New York, U.S.A. — As President Obama arrived in Aurora, Colorado on July 22 to meet with the families of victims of the tragic shooting, a number of survivors and family members of victims of the January 2011 shooting in Tucson, Arizona released the following statement:

“Our hearts go out to the victims and survivors of the tragic mass shooting in Aurora. Please know that all of the people of Aurora are in our minds and hearts.

“There are no words to express the horror that the people of Aurora are experiencing now, or that we experienced on January 8, 2011. But words are not enough. We need our elected officials to take action to fix our nation’s broken gun laws to keep guns out of the wrong hands.  That’s why our group of survivors of the Tucson shooting are working hard to encourage our elected officials to take action. Some of us are gun owners and hunters ourselves, and we know that this can be done while still protecting the rights of lawful gun owners.

“In fact, it’s been 16 months since President Obama boldly outlined his plan to do just that. But since then, it appears that no action has been taken to implement the President’s plan. We look forward to meeting with Attorney General Eric Holder in the near future to discuss how we can work together to fix our gun background check system.

“We call on President Obama and Mitt Romney, and all elected officials and candidates for office to pledge to join us in working to fix our gun laws and help stop the tragic toll that gun violence has on communities across the country. They can honor the memory of the victims of Tucson, Aurora, Virginia Tech, and the 34 other Americans that are murdered with guns every day by taking action.

Their actions would save lives, maybe the life of someone they love. We have a simple question for our nation’s leaders: How much more pain, how much more sorrow, and how many more murders with guns must we suffer before we do something about it?”

This statement can be attributed to the following Tucson survivors and family members of victims:

• Dr. David Bowman, Tucson survivor
• Nancy Bowman, Tucson survivor
• Ken Dorushka, wounded in Tucson shooting
• Carol Dorushka, Tucson survivor
• Roxanna Green, mother of victim Christina-Taylor Green
• Pat Maisch, Tucson survivor
• Angela Robinson, daughter of victim Dorwan Stoddard
• Faith Salzgeber, Tucson survivor
• Roger Salzgeber, Tucson survivor
• Pam Simon, wounded in Tucson shooting
• Mavy Stoddard, wounded in Tucson shooting and wife of victim Dorwan Stoddard

The article Tucson Shooting Survivors Reach Out to Aurora Victims appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Washington, U.S.A - The Conservative electoral wave of 2010 is alive and well and headed toward the Senate. Groups representing all aspects of the movement declare that the 2012 Conservative takeover that began in Indiana when Richard Mourdock ousted 36 year-incumbent Richard Lugar, must continue in Nebraska this Tuesday.

Diverse conservative groups, Eagle Forum, Gun Owners of America, FRCAction and FreedomWorks are uniting behind State Treasurer Don Stenberg because of his proven record, having delivered on his promises to conservatives each of the four times he has been elected to statewide office.  The groups issued the following statements:

FRCAction PAC

“Don Stenberg is a known quantity, and he is known as a warrior for marriage and the unborn, having defended Nebraska’s partial birth abortion bill all the way to the Supreme Court. He is also a warrior on the fiscal front, as he fought to keep costs under control as Nebraska’s Attorney General and Treasurer.”

FreedomWorks

Stenberg has a record of standing strong against interventionist economic policies, such as cap-and-trade and ObamaCare. A critic of excessive government spending before it was fashionable; Stenberg decried Republican big-spending initiatives such as Medicare Part D, No Child Left Behind, and corporate bailouts.  We know we can count on him to take a stand for our economic freedom, even if it means standing against his own party.

Gun Owners of America

Gun Owners of America stands with Don Stenberg who is strong on all the issues, especially appointees and nominees that shape policy for generations.  He is the polar opposite of Jon Bruning, who wrote a letter supporting the nomination of Attorney General Eric Holder, and continues, unapologetically to stand by his support for Eric Holder despite many calls to renounce it.

Even in the face of Congressman Darrell Issa’s impending Contempt of Congress charges Bruning still wants to go along to get along.  This is exactly what is wrong with our party and Establishment candidates like Dick Lugar, who recently was defeated by another staunch conservative.

Eagle Forum

“With the possibility of two to three vacancies on the Supreme Court and hundreds of other federal benches over the next four years, we must elect conservatives with the backbone to stand up against nominees who don’t share our values. Don Stenberg is the only candidate in this race that we know will take such a stand.”

Stenberg is also endorsed by Kentucky Senator Rand Paul and Utah Senator Mike Lee, both of whom were elected in the 2010 conservative wave, as well as Senator Jim DeMint’s Senate Conservative Fund and the pro-business Club for Growth.

Image Courtesy of   Andrew Aliferis

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Two years after oil from a BP well began gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. Department of Justice has filed criminal charges alleging that a former BP employee destroyed critical evidence in the early days of the unfolding disaster.

The charges are the first to be filed in what the Obama administration has called the worst environmental disaster in American history, and they are significant because they target an individual employee for his actions.

According to an affidavit and complaint filed Tuesday, April 24 in a Louisiana court, Kurt Mix, a former drilling and completions engineer, deleted email and text messages he had sent to senior BP managers estimating that the amount of oil spewing into the Gulf was many times greater than the amount stated publicly. Mix was specifically instructed by attorneys contracted by BP to retain his records before he deleted them, the affidavit states.

In a statement released to reporters, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder indicated that more charges are likely, describing the indictment as “initial charges” in an ongoing investigation, and saying that the Department of Justice “will hold accountable those who violated the law.”

More than 200 million gallons of crude oil flowed into the Gulf of Mexico after a blowout caused the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig and the death of 11 workers on April 20, 2010. The spill continued, unabated, for nearly three months. Analysts have long expected criminal charges against BP or its employees.

A spokeswoman for the agency declined to say when more charges might be expected, or to explain why the case against Mix was the first to be made public.

Mix could not be reached for comment, and we were unable to leave him a message because his voicemail was full.

BP issued a statement saying that the company was cooperating with federal investigators and that “BP had clear policies requiring preservation of evidence in this case and has undertaken substantial and ongoing efforts to preserve evidence.”

According to an FBI affidavit submitted to the court along with the indictment, Mix, who worked for BP until January 2012, was directly involved in BP’s efforts to understand how much oil was flowing out of the broken Macondo well. On April 21, 2010, Mix estimated that between 68,000 and 138,000 barrels of oil were leaking each day — far more than the 5,000 barrels that were estimated publicly at the time.

On April 22, Mix received the first of six legal notices instructing him to retain his electronic records.

Yet, according to the affidavit, in early October, Mix allegedly deleted a string of more than 200 text messages on his iPhone that he had sent to a supervisor. The deleted texts, which the Department of Justice said were recovered forensically, included sensitive — and pessimistic — internal BP information sent while the company was attempting what it called a “Top Kill” effort to stop the gushing oil on May 26, 2010.

Mix wrote that the effort — which he was directly involved in — was unlikely to succeed. “Too much flowrate — over 15,000 and too large an orifice. Pumped over 12,800 bbl of mud today plus 5 separate bridging pills. Tired. Going home and getting ready for round three tomorrow.”

At the time, BP said publicly that the measure had a 70 percent chance of success.

Mix, 50, was arrested in Katy, Texas on April 24. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 on each of the two counts he is charged with.

by Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica, April 24, 2012, 5:16 p.m.

Image Courtesy of   IBRRC

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