top legislative priority Thursday, passing a bill that would protect the firearms industry from massive lawsuits brought by crime victims. The White House says President Bush will sign it into law....Under the measure, about 20 pending lawsuits by local governments against the industry would be dismissed. The Senate passed the bill in July......The bill’s authors say the bill still allows civil suits against individual parties who have been found guilty of criminal wrongdoing by the courts.

Yeah, thanks so fucking much for the afterthought

So, if someone I care about is shot by someone wielding a cheap gun designed with no other purpose than to kill, the money needed to take care of any physical damage comes from a shooter who's not made of money either, as opposed to the manufacturers of a very dangerous, malfunctioning weapon, like Saturday Night Specials

Great, makes perfect sense if you're paying off on political legislation brought off by special interests groups & lobbies

And for another knock on this vile "Get Out Of Jail Free" card

But relieved of the threat of lawsuits, the industry will have little incentive to pursue technological innovations that would make its products safer. And the firearms business would have little reason to more tightly control distribution in order to keep guns out of the hands of the unscrupulous and the dangerous.

Had this bill been law before victims of the infamous D.C. snipers settled a lawsuit against the gun shop responsible for the rifle used in those deadly attacks, the victims' families would have been booted out of court. They would have been barred from collecting a dime, even though the gun dealer involved couldn't account for 239 guns that had gone missing from his inventory, one of them the rifle used in the 2002 Washington-area rampage.

But, as far as I can tell, the NRA is VERY selective of who should have the rights to OWN a gun in the first place, and that's the absolute most infuriating aspect of the NRA's ultrablatant hypocrisy, is that its using what should absolutely be its most shameful moment considering their aims, and using it to rally support and new memebers from the very people who should be scourging the group the hardest


Horrific images of people without the protection of public safety in New Orleans made a particular impression on viewers who had never before felt unsafe, according to the gun lobby.

"Americans saw a complete collapse of the government's ability to protect them," said Wayne LaPierre, the NRA's executive vice president.

"That burnt in, those pictures of people standing there defending their lives and defending their property and their family," he added, "where the one source of comfort was a firearm

Actually, 2nd Jerkoff in Command LaPierre vastly understates what was happening in New Orleans at the time

bypass registration with www.bugmenot.com

I know this, because for 4 days, I was the ONLY person-a Liberal no less-who was getting riled up by an order that went out, which was

New Orleans Begins Confiscating Firearms as Water Recedes

"Waters were receding across this flood-beaten city today as police officers began confiscating weapons, including legally registered firearms, from civilians in preparation for a mass forced evacuation of the residents still living here........No civilians in New Orleans will be allowed to carry pistols, shotguns, or other firearms, said P. Edwin Compass, the superintendent of police. "Only law enforcement are allowed to have weapons," he said.......But that order apparently does not apply to the hundreds of security guards whom businesses and some wealthy individuals have hired to protect their property. The guards, who are civilians working for private security firms like Blackwater, are openly carrying M-16's and other assault rifles. Mr. Compass said he was aware of the private guards, but that the police had no plans to make them give up their weapons."

I started griping about this on September 8, and then really ratcheted up the kvetching after I saw a video on September 9, in which two burly National Guardsmen physically assaulted-knocked down-an elderly woman whose only protection was a small knife & .22 pistol

She was forcibly disarmed, while the private mercenaries got to openly carry around fully automatic weapons

And for 4 days the NRA stayed silent while poor citizens were forcibly disarmed by their own government-now, why was that exactly?

Geez, the whole race thing wouldn't be playing a part in this treacherous corporate silence now would it?

At the very least, it's obvious that the NRA should never again be accorded ANY legitimacy on the issue of private gun ownership, as when they had the chance to posibly help stop a harsh policy that ended up hitting the poor the hardest, the NRA decided social status mattered more than doing the right thing, and since those who were poor probably couldn't spare the money needed to become a duespaying member of the NRA, then why bother staying ethically consistent and helping out a group dispossessed of all political power