I hate to blame victims in these tragedies, but now it’s being revealed Nancy Lanza, the Newtown gunman’s mother, was a “survivalist” and gun enthusiast who regularly took her mentally disturbed son to the gun range with her ?  Really?

I do not care if the guns were obtained legally or not, but she really needed FOUR guns with large magazines to “protect” herself in her tiny, ex-burb in Connecticut and she got many bullets in her head from her son, who she gave access to the guns, while she slept.

This is not about how crazy she was, which is way crazy, but this is about how she legally acquired these things and a tragic chain of events led to… well, everyone in the world knows now… another example of our extreme violent culture, in every corner, liberal and conservative, of this very large and powerful frontier-minded, puritanical country where almost no one understands the true legal analysis of the oft-invoked Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.  Do your homework, people.

The NRA’s pandering statement today is vacuous, at best, today, also.  They cite no specifics in what they will do to make sure this never happens again.  They don’t even listen to the polls of their own card-carrying membership.  It is a hard line across the board, and people like Cheney voted against undetectable, plastic firearms because of the whoring he did for lobbyists like theirs.  There is no end to the insanity.  I really don’t think these 27 martyrs are going to be enough to move the country.  This wasn’t even the largest bloodbath in American history from one lone, crazed gunman, and the damage could have been far worse if he had exhausted all of the fire power his wholly irresponsible mother provided him direct access to.

I was aware of Obama’s lack of progress on gun control well before this particular tragedy.  I know he’s had a full plate, but hopefully with the power of the second term, he will not kowtow to lobbyists and make some permanent improvements in our lives by doing something no president has ever done (again), but in this arena.

The NRA nuts are going to say “people kill people but guns don’t kill people”.  Well the nutjob in China who attacked a school recently didn’t kill the 22 kids he stabbed. Most of them will live, unlike Lanza’s victims.

I’ve always loved Rosie Perez since the first second I saw her in Spike Lee’s movie, but her video on Mitt Romney gave me chills, made me laugh out loud and brought me to tears in less than five minutes.

See http://actually.org/

Taliban bastards shot this girl, who has literally been fighting for the right of girls to be educated, for years.  The world is hopeful that she is not brain damaged and will survive this misogynistic and regressive attack against a child who is trying to build a better world.

President/VP of US – Incumbents Obama & Biden (I’m not a fool).

US Representative 15th Congressional District – Incumbent Fortney Pete Stark

US Senator – Incumbent Dianne Feinstein

State Assembly 20th District – Jennifer Ong

Hayward Unified School District – Annette Walker, Heather Reyes and Luis Reynoso

Eden Township Healthcare District Directors – Dr. Vin Sawhney & David Coleman

Oro Loma Sanitary District Directors – Roland Dias and Laython Landis

AC Transit District Director – Dollene Jones

BART Director – Rebecca Saltzman

Measure 30 Yes

31 No

32 Yes

33 Yes

34 Yes

35 Yes

36 Yes

37 Yes

38 Yes

39 Yes

40 Yes

A1 Yes

B1 Yes

I Yes

Unemployment solidly below 8% (as Obama sought) despite all of the obstruction and rooting on the part of the conservatives in the US legislature and the Romney camp for economic failure. How do you like them apples, mofos?

• Trayvon Martin Case: 911 Audio Released Of Teen Shot By Neighborhood Watch Captain (AUDIO)

  www.huffingtonpost.com SANFORD, Fla. — Police have released audio 911 tapes in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed teenager allegedly killed by a neighborhood watch captain while walking home from a store. In eight chilling recordings, made the night of February 26, listeners can hear the frightened voices o…

  Kellie Ann Kunkel I couldn’t agree more, so very sad
  Mac McGuirk Jason, you can hear someone screaming for help in the third recording. How is it known that it is Trayvon begging for help?
  Jason Drawhorn That is why he needs to be arrested and put on trial, so he can be judged by his peers
  Mac McGuirk I agree that there should be a proper trial and introduction of evidence. My point was simply that we don’t know who was screaming for help.
  Mac McGuirk I believe a grand jury is set to convene on April 10th as well.
  Joseph Andrew Hayden ‎@Mac – We don’t KNOW who was screaming for help? Are you kidding me? Everyone who heard the tape who knew Trayvon identified him as the screamer. Trayvon was 100 POUNDS lighter and 11 years younger that George Zimmerman! Do you belong to the flat world society? Did anyone in this thread note the use of the word “coon” by George Zimmerman (still not arrested)? Was George Zimmerman worried for his life having a gun in his SUV with an unarmed teen walking by with candy and ice tea? Wake up people!
  Mac McGuirk Well, Joseph, your mind is made up. Mine is not, and George Zimmerman should be processed under the guise of innocent until proven guilty. My world is quite round and all of the reports I read say that no one knows who is screaming. I hope that the grand jury is more apt to hear all of the facts before making their decision as you already have obviously. I am not saying I think he is innocent, I am saying that it’s not been proven that Trayvon is the person pleading for help. Also of interest is the fact that George had become separated from Trayvon and returned to his SUV. I am not sure why someone who planned to murder someone in cold blood would self-identify to 911 operators before he did so. His injuries were consistent with his report of being attacked from behind at his SUV and he had fresh grass stains on his back. These are all things that justice professionals and the Grand Jury should address to determine whether George should be indicted. If George was attacked after returning to his SUV, the Florida stand-your-ground law would be correctly applied in the case of someone having their head beaten against the sidewalk as George reported. My point is that there are a lot of unknowns and just like every sensationalized case, more details will slowly emerge.
  Joseph Andrew Hayden ‎@Mac – With all due respect, this is not about presumption of innocence or guilt. GEORGE ZIMMERMAN IS STILL NOT ARRESTED. Unless someone does something, he will never even have his innocence tested! This is about NRA-lobbied legislation that goes above and beyond the already well established Anglo-American law for self-defense. I have a law degree, but it does not take a lawyer or a criminologist to see what is going on here. I’m so glad we have the audio tapes of what happened. Hopefully, as I’ve heard, there is a credible eyewitness to testify further to the assassination of this unarmed boy. I do recommend you stop watching FOX “news” if you have yet to hear his own parents suffer through the screams of their son which they unequivocally identified. Do you hear George Zimmerman’s family claiming the screams for help were him? Do you yourself not hear a teenage voice screaming for help? You heard George’s voice while he was sneaking up on Trayvon on the 911 tape. Do you claim the scream is from the same voice? Did George tell the police he was screaming for help? Did you notice the screams completely stopped when Trayvon was murdered? Why would a 250 pound man in his twenties be screaming “help” when he had a gun and and SUV to protect him and the person he shot and killed was 100 pounds smaller than him and unarmed? I did not say it was “in cold blood” but his predatory intent was obvious when he defied the POLICE dispatcher by chasing someone when George was not even on as watcher that night (and he should not have been armed to “watch” the neighborhood anyway). Did you see the grass stains as if they could only have been caused by Trayvon? Did you know that the “broken nose” was not even observed in the hospital until the next day so that it must not have been that bad? Do you know George assaulted a police officer and was arrested in a domestic abuse case, not to mention the dozens and dozens of 911 calls he has made in the months leading up to his killing this young boy which led him to say on the 911 tape “they always get away” (this was said at a different time than his use of the word “coon”)? The point is that there IS no correct application of the “Stand Your Ground” law because it is a bogus piece of legislation that was written and pushed through by gun lobbyists who needed to beef up the legitimacy of the NRA in the wake of the Gabrielle Giffords assassination attempt. I think you are blinded by your lack of knowledge. I have a daughter and I would recognize her scream for help. I can’t believe you are “standing your ground” that we don’t know who screamed and you are still trying to claim that it was in dispute. Have you even watched one interview with Trayvon’s parents? Some cases DESERVE to be sensationalized
  Joseph Andrew Hayden In the interest of accuracy, the ultimately-dropped charges against Zimmerman for the attack on a policeman was back in 2005, although I did hear his dozens of 911 calls were made in the months prior to this assassination. If you read the article above, Trayvon’s father once again affirmatively identifies his son’s voice screaming for help. Some are saying that Zimmerman had political connections to get the charges dropped and to completely avoid drug testing on the night of the shooting, although because Trayvon was black, I suppose, his corpse WAS tested for drugs (which came out negative). Unexplained Sanford Police Department favoritism toward Zimmerman also led him to avoid arrest or even detainment to date!

As an Italian-American who has lived in Italy and knows how corrupt and political everything there is, I am embarrassed by how long it took to free Amanda Knox, who was convicted so Draconiously on almost no evidence and completely concocted xenophobia.  I hope she is forever rewarded for her endurance of being used as a ploy by the Machiavellian prosecutor who sought to use her as a scapegoat for a horrific murder she had no reason nor no ability to commit.

Lest we forget that her boyfriend at the time of the killing, an Italian national, was also targeted, for being with what the media there considered a party girl harlot.  He too was freed today.

This is not like the OJ Simpson trial where someone was acquitted finally after there was no explanation on how the victim died.  There has already been a drifter drug dealer who had both the motive and the gender to rape and mutilate the poor roommate of Amanda.  In this case he was tried and convicted with sound evidence long ago.  Why the Italian tribunals had to create a conspiracy out of thin air for two other college students to have been involved is the fodder of garbage tabloids.  Finally in the appeal some science was used and it was because of the diligence of those who had some common sense that Amanda and her boyfriend were exonerated.  It remains to be seen if the propaganda in the Italian press will admit their mistake and correct the embarrassing excuse they have for a legal system.