Nice to see a fellow Trentonian (Jenkins) in the Senate. Is Crossley related to the former governor?
2018 Presidential Election
- Thread starter Marky Bunny
- Start date
Lyman apologizes for "unparliamentary language" in heated gun debate
Wednesday, March 15th, 2023
After a heated moment in a congressional hearing over proposed gun control legislation, Josh Lyman (D-CT) engaged in harsh words with a few Republican members on the House Judiciary Committee before apologizing 15 minutes later for using "unparliamentary language" and asking his words be stricken from the congressional record.
Debating within the committee over allowing the creation of a searchable firearm database for law enforcement to allow agents of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) to quickly trace the registration of firearms used in crimes, Lyman grew irate with fellow representatives Lee Weldon (R-TX) and Doug Grassley (R-CA) over what he called their "delusional" fears of a federal firearm registry that would be used in a mass confiscation of firearms.
"We're not talking about going door-to-door to take away people's handguns, you jackasses," Lyman told Weldon and Grassley after sparring with the two, "We're talking about making it easier to find violent criminals."
After a brief 15 minute recess called at the behest of committee chair Marvin Hallifax (D-CA), Lyman opened the debate with an apology to Grassley and Weldon.
"I apologize for the use of language that does not fit with the decorum of this house, and want to apologize for my characterization of some of my colleagues on the other side." Lyman said, before asking Hallifax for unanimous consent to strike his words from the congressional record. (No objection was raised and the remarks were stricken).
The Community Safety and Gun Crime Prevention Bill, introduced by Lyman, who was injured in the 2000 assassination attempt on President Josiah Bartlet by white supremacists, seeks in part to repeal a 1986 ban on the ATF from creating any kind of searchable registry of firearms, which has led the agency to take an average of 12 to 14 days to process requests from law enforcement for traces on guns used in homicides, robberies or shootings. Other proposals in the bill would raise the age to own or purchase a handgun or semi-automatic rifle from 18 to 21, increase penalties for straw purchases and arms trafficking, would close the so-called "boyfriend loophole" to ban firearm ownership and purchase to anyone convicted of a domestic violence offense regardless of their marital status to the partner they are convicted of abusing, and sets aside funding for states to implement red flag laws and agencies dedicated to crisis intervention and mental health.
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Wednesday, March 15th 2023
Equatorial Kundu votes to change flag
Bitanga— Members of the Congress of Equatorial Kundu today voted to modify the nation's flag, removing the middle black stripe and enlarging the rising sun previously centered on the flag.
By a near-unanimous vote in the Senate (26 to 3 in favor of changing the flag) and similarly lopsided margin in the House of Representatives (48 supporting the change against 16 who opposed), the proposal, championed by President Tendo Mozembe, easily cleared the two-thirds supermajority requirement to change a "symbol of the Kundunese nation" listed in the nation's constitution.
The decision to alter the current flag, adopted in 2001 less than a year after a coup d'état that overthrew Nwabudike Edwin Nimbala, was reportedly due to wanting to distance the country from the genocide of the Induye people in 2002-2003 that killed an estimated 1.5 to 2 million people as foreign investment remains hard to come by for the West African republic.
Equatorial Kundu's first flag, which flew over the country for most of its history from 1864 until 2001, was similar to the flag of the United States owing to the country's establishment as a colony for freed American slaves shortly before the American Civil War. After other African nations gained their independence as a result of decolonization in the 1950s and 1960s, a long-running debate on changing the nation's flag became a cultural touchpoint in Kundunese politics, the flag proposed by the majority Arkutu (which has since become the national flag since 2001) garnering opposition from the minority Induye, whose own proposal was deemed unsuitable by Arkutu politicians. Several compromise proposals were rejected by Kundunese voters throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and the "flag debates" are deemed by some scholars to be a portent of the breakdown of Kundunese democracy at the start of the 21st century after two decades of strain from its neighbors' civil wars.
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Nebraska congressman indicted for soliciting illegal campaign contributions, obstruction of justice
Wednesday, March 15th, 2023
A Maryland grand jury has indicted congressman Anthony Bentley (R-NE) on two counts of attempting to solicit illegal campaign funds in 2021, one count of obstruction of justice and one of making false statements to FBI agents tasked with investigating him.
Bentley, who has represented Nebraska's first district since 2005, reportedly sought illegal campaign donations from two different foreign nationals at a 2021 event held by the conservative think-tank Americans for Free Enterprise in Chevy Chase, Maryland. After the FBI was notified, Bentley allegedly lied to investigators in an interview, falsely claiming he did not meet with one of the men at the event, and then attempted to conceal the existence of electronic messages that contradicted his assertion.
The ten-term congressman reportedly was seeking to amass funds ahead of a run to replace term-limited governor Ben Lane (R) in 2026.
An attorney for Bentley, who has said he intends to plead not guilty to all counts, says he has been the victim of a "political witch hunt."
Bentley's congressional office stated that he will step down from his position on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee as a result of his indictment.
A quick graphic I made of Equatorial Kundu's flags. The current flag is courtesy of @Excelsior
- In the article he wrote on Equatorial Kundu, Prometheus did include a pre-2001 flag, but it was lost to
imageshack moving to a paid modelthe sands of time. Since he established Kundu's backstory to be similar to Liberia, I purposefully made the flag reminiscent of the US flag. - I hadn't noticed, but Excelsior pointed out to me that the previous flag was the same as the OTL Biafran flag.
They didn't have any when Zoey's infobox was made in 2019, but I'll say that they now have a daughter named Josie (full name Josephine Adrianne Young).
The flag I had made for Pre-2001 Equatorial Kundu was actually fairly lazy at the time (I could remake it in 2 minutes), it was just Liberia’s flag with a second Blue Star Field placed beneath the original one, supposedly to indicate that it was the second country in Africa founded by former American slaves. I like this one much better
The Biafra Flag is actually straight from the show, I recall Tim mentioning to me back in the day that in an episode the flag for “Kundu” was there, and it was the flag for Biafra. Probably something that should be soft retconned at some point. I was actually about to make the flag described by the post, but good work Excelsior and Lord Caedus
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No, it was Adrianne (a nod to Gail Adrienne Cobb, an African-American police officer in DC who was the first female American police officer killed in the line of duty).
"Josie" was a conscious evocation of "Josiah" on the parents' part.
Thinking about it now, maybe not great that Charlie & Zoey's daughter is effectively named after the grandparents she has who were both shot.