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Live vote on Senate floor, Firearms bill [updated]

Here.

Already, several Republicans (and “blue dog, centrist Democrats) have agreed to bring the “debate” on unconstitutionally amending the 2nd Amendment without going through the amendment process to the floor for a vote.

update: Passes 68-31, with at least 16 Republicans joining. And that means the GOP is dead. As in, put it in a hole and throw some dirt over it.

Harry Reid, a rancid, decaying emblem of the post-constitutional ruling class, praises John McCain, another fetid relic and champion of statism, for his leadership and his wisdom in siding with Democrats– which tells you everything you need to know about how broken our government is, and how little the Constitution matters.

Among the votes that are forthcoming, according to Reid: a ban on certain “clips”; a ban on “assault weapons”; and the Toomey-Manchin background check expansion.

Reid says the families of Newtown represent America. And that America demands votes. We are all parents who’ve lost children to a crazy person who executed his mother, stole her guns, and shot up an elementary school now.

This is, of course, ridiculous — as is Reid’s assertion that “a few” Senators trying to block debate by way of filibuster is unacceptable.

All of this — the theater, the dismissal of Constitution to follow a ginned up mob and position oneself politically — is, I’d venture to say, a potential spark. Because it is more evident with each passing day that can’t trust the Congress to uphold the Constitution, and we can’t rely on the Courts, either.

— Which means that we either rely on ourselves, or we surrender. And I refuse to surrender, because to do so would be to allow my children to become subjects.

54 Replies to “Live vote on Senate floor, Firearms bill [updated]”

  1. leigh says:

    Watching live, this looks like a bake sale. I expected speechifying.

  2. JHoward says:

    Liberalism is simply moralizing dogma, entirely and willfully unthought. It is a clinical dysfunction manifest as a political movement.

  3. Silver Whistle says:

    68-31 for cloture.

  4. happyfeet says:

    yay meghan’s coward daddy and harry reid are bringing this country together to pimp murdered dead connecticut baby wazzles for to free americans – ALL americans – from the constraints of the second amendment

    God Bless America!

  5. sdferr says:

    And thus is the absurdly mendacious, ridiculously inartful, pompously tyrannical Executive Budget — delivered only yesterday — buried as a subject of close attention, which is half of the calculation.

  6. John Bradley says:

    Executive whatnow?

  7. happyfeet says:

    RT @daveweigel: Newtown family members seated in the gallery to watch Senate cloture vote.

    classy!

  8. cranky-d says:

    What happened to the filibuster? I expected this crap to never make it to a vote.

    Fucking pussies.

  9. happyfeet says:

    Newtown victim family members hold hands and ask Senate to vote for cloture on proceeding to gun bill

    pic.twitter.com/KG8qa3qiAY

    cause of a dead murdered connecticut baby wazzle corpse is a terrible thing to waste

    not when you can pimp the mother-loving shit out of it least ways

  10. happyfeet says:

    oh. too many slanty letters

  11. Jeff G. says:

    Those pictures are why we have an amendment process in the first place. It makes the demagoguery difficult.

    Incidentally, it’s now time for a third party. We may lose, but at least we can point, laugh, and say I told you so.

    Plus, those who join? We’ll know are our allies.

  12. Squid says:

    Reid says the families of Newtown represent America.

    Well, not the Newtown father who advocates for our side. Surprising that we haven’t seen more of him in the gallery. Or the news shows. Or anywhere at all.

  13. Squid says:

    Also, I hope those Newtown families get an introduction to Cindy Sheehan. Seems only fair, since they’re serving the same purpose and will share the same fate.

  14. sdferr says:

    Is this the language (of the nominal Manchin-Toomey offering)? TITLE I–FIX GUN CHECKS ACT

    Whole bill link

  15. SmokeVanThorn says:

    Names of the 16?

  16. geoffb says:

    Reportedly, the deal on the Schumer-Manchin-Toomey universal background check “act” was finalized at MSNBC talker Joe Scarborough’s birthday party.

    Briefly quoting the Examiner item linked above:

    For Manchin, that agreement was the payoff from months of relationship-building with Republicans, including nights of pizza and beer on a senator-stuffed boat called the Black Tie.

    Video at first link of Biden thanking Scarborough and Bloomberg.

    For the Democrats politics is “the war”, albeit a cold one for now, and they fight like it using all the techniques of an intelligence agency against their foes.

  17. sdferr says:

    Names of the 16?

    Not officially available for another few minutes yet.

    Just now published.

  18. happyfeet says:

    here for so you no hafta click

    Sixteen Republicans sided with Democrats to vote to begin debate on the bill: Sens. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.) Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), Richard Burr (N.C.), Saxby Chambliss (Ga.), Tom Coburn (Okla.), Susan Collins (Maine), Bob Corker (Tenn.), Jeff Flake (Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Dean Heller (Nev.), John Hoeven (N.D.), Johnny Isakson (Ga.), Mark Kirk (Ill.), John McCain (Ariz.), Pat Toomey (Pa.) and Roger Wicker (Miss.).

  19. DarthLevin says:

    I noticed that Sen. Lautenberg from NJ was a Not Voting. Which isn’t surprising, as I don’t think he’s capable of much more than drooling, mumbling incoherently, and messing his Depends.

  20. Slartibartfast says:

    Bill Nelson votes Yea; Rubio votes Nay.

    No surprises there.

    I don’t like at all the cloture vote on a bill that, to our knowledge, has not yet been written.

  21. happyfeet says:

    of the 16 I think it’s just meghan’s coward daddy what can personally attest to the joys of being disarmed by a totalitarian state

    the other ones are going on faith I guess

  22. sdferr says:

    I don’t like at all the cloture vote on a bill that, to our knowledge, has not yet been written.

    The Democrat leader at least bothers to continue to play the shell game, if nothing else. If the Manchin-Toomey thing appears later as an amendment to s.649, that is.

  23. SBP says:

    “I don’t like at all the cloture vote on a bill that, to our knowledge, has not yet been written.”

    We ain’t seen nothing yet.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_chamber

    Remember, the little god-king already claims the right to execute you extrajudicially if he decides that it’s a good idea.

  24. Jeff G. says:

    Toomey and Flake have been real disappointments. As has Ayotte.

  25. mondamay says:

    Jeff G. says April 11, 2013 at 10:48 am

    Toomey and Flake have been real disappointments. As has Ayotte.

    If this doesn’t wake up Tennessee to the fact that we have two devils in the Senate, nothing will.

  26. Ernst Schreiber says:

    So much for taking back the Senate. Yay team.

  27. Pablo says:

    Is this the language (of the nominal Manchin-Toomey offering)? TITLE I–FIX GUN CHECKS ACT

    No, that’s Schumer’s bill. This would have to have been filed no sooner than Tuesday, 4/9.

  28. leigh says:

    Coburn is no surprise. All doctors are gun-grabbers at heart.

    I’m watching you, Rand Paul.

  29. RI Red says:

    Kelly been hangin’ out too much wit her buds, Johnny and Lindsay.

  30. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Sixteen Republicans sided with Democrats to vote to begin debate on the bill: Sens. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.) Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), Richard Burr (N.C.), Saxby Chambliss (Ga.), Tom Coburn (Okla.), Susan Collins (Maine), Bob Corker (Tenn.), Jeff Flake (Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Dean Heller (Nev.), John Hoeven (N.D.), Johnny Isakson (Ga.), Mark Kirk (Ill.), John McCain (Ariz.), Pat Toomey (Pa.) and Roger Wicker (Miss.).

    For future reference and/or planning purposes

    Up for reelection in 2014:

    Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), 74
    Saxby Chambliss (Ga.), 70
    Susan Collins (Maine), 61
    Lindsey Graham (S.C.), 59

    Up for reelection in 2016:

    Kelly Ayotte, (N.H.) 48
    Richard Burr (N.C.), 60
    Tom Coburn (Okla.), 68, (pledged not to seek reelection to a 3rd term–like we’ve never heard that before)
    Johnny Isakson (Ga.), 71
    John Hoeven (N.D.), 59
    Mark Kirk (Ill.), 57, (suffered a stroke in 2012, but that didn’t stop Tim Johnson from being reelected; of course, he’s a Democrat, so the rules are different)
    John McCain (Ariz.), 80
    Pat Toomey (Pa.), 54

    Up for reelection in 2018:

    Bob Corker (Tenn.), 66
    Jeff Flake (Ariz.), 56
    Dean Heller (Nev.), 58
    Roger Wicker (Miss.), 67

    all ages are the age they will be at the time of the election.

  31. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Somebody with more amibition than I should look to see which of the 2016 incumbents were darlings of the Tea Party so we can be sure punish their apostasy. Toomey was one, I know, Ayotte as well, perhaps?

  32. Pablo says:

    This is Harry Reid’s bill. The Toomey/Manchin Bill does not exist:

    WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Senators Mike Lee (R-UT), Rand Paul (R-KY) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) released the following statement regarding the pending vote on the motion to proceed to new gun control legislation:

    This morning the Senate will vote on the motion to proceed to the firearms bill (S.649). It is expected that the Toomey-Manchin provision announced yesterday will replace the current language regarding background checks. Yet, as of this morning, not a single senator has been provided the legislative language of this provision. Because the background-check measure is the centerpiece of this legislation it is critical that we know what is in the bill before we vote on it. The American people expect more and deserve better.

    Unfortunately, the effort to push through legislation that no one had read highlights one of the primary reasons we announced our intention to force a 60 vote threshold. We believe the abuse of the process is how the rights of Americans are systematically eroded and we will continue to do everything in our power to prevent it.

  33. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Y’know, I use to think it was a crying shame that Rick Santorum blew up his political career supporting Arlen Specter.

    I guess he know, better than I, that one Specter was as good as another.

  34. Ernst Schreiber says:

    knew, not know

    grrr

  35. Chambliss isn’t seeking re-election. Isakson ought not to.

    One house of Congress has just declared war on the honest citizens they supposedly represent.

  36. geoffb says:

    Joe Scarborough and MSNBC using al Qaeda propaganda as part of gun control push.

  37. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Joe Scarborough? Isn’t that the guy National Review invited to tell movement conservatives how they were doing it wrong?

  38. Jeff G. says:

    I’m too sick to speak or write any more today. This country is gone and there’s nothing really we can do about it.

  39. geoffb says:

    Biden, only hunters are responsible gun owners.

  40. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Biden, only hunters are responsible gun owners.

    Just until he decides they aren’t, that is.

    Also, when did law enforcement become a blood sport? Or is Slow Joe saying cops aren’t responsible?

  41. BT says:

    Depends on what they are hunting, doesn’t it?

  42. geoffb says:

    Conformation that we are losing our freedom due to booze.

    Next time they should sail on the “Slice of Life”, a real party-down boat.

  43. Pablo says:

    OK, we have the text. Coffee first, then parsing.

  44. Pablo says:

    My quick read is that it is indeed a feelgood nothingburger. There are incentives for states to improve NICS reporting. The “gun show loophole” is closed to the extent that the total effect will be the nullification of the false term “gun show loophole.” It says you can’t sell guns via advertising w/o a check, though I don’t know where you can do that now. The circumstances in which background checks would be newly required are almost nonexistent. The concerns about medical reporting to NICS appear to be unfounded, though there is a mention that the committee this creates would look at the issue.

    This should be rejected as a waste of time posing as a solution supposedly responsive to the “90% of Americans” nonsense. I’m with Uncle Ted.

  45. You know what else is dangerous? Being a Congressional intern. Right Mr Scarborough?

  46. We need background checks for Congressmen!

  47. Pablo says:

    We need background checks for Congressmen!

    Also POTUS.

  48. Pablo says:

    Next time they should sail on the “Slice of Life”…

    Seconded. If they’re going to be in the bag anyway…

  49. Silver Whistle says:

    Congress finds the following:
    (1) Congress supports, respects, and defends the fundamental, individual right to keep and bear arms guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

    Not a very impressive Act – 4 Pinocchios in the first section of findings! Would that be >>>>?

  50. geoffb says:

    Some analysis of the Manchin-Toomey bill here, linked from here.

  51. Squid says:

    SW, that’s right up there with Congress raising our 30 gram chocolate ration to 20 grams.

  52. geoffb says:

    One publicly unacknowledged elephant, which is in the room always, is that the leadership and many of the supporters of what is called the Democratic Party are a quasi-religious cult group. One which sees Mass Killings not as a thing to be prevented but as a means to further one of the cult’s totemic ends which is the elimination of the private ownership of arms in general and firearms in particular.

    Having half the members of a Commission handpicked by one of the leaders of this cult group assures that whatever the other half thinks they are doing, the Commission will only be serving the purposes of the cult and working to use its resources to further the cause of eliminating the private ownership of arms.

    On reducing Mass Killings they will be only come to recommendations which further the ends of the Democratic Party cultists or are ineffective so that means will continue to be available for the Democrats to use.

  53. sdferr says:

    Sheesh, it’s starting to look like the best that can be said for Manchin-Toomey is it’s useful at frittering away the limited time available to the Senate to take up more destructive bills — despite that this can’t be forthrightly stated as an object of writing and passing a flatulent bill which does next to nothing constructive and only a little destructive (over and above the shite for regulation already sitting on the books, that is). They piss on our heads, we’ll piss on theirs.

    On the other hand, nothing ought to prevent the Senate from taking in hand urgent problems in need of correction, like say, the impending bankruptcy of all the Democrat-Republican Establishment entitlement programs, the rising national debt, the gathering danger of runaway inflation, the enervation of commerce and industry, throttling young lives as they unfold — yet with Manchin-Toomey, the Senators still get to be lice unworthy of the offices they hold. So, lose-lose. It’s a modern thing, very hip.

  54. mondamay says:

    I have been amazed (and heartened) by the number of mad as hell people I have encountered today, and that is with the near blackout from the “Conservative” media on the cloture vote yesterday.

    I think Alexander and Corker are going to have some explaining to do.

Comments are closed.