The Gun Fight in Washington. Your opinons?

Its the old baffle them with bull **** gambit CI.

To the extent that he did nothing,
he has my gratitude; he did not do enuf of it.

Gridlock in Congress? Blame the GOP

CBS News/New York Times Poll. April 24-28, 2013. N=965 adults nationwide. Margin of error ± 3.
LV = likely voters. RV = registered voters. Among adults, except where indicated.

"Do you approve or disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job?"

DATE.............APPROVE...........DISAPPROVE...........DON'T KNOW
4/24-28/13........17...........................75................................8

It's incredible to look back now on how the Reagan tax cut passed the Democratic House in 1981. The Democratic House leaderships could have refused to schedule votes on Reagan's tax plans. Instead, they not only allowed the tax plan to proceed -- but they allowed 48 of 243 Democrats to break ranks on the key procedural vote without negative consequences to their careers in the Democratic party. (Rep. Dan Glickman of Kansas, for example, who voted for the tax cuts would rise to become Secretary of Agriculture under President Clinton.)
Possible shutdown looms... again Near gov't shutdown? Enough, already! Keeping them honest: Disaster aid
Hard to imagine Speaker John Boehner allowing his Republicans to get away with similar behavior on a measure proposed by President Obama.
What's happening before our eyes is that the US congressional system is adopting the attitudes of a Westminster-style parliamentary system.
In a parliamentary system, "the duty of an opposition is to oppose" (in the famous words of Benjamin Disraeli). The opposition uses every trick and technique to thwart and defeat the government; the government uses all the powers of a parliamentary majority to overwhelm the opposition. (To quote Disraeli again: "a majority is always better than the best repartee.")
Then, at regular intervals, the two sides switch roles.
In the American system, there is no "government" and no "opposition." Who would lead such a "government"? President Obama? Or the man in command of the majority in the lower House -- Prime Minister John Boehner?
In a system built around an administration and a bicameral Congress, everybody is part of the government -- and the government only functions if there exists a certain baseline spirit of cooperation between the mutually indispensable parts.
That spirit of cooperation has tended to vanish in recent years. Back in 1986, Democratic leaders quashed those in their party who wished to try impeach Ronald Reagan over Iran-Contra. But as the Cold War ended, the party struggle intensified. The shock of the economic crisis since 2008 has made things worse still: desperate times lead to desperate politics.
The old rules were based upon certain conditions that have long since vanished.
Back then, Congress was filled with legislators who shared the common bond of military service: in 1981, 73 of the senators were veterans as compared to only 25 today; a similar trend characterizes the House.
The imperatives of the Cold War inspired a spirit of deference to the president.
The long association of the filibuster with opposition to civil rights tended to discredit its use.
The national media were dominated by a few big institutions that professed (even if they did not always deliver) nonpartisanship.
Americans intermingled more with people of different points of view. Bill Bishop points out in his important book, "The Big Sort," in the very close presidential election of 1976, only 26% of Americans lived in a county that went for Gerald Ford or Jimmy Carter by a margin of 20 points or more. In the also close presidential election of 2004, almost 50% of Americans lived in a county that voted by more than 20 points for either George W. Bush or John Kerry.
Perhaps above all: the long prosperity of the postwar years lubricated the system with enough resources that just about everybody could get some of what they wanted: more spending, moderate taxes, reasonable borrowing, strong national defense.
Now instead we have a country that is spatially polarized, that gets its information from highly partisan media, and that confronts the worst recession and the darkest financial outlook since the 1930s.
The results of these changes are breaking the American political system -- destroying public confidence in the U.S. government -- and paralyzing the U.S. economic policy. It will take more than a change in attitudes to address these concerns. It will take fundamental institutional reform.

The poll found that 49 percent of respondents have a negative view of the GOP, the highest negative marks for the party in the poll since 2008. Just 26 percent said they have a positive view of the Republican Party.

In contrast, 44 percent of adults surveyed said they have a positive view of the Democratic Party, while 38 percent have a negative one.

The Tea Party also found earned strong negative marks, with 47 percent viewing the movement unfavorably.

Recent polls have showed similar trends in the weeks since the fiscal cliff agreement between the White House and Congress. A Washington Post/ABC poll released last week found that most Americans disapproved of how House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) handled the deal, while a Pew survey found "abysmal" marks for the GOP, with just 19 percent approving of how Republicans handled the fiscal negotiations.

It is unlawful for any official, agent or employee of the government of the United States, or employee of a corporation providing services to the government of the United States to enforce or attempt to enforce any act, law, treaty, order, rule or regulation of the government of the United States regarding a firearm, a firearm accessory, or ammunition that is manufactured commercially or privately and owned in the state of Kansas and that remains within the borders of Kansas. Violation of this section is a severity level 10 nonperson felony.