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.
. Does this story mean that Lucas Pruit didn't buy ACN as he did in The Newsroom?