"Machine Gun America," a theme park that caters to children as young as thirteen, opens in Orlando, Florida.

Courtesy of the Daily Mail: 

A new attraction where children as young as 13 fire military-grade weapons in zombie, gangster and cowboy-themed simulators has been slammed by gun control campaigners. 

Although management claim their Orlando, Florida, attraction provides a safe place for the use of firearms, critics claim it is unsuitable for an area known for its child-friendly attractions. 

The website for the business - named Machine Gun America - states it is Orlando's 'first automatic adrenaline attraction'. 

It explains: 'Whether you're looking to unleash your inner action star or become a zombie hunter, experience the exhilarating rush of shooting real machine guns and powerful firearms for a thrill like any other.' 

Live ammo? Thirteen year old kids? Should we start writing the headlines now?

You know the troubling thing is that if I were a thirteen year old and my choice was Epcot Center, Disney World, or this place I am afraid I would probably choose this place.

Part of that is due to the video games and action movies that romanticize gun violence, and part of that is because shooting real assault weapons would feed a teen's need for an adrenaline rush like almost nothing else.

However haven't we already seen the dangers of allowing youngsters access to military style weapons?

We need to start teaching our children that weapons have an important place in the military, law enforcement, and potentially home security, but they are NOT toys and accessing them should not be placed in the same category as the spinning teacups or Space Mountain.

Jeb Bush is just George W. Bush as seen from a different angle.

Think Progress has gathered together a number of facts about Jebbie that paint his as essentially the keeper of the George W. legacy, and an uber conservative to the core.

Here are a few:  

He doesn’t recognize exceptions to abortion restrictions. When a severely retarded woman was raped and impregnated while in the care of the state, Bush asked a court to appoint a guardian for the fetus in an effort to block her abortion. 

He opposes the expansion of Medicaid in Florida. When current Gov. Rick Scott (R) accepted federal money designated under the Affordable Care Act to expand Medicaid coverage to more low-income residents, Bush said he had doubts about the program because funding will be phased down after three years. 

He has worked to suppress voting rights. Florida currently has one of the worst restrictions blocking many convicted felons from voting, even after they are released from prison. In 2000, Bush’s administration also misidentified 12,000 eligible voters, more than 40 percent of which were African American, as convicted voters and purged them from the voting rolls. 

He has passed NRA-supported “Stand Your Ground” legislation. In 2005, Bush signed into law the bill which gave Floridians the right to use deadly force when they are in danger in public places, despite opposition from police chiefs in the state’s high crime Miami-Dade and Broward counties. The law famously came into play when George Zimmerman shot and killed unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin. 

In 1999, he abolished affirmative-action in higher education and state contracting through a unilateral executive order, triggering widespread protests across the state. His other major education reform, a statewide voucher program that directed taxpayer funds to private schools, was declared in violation of the Florida Constitution. 

 On national security, Jeb’s doctrine adheres closely to that of his brother George and he believes the U.S. should not back away from engaging allies and enemies around the world. 

When it comes to climate change, Jeb Bush claims the “not a scientist” defense. He started using that now-ubiquitous line back in 2009, when he also declared that the climate “may not be warming.”

The "New Coke" version of Bush is going to try very hard to reinvent himself as a moderate, and  is going to make distance from both his brother and father when it seems politically necessary to do so.

However Jeb has a record, and it is not one that can be buried under 25,000 e-mails hand picked to put a shine on his reputation.

What I find truly humorous about the idea of Jeb becoming the 2016 GOP candidate is that conservatives have put a lot of stock in an already visible attempt to smear Hillary using Bill Clinton's past sexual peccadilloes against her.

However I am fairly certain that the voters are going to be far less concerned with the husband of one candidate's wandering eye than the brother of the other candidate's past attempts to single-handedly destroy this country.

"The Sarah Palin Syndrome:" When a person believes their own hype and falls in love with themselves. Seems legit.

Nancy Smith, a reporter for the Sunshine State News, was reporting on the fact that Charlie Crist's running mate, Annette Taddeo, seemed to have national political aspirations.

Smith clearly does not think that Taddeo is particularly qualified, and describes her overinflated sense of self thusly: 

God knows why. The Sarah Palin Syndrome, perhaps? 

After Sen. John McCain and Sarah Palin lost the 2008 presidential race, Palin quit the governor's job in Alaska, wrote a book, and has been touring America whipping up her conservative fan base ever since. Those are the folks she listens to -- the only ones -- the cheering throngs who adore her. Now she has a website exploring her presidential prospects for 2016. (I would disagree with the reporter here to suggest that the channel website has actually nothing to do with a potential career in politics and everything to do with promoting Sarah Palin the brand.)


That's the gist of the Sarah Palin Syndrome: Palin came to believe her own hype from 2008 and fell in love with herself.

Okay now THAT is certainly true.

Now I don't know really anything about Annette Taddeo, and certainly not her qualifications to run for office, so I was really drawn to this story due to its use of Sarah Palin as a yardstick for somebody's overinflated ego and sense of entitlement. 

We have all seen Sarah Palin used time and time again to measure a person's intelligence, their commitment to their job, their qualifications, and their seriousness as a potential politician.

In every case, except a few rare occurrences on uber Right Wing news outlets, the Palin comparison is used to indicate a negative in the person, not a positive.

If one were to be compared to Sarah Palin, in almost all circumstances, it would be cause for serious concern as it is almost certainly a slam against your character for one reason or another.

So that is the true legacy of Sarah Palin. She is the very definition of character flaws, poor judgement, and a lack of intelligence.

Yeah, that works for me.

Gunman opens fire at Florida State University, shooting three before he is killed by police. Update!

Courtesy of NBC:  

A gunman was fatally shot after opening fire in a library on Florida State University's campus early Thursday, sending hundreds of students who'd been studying for final exams running for their lives and cowering behind bookshelves. Three students were found suffering gunshot wounds at the scene. 

Police received a call about an "armed subject" at the Strozier Library on the school's main campus in Tallahassee at 12.30 a.m. ET. Officers confronted the gunman and ordered him to drop his weapon, according to Tallahassee Police spokesman Dave Northway. "The suspect did not comply with the commands and shot at the officers," he added. "They returned fire and the suspect was killed.” 

During a press conference at 6 a.m. ET, Police Chief Michael DeLeo described the shooting as an “isolated incident with one person acting alone.” It was unclear whether the gunman was a student. 

One of the shooting victims was listed in critical condition early Thursday, Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare spokeswoman Stephanie Derzypolski said. Another was in stable condition. Police said a third victim had received a "grazing injury" and was treated at the scene.

Several tweets were sent out during both the shooting and the police response.

This is one of them.

Students say a man started shooting at FSU, police told him to put the gun down. He didn't. "They lit him up, man." pic.twitter.com/ZK8vKJfe22
— Adam Weinstein (@AdamWeinstein) November 20, 2014

Here is video of the students in the library receiving instruction about the shooting courtesy of Gawker.

I can only imagine how frightened these students and their parents must have been  as this tragedy unfolded.

Currently there is no known motive, nor is it clear that the gunman was a student.

Update: Now we know that the gunman WAS a former student, and lawyer, named Myron May.

Students and teachers terrified as Florida police spring surprise "active shooter drill" on local middle school.

Courtesy of CBS Tampa Bay: 

Students, teachers and parents were taken by surprise after an “active shooter drill” brought the Winter Haven middle school into lockdown as armed police officers burst into classrooms with their weapons drawn. 

Students at Jewett Middle Academy said they were terrified when police officers burst in the doors for a planned active shooter drill – but students and teachers are irked they were not told ahead of time. 

Seventh-grader Lauren Marionneaux told WTVT-TV that when the officers burst into her class with an AR-15, she was in fear for her life. 

“We actually thought that someone was going to come in there and kill us,” the station quoted her as saying. 

But police say they conduct these drills for the absolute safety of the students. 

“These types of drills are vital in order to evaluate not only law enforcement response, but more importantly to educate the students and school officials in case an actual event were to occur,” Chief Charlie Bird said in an email to media. 

Parents were notified of the drill through email after it was over, but many parents, however, received panicked texts from their children as the drill was going on.

This the America we live in today. The America the NRA and their paid for political allies have allowed to replace an America where school children feel safe inside their own classrooms.

After all a fearful populace is a populace that tends to vote conservative. A fearful populace is a populace that buys more guns. And a fearful populace is a populace that is easily manipulated by the media.

There is no logical reason to do this to these children, their teachers, and their parents. No logical reason unless you realize that safety is not the goal that is behind the drills.

Sarah Palin reminds everybody that she really doesn't like brown people.

"Look I really don't know shit about immigration, illegal or otherwise. But a girl's got to make a living."

Courtesy of Senora Snow White's Facebook page:  

Check out this transcript of Rush from yesterday explaining the dire situation we’re now in with Obama poised to issue amnesty by executive fiat.

Palin then provides a link to Limbaugh's site which I refuse to put here because, you know, ick. But suffice it to say that he rants and produces prodigious amounts of spittle in response to the idea that Obama might create a policy not to send the Mexican parents of young American children back across the border while leaving them behind to fend for themselves.

But Palin knows all about this because she paid someone to write an op-ed (Warning Breitbart!) for her once and put her name on it:

As I explained in op-eds many months ago, this is clearly an impeachable offense and really should be the last straw because it’s a direct assault on the suffering American worker of all races and backgrounds. Though I was mocked for saying so at the time, now others are finally agreeing that this is an impeachable offense.

By "folks" Palin means Charles "I left my neck in my other suit" Krauthammer, who took time off from playing every ghoul in every horror movie made in the last twenty years, to also claim that Obama could be impeached over this decision. 

But wait, Palin is not finished flapping her highly infectious mouth sores quite yet:

I'm in Florida today for a speech, and I look forward to speaking truth on this issue and reminding folks that we were right on this topic and others long before it was fashionable. 

- Sarah Palin

I'm not sure why Palin is in Florida, though it may be a great place to pick up yet another gaudy Star of David to wear while talking about how liberals are destroying Christmas. 

Whatever the reason it is a sure bet that it is not for a photo-op with young brown children, or their hard working but not quite yet officially American parents.

By the way let me just say again that I am 100% behind any plans the Republicans have to impeach President Obama.

If they want to take a purely partisan vote to impeach a President for doing the job that Congress refuses to do, then more power to them.

Especially considering that impeaching him for trying to solve the immigration problem would have the effect of energizing the Hispanic American voters in this country like we have never seen before.

But hey, who am I to tell the Republicans who they should or should not impeach.

After all it worked to completely destroy the reputation of this guy.

Florida man who shot and killed unarmed teenager over loud music sentenced to life in prison.

Courtesy of CNN:  

A Florida judge Friday sentenced Michael Dunn to life in prison without parole for the 2012 shooting death of 17-year-old Jordan Davis. 

The sentence, imposed nearly two years after Dunn shot and killed Davis during an argument over loud music, also carries an additional 90 years for three convictions of attempted murder and firing a weapon into a vehicle. 

"This case demonstrates that our justice system does work," Duval County Judge Russell Healey said moments before sentencing Dunn.

I think this verdict is very good news, especially for those of us who worried that this guy would get  the "Zimmerman treatment" and be allowed to simply walk free after killing this kid in cold blood.

I think the judge really summed things up well with these words: 

"Mr. Dunn, your life is effectively over," Healey said. "What is sad... is that this case exemplifies that our society seems to have lost its way."

"We should remember there is nothing wrong with retreating and deescalating the situation," the judge said.

And good riddance to bad garbage in my opinion. Just check out the non-apology apology that Dunn offered the family right before his sentencing:

"I want the Davis family to know I truly regret what happened," he said. "I'm sorry for their loss. If I could roll back time and do things differently, I would." 

He feared for his life, he said. 

"I did what I thought I had to do," Dunn said. "Still, I am mortified I took a life, whether it was justified or not."

So even in the end this POS is trying to make the case that he felt he was in danger and was only trying to protect himself.

That is such bullshit. This asshole lost his temper and used a gun to take out his anger on a car full of unarmed teenagers, killing one.

If he had not had a gun this would have just been a frustrating altercation that he could have bitched about later on Facebook. But because he lives in America, and every asshole who can afford one is allowed to purchase a gun, this 17 year old is now dead.

The judge is right, society has lost its way.

The ill wind of Fan-gate continues to blow in the face of Rick Scott.

Yesterday when I shared video of the awkward six minute plus pause before Rick Scott emerged from his sarcophagus to join Charlie Crist on stage for that Florida debate, I failed to include Scott's answer as to why he is such a baby.

I apologize for my indefensible oversight. Here it is.

And here is how AATP reported on it:  

“And Governor Scott, why the delay in coming out over a fan?” moderator Elliott Rodriguez asked. 

Scott, channeling Sarah Palin, offered a garbled, word salady response that is an embarrassment to any and all speakers of the English language. “I waited to see be he till we figured out he was gonna show up. He said he was gonna come to the, uh, he sss he said he was gonna come to the debate, so why come out until he’s ready?”

Yes Scott was merely waiting backstage for Crist to get off his ass and agree to participate in the debate, which clearly he had a whole six minutes earlier.

(I guess in reptile numbers that was really only a few seconds.)

Now if you think that initial response was awkward, trust me it really never got any better no matter how many times he was asked.

CNN's the Wolf tried asking him about it:

Blitzer asked, “What was the big deal?… Why was this even an issue going into the debate?” Scott didn’t directly answer, telling Blitzer that the reason he didn’t come out is because he was told Crist wouldn’t be coming out and debate organizers did not tell him to come on stage. (It’s worth noting here that the debate had started and Crist gave answers for several minutes before Scott appeared on-stage.) 

Blitzer brought up the debate agreement, which had a note from Crist that he may need a fan. Scott said he hadn’t seen that agreement, and as opposed to last night, when it sounded like he adamantly refused to come on stage if Crist had the fan, he said today, “I don’t care if he brings a microwave, if he brings a humidifier.”

A reporter later in the day tried asking him about it:  

"Charlie was throwing a fit," he told reporters. "He was saying he wasn't going to show up, so we waited to see if he would show up."

Charlie was throwing a fit? Really?

Did Scott not see the footage from the debate?

Of course for the best response to Fan-gate you have to go to Stephen Colbert: 

"Clearly, for Scott's campaign, last night blew," he continued. "And, if you turned the switch the other way, it sucked." 

But Colbert did think the whole thing was a little unfair. 

"I don't blame Crist for wanting to bring his own coolant," Colbert said. "Based on that skin tone, I'd say his core temperature's about 450 degrees. But why should Crist get to cool himself with a fan, but Scott isn't allowed to control his temperature by laying on a chilled rock?"

And just when you thought that nobody was going to do anything dumber than Sarah Palin allowing her family to start and lose a public fight in Anchorage.

Could the outcome of the Florida gubernatorial race be decided by something as simple as a fan? It just might.

Okay I originally saw this last night on the Rachel Maddow show and I was so stupefied that my jaw was literally hanging down. I just sat there waiting for Rick Scott to take the stage, completely amazed by the fact that he might not do so simply because his opponent had a fan under his podium. 

Here is how the Tampa Bay Times reported on the incident now referred to as, of course, "Fan-gate:" 

In the weirdest start of a gubernatorial debate, Florida Gov. Rick Scott initially refused to take the stage Wednesday night because Democrat Charlie Crist insisted on using a fan to keep him cool. 

The Republican governor finally emerged at least six minutes late as flummoxed moderators struggled on live TV to figure out what to do with a bemused Crist standing solo on stage at Broward College.

A Crist adviser tweeted this out early this morning making the case that Crist was in the right.

Debate "organizers" are wrong. Rules were settled two days prior to the debate. pic.twitter.com/JIRbWAsxdr
— Kevin Cate (@KevinCate) October 16, 2014

Hell I don't know if Charlie Crist pulled a fast one, or if Rick Scott is really this petulant, but either way it is never a good thing for the state, that you are asking to elect you to their highest office, to see you throwing a tantrum and threatening to take your ball and go home over something so incredibly trivial.

I think if Crist wins this election that he should get that fan plated in gold and put it up on  a display case in the Governor's mansion.