Apr 17, 2013
The Senate votes today on gun bill amendments, so we go back over the procedure, and some of the more troubling aspects of the substance as well. Everything will require 60 votes, and yet there will be no filibuster, per se. How can that be? And what difference does it make, if any? Among the more problematic issues raised by some of the "poison pill" amendments: inter-state reciprocity for concealed carry permit holders, even as stories are breaking about a not-insignificant rate of suspected fraud in the issuance of those permits, across several states. Not to mention the news that Tennessee's "I'm gonna start killing people" guy may get his permit back now, too. Follow-up on some other GunFAIL stories points up some of the unexamined consequences of gun accidents, including long-term health and economic effects. Also in the news: the collapse of a major tenet of austerity doctrine. Seems one of the academic papers most often cited in support of austerity policies, including the Ryan budget, contained serious errors, including things as basic as spreadsheet coding errors, and high debt to GDP ratios don't predict economic contraction at all. Whoopsie! Sorry, global economy! So, Republicans are pushing gun reciprocity as significant permit fraud is revealed, and they're pushing austerity as calculation errors behind that theory are revealed. Hooray for reality!