Peter King

The Republican Urge To Provoke Violence And Bloodshed

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The Republican Party, instead of promoting harmony and a sense of common purpose among the population of the United States, instead, for some odd reason, hard to fathom, does just the opposite! Everything it advocates instead provokes violence and bloodshed, without any rhyme or reason!

Examples of this abound!

1. Wisconsin, Ohio and other states take away labor’s right to collective bargaining, provoking massive demonstrations and outrage.

2. Florida cuts unemployment compensation to the lowest number of weeks of any state, 20 weeks, in the midst of an all time high unemployment rate of 12 percent, one of the highest in the nation, bringing desperate people to the brink of violence.

3. Florida also decides to make it more difficult for former felons to regain their voting rights, making it five years after completion of sentence and probation before one can even request restoration of voting rights, angering many who will feel discrimination.

4. New Hampshire and other states are working to make it more difficult for college students to vote in their college towns, as well as states which want to require state mandated IDs which intimidate poor people and minorities from registering to vote.

5. Arizona and other states are promoting profiling, giving police the right to stop anyone who they believe to be an illegal immigrant, and in the process advocating nativism.

6. Arizona and other states are cutting benefits for poor people who need transplant surgery, angering family members of those patients.

7. States are laying off teachers, police officers, firefighters and other public servants, and by increasing the unemployment rate, are fueling resentment among many of the newly unemployed. Also, the crime rate is bound to go up as we have fewer police officers.

8. States moving to criminalize abortion are provoking pro life extremists to the potential for bloodshed and violence.

9. States promoting guns on campus and in bars and other public places tends toward violence and bloodshed potential in the future.

10. The promotion of opposition to gay rights helps incite threats and violence against those by religious extremists who see homosexuality as a threat to American society.

11. The promotion of the “Birther” conspiracy theories about President Barack Obama by Republican leaders and conservatives fuels threats against our President by those who think he is a Muslim.

12. Congressman Peter King, by holding hearings on Islamic terrorism, promotes the image that we cannot trust the Muslim population within our midst.

This is a dangerous set of circumstances which makes one wonder what the future of the nation is, with the tendency of the Republican Party to be oblivious to what is occurring, or is it oblivious, or in fact purposely promoting these circumstances? One has to wonder!

Are Muslim Citizens Threats To Homeland Security? The Peter King Committee Hearings And The Real Threat To The Nation!

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New York Republican Congressman Peter King, a member of the House since 1993, is the new Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, and is about to conduct hearings on what he calls the Islamic threat to America presented by disloyal Muslims in American society.

King can certainly give several examples of Muslims in America who have been proved to be engaged in terrorist activities, fortunately stopped by excellent intelligence activities by cooperation between federal and state government officials. With the tragic exception of the Fort Hood massacre by a Muslim soldier, all of the attempts have been prevented.

But are we to say, for instance, that all community college students should be considered dangerous and worthy of investigation by the Homeland Security Committee, because of Jared Lee Loughner shooting Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, Arizona, which led to six deaths and thirteen wounded?

Are we to say that all white Christians who had been in the military should be investigated because of Timothy McVeigh blowing up the Oklahoma City Federal Building in 1995, killing 168 people and wounding nearly a thousand people?

We cannot allow the Islamic haters in this country, many of them Christian fundamentalists, to anger and provoke good, law abiding Muslims, several million among us and growing, into hating the nation they willingly migrated to or have grown up in as citizens, to feel they are being persecuted or scapegoated, particularly when Muslim soldiers are fighting for us, and in many cases, have helped report and crack plots by the miniscule number of Muslims who have conspired against us!

What Peter King is doing is really the new McCarthyism, loose labeling people as Communists, and now substituting Muslims for Communists!

It is also important to point out that Peter King has a “skeleton” in his closet, his strong advocacy for the terrorist Irish Republican Army in its long war against British control of Northern Ireland. Can a person who supported terrorism actions against America’s strongest ally, Great Britain, be taken seriously when he claims to be fighting terrorism by promoting insecurity among law abiding Muslims, who are certainly over 99 percent of all Muslims?

And it should be pointed out that IF King really wishes to investigate terrorism threats, look to the hundreds of such groups listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center, including neo-Nazis, white nationalists, neo-Confederates, racist skinheads, and Ku Klux Klansmen!

The number of such groups are at an all time high of 1,002, with many of them so called “Patriot” groups that have grown dramatically since Barack Obama became President, and believing that the federal government is the “enemy”!

And if one counts groups that go beyond just hate groups and Patriot groups to include nativist extremist groups which are a threat to ethnic, racial, religious and sexual orientation minorities, then the total is 2,145, a 40 percent increase from 2008-2009 and a 22 percent rise in 2009-2010!

Also realize that many Republican politicians and talk show hosts on radio and television use loose rhetoric, and are encouraging the paranoia and hate by their loose use of language!

So only when Peter King is willing to investigate and publicize the far greater threat from right wing hate groups would his committee be seen as doing something worthy of our support!

John Boehner: Poor Judgment!

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Speaker of the House John Boehner has shown terrible judgment in the past few days since the Tucson, Arizona tragedy.

While he expressed the proper statements in the wake of the attempted assassination of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and promoted an appropriate resolution through the House of Representatives on the matter, he showed very poor judgment in two other ways.

First, he failed to attend the memorial service on Wednesday evening in Tucson, which many politicians attended, and where Barack Obama gave what might be his best speech in office. The reason given is that he had a previous commitment that prevented him from attending–a Republican fund raising event! 🙁

Is a party fund raising event more important than the memorial service? Under NO circumstances is it an acceptable reason for the leader of the House of Representatives, second in line to the Presidency, to choose to play politics at such a delicate and significant moment! 🙁

The other example of terribly poor judgment is Boehner’s rejection of New York Republican Congressman Peter King’s proposal that a bill be considered to ban any weapon within 1,000 feet of any government official and any government event. Such a bill would make it a crime to do so, and lower the chances of such a horrific event as occurred last weekend, and it would also protect the ordinary citizen attending any public event hosted by a politician.

With the tragic event fresh in our minds, it is extremely disturbing that Boehner continues to play politics and to be unwilling to take leadership on an important suggestion that could save lives and make public events safer.

Boehner’s lack of principle so quickly just as he became Speaker a week ago is a bad sign of the future with him as a leader, and already makes one wish for the return of the accomplished leadership of Nancy Pelosi, hopefully in 2013!

The Urgent Need For Some Limits On The Second Amendment!

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In the wake of the Tucson disaster last weekend, there is an urgent need for reasonable limits on who purchases guns, and the ability to acquire extended magazines for weapons, such as the one that allowed the perpetrator to fire 33 rounds without reloading. New York Democratic Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy, whose husband was killed on the Long Island Railroad, and whose son was wounded, in an incident in 1993, which led to her election to Congress in 1996, is proposing such a bill about the magazines.

A background check, which was part of the former Brady bill, which was the law from 1994 to 2004, needs to be reinstated.

Also, the need to ban weapons within 1,000 feet of a federal official, including members of Congress, is being proposed by Congressman Peter King, a Republican, who thinks he can get this through the House of Representatives, after this horrible tragedy in Tucson. Right now, there is legislation on the books preventing a firearm within 1,000 feet of any school.

At the same time, the thought that members of Congress might carry firearms at public events for self protection, as suggested by two members of Congress, is pure insanity, and sets a bad standard.

And the idea that universities and colleges should allow staff and faculty and students to carry firearms to prevent another incident equivalent of Virginia Tech in 2007, is also a terrible idea, and is sure to lead to more bloodshed and violence, as guns do not belong in an educational environment! 🙁