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Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), a member of the Democratic Party’s leadership in the House of Representatives, suggested to Jason Mattera at a Feb. 13 women’s rights rally that plans for an assault weapons ban and private-sales background checks were only the beginning of a broader gun control agenda extending to handguns as well.
Schakowsky evidently did not recognize Mattera, a conservative video journalist and senior investigative reporter for Talk Radio Network, who infamously confronted Vice President Joe Biden
in the Capitol. (Mattera introduced himself to Schakowsky by name but
did not indicate that he was filming or that he is conservative.) She
spoke to Mattera as if he were a fellow gun control enthusiast--and
Mattera played along, eliciting answers about Schakowsky’s enthusiasm
for gun control.
“We want everything on the table,” Schakowsky told Mattera. “This is a moment of opportunity. There’s no question about it.”
One poignant exchange was as follows:
Schakowsky: We’re on a roll now, and I think we’ve got to take
the--you know, we’re gonna push as hard as we can and as far as we can.
Mattera: So the assault weapons ban is just the beginning?
Schakowsky: Oh absolutely. I mean, I’m against handguns. We have, in Illinois, the Council Against Handgun... something [Violence]. Yeah, I’m a member of that. So, absolutely.
In another exchange, Schakowsky proposed allowances for states and
municipalities to ban guns--though such laws have been repeatedly
rejected by the Supreme Court:
Mattera: We’ll never get a handgun ban with the Second Amendment as stated.
Schakowsky: I don’t know. I don’t know that we can’t. And there may
be an allowance, once again, for communities--I have communities in my
district that prohibited handguns within their borders. The rights of
municipalities and states to view that as a sensible way to keep people
safe--I don’t think it’s precluded.
When Mattera asked why legislators were not pressing for a handgun
ban, given that most murders are committed with handguns, Schakowsky
replied: “Because we’re not going to be able to win that. Not now.” She
went on to explain why background checks were a useful interim policy,
arguing that they would “address any kind of weapon.”
Schakowsky’s remarks about plans for broader gun control are not the
first time she has revealed the long-term goal behind short-term policy
debates. She has a tendency to do so when speaking to apparently
sympathetic audiences. In 2009, she told a crowd that the goal of Obamacare would be to “put the private insurance industry out of business.”
Officially, Democrats--including Schakowsky--hew to the party line as
laid down by the president, which pledges support for the Second
Amendment and for gun ownership in rural communities where hunting and
shooting are viewed as traditional pastimes.
Gun owners fear that the Sandy Hook-inspired gun control measures
before Congress--none of which would have stopped the mass shooting at
Sandy Hook--are a prelude to broader regulations, including the banning
of handguns and the eventual registration and confiscation of firearms,
despite earnest assurances by Democrats to the contrary.
The Democratic Party has taken a hard line on guns recently, with
President Obama’s strategist, David Axelrod, joining New York mayor
Michael Bloomberg in backing gun control enthusiast Robin Kelly over
former Rep. Debbie Halvorson, who has an “A” rating from the National
Rifle Association, in the recent primary to replace former Rep. Jesse
Jackson, Jr. of Illinois. Kelly has promised to be a “leader” in “banning guns.”
As Detroit – beset by violence, debt and social woes – prepares to
undergo a historic takeover by the Michigan state government, the city
of Atlanta could be sliding toward a similar fate.
Some are quietly wondering whether Atlanta is in danger of becoming “the Detroit of the South.”
The city has experienced an ongoing succession of government
scandals, ranging from a massive cheating racket to corruption, bribery,
school-board incompetence and now the potential loss of accreditation
for the local DeKalb County school system.
For several years, problems of this sort have fueled political
reforms, including the creation of new cities in northern Atlanta
suburbs. Due to the intensification of corruption scandals in DeKalb,
some state-level reform proposals could become national news very soon. ‘Super-white majority’ cities
As a result of the unsavory politics in urban Atlanta, northern
suburban communities acted to distance themselves. Beginning in 2005,
many communities began the process of incorporating into cities.
Thus far, Milton, Sandy Springs, Brookhaven, Dunwoody, Chattahoochee Hills and Johns Creek have done so.
These cities, after breaking away politically from urban Atlanta,
have become so successful that a libertarian think tank, the Reason
Foundation, has featured Sandy Springs as a model of effective government. The Economist has also applauded the northern Atlanta cities
for solving the problem of unfunded government pension liability and
avoiding the bankruptcy that looms over some urban areas. The new cities
may soon be able to create their own school districts, which would free them even further from the issues besetting Atlanta.
While incorporation has been popular with residents of the new
cities, not all of Atlanta is as satisfied. The Georgia Legislative
Black Caucus filed a lawsuit in 2011 to dissolve the new cities, claiming they were a “super-white majority” and diluting the voting power of minorities.
A key leader in the black community and a driving force in support of
the lawsuit, who wishes to remain anonymous, bemoaned the “disturbing
tendency of black electorates to not elect the smartest and brightest,
or even the cleverest.”
Nonetheless, he believes that there is a social contract between the northern and southern parts of the county.
“So when you allow powerful groups of citizens to opt out of a social
contract, and form their own, it may benefit the group opting out, but
it hurts the larger collective,” he said.
The lawsuit would have canceled incorporation and tied the cities back into the very county that they purposefully left.
State Rep. Lynne Riley, a Republican who represents one of the new cities, called the lawsuit “frivilous” and “disrespectful to the citizens of these cities who are most satisfied with their government.”
The federal trial court rejected the lawsuit, and the court of
appeals affirmed the dismissal. However, an attorney for the Black
Caucus plans to file an amended lawsuit.
Meanwhile, the same concerns that spurred incorporation continue to mount. Failing schools DeKalb County contributed to what the New York Times called “the biggest standardized test cheating scandal in the country’s history” in 2011.
Now, the county is faced with losing its regional accreditation.
Losing regional accreditation is, by any objective measure, a
devastating indictment of a school board, with severe consequences for
students and families within the district.
When nearby Clayton County, Ga., lost its regional accreditation in 2008, it was the first school system in the country to do so in 40 years.
The result in Clayton, according to the Pew Foundation, was that thousands of students left county schools, the district lost millions of dollars and hundreds of teachers were fired.
In response to the Clayton County crisis, after witnessing the
fallout and the harm to the state’s reputation, the legislature acted to
prevent a repeat. In 2011, the Georgia legislature essentially gave the
governor authority to remove board of education members when a district
was placed on probation by the accreditation agency.
Last December, DeKalb was placed on probation. Then, in January, the
governor of Georgia used his new authority and removed six members of
the nine-member DeKalb Board of Education.
This year, well after the accreditation issue broke open, DeKalb
school board elections were held. Four of nine board members were up for
reelection. Voters in one of the four districts returned their incumbent board member for another term, despite knowing that accreditation was at risk.
This week, a federal judge sided with the governor and agreed that
the six suspended board members can be replaced. The decision places the
dispute into the Georgia Supreme Court’s purview.
As the issue looms, the mere mention of losing accreditation has impacted the housing market in DeKalb, with at least one potential buyer directing his realtor not to search for homes in the county. School leadership
Recently, at the helm of the DeKalb school system stood Crawford Lewis. The former superintendent has been indicted on racketeering charges.
Along with several of his associates, Lewis is accused by the DeKalb
DA of fraud, theft by a government employee, bribery and a web of
racketeering. The charges arose out of Lewis’ practice of steering
lucrative government contracts toward favored companies. According to the indictment,
Lewis also used government funds to pay for a hotel room, which he used
as the venue for an affair. Lewis had this affair with a person who
held the position of “Executive Director of the Office of School
Improvement.”
One of the numerous complaints about the DeKalb school board was that
it voted to pay for Lewis’ legal defense. There had been a $100,000 cap
on the costs allowed for legal defense, but the school board waived it
for Lewis’ benefit. The CEO in charge
At the very top, the head of DeKalb’s government is the position of
CEO. The current CEO, Burrell Ellis, is being investigated for a list of
concerns, including alleged bid rigging. Police searched Ellis’s home
and office recently, and local news outlets report that while no charges have been filed, search warrants are reportedly aimed toward potential extortion, bribery, theft, conspiracy, and wire fraud in connection with private vendors who contract with the county.
Most recently, Ellis sought approval from the county ethics board to establish a legal defense fund to benefit himself. The board rebuffed the request. A corrupt school board becomes a civil rights issue
Instead of being treated as a story about rampant, inexcusable
corruption, the school board fiasco has morphed into a civil rights
issue. Atlanta’s NBC affiliate reports that the Georgia NAACP “accused
Republican Governor Nathan Deal of being part of an alleged conspiracy
to get rid of black office holders and deprive black voters of their
rights.”
State Rep. Tyrone Books pointed out that criticism of the governor
needed to include a word about black politicians who supported the
governor’s removal authority.
“How can we complain about him when we have black folks standing
there embracing the removal of black officials?” asked Brooks,
D-Atlanta.
The state legislature is trying to prevent public funds from being used in the legal defense of the ousted board members.
Because the ousted board members see their positions as a civil rights
entitlement, the attorney’s fees required for their defense will quickly
rise, unless legislation puts an end to the entitlement.
One of the suspended board members, Eugene Walker, responded to the judge’s ruling with a familiar appeal:
“Minorities should not feel secure if contrived allegations from
anonymous sources with hidden agendas can go to private agencies and to
have their civil rights stolen away.”
DeKalb has changed from majority white to majority black over the last several decades. As the Atlanta Journal Constitution gingerly put it: “The county’s transition from majority white to majority minority was politically rocky .”
A new party led by economists, jurists, and Christian Democrat rebels will
kick off this week, calling for the break-up of monetary union before it can
do any more damage.
"An end to this euro," is the first line on the webpage of
Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). "The introduction of the euro
has proved to be a fatal mistake, that threatens the welfare of us all. The
old parties are used up. They stubbornly refuse to admit their mistakes."
They propose German withdrawl from EMU and return to the D-Mark, or a
breakaway currency with the Dutch, Austrians, Finns, and like-minded
nations. The French are not among them. The borders run along the ancient
line of cleavage dividing Latins from Germanic tribes.
The plans draw on work by Hans-Olaf Henkel, former head of Germany's
industry federation (BDI) and a chastened europhile -- the "worst error
of my professional life", he told me.
The appeal of German exit is obvious. It is the least traumatic way to end the
20pc to 30pc misalignment between North and South, the cancer eating Europe.
Club Med keeps the euro. It enjoys instant devaluation, while still able to
uphold euro debt contracts. The spectre of sovereign defaults recedes.
The party hopes to contest the federal elections in September, winning enough
votes to scramble a tight race. Chancellor Angela Merkel suddenly has a "UKIP
problem" on the her right flank.
Should she sign off on a bail-out out for Cyprus -- safeguarding the "dirty
funds of Russian oligarchs", as the AfD puts it -- she will be raked by
heavy fire.
That will test her solidarity mantra, and she can turn on a Pfennig. She
ditched her nuclear energy policy days after surveying the post-Fukushima
polls.
Nobody knows how much support AfD could command. Protest parties usually flop
in Germany, but the Free Voters won 10pc in Bavaria in 2008 on a
Right-leaning, eurosceptic ticket, and there have never been circumstances
quite like this before.
The slide towards fiscal union is a constitutional revolution. It erodes the
budgetary supremacy of the Bundestag and threatens to eviscerate Germany's
vibrant post-war democracy. Large matters.
The AfD leader Bernd Lucke says Beppe Grillo's threat to default on Italy's
external debt has demolished claims that Germany's rescue pledges will never
be called.
"The Italian election shows how dangerous the whole euro crisis really
is. Whether countries can and will pay back their debts is dependent on the
unpredictable voting choices of their peoples," he said.
Professor Lucke, an expert on Real Business Cycle Theory, says German voters
may not have mastered EMU mechanics but they can see it is going off the
rails. "Everybody understands that 50pc youth unemployment in Greece
and Spain is a catastrophe," he said.
The latest ZDF poll shows that 65pc of Germans think the euro is damaging, and
49pc think Germany would be better outside the EU. This is no doubt "soft",
yet what is clear is that the all-party consensus on EMU gives voters
nowhere to turn.
The rebels may struggle to cross the 5pc threshold for seats in the Bundestag,
but they do not have to take seats to plague Angela Merkel over the next six
months. She is already in trouble. Her Free Democrat (FDP) allies have
crashed to 4pc in the polls.
Alternative für Deutschland threatens to take votes from the Right. On the
other side, the Green resurgence to 16pc makes up for the sluggish Social
Democrats. As things stand, the Left is slightly ahead. Angela Merkel is on
course to lose office.
"Merkel will have to be even tougher on Europe, she cannot allow herself
to be outflanked," said David Marsh, author of books on the euro and
the Bundesbank. "She will try to keep up a steely facade and hope
everything stays calm until September, but the next crisis may come to a
head before that."
Indeed it may. Italy does not have a government, and putatitve premier Pier
Luigi Bersani has vowed break out of the "austerity cage",
explicitly rejecting policies that anchor the EU backstop for Italian bonds.
Fitch expects Italy's public debt to hit 130pc of GDP this year, up from 125pc
forecast a few months ago. The country has one foot in a debt compound trap
already. One more shock will do it.
This latest deterioration is self-inflicted, the result of contractionary EU
policies that have pushed Euroland into a double-dip slump, and ravaged
Italy in particular with fiscal tightening of 3pc of GDP in 2012.
This policy was deranged. Italy's primary budget was already near balance.
Fiscal overkill caused to the economy to contract by 2.6pc in 2012, and the
debt ratio to rise even faster. In flogging Italy's economy to death, EU
elites have destroyed political consent for the reforms that are most
needed.
For Germany's Alternative, September may come too soon. Michael Wohlgemuth
from Open Europe says they lack the organization for a quick breack-through,
but their moment may come in next year's vote for Euro-MPs.
"By then the real costs of the bail-outs for German taxpayers will be
clearer. People sense that at a crisis is looming, but they have not yet
felt it," he said.
The tragedy for Germany is that the bill for EMU will come due just as the
country's aging crunch hits. Germany will have impoverished itself for no
useful purpose, and without winning much love in the process.
Some say Germany is "winning" because its firms are conquering Club
Med markets with a rigged exchange rate, but that is a Pyrrhic triumph.
Latins will not tolerate this, once they grasp that the "gains" of
their internal devaluations -- ie 1930s wage cuts -- are dwarfed by the
greater losses of a wasted youth.
There are no winners. Each country is blighted in turn, and in different ways.
Like Goethe's Sorcerer's Apprentice, they have launched an experiment they
cannot control. The broom has a fiendish will of its own.
