In 2009, the Violence Policy Center began an ongoing research project to identify killings beginning in May 2007 to the present by individuals with concealed handgun permits. As the result of a massive campaign led by the gun lobby, almost all states maintain a veil of secrecy around those who have been issued permits to carry concealed handguns. Therefore, the VPC is forced to rely primarily on news accounts for reports of killings by concealed handgun permit holders and subsequent legal proceedings.

Mark Gardner from the Zionist ‘Community Security Trust’ is not happy either. He complained that Dispatches producers behaved as if they were investigating a “criminal gang rather than various Jewish community-linked organizations," Gardner is also correct. It is indeed tragic to admit that the Jewish lobby is far more worrying than a criminal gang. It is there to serve a murderous state with a devastating record of crimes against humanity. Thanks to the Jewish lobby, we are all complicit in the Zionist crime. Not only are those lobbyists heavily corrupted and removed from any ethical value system, they also corrupt everything they touch. They obviously contaminate every politician who is happy to take their shekels. Consequently they incriminate us all as a society.

“The handguns used in yesterday’s rampage shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, demonstrate the deadly firepower available to any American--whether that person is a member of the military or a private citizen. Initial news reports describe the handguns possessed by the shooter as a semiautomatic pistol and .357 revolver, apparently neither was military issue. Like the Luby’s massacre in neighboring Killeen, Texas that occurred 18 years ago and left 23 dead and 20 injured, the facts are as simple as they are disturbing: easy access to unmatched firepower allows angry individuals to kill and wound at will. "

As is often the case the truth is far more terrible than the fiction cooked up by political operatives, and activists who truly believe new financial regulations are necessary must use those truths to their advantage. Thus, "bailouts" should be the new "death panels." "Too big to fail" should be the new "government-run healthcare." "Derivatives" should be the new "taxpayer-funded baby killing." This time we must learn from the real failure of the Office of Thrift Supervision, rather than the imaginary failure of Medicare that exists only in a neocon's dream. What's important to remember here is that bailouts, the "too big to fail" doctrine and derivatives are real, while the teabagger lingo was based on absolute falsehoods. While in both the teabaggers' and the bank reformers' cases, the people have numbers on their side, there is a significant difference. Those gathered in Chicago this week have the facts and common sense that the teabaggers lacked. One cannot laugh off bank reform as partisan bickering.

Today's protest and accompanying march are part of a three-day event that ends in a rally tomorrow. While the healthcare debate winds down, the attempt to switch popular anger from insurance lobbyists to financial ones may prove difficult. But Fried isn't worried about keeping people engaged, insisting that this is only the beginning of what is becoming for more and more people a very personal fight. "If you're losing your home, or your business closed because a bank wouldn't give it credit, it's not esoteric at all. It's your life," Fried said. "There's nothing more concrete that eating and having a place to live. And that's what this is about."

If you believe that it is a worthwhile trade-off to lose thousands of lives every year in return for the unrestricted right to own and carry a 9-millimetre semiautomatic handgun or an assault rifle – a right that may or may not be guaranteed by a much-disputed phrase in the second amendment to the US constitution – then so be it. However, for those of us who do not believe this trade-off is acceptable, then how dare we be shocked, shocked every time this happens? We need to stop being shocked every time someone gets shot to death in a "safe" community and start acting unsurprised and outraged instead.

Over the last many weeks Progressives have not only been told that single-payer is "off the table", but now many are attempting to convince us that even a viable pulblic option is a non-starter. Lost on them seems to be the fact that poll after poll shows a wide majority of Americans support the idea of more choice through competition, something the health insurers have obviously not provided. Well, some Progressive groups are tired of being in the majority of public opinion but apparently in the minority of lawmaker thought. Now, they are fighting back with ads to try and put pressure on those who would ignore the will of the people.

In a shocking genuflection to the gun lobby, the Senate has voted to deny Amtrak its indispensable $1.6 billion federal subsidy unless it allows passengers to transport handguns in their checked luggage. The budget support would be stripped in six months unless Amtrak scraps the gun ban that it wisely adopted five years ago after the terrorist railroad atrocities in Madrid. If the Senate wants to pass a bill on Amtrak, it should provide the money to hire more security guards and create a real passenger rail system. Generally, it should just stop its demeaning homage to the gun lobby.

"“Sometimes it smells like a barn coming out of the faucet,” said Lisa Barnard, who lives a few towns over, and just 15 miles from the city of Green Bay. Tests of her water showed it contained E. coli, coliform bacteria and other contaminants found in manure. Last year, her 5-year-old son developed ear infections that eventually required an operation. Her doctor told her they were most likely caused by bathing in polluted water, she said."

Within the coal lobby itself, the biggest player is a multi-million dollar powerhouse called the "American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity" (ACCCE), an organisation receiving big bucks from major coal companies like Peabody Energy. A glance at ACCCE's website and its slick advertising would have you believe that the US can continue to burn "clean" green coal while at the same time deal with the issue of climate change. Its website asks: "can we use coal and meet the commitment of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in response to climate change concerns? In a word — yes!" The reality is that the answer is actually an emphatic "no." Coal continues to be the largest contributor to climate change in the world, and emits around 1.7 times more carbon per unit of energy when burned than natural gas and 1.25 times as much as oil.

"BP maintains its membership of the API through paying substantial fees based on the large size of BP's business. It is our concern that these fees are used by the API to undermine US government action on climate change and that BP's membership of the API contradicts its position on the issue," writes John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK, in a letter to Tony Hayward, the BP boss.

The legislation would: • Strengthen consumer protections, punishing companies who unnecessarily delay or deny rightful claims with fines up to $1 million.... • Hold accountable corporate leaders who encourage wrongful denial of claims, making the misconduct a felony punishable by prison and hefty fines..... • Create a whistle-blower protection plan to shield employees who report an insurance company is engaging in wrongful denial..... • Require companies to repair a consumer's credit that has been harmed by wrongful denial....

Since January, the NRA has enjoyed tremendous message success along with legislative success. The Democratic White House and Congress barely whisper dissent. Meanwhile, political extremists, convicted felons, and other shooters are more than well armed and striking. But it's the NRA. They're omnipotent gods. They've constructed convincing myths that keep them growing. Now, even chaos fueled by hate and well-aimed bullets -- bordering on domestic terrorism -- seems insufficient to rally the principled opposition and the less militant. Unless you count baby steps.

“The actions of some of our United States Zionists will eventually prejudice everyone against what they are trying to get done. I fear very much that the Jews are like all underdogs. When they get on top they are just as intolerant and as cruel as the people were to them when they were underneath.” –President Harry Truman in a Letter to Eleanor Roosevelt (“Truman”, David McCullough, p. 598). Although Truman is the one most directly responsible for the creation of Israel, he has now joined the Pantheon of “Anti-Semites”. “Back in the 1950s, the frustrated Secretary of State John Foster Dulles unambiguously stated: We cannot have all our policies made in Jerusalem. ” To the owner of Time Inc. Henry Luce he said: “I am aware how almost impossible it is in this country to carry out a foreign policy not approved by the Jews. [But] I am going to try to have one. This does not mean I am anti-Jewish, but I believe in what George Washington said in his farewell address, that an emotional attachment to another country should not interfere.” –B. R. Gowani, “The Lobby as Juggernaut”, Counterpunch, September 1, 2008

merica's Health insurance Plan's (AHIP) czar has offered a gift to all of America's moms and women. The health insurance industry will stop charging you more - they'll stop discriminating against you - so long as all of you are legally forced to buy their product. It sounds to me a little like the old saw, "When did you stop beating your wife?" But then when I really thought about it, it made me sicker and sadder and more acutely aware of exactly what this nation's leaders think of all of the mothers and daughters in the land this Mother's Day 2009. Here's how the New York Times' Robert Pear wrote it, "Insurance companies offered Tuesday to end the practice of charging higher premiums to women than to men for the same coverage.

Bail out the bankers, but not homeowners? See how it went down in the Senate despite Dick Durbin's considerable fight. -- "And the banks ... they frankly own the place."

Earlier this year, when Attorney General Eric Holder called for a renewal of the ban on assault weapons—he was only repeating the commitment Obama made during his presidential campaign—the response from a group of 65 pro-gun House Democrats was: No way. Their letter to Holder was absurd. “The gun-control community has intentionally misled many Americans into believing that these weapons are fully automatic machine guns. They are not. These firearms fire one shot for every pull of the trigger.” Doesn’t that make you feel better?

When Howard Dean stepped down I hoped that the replacement choice would be Dean. It was a real loss to have him drop out of public life. I remember his catalytic role in 2004. Now once again he is stepping to the fore, spear-heading what I hope will be a popular movement to demand that a Universal Health Care program is adopted that includes public health open to all. Listen to his video which heads this post, which has a link for you to sign on to the petition and perhaps volunteer as well.

Freeman the diplomat, Mousawi the scholar and journalist, and Galloway the Stateman (sic), have a fair bit in common. All are quintessentially moderate, interested in the Question of Palestine and each has a long history af thoughtful bridge building and believe in dialogue and the fair and open exchanges of ideas and views. All are highly intelligent, informed, articulate, effective and unafraid to criticize Israel’s brutal occupation of Arab lands. The latter quality delivers to the three a common curse from Zionist circles and the trio was targeted for vilification, defamation and removal from the growing public debate on Palestine/Israel. What’s the common denominator? Those who know them agree that Mousawi, Freeman, and Galloway, all popular speakers, are dialogue proponents who care deeply about human rights for all people.

Charles Freeman, a veteran diplomat hugely experienced in Middle Eastern affairs, had been chosen to head the National Intelligence Council, the body that delivers to the White House influential and highly sensitive reports synthesising the views of the country's 16 intelligence agencies. But, on Wednesday, he withdrew his name from consideration, declaring he had fallen victim to what he called the "Israel lobby". Its campaign, he charged, had "plumbed the depths of dishonour and indecency," including "wilful distortion of the record, the fabrication of falsehoods, and an utter disregard for the truth".