Althouse: "There are not many groups of people that can get a meeting with any senator they want, whenever they want."

April 12, 2013

"There are not many groups of people that can get a meeting with any senator they want, whenever they want."

"These are smart, articulate people, who don’t have a scintilla of Washington about them... But they virtually cannot be denied a meeting."

Victimhood has its privileges.

IN THE COMMENTS: rhhardin writes: "Mitchell and Webb the victim's opinion story questioned." Great link!

83 comments:

AllenS said...: We're becoming a nation of emotionally-based laws. Not good.; 4/12/13, 7:53 AM
Vet66 said...: Until I am otherwise convinced, the good folks from Newtown are being shamelessly used (pimped) to further the ideology of the liberals and progressives. Note that the one gentleman who suffered a tragic loss at Newtown argued against gun control. He was not invited to participate in the backdrop to Obama's speech.; 4/12/13, 7:54 AM
machine said...: cough...Terri...cough...Schiavo...cough...; 4/12/13, 7:57 AM
Beta Rube said...: Do liberals have any emotion and heart for their own lives? They seem to expend it all wallowing in the real and imagined pain of others. Truly an awful way to govern.; 4/12/13, 7:57 AM
rhhardin said...: It's the daytime soap opera lobby.; 4/12/13, 7:59 AM
rhhardin said...: Mitchell and Webb the victim's opinion story questioned.; 4/12/13, 8:01 AM
virgil xenophon said...: Nothing like policy-making by emotion. Immediate post-Pearl Harbor polls showed that >70% of the American Public believed we should NOT declare war on Germany, but concentrate exclusively on those who had actually attacked us. Most historians have long noted that a) Absent Hitlers stupidity in declaring war on America after Pearl Harbor, FDR would never have gone against overwhelming public opinion to declare war on Germany--with all the potentially horrifying negative outcomes for America and Western Civilization that most military historians believe would have followed in the train of such a decision, and b) Germany was by FAR the greater existential threat to America than was Japan in terms of military potential and was believed to be so at the time--as witnessed by the fact that over 70% of our resources were committed by FDR to the war against Germany instead of Japan--the nation which had actually attacked us.

So much for the overwhelming "wisdom" of the vast majority of the common people of America--the "victims" of Pearl Harbor. If they had had their way we'd all be speaking German by now..; 4/12/13, 8:02 AM
James Pawlak said...: Mr. B. H. Obama has flown, at your expense and mine, some of the parents of the murdered children of the Sandy Hook school to Washington, DC to testify for increased gun controls. I doubt that he invited:
1. The one parent (Mr. Mark Mattioli) of a murdered child who testified against such increases in unconstitutional people controls; Or,
2. The "woman in the attic" who barely drove an armed intruder with the rounds available in her "six-shooter"; Or,
3. My home town's military veteran who pulled-and-pointed (ie Very ready to shoot) a gun to stop what might have been a fatal beating of a woman by some thug; Or,
4. The many other good citizens who do the same and are listed in magazines truthfully published by the National Rifle Association, the United States Concealed Carry Association and those local newspapers who do not reject such stories as a matter of editorial policy.

The voices of America should and must include such citizens as take action when, as is usual, the police are too late and too few to prevent violence against innocents.; 4/12/13, 8:06 AM
Anonymous said...: It makes for a good photo op.; 4/12/13, 8:06 AM
Cody Jarrett said...: Terry Schiavo what, machine?

Come on, put on your big boy pants and actually say something instead of being a little twatwaffling assfaced bitch with your ...cough...cough....

Stand up and say something like a person, or shut up and slink back to the gutter.; 4/12/13, 8:16 AM
test said...: If they had had their way we'd all be speaking German by now.

More likely the French would be speaking Russian.; 4/12/13, 8:18 AM
Darrell said...: Somebody pull machine's plug.; 4/12/13, 8:19 AM
Bob Ellison said...: rhhardin, thanks for that Mitchell and Webb link. Fantastic. That's Numberwang.; 4/12/13, 8:19 AM
Darrell said...: A woman whose only medical requirement is a feeding tube, one expected to live to her natural life expectancy, is sentenced to death by denying her food and water. By a legally-blind probate judge, in a minor court.

Yeah, that's just like gun control kabuki.; 4/12/13, 8:23 AM
test said...: machine said...
cough...Terri...cough...Schiavo...cough...

Amazing how Cindy Sheehan dropped from the news. Unexpectedly. I mean almost no one predicted that.; 4/12/13, 8:25 AM
machine said...: ...cough...shamelessly used...cough...to further ideology...cough...; 4/12/13, 8:29 AM
Colonel Angus said...: cough...Terri...cough...Schiavo...cough...

I found it interesting that the feminist wing of the liberal set didn't see any issue with a guy who had clearly moved on with his life; new woman, new family still insisting he had the power of life or death over his former wife.; 4/12/13, 8:33 AM
Colonel Angus said...: All gun control succeeds in doing is trading one set of victims over another.; 4/12/13, 8:35 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: They don’t try to sound like wonks or pundits or operatives. They just tell their heart-breaking stories, weaving in a demand for action that is respectful but forceful.

Romney let my wife die of cancer.; 4/12/13, 8:41 AM
Cody Jarrett said...: machine said...

...cough...shamelessly used...cough...to further ideology...cough...

Or maybe they actually believed it? I know it's hard for you assfaced libtard cunts to understand, but there are people in the world who actually believe things and act on them in their daily lives.

cough...cough...twat.; 4/12/13, 8:48 AM
Humperdink said...: Machine needs oiled. Appears to be gagging on every word.; 4/12/13, 8:50 AM
Unknown said...: Hmmm...I can't imagine why politicians exploit emotions.; 4/12/13, 8:51 AM
KCFleming said...: This emotional tyranny is no different than the Johns Hopkins students demanding that a renowned black neurosurgeon step down from speaking at their commencement.

Reason and cruel neutrality are dead dead dead.; 4/12/13, 8:54 AM
Bob Ellison said...: This continues the on-going victory of emotion over reason. That's the big deal in politics today. Gun stats (deaths, kills, ownership, etc.) don't matter anymore.

We're in a weird time. America has been crazy before, and it seems crazy now.; 4/12/13, 8:56 AM
damikesc said...: I found it interesting that the feminist wing of the liberal set didn't see any issue with a guy who had clearly moved on with his life; new woman, new family still insisting he had the power of life or death over his former wife.

That's assuming that feminists have ANY interests other than abortion and Democratic political victories.

Evidence indicates they do not.; 4/12/13, 8:57 AM
damikesc said...: We're in a weird time. America has been crazy before, and it seems crazy now.

We're in a time when being in "The Establishment" is the "coolest" thing one can be.

Ergo, we are in the lamest era of American history.; 4/12/13, 8:57 AM
Bob Ellison said...: I once said to someone close to me something like "but that's not reasonable", and she responded with something like "it's not about reason; it's about what I feel!"

Still trying to understand how that is reasonable.; 4/12/13, 8:59 AM
machine said...: Then why hasn't the republican controlled Florida legislature ever changed the law....putting parents first, spouse second....

hmmm...; 4/12/13, 9:00 AM
damikesc said...: Then why hasn't the republican controlled Florida legislature ever changed the law....putting parents first, spouse second....

Because laws based on abnormal situations tend to be really, really bad laws.

Really, are you this fucking stupid?; 4/12/13, 9:01 AM
damikesc said...: I once said to someone close to me something like "but that's not reasonable", and she responded with something like "it's not about reason; it's about what I feel!"

The Oprah-ization of America is complete.

Which is why I don't even bat an eye when somebody overseas burns the President in effigy. I can hardly blame them.; 4/12/13, 9:02 AM
bleh said...: "AllenS said... We're becoming a nation of emotionally-based laws. Not good."

Canaries; 4/12/13, 9:02 AM
dreams said...: The families of the victims leveraging their fifteen minutes of fame. I've never understood why when a family has suffered a tragedy there is usually some family member going on TV to get his/her fifteen minutes of fame.; 4/12/13, 9:03 AM
machine said...: "Because laws based on abnormal situations tend to be really, really bad laws."

....which is exactly what they tried to do with the Schiavo case...

Apology accepted....good day sir.; 4/12/13, 9:06 AM
Darrell said...: The Democrat deathcult was paving the way for ObamaCare--and future mutations--where some minor official has the absolute power of your life or death--with the Shiavo case. It's always a long con.; 4/12/13, 9:09 AM
Bob Ellison said...: damikesc, he/she really is that stupid. Occam's Razor.; 4/12/13, 9:11 AM
Darrell said...: If machine were sentenced to death by some probate court judge, how many bites of the apple would he/she/it scream for? Execution without even a second review of the facts. (When courts were ordered to take another look they refused.) The kind of death penalty that the Left can wrap its head around.; 4/12/13, 9:12 AM
Brian Brown said...: Victimhood has its privileges

Of course it does.

Which is why silly baby boomers like you cry when you think about meanie libertarians not supporting endless government regulations regarding race.; 4/12/13, 9:14 AM
Brian Brown said...: ne said...
cough...Terri...cough...Schiavo...cough...

I love the fact that you think there is an analogy there.; 4/12/13, 9:16 AM
Brian Brown said...: machine said...
cough...Terri...cough...Schiavo...cough...

How many meetings with Senators did Schiavo attend again?

Idiot.; 4/12/13, 9:17 AM
chickelit said...: Chicago is still the bain of the nation's capital when it comes to gun laws. They'd like you to forget that.; 4/12/13, 9:17 AM
bagoh20 said...: "We're becoming a nation of emotionally-based laws. Not good."

Althouse thinks you are stupid for not giving emotions equal respect to reason, because... girls have them, and there a lot of girls who vote. The validity of your emotional opinion however does not deserve equality, unless it matches the left's limited moral foundations exclusively.; 4/12/13, 9:19 AM
Anonymous said...: Anything you say.... automatically becomes witty.... if you set it off with ellipses....

If this sounds farfetched.... remember.... we used to have a commenter here who believed ((((the exact same thing)))) about parentheses....; 4/12/13, 9:19 AM
AllenS said...: How many times have we seen these tags: emotional Althouse, cruel neutrality?; 4/12/13, 9:22 AM
edutcher said...: Senators with backbone would say, "No, we've had hearings".

machine said...

cough...Terri...cough...Schiavo...cough...

She was murdered. Like all other Lefties, the mindless automaton has no problem with that happening to someone.

PS Truth in advertising - one of the reasons I can't stand Rick Santorum is his trying to turn her case from a state into a Federal issue when the result was not to his liking.

Just like what the Lefties want to do with same sex marriage.; 4/12/13, 9:22 AM
bagoh20 said...: If my child had been killed in that tragedy, I'd be mad as hell too, and I'd disagree totally with these parents who are pushing for things that would not have saved their child nor the next ones.

They fail to see that the primary reason their kids never stood a chance is precisely because of gun controls.

I hope the next set of grieving parents asks them why they threw away their moment of opportunity to save the next set of kids.

I guess they can just say they tried, they followed their hearts, they believed they were canaries or something. "If it saves one life" my ass.; 4/12/13, 9:28 AM
Humperdink said...: One of the reasons I like Rick Santorum is that he is willing to take unpopular stands, knowing that slings and arrows are about to be unleashed.; 4/12/13, 9:32 AM
Scott M said...: So...what you're saying is that all Mick needed to prevent Obama from being on the ballot was a dead kid?; 4/12/13, 9:32 AM
bagoh20 said...: "Cruel neutrality" means I have no sacred cows.

Does anyone really believe that crap?; 4/12/13, 9:34 AM
President-Mom-Jeans said...: Does anyone really believe that crap?

Bagoh, you forget the Costanza principle when it comes to the Left.

It's not a lie if you are stupid enough to believe it.; 4/12/13, 9:43 AM
traditionalguy said...: Agreeing over and over that the school massacre was caused by the existence of a rifle with an ammunition magazine is evidence of simplistic zombie retardation. The Newtown folks need an insane asylum built inside their town ASAP.

But we CANNOT say that. Even Ann Coulter would stop short of saying that much truth.; 4/12/13, 9:47 AM
bagoh20 said...: What these parents need to ask themselves is if they could go back in time and change gun rules before the massacre, would they prefer staff at the school be allowed to be armed, or that congress passed another rule against the 300 million guns in the country? Their kids lives would depend on the answer, just like everyone else's kids still do.; 4/12/13, 9:52 AM
Brian Brown said...: bagoh20 said...
"Cruel neutrality" means I have no sacred cows.

Yes, "no sacred cows" except:

1. All decent people believe in gay marriage.
2. All decent people believe in the 1964 Civil Rights Act

For starters.; 4/12/13, 9:53 AM
machine said...: Arm the children!; 4/12/13, 9:56 AM
bagoh20 said...: "It's not a lie if you are stupid enough to believe it."

Cruel neutrality isn't a lie; it's just self delusion born of arrogance. And then when you throw in emotional Althouse as an overriding authority, it's just silly.

You can't say your emotions are valid to override reason and then claim to be neutral. You have neutral emotions? Her elephant is out of control. That's OK; mine is too, but I'm not saying that if mine tramples you, you should respect it, because I vote.; 4/12/13, 10:01 AM
Anonymous said...: I wonder if they've realized that Obama may be just about done with their emotions, ready move on to the host.; 4/12/13, 10:03 AM
Big Mike said...: The teachability of the Newtown moment has passed. No one seems to want to ask whether lockdown was the appropriate response to an armed intruder at the school.

At Virginia Tech one courageous professor ordered his students to jump from their second floor window while he tried to blockade the door to his classroom. He didn't succeed in blockading the door, but held off the Asian-American shooter long enough for his students to escape.

In Newtown the kids were basically collected together for the shooter to kill at his convenience.; 4/12/13, 10:05 AM
edutcher said...: Paul Zrimsek said...

Anything you say.... automatically becomes witty.... if you set it off with ellipses....

If this sounds farfetched.... remember.... we used to have a commenter here who believed ((((the exact same thing)))) about parentheses....

He also thinks, "ya burnt", is hilarious.

machine said...

Arm the children!

About as brilliant as some phony folksy's, "Sedition! Treason! Alinsky!".

Damn, these people need better writers.; 4/12/13, 10:09 AM
Anonymous said...: Next host.

Reaching out and doing press conferences, exploiting emotions, walking down the street with a bullhorn...sometimes getting the facts completely wrong...

It's what community organizers do best.; 4/12/13, 10:10 AM
garage mahal said...: All decent people realize gun control is like the Rwandan Genocide.; 4/12/13, 10:10 AM
Brian Brown said...: garage mahal said...
All decent people realize gun control is like the Rwandan Genocide.

Actually, anyone with a brain realizes gun control doesn't work since there are absolutely zero gun control success stories.; 4/12/13, 10:22 AM
edutcher said...: chrisnavin.com said...

Next host.

Reaching out and doing press conferences, exploiting emotions, walking down the street with a bullhorn...sometimes getting the facts completely wrong...

Sometimes?; 4/12/13, 10:23 AM
Rusty said...: machine said...
Arm the children!

The part that is absolutely hilarious is that your sitting there actually basking in the idea that you've made a point.
You haven't.; 4/12/13, 10:25 AM
Rusty said...: garage mahal said...
All decent people realize gun control is like the Rwandan Genocid

It is. Your point?; 4/12/13, 10:26 AM
AllenS said...: garage mahal said...
All decent people realize gun control is like the Rwandan Genocide.

Well, that certainly was a brilliant observation.

Do you know what the difference is between the Jews of pre-war Germany and the Jews of Israel?

The fucking Jews in Israel have guns, that's what.; 4/12/13, 10:29 AM
chickelit said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/12/13, 10:29 AM
chickelit said...: All decent people realize gun control is like the Rwandan Genocide.

The Rwandan genocide was about disarming children.; 4/12/13, 10:30 AM
chickelit said...: Garage Mahal Monitor sings "The Man Comes To Town."; 4/12/13, 10:32 AM
tim said...: Arm the children indeed.

If you want to sound a little less educated, use teh power of Google and find the hundreds of stories (alas, all will be local media because to discuss such on a national scale might ruin the narrative) of children defending themselves (and often younger siblings) from home intruders; 4/12/13, 10:34 AM
Patrick said...: Love the new avatar, Garage. (I'll try not to take it too personally); 4/12/13, 10:40 AM
garage mahal said...: Well, that certainly was a brilliant observation

I'm afraid I can't take credit for that humdinger.; 4/12/13, 10:44 AM
Known Unknown said...: Anything you say.... automatically becomes witty.... if you set it off with ellipses....

Carol Herman was NOT witty.

BTW, who really was Carol Herman?; 4/12/13, 10:53 AM
Known Unknown said...: I was Herman Carol, and briefly, Rickey Branch.; 4/12/13, 10:54 AM
AllenS said...: garage mahal said...
I'm afraid I can't take credit for that humdinger.

Google search results: No results found for "All decent people realize gun control is like the Rwandan Genocide.".

No, I think that is your humdinger.; 4/12/13, 11:00 AM
Colonel Angus said...: So when guns are banned like leftists want, when the Atlanta mother who saved herself and children from a crowbar wielding intruder become the new victims, will leftists even care? Or are those victims acceptable in their unquenchable desire for more control?; 4/12/13, 11:18 AM
chickelit said...: So when guns are banned like leftists want, when the Atlanta mother who saved herself and children from a crowbar wielding intruder become the new victims, will leftists even care? Or are those victims acceptable in their unquenchable desire for more control?

I'm wondering if any of the same control freaks are vastly incurious about Kermit Gosnell.; 4/12/13, 11:25 AM
David said...: 15 minutes . . . .; 4/12/13, 12:22 PM
Achilles said...: Colonel Angus said...

So when guns are banned like leftists want, when the Atlanta mother who saved herself and children from a crowbar wielding intruder become the new victims, will leftists even care? Or are those victims acceptable in their unquenchable desire for more control?

4/12/13, 11:18 AM

They will care. They will use this new female victim to pass "Violence Against Women and Children" laws to increase federal control. These laws will be invasive and subject to prosecutorial discretion. Only men who do not toe the line will be charged under the statute. If a Congressman's Son, Moran, throws his girlfriends head into a trash can that doesn't count because he is on the right side.; 4/12/13, 1:13 PM
Known Unknown said...: So when guns are banned like leftists want, when the Atlanta mother who saved herself and children from a crowbar wielding intruder become the new victims, will leftists even care?

We want more police funding! When do we want it?

Now!

Think it through, man.; 4/12/13, 1:14 PM
Achilles said...: garage mahal said...

All decent people realize gun control is like the Rwandan Genocide.

4/12/13, 10:10 AM

It was definitely an important first step. Maybe you aren't as stupid and sheep-like as machine.; 4/12/13, 1:16 PM
Known Unknown said...: It was definitely an important first step. Maybe you aren't as stupid and sheep-like as machine.

GM has always been a 2nd amendment supporter.; 4/12/13, 1:36 PM
Cedarford said...: machine said...
cough...Terri...cough...Schiavo...cough
================
The "Hero 9/11 Victim Families" bestowed by Maureen Dowd with "unlimited Moral Authority". Used by both sides to advance emotional blackmail politics..and their own cravings for power, money, and camera basking celebrity(See 'the Jersey Wives')
See the Hero Cops and Firefighters and Heroes With Boots on the Ground saving the Noble Afghan and Iraqi Freedom Lovers as other fellow enshrined Victims to be Worshipped...and seeing their own advantage - out eagerly trying to cage goodies, perks, more pay, and free meals and Hero Vacations to Hawaii in the process.

See the Unlimited Moral Authority of the Victim Momma of doper, burglar, and thug - Trayvon Martin on display - the Noble Suffering Momma that raised Mr Ice Tea and Skittles so well...now extorting lawsuit settlements right and left.

See the liberal and progressive Jewish media relentlessly exploiting Victimhood to get buzz and also to advance their agendas.; 4/12/13, 2:22 PM
Cedarford said...: Darrell said...
A woman whose only medical requirement is a feeding tube, one expected to live to her natural life expectancy, is sentenced to death by denying her food and water. By a legally-blind probate judge, in a minor court.

=====================
It wasn't a woman, it was a brain absent rutabaga, kept alive by machines.
Her lifespan long exceeded what other vegetables on machines are expected to have...aided by care made affordable by a million dollar bogus medical malpractice suit of the very kind conservatives in the Schiavo is as cognitive as me or any other Right to Lifer conservative...wish to bar in the name of tort reform.

Why do women vote Democrat? In their nightmares they see Rick Santorum and the other goobers shutting down reproductive choice, telling them they can't get raped and become pregnant if it is real rape, shit about raising and loving the rapist's baby otherwise..
And the specter of the RTL goobers marching into hospitals and taking away end of life decisions from the ill, or their caretakers.
Demanding life be extended in dying cancer patients, doomed infants, vegetables on machines..even if it only extends the agony of dying slow.; 4/12/13, 2:40 PM
hombre said...: C4 wrote: "Why do women vote Democrat? In their nightmares they see Rick Santorum and the other goobers shutting down reproductive choice, telling them they can't get raped and become pregnant if it is real rape, shit about raising and loving the rapist's baby otherwise."

Naw. Women approximating this category vote Democrat so they can have unprotected consensual sex with men they don't want to have children with and abort the results.

Much more common than rape wouldn't you say?; 4/12/13, 6:11 PM