Senators back new bank to finance infrastructure (The Arizona Republic)
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Washington (CNN) -- Talks are starting this week on possible steps to tighten access to guns for people with criminal records or mental health issues, White House spokesman Jay Carney said Monday.
Carney responded to questions from reporters following publication Sunday of an op-ed commentary by President Barack Obama in The Arizona Daily Star that looked at the gun control debate following the January 8 shootings in Tucson. Six people were killed 13 were wounded, including Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
Jared Lee Loughner, who has been charged in the shootings, previously was rejected for military service and had raised concern at the local college where he took classes due to erratic behavior.
"We can honor our Second Amendment rights while still ensuring that someone with a criminal record shouldn't be able to check out at a gun seller, that an unbalanced man shouldn't be able to buy a gun so easily," Carney said, adding: "There is room for us to have reasonable laws that uphold liberty, ensure citizen safety, respect the Second Amendment, and that we should be able to find some common ground on some of those measures."
Carney said the Department of Justice was launching talks this week with "stakeholders on all sides of the issue." While declining to provide specifics, Carney said legislation was a possible outcome.
In the an op-ed commentary, Obama acknowledged the role of guns in American society, while warning of their dangers.
"Every single day, America is robbed of more futures. It has awful consequences for our society," Obama wrote, adding that "we have a strong tradition of gun ownership that's handed from generation to generation."
The president outlined three "sound and effective" steps to keep "those irresponsible, law-breaking few from getting their hands on a gun in the first place," including enforcing laws already on the books, rewarding states that provide the best data and therefore do the most to protect their citizens, and making the system for background checks "faster and nimbler."
Following the Tucson shootings, some members of Congress voiced support for tougher gun regulations. However, the strong pro-gun lobby and deep-rooted resistance to gun control, particularly in Southern states, meant the matter failed to gain traction.
In Sunday's piece, Obama said he understands discussions about gun control "can reinforce stark divides."
"However, I believe that if common sense prevails, we can get beyond wedge issues and stale political debates to find a sensible, intelligent way to make the United States of America a safer, stronger place," Obama wrote. "We owe the victims of the tragedy in Tucson and the countless unheralded tragedies each year nothing less than our best efforts -- to seek consensus, to prevent future bloodshed, to forge a nation worthy of our children's futures."
CNN's Ed Henry, Gabriella Schwarz and Tom Cohen contributed to this report.
Source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_allpolitics/~3/9Jw33jMtFN8/index.html
Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/03/14/134525448/Political-News-Update?ft=1&f=1014
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March 14, 2011New Republican Blood and 2012
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Source: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2011/03/14/new_republican_blood_and_2012_252002.html
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Protests have rocked the Capitol almost every day since Gov. Scott Walker proposed taking nearly all collective bargaining rights away from public workers, but the largest came a day after the governor signed the measure into law. Madison Police estimated the crowd at 85,000 to 100,000 people — along with 50 tractors and one donkey — by late afternoon. No one was arrested.
Speakers delivered angry diatribes while the crowd carried signs comparing Walker to dictators and yelled thunderous chants of "this is what democracy looks like."
"This is so not the end," said protester Judy Gump, a 45-year-old English teacher at Madison Memorial High School. "This is what makes people more determined and makes them dig in."
Walker's signature on the measure capped a week of political maneuvering to end a bitter, month-long standoff that began when the state's 14 Democratic senators fled to Illinois in an ultimately futile attempt to block the legislation.
Throngs of protesters gathered Saturday outside a convention center where senators made their first public appearances in Madison since ending their self-imposed exile. Demonstrators treated the lawmakers like rock stars, yelling "Fab 14, our heroes!" and giddily snapping pictures.
All 14 Democrats later marched around the Capitol, trading chants of "thank you" with protesters who ringed the sidewalks. When the senators made their way to a stage, they promised to shift their energies toward recall drives already under way against eight of their GOP colleagues.
"Now ... we trade in our rally signs for clipboards and we take to the streets to recall the Republicans," Sen. Chris Larson of Milwaukee told the cheering crowd, "and in one year we recall the governor that refuses to listen."
Walker is not eligible to be recalled until he completes his first year in office in January 2012.
Eight of the Democrats also face recall efforts. Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald issued a statement Saturday calling them the most shameful 14 people in the state.
"(Fleeing to Illinois) is an absolute insult to the hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites who are struggling to find a job, much less one they can run away from and go down to Illinois — with pay," Fitzgerald said.
Walker's plan has spurred a national debate over labor rights. Its passage is a key victory for Republicans who have targeted unions in efforts to cut government spending across the country. Democrats see it as a blatant attempt to weaken organized labor, one of their strongest campaign allies.
Labor leaders have promised to use the setback to fire up members and mount a major counterattack against Republicans at the ballot box in 2012.
"We're never going to give up," said Marilyn Rolfsmeyer, 56, who serves as the 300-student Argyle School District's only art teacher. "What part of it don't they understand? There's hope here. I feel it. You feel the energy, the intensity. Somebody's got to be out there feeling it, too."
Dozens of fist-pumping farmers drew cheers as they chugged around the Capitol square in tractors bearing signs with messages such as "planting the seeds for a big season of recalls."
Tod Pulvermacher, 33, of Bear Valley, towed a manure spreader carrying a sign that read, "Walker's bill belongs here."
"Farmers are working-class Americans," he said as the crowd cheered. "We work for a living as hard as anybody, and this is about all of us."
Walker has repeatedly argued that ending collective bargaining gives local governments much-needed flexibility to confront cuts in state aid necessary to fix Wisconsin's deficit, which is expected to grow to $3.6 billion deficit over two years.
The new law erases public workers' ability to collectively bargain anything except wages up to the rate of inflation. It also requires them to contribute more to their pensions and health care, changes that amount to an 8 percent pay cut. Police and firefighters are exempt.
The Senate Democrats had fled to deny Republicans, who hold a 19-14 Senate majority, the 20-member quorum needed to vote on measures that spend money. But GOP leaders worked around them Wednesday, calling a special committee to take spending items out of Walker's proposal.
The Senate passed it 18-1 minutes later. Assembly Republicans approved it the next day.
Democratic Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk has filed a lawsuit seeking to block the secretary of state from publishing the law, the last step before it takes effect. She argues the bill still contained fiscal items and that the committee meeting violated Wisconsin's open meeting law.
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Associated Press writer Dinesh Ramde contributed to this report.
Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/03/14/134507544/next-fight-at-the-polls-wis-labor-protesters-say?ft=1&f=1003
March 14, 2011Clash Warfare
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Source: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2011/03/14/clash_warfare_251983.html
Source: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2011/03/14/huckabee_pushes_bigger-isn039t-better_theme_251984.html
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