Archive for December 19th, 2012

“Not some Washington commission,” Obama says of his gun task force

Wednesday, December 19, 2012 by:richard.dunham@chron.com (Richard Dunham)
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By CHARLES J. LEWIS

President Obama invoked the Newtown school massacre Wednesday in tasking Vice President Joe Biden to come up with ideas on fighting gun violence and in urging House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to make a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff.

Speaking in the Brady briefing room named for President Ronald Reagan’s press secretary, James Brady, who was gravely wounded in the 1981 assassination attempt against Reagan, Obama asked for speedy congressional action on the recommendations of the Biden group.

“I would hope that our memories aren’t so short that what we saw in Newtown isn’t lingering with us, that we don’t remain passionate about it only a month later,’’ the president said.

In a comment aimed at Boehner and House Republicans, Obama cited the national grieving over the Connecticut massacre and the devastation wrought by Hurricane Sandy and said: “When you think about what we’ve gone through over the last couple of months. . . the country deserves folks to be willing to compromise on behalf of the greater good.’’

Obama said, “If this past week has done anything, it should just give us some perspective. If there’s one thing we should have after this week, it should be a sense of perspective about what’s important.’’

Obama and Boehner are negotiating a package of tax increases and spending cuts against a Jan. 1 deadline — the so-called “fiscal cliff” — when steep spending cuts and tax hikes will go into effect automatically, barring a compromise deal between the administration and Congress.

The president specified that Biden’s group — composed of some Cabinet officers, members of Congress and others — was “not some Washington commission’’ that takes six months to study an issue and then publishes a report that gets pushed aside.

No, the Biden group will be different, Obama said.

He gave them a tight deadline: One month.

He promised to actively push their recommendations, “without delay.’’

And, citing what he said was a growing consensus for some specific policies, Obama outlined what he thought those recommendations might be:

  • Banning “military-style assault rifles” such as the Bushmaster AR-15 used by 20-year-old Adam Lanza to murder 20 children and six educators last Friday in Newtown, Conn.
  • Banning the sale of high-capacity ammunition clips.
  • Criminal background checks on all gun purchases, including those between private individuals at gun shows.

During his 35-minute meeting with reporters, the president also briefly mentioned two non-legislative sectors: Improving access to mental health care and re-examining “a culture that all too often glorifies guns and violence.’’

Obama said guns were a “complex issue that stirs deeply held passions and political divides.’’ He praised “the vast majority of gun owners” as responsible and law-abiding, and told reporters: “I believe that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to bear arms.’’

The vast majority of gun owners would “be some of the first to say that we should be able to keep an irresponsible law-breaking few from buying a weapon of war,’’ he said

To change, it’s going to take a wave of Americans _ including gun owners _ to stand up and say “enough,” Obama said.

It also will take courage, he said, citing Dawn Hochsprung, principal at Sandy Hook Elementary School, who was killed in the attack.

“If those of us who were sent here to serve the public trust can summon even one tiny iota of the courage those teachers, that principal in Newton, summoned on Friday,’’ steps can be taken to make the nation safer for children, he said.

Jake Tapper, the White House reporter for ABC News, noting that there have been other episodes of horrible gun violence during his administration, asked Obama: “Where have you been?’’

Obama replied that he has been busy dealing with the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the near collapse of the auto industry and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “I don’t think I’ve been on vacation.’’

The Newtown shootings should be a “wake-up call,’’ he said, to focus on ways to keep children safe.

Norman Ornstein, a senior Washington analyst with the American Enterprise Institute, said Obama was motivated to delegate the gun issue to Biden and his group to de-personalize the policy recommendations and reduce any opposition based on anti-Obama sentiment. “He wants to make it appear that these aren’t just his ideas,’’ Ornstein said.

Feinstein, McCain protest “Zero Dark Thirty” film depicting CIA torture (VIDEO)

Wednesday, December 19, 2012 by:cmarinucci@sfchronicle.com (Carla Marinucci)
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Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein of California is among a trio of lawmakers expressing outrage at film “Zero Dark Thirty” — a strong 2012 Oscar contender — and its fictionalized depiction of the CIA’s hunt for Osama bin Laden.

Feinstein was joined Wednesday by Senate Armed Service Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich. and Senate Armed Service Committee Ranking Member John McCain, R-Ariz.

The lawmakers sent a letter to Sony Pictures Entertainment, the studio distributing the highly acclaimed flick.

First, here’s a trailer for the film, directed by Oscar- winner Katherine Bigelow (“The Hurt Locker”), and nominated for four Golden Globe Awards — including “Best Picture.” It won’t be released in California until early January.

Feinstein, McCain and Levin termed the film “grossly inaccurate and misleading” in its graphic scenes showing CIA officers torturing detainees; they charge the movie appears to credit the detainees with “providing critical lead information” that lead Navy Seals to the bin Laden compound in Pakistan.

Here’s an excerpt from their letter, the full text of which can be found here:

“We understand that the film is fiction, but it opens with the words “based on first-hand accounts of actual events” and there has been significant media coverage of the CIA’s cooperation with the screenwriters.”

“As you know, the film graphically depicts CIA officers repeatedly torturing detainees and then credits these detainees with providing critical lead information on the courier that led to the Usama Bin Laden. Regardless of what message the filmmakers intended to convey, the movie clearly implies that the CIA’s coercive interrogation techniques were effective in eliciting important information related to a courier for Usama Bin Laden. We have reviewed CIA records and know that this is incorrect.”

“Zero Dark Thirty is factually inaccurate, and we believe that you have an obligation to state that the role of torture in the hunt for Usama Bin Laden is not based on the facts, but rather part of the film’s fictional narrative.”

“The use of torture should be banished from serious public discourse for these reasons alone, but more importantly, because it is a violation of the Geneva Conventions, because it is an affront to America’s national honor, and because it is wrong. The use of torture in the fight against terrorism did severe damage to America’s values and standing that cannot be justified or expunged. It remains a stain on our national conscience. We cannot afford to go back to these dark times, and with the release of Zero Dark Thirty, the filmmakers and your production studio are perpetuating the myth that torture is effective. You have a social and moral obligation to get the facts right.”

“Please consider correcting the impression that the CIA’s use of coercive interrogation techniques led to the operation against Usama Bin Laden. It did not.”

With the movie headed toward the Hollywood awards season, it will be interesting to see the entertainment community’s response to the complaint from Capitol Hill.

Connecticut congressman lashes out at Rick Perry, ‘fantasy of testosterone-laden individuals who have blood on their hands’

Wednesday, December 19, 2012 by:richard.dunham@chron.com (Richard Dunham)
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By CHARLES J. LEWIS

Connecticut congressman Jim Himes today challenged Texas Gov. Rick Perry about his contention that teachers with concealed gun permits should be allowed to carry weapons in schools.

Using blunt, evocative language, the Democratic congressman, whose House district is near Newtown, Conn., where 20 students and six educators were murdered last Friday, told a Capitol Hill news conference that “there are no good arguments against doing something’’ to toughen gun control laws.

He ridiculed Perry’s contention that teachers with permits to carry concealed weapons should be allowed to do so in schools, calling it a “pernicious argument’’ in a nation already “awash in guns.’’

Himes, citing a study by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said a gun in the home is “22 times more likely to be used in a suicide or a murder than it is to be used in self-defense.’’ A study by the Rand Corporation of trained law officers in an exchange of gunfire found that those officers “hit their intended target less than two out of 10 times,’’ Himes said.

“So the notion that more Americans . . .in the words of Gov. Perry, ‘packing heat,’ will make us safer is not founded in reality, facts, or history; it is founded in the fantasy of testosterone-laden individuals who have blood on their hands for articulating that idea.’’

Perry, addressing a North Texas Tea Party meeting earlier this week, said local school boards should decide whether to allow teachers with concealed weapons permits to carry weapons in school.

“One of the things that I hope we don’t want to see from the federal government is a knee-jerk reaction from Washington, D.C., when there is an event that occurs, that they can come in and think they know the answer,” Perry said.

Perry’s statement triggered a response from Gilberto Hinojosa, chair of the Texas Democratic Party, who said the governor’s comments were “ridiculous and offensive.’’

“It is 2012, and we have a governor who thinks the answer to our societal problems is a Wild West shoot out,’’ Hinojosa said.

Here’s Hinojosa’s complete statement:

“Gov. Perry recently said,’(if) you are a concealed-handgun-license-carrying individual, you should be able to carry your handgun anywhere in this state.’

“To call Rick Perry’s recent statement ridiculous and offensive would be an understatement. As Chairman of the Texas Democratic Party, and as a father, I could not be more revolted by his harmful suggestion. Perry thinks that the answer to horrific violence is to have more guns in schools, and at soccer games, and frat parties, and large scale public events where alcohol and emotion already lead to too many fist fights.

“Twenty children have died, and Perry sees it as an opportunity to push his own radical agenda. Nothing could be sicker and more of an abuse of power. It is 2012, and we have a governor who thinks the answer to our societal problems is a Wild West shoot out.”

Busy year for Schwarzenegger capped with big environmental award

Wednesday, December 19, 2012 by:cmarinucci@sfchronicle.com (Carla Marinucci)
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Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has had a busy 2012 — a movie, a book, the launch of his USC think tank.

Now comes the latest — a plum award for his advocacy work on climate change.

Schwarzenegger will receive the award Wednesday from U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in New York for his work on the issue with his non-profit organization, R20: Regions of Climate Action.


The United Nations Correspondents Association named Schwarzenegger their “global advocate of the year” for his work with the non-profit, which has collaborated with the U.N. on dozens of major climate change projects around the world.

Politico.com reports that Schwarzenegger — along with director and producer James Cameron – is also executive producer on a new Showtime documentary series set to air in 2013 that “will explore the human impact of climate change.”

The California governor put the state in the environmental forefront when he signed the 2006 landmark bill, AB-32, which mandated that the state curb greenhouse gas emissions. And he has continued to pound the issue – even with a packed schedule that included this year the launch of a new USC think tank and the launch of his book, “Total Recall.”

He told Politico that he intends to continue to push the issue internationally. “To come to an agreement in California was a huge challenge. Now, imagine coming to an agreement in the United States and worldwide,” he said. “We did not want to wait for Washington or anybody else.”

“What we want to do is inspire other states and other provinces to do the same thing.”

His message, he said: “”Don’t wait, here’s what you can do.”