According to anti-feminist Charlotte Allen, a male janitor or “even some of the huskier 12-year-old boys” would have made all the difference in the Newtown massacre, simply because they are male. National Review published Allen’s controversial piece on Wednesday, where she attributed the massacre to Sandy Hook’s female staff and its “feminized setting.”

On Friday, Allen responded to her storm of critics, including National Review’s Jonah Goldberg, who characterized her piece as “somewhat perverse.” Allen described her latest experience examining Sandy Hook’s staff page as a “depressing [...] sea of women’s names,” while she mocked the school’s anti-bullying resources and a society that encourages boys to use Easy Bake Ovens too:

No, I was not blaming any of the 26 victims or the parents who enrolled their kids at Sandy Hook. I am, however, blaming our culture that denies, dismisses, and denigrates the masculine traits—including size, strength, male aggression and a male facility for strategic thinking–that until recently have been viewed as essential for building a society and protecting its weaker members. We now have Hanna Rosin at Slate urging parents to buy their little boys Easy Bake ovens so they’ll be more like little girls. Women are less aggressive by instinct, and they are typically trained to be nice

I am also responding to David Weigel, who told me I gotten my facts wrong: that there are actually two men, a custodian and a fourth-grade teacher, on Sandy Hook’s 52-person staff. He’s right, and I stand corrected. This does help prove my point, though: just two adult men in a building containing 500 people — and it’s not clear that both of them were at work that day. Indeed, a visit to Sandy Hook’s staff website is a depressing experience, the sea of women’s names. Why aren’t there more men? Perhaps not enough want the job? But why? Because they are tacitly discouraged from careers in elementary education? It’s certainly not the money, because union rules typically require kindergarten teachers and high-school chemistry teachers to be paid on exactly the same salary scale.

Another depressing page on the Sandy Hook website is the “Safe Schools Climate” page. It’s a page of links to “anti-bullying” resources. Yes, the Sandy Hook staff’s idea of a “safe school” was a school where kids didn’t say mean things about each other on Facebook! The Sandy Hook massacre was a tragedy, but it was at least in part a tragedy of the collision between feminist delusions and reality.

As Dave Weigel points out (in “The Stupidest Thing Anyone Has Written About Sandy Hook”), Allen gets many basic facts of the scene wrong, though she claims even her errors “help prove my point.”

The day after the election last month, ThinkProgress took a preliminary tally of the total number of votes cast for candidates for the House of Representatives. We found that, despite the fact that Republicans won a commanding majority of the seats, the American people cast more than half-a-million votes for Democrats. This number was based on early tallies, however, and it was especially likely to undercount many West Coast states that had less time to count ballots.

More than a month after the election, the Democrats’ popular vote lead expanded significantly. Based on current tallies, Democrats now lead Republicans 59,343,447 to 58,178,393 in total votes cast for their House candidates — meaning that the American people preferred Democrats over Republicans by nearly a full percentage point of the total vote. Yet, despite clearly losing the popular vote, Republicans will control nearly 54 percent of the seats in the House in the 113th Congress.

This disparity between the will of the American people and the actual outcome of the election did not happen by accident — it is largely the product of massive gerrymandering by Republican state officials. President Obama won Pennsylvania by more than 5 points, but Democrats carried only 5 of the state’s 18 congressional seats. Obama won Virginia, and Democrats took 3 of 11 House seats. Obama won Ohio, but Democrats carried only 4 of 16 seats in Ohio’s House delegation. In state after state after state, Republicans used their unconstitutional ability to gerrymander Democratic votes into meaninglessness — and they were able to do so because the conservatives on the Supreme Court refuse to do anything about it.

In just a few weeks, a misguided package of spending cuts and middle class tax hikes threatens to drag America back into recession. Just over a month after that, America risks defaulting on its debt — potentially plunging us into depression. And even if these immediate threats are averted, it could come at a very high price. In an attempt to strike a deal with recalcitrant Republicans, President Obama recently offered to take future Social Security benefits away from seniors. Meanwhile, Speaker Boehner can’t even manage the right flank of his caucus enough to hold a purely cosmetic vote intended to counter the — now entirely justified — view that Republicans care primarily about protecting millionaires from paying taxes. Because of the Republican Party’s apparently inability to negotiate in good faith in order to avert catastrophe, America now faces the very real possibility of an economic collapse once the debt ceiling comes due early next year.

All of these risks would evaporate completely if the divided 113th Congress bore any resemblance to the unified government the American people voted for.

After remaining completely silent in the week following the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, the National Rifle Association (NRA) held a press conference in Washington D.C. on Friday to call for more guns in schools and blame the media for glorifying violence, while demonizing gun owners.

Below are the 10 craziest statements from NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre’s prepared remarks:

1) Gun-free schools zones “tell every insane killer in America that schools are their safest place to inflict maximum mayhem with minimum risk.”

2) “There exists in this country a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells, and sows, violence against its own people.

3) “[V]iolent crime is increasing again for the first time in 19 years! Add another hurricane, terrorist attack or some other natural or man-made disaster, and you’ve got a recipe for a national nightmare of violence and victimization.”

4) “We need to have every single school in America immediately deploy a protection program proven to work —and by that I mean armed security.”

5) “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. Would you rather have your 911 call bring a good guy with a gun from a mile away … or a minute away?”

6) “And throughout it all, too many in our national media … their corporate owners … and their stockholders … act as silent enablers, if not complicit co-conspirators.”

7) “Then there’s the blood-soaked slasher films like ‘American Psycho’ and ‘Natural Born Killers’ that are aired like propaganda loops on Splatterdays and every day, and a thousand music videos that portray life as a joke and murder as a way of life.”

8) “In a race to the bottom, media conglomerates compete with one another to shock, violate and offend every standard of civilized society by bringing an ever-more-toxic mix of reckless behavior and criminal cruelty into our homes — every minute of every day of every month of every year.”

9) “Through vicious, violent video games with names like Bulletstorm, Grand Theft Auto, Mortal Kombat and Splatterhouse. And here’s one: it’s called Kindergarten Killers. It’s been online for 10 years. How come my research department could find it and all of yours either couldn’t or didn’t want anyone to know you had found it?”

10) “Isn’t fantasizing about killing people as a way to get your kicks really the filthiest form of pornography?”

(Greg Noth assisted in compiling the quotes for this post.)

The National Rifle Association, the nation’s largest gun advocates lobby, attributed the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, to “school free zones,” arguing that “genuine monsters” are attracted to schools because its administrators and teachers are not armed. “Politicians pass laws for gun free school zones, they issue press releases bragging about them,” NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said. “And, in doing so, they tell every insane killer in America that schools are the safest place to inflict maximum mayhem with minimum risk.”

“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” LaPierre declared and urged Congress to “act immediately to appropriate whatever is necessary to put armed police officers in every single school in this nation.” The lobby will create a “National School Shield Program” that will help schools respond to attacks, led by former Rep. Asa Hutchinson (R-AR).

In a news conference repeatedly interrupted by protesters blaming the NRA for “killing our kids,” LaPierre shoveled out blame far and wide, going after reporters for glorifying killers like Adam Lanza, violent movies, video games, and music videos. He tore into gun safety advocates for exploiting the tragedy for “political gain,” targeted President Obama for underfunding police initiatives in schools, and said that the media demonized “local gun owners” and spread “misinformation and dishonest thinking that only delay meaningful action and all but guarantee that the next violence is a new cycle away.” “Add another hurricane, terrorist attack, or some other natural of man-made disaster, and you’ve got a recipe for a national nightmare of violence and victimization,” he said.

Only gun owners and gun lobbyists — who have spent years easing gun regulations across the country — were spared any responsibility.

In the wake of reports about the infrequent and discriminatory use of the presidential clemency power, the Department of Justice’s watchdog agency has determined that the U.S. Pardon Attorney withheld relevant information in recommending against a shorter prison sentence for one prominent applicant.

Clarence Aaron, whose triple life sentence for his ancillary role in a drug deal has become emblematic of unjust drug sentencing, was denied requests for a shorter sentence twice. After Aaron’s case was highlighted in an extensive series on the president’s scant use of his constitutional power to both revoke convictions (a pardon), and to shorten sentences (a commutation), the Justice Department’s Inspector General said it would review the decision-making process.

In its report released this week, the IG found that Pardon Attorney Ronald L. Rodgers did not clearly disclose that Aaron’s application for a shorter sentence was supported by both the judge who sentenced him and the U.S. attorney in the jurisdiction that prosecuted him. As with so many individuals convicted of drug crimes, the judge presiding over the case was powerless to shorten Rodgers’ sentence due to mandatory minimums and sentencing guidelines. Kenneth Lee, who served as associate White House counsel then, said that if he had known the views of the prosecutor, he would have recommended Aaron’s immediate release. The report concluded that Rodgers engaged in “conduct that fell substantially short of the high standards expected of Department of Justice employees and the duty he owed the President of the United States.”

President Obama, whose office relies heavily on the Office of the Pardons Attorney for recommendations on clemency, has not pardoned a single person nor commuted a single sentence this year. In her latest report on this issue, ProPublica’s Dafna Linzer explains:

The pardons office has come under increased scrutiny in the last year since ProPublica and The Washington Post began reporting on race disparity in the selection of pardon recipients [2] and the handling of the Aaron case [3]. ProPublica’s study showed that white applicants have been nearly four times as likely as minorities to be pardoned. Aaron is African American. The review also showed that Obama has granted clemency at a lower rate than any modern president [4].

Rodgers, a career civil servant and former military judge, took over the pardons office in 2008. Despite calls for his resignation, he has remained in office. Nearly all pardon recipients are preselected by Rodgers and he personally reviews each application from federal inmates seeking early release. Under his leadership, denial recommendations have soared while pardons have been rarely granted.

The series initiated last year by Linzer shined light on an aspect of the justice system that typically receives scant attention outside of criminal justice circles. Linzer’s dogged investigatory work and her alarming findings about the numbers and types of people being denied clemency were the direct cause of the IG’s investigation, as were the White House’s request that the Pardon Attorney reconsider Aaron’s application and the DOJ’s call for a study of presidential pardons. The series demonstrates the power of journalist yeoman’s work to move the ball on little-noticed policy areas crucial to a just legal system. Its findings dictate even greater action, including fundamental reform to the Office of the Pardon Attorney.

New data from the Death Penalty Information Center shows the number of death sentences handed down in 2012 is the lowest in two decades, indicating a decline in prosecutors’ support for the measure. Though 33 states have the death penalty, just four states were responsible for three-fourths of the executions carried out this year: Arizona, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas.

Five states have banned capital punishment in the last five years, and four states with the death penalty did not sentence anyone to death this year. Though Texas carried out the most executions in 2012 — 15 — it issued fewer death sentences for the eighth consecutive year, which suggests less executions will take place in the future.

According to the Center’s director, Richard C. Dieter, the most important reason for the falling rate “is lingering doubt about guilt.” Though there are no solid statistics on the number of innocent people who have been executed since the death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme Court in the late 1970s, there are instances in which inmates’ guilt was in serious question. Since 1989 more than 200 inmates have been exonerated through DNA evidence.

Another major factor is cost effectiveness. Putting convicted criminals to death is extremely expensive. For example, since 1978 California has executed just 13 people, but spent $4 billion to do it. Colorado has spent $18 million on one case since 1994.

However, though support for the controversial measure appears to be in decline both in the general public and prosecutors’ offices, the U.S. remains the only G7 country to execute its citizens. The United States — together with China, Iran, North Korea, and Yemen — carried out the most executions in 2011.

– Greg Noth

Looking to continue the spread of voter suppression laws that have popped up over the past two years, lawmakers introduced voter ID legislation in three more states last week.

Legislators in Arkansas, Montana, and New York introduced separate bills to require voters to show certain forms of government-issued photo identification or be denied their right to vote.

Two of the bills — SB 2 in Arkansas and SB 100 in New York — are the strict form of voter ID, whereby voters who don’t have an acceptable form of photo ID are simply turned away from the polls. The bill in Montana — HB 108 — allows those voters who don’t have photo ID to cast a provisional ballot.

Approximately 1 in 10 citizens lack photo ID, putting them at risk of being disenfranchised. According to the Brennan Center, minorities, senior citizens, and poor voters tend to be hardest hit by new voter ID laws.

Still, voter rights advocates needn’t sound the alarm in these three states, yet. The voter ID bills face a tough legislative future. In both Arkansas and Montana, Republicans control both chambers of the state legislature, but Democrats still control the governor’s mansion. In New York, Democrats enjoy both the governorship and the state Assembly.