Thursday, January 31, 2013

Thursday January 31, 2013


The first thing a man will do for his ideals is lie.
--Joseph A. Schumpeter9







The lifelong neurological maladies that some football players face have led President Barack Obama - a longtime Chicago Bears fan - to question whether the risks are worth it for college players. In an interview released online Sunday, Obama said if he had a son, he'd "have to think long and hard before I let him play football."  [Here is a question from Conservative Corner: Mr. President, if you had a daughter  (oh, that's right, you do have a daughter) would you have to think long and hard about her having to serve on the front lines in the military?  I ask, because it was your Secretary of Defense who just, in my view, compromised not only our military but females by directing them to be used in the front lines of war.] http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/01/27/obama-questions-whether-risks-of-football-worth-it-for-college-players/comment-page-7/
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

With a year left on its contract, the Western Michigan University's professors' union is trying to get a 9-year extension done by the March deadline that would give union members the right to not pay dues or fees as a condition of employment at the school.

That would lock everyone represented by that union into paying dues or fees until 2023.
Joni Jones, a former Western Michigan University professor, said she received the proposal from current union members. One union member who wanted to remain anonymous confirmed the proposal was being circulated among union members.
http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/18225
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Police officers in Seattle, Washington held their first gun buyback program in 20 years this weekend, underneath interstate 5,  and soon found that private gun collectors were working the large crowd as little makeshift gun shows began dotting the parking lot and sidewalks. Some even had “cash for guns” signs prominently displayed.
Police stood in awe as gun enthusiasts and collectors waved wads of cash for the guns being held by those standing in line for the buyback program.
John Diaz, Seattles Police Chief,  wasn’t pleased with the turn of events stating “I’d prefer they wouldn’t sell them,” but admitted it’s perfectly legal for private individuals to buy and sell guns, FOR NOW. Mayor Mike McGinn said at a news conference the private transactions are a loophole that needs to be closed. “There’s no background checks, and some (guns) could be exchanged on the streets that shouldn’t be in circulation.” http://dcxposed.com/2013/01/27/seattle-gun-buyback-gets-jacked-turns-into-a-damn-gun-show-lol/
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


The gun control controversy is only the latest of many issues to be debated almost solely in terms of fixed preconceptions, with little or no examination of hard facts.
Media discussions of gun control are dominated by two factors: the National Rifle Association and the Second Amendment. But the over-riding factual question is whether gun control laws actually reduce gun crimes in general or murder rates in particular.
If, as gun control advocates claim, gun control laws really do control guns and save lives, there is nothing to prevent repealing the Second Amendment, any more than there was anything to prevent repealing the Eighteenth Amendment that created Prohibition.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
President Obama reiterated his determination Monday to see Congress act to reduce gun violence.
“The only way that we’re going to be able to do everything that needs to be done is with cooperation of Congress,” he said at the start of a meeting with Vice President Joe Biden and law enforcement officials from the Major Cities Chiefs Association and the Major County Sheriffs Association.
“That means passing serious laws that restrict the access and availability of assault weapons and magazine clips that aren’t necessary for hunters and sportsmen, those responsible gun owners who are out there. It means that we are serious about universal background checks, it means that we take seriously issues of mental health and school safety,” he said. [I am told that this directive will eliminate our Olympic shooting team and Obama's skeet shooting hobby, just for openers.] http://weaselzippers.us/2013/01/28/obama-congress-must-ban-any-gun-not-necessary-for-hunters/
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The idea that enforcing the law is racist has become a pervasive pattern in liberal America. The most obvious example is the left’s bullying take on illegal immigration, in which they label anyone who wants to police the southern border a bigot. Now, obviously there’s nothing racist about opposing illegal immigration. For the love of God, it’s illegal immigration. You can have a ton of sympathy for the poor unfortunates who risk their lives to cross the American border—I fully understand and sympathize with people who simply want to escape the current drug cartel regime cesspool in favor of the beacon of hope that is America. But that doesn’t mean that the United States can afford to continue to usher across its borders people who don’t pay into the system yet do reap the benefits of our generous social services.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2013/01/30/Bullies-excerpt-illegal-immigration
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“This was the first year I’ve been approached by a parent as to why we take two Jewish days off and no Muslim day off,” District 68 Superintendent Frances McTague said.
A change for one parent?
The latest school report card from the state shows that nearly 73 percent of District 68 students are not white, and more than 32 percent are Asian.
The color of the students skin is irrelevant. And what does being Asian have to do with a religious holiday for Muslims? In the real world – nothing. In the world of forced immigration and diversity division by central planners, they have hijacked “Asian” to mean Muslim. The Skokie paper is quick to add a sidebar describing the Muslim holiday but can’t even tell readers how many Muslim students attend the school or live in the district?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A federal judge ruled that nearly a dozen federal immigration agents can move forward with their lawsuit against their own bosses and even President Obama over change in enforcement policy that the agents argue prevent them from doing their jobs.
Federal Judge Reed O'Conner ruled on Friday Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents' case has legal merit. They argue their bosses essentially have forced them to look the other way and not enforce the law --  thus overstepping Congress by changing laws through directives rather than legislation. 

Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2013/01/29/judge-immigration-agents-suing-obama-can-move-forward/#ixzz2JSo2gCkr
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
San Diego Police Chief: We Can Disarm Americans Within a Generation http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/01/27/San-Diego-Police-Chief-If-Obama-Plays-It-Right-We-Can-Disarm-Americans-Within-A-Generation
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Many in the media and academia who largely reject American Exceptionalism want us to believe instead that our government is exceptional in light of the history of governments. In how easily they dismiss the Second Amendment as being obsolete, they are telling us that there are no circumstances whatsoever in which some future American government would ever turn feral. They are willing to stake the lives of their children and grandchildren on that assertion.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/01/trusting_your_own_government_--_or_not.html#ixzz2JYFUdtQE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's testimony before Congress regarding Benghazi suggests a revised version of Harry Truman's great slogan: "The Buck Stops Here," (Kind of.) It appears that this administration and their supporters have turned the Benghazi issue into a footnote that has no solutions or answers.
Fred Rustmann Jr., a former CIA official, a writer for the online intelligence briefings magazine, Lignet.com, and author of The Case Officer, wishes "people would get stirred up about this. We must keep reporting on it. Watergate was a cover-up and nobody died. This was a cover-up and people died. That is why this is a big deal and the American people have to realize this by becoming informed."


Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/01/benghazi_footnote.html#ixzz2JYG0Ldbn
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"There's another challenge that we must address and it is the corrupting force of the vast sums of money necessary to run for office," said Kerry. "The unending chase for money I believe threatens to steal our democracy itself. I've used the word 'corrupting' and I want to be very clear about it: I mean by it not the corruption of individuals but a corruption of a system itself that all of us are forced to participate in against our will."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A jihadist website posted a new threat by al Qaeda this week that promises to conduct “shocking” attacks on the United States and the West.
The posting appeared on the Ansar al Mujahidin network Sunday and carried the headline, “Map of al Qaeda and its future strikes.”
The message, in Arabic, asks: “Where will the next strike by al Qaeda be?” A translation was obtained by Inside the Ring.
“The answer for it, in short: The coming strikes by al Qaeda, with God’s Might, will be in the heart of the land of nonbelief, America, and in France, Denmark, other countries in Europe, in the countries that helped and are helping France, and in other places that shall be named by al Qaeda at other times,” the threat states.


Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jan/30/inside-the-ring-new-al-qaeda-threat/#ixzz2JYGrT9Mj 

Posted by at 1 comment:

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Wednesday January 30, 2013

The duty of government is to leave commerce to its own capital and credit as well as all other branches of business, protecting all in their legal pursuits, granting exclusive privileges to none. — Andrew Jackson











The U.S. government has approved the sale of U.S. taxpayer-backed A123 Systems to a Chinese company, despite security and economic concerns about sensitive technology changing hands.

The concern among U.S. lawmakers was that if the sale goes through, the Chinese would have access to years of high-tech advancements.

At the helm of Wanxiang Group is auto parts magnate Lu Guanqiu. One year ago he was the third richest man in the National People’s Congress, and today he continues to have close ties with the Communist Party. That worries some lawmakers.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday morning, many in the media went all in with a sanctimonious attack against gun-rights supporters, whom they accused of heckling Neil Heslin, the parent of a six-year-old boy murdered in the Sandy Hook massacre. The only problem is that it was all a lie. Mr. Heslin was not heckled.And once again, NBC News has been caught red-handed maliciously editing video to further its left-wing agenda.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In a counterattack against the efforts by the White House and its minions in the mainstream media to eradicate Fox News, Kirtsten Powers, a liberal who works for Fox News, pulls no punches about how serious the situation is, saying, “There is no war on terror for the Obama White House, but there is one on Fox News …what the Obama administration is doing, and what liberals are funding at MMFA is beyond chilling – it’s a deep freeze.”
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Land of Enchantment is a physically beautiful land indeed, yet one with the misfortune to be so traditionally misgoverned by our liberal Democrat majority as to be relegated too frequently to the very lowest rankings of the states when it comes to poverty, education, health, etc.
Once in a while, however, we do find something besides our majestic landscapes to be proud of. A statement just issued by the New Mexico Sheriffs' Association and signed by 29 of 33 county sheriffs, declaring that their oaths of office don't require them to enforce federal laws they consider unconstitutional, provides New Mexicans with just such a moment. While I've read and heard similar statements from individual sheriffs and police chiefs in other states, I've not seen anything comparable from a statewide law enforcement association.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/01/will_our_rights_be_preserved_by_our_sheriffs.html#ixzz2JRusBZ8B 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) has a message for firearms manufacturers and banks under attack from Chicago Democratic Mayor Rahm Emanuel: Texas welcomes you.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Hillary Clinton got away with murder in my view. She said they had a clear-eyed view of the threats. How could you have a clear-eyed view of the threats in Benghazi when you didn’t know about the ambassador’s cable coming back from Libya?” the South Carolina Republican told host Greta Van Susteren Monday on “On The Record”.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/01/lindsey-graham-hillary-clinton-got-away-with-murder-86870.html#ixzz2JRxYtjBo
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Milwaukee sheriff David Clarke, Jr. made headlines earlier this week by urging residents to become responsible gun owners so they can defend themselves during situations when first responders are unable to get there in time. On Tuesday night, the sheriff joined Piers Morgan on CNN where he was berated and criticized for making such “irresponsible” statements.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/01/29/wis-sheriff-who-encouraged-residents-to-arm-themselves-clashes-with-piers-morgan/
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That's right. In an attempt to drum up support for the law's health insurance exchanges, some states are planning advertising campaigns that could include everything from pro-ObamaCare coffee-cup sleeves to spots on popular music-streaming sites.
But no amount of advertising spin can obscure the fact that ObamaCare's insurance exchanges are shaping up to be disasters — saddling some consumers with higher premiums and state taxpayers with significant new spending obligations.


Read More At IBD: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials-perspective/012913-642400-obamacare-insurance-exchanges-unpopular-with-states.htm#ixzz2JSmAxwzk
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As Republicans sift through the post-election wreckage, two camps have emerged: the 
"winning the argument" conservative intellectuals and get-out-the-vote (GOTV) operatives. Both strategies of course are necessary, so it's a question of emphasis, not exclusion, but it was clear that a majority of the speakers at the conference emphasized messaging over GOTV tactics. Margaret Thatcher was quoted several times: "First win the argument, then win the election," and a majority of speakers addressed the question of how to win the votes of people who ought to be Republicans, but haven't yet seen the light. Arthur Brooks spoke eloquently about the morality of free markets. Artur Davis gave a tour de force about families at their "Sunday supper" tables, worried about their economic futures and fearful of taking their chances without government help. Hugh Hewitt spoke less convincingly about winning Hispanic votes by passing an immigration bill granting "normalization" to illegal immigrants (which may happen sooner than we thought). Ted Cruz, Bobby Jindal, numerous others, spoke about communicating our message and variations on the theme of "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care."
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/01/is_winning_the_argument_enough.html#ixzz2JSme8nm5 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Efforts to compare the strictness of gun laws and the level of violence across major American cities are fraught with contradiction and complication, not least because of varying degrees of coordination between local and state laws and differing levels of enforcement. In New York City, where homicides and shootings have decreased, the gun laws are generally seen as at least as strict as Chicago’s, and the state laws in New York and many of its neighboring states are viewed as still tougher than those in and around Illinois. Philadelphia, like cities in many states, is limited in writing gun measures that go beyond those set by Pennsylvania law. Some city officials there have chafed under what they see as relatively lax state controls.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/30/us/strict-chicago-gun-laws-cant-stem-fatal-shots.html?hp&_r=1&
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Earlier today, the Washington Post reported that Barack Obama would try to bigfoot the Senate’s Gang of Eight and put forward his own, more liberal plan for comprehensive immigration reform — which Allahpundit couldn’t quite believe.  When Obama finally arrived in Las Vegas, though, he gave an unremarkable speech that boiled down to er, yeah, what they said.  Obama did warn that he would move his own plan if Congress dawdled on passing a reform bill, but let’s not forget that Obama said the same thing about ObamaCare, too … and never came up with a plan of his own.
http://hotair.com/archives/2013/01/29/kurtz-say-did-obama-dupe-wapo/

Posted by at No comments:

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Tuesday January 29, 2013

It is a good thing that we do not get as much government as we pay for. — Will Rogers






The purpose of the EEOC’s criminal-background-check guidance is to discourage businesses from refusing to hire ex-offenders. However laudable and necessary it may be to reduce unemployment among this cohort, ex-offenders are not a protected class under Title VII, so the EEOC doesn’t have express statutory authority to investigate and charge businesses for discriminating against ex-offenders. The EEOC gets around this impediment by invoking disparate-impact theory. The reasoning is as follows: Blacks and Hispanics are more likely to be incarcerated than whites. Therefore, even a facially neutral policy against hiring ex-offenders will screen out more blacks and Hispanics than whites. Consequently, the agency argues, this may constitute evidence of unlawful racial discrimination in violation of Title VII, giving the EEOC the authority to investigate and sue offending employers.  http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/338937/eeocs-new-rule-background-checks-peter-kirsanow#
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., raised questions during a radio interview today about whether the Obama administration was smuggling guns to jihadist rebels in a possible “international Fast and Furious” that the White House has tried to cover up.
Speaking on “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio” on New York’s WABC Radio, Paul said the guns scheme could help explain the reason for the coordinated attacks against the U.S. special mission and CIA annex in Benghazi last September. http://kleinonline.wnd.com/2013/01/21/rand-paul-obama-in-guns-to-jihadists-cover-up-a-kind-of-international-fast-and-furious-in-benghazi/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Following Friday morning’s appeals court ruling that Barack Obama’s “recess” appointments to the National Labor Relations Board were unconstitutional, union attorney (and current NLRB chairman) Mark Gaston Pearce vowed to ignore the court’s ruling.
In a statement posted on the NLRB’s website, Pearce stated:
“The Board respectfully disagrees with today’s decision and believes that the President’s position in the matter will ultimately be upheld. It should be noted that this order applies to only one specific case, Noel Canning, and that similar questions have been raised in more than a dozen cases pending in other courts of appeals. http://www.redstate.com/2013/01/25/obamas-union-controlled-nlrb-thumbs-nose-at-court-ruling-chairman-vows-to-march-onward/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In a recent Sean Hannity program entitled, Boomtown, his 2 guests used the entire hour to show how corrupt Washington DC politics has become. "While one out of every 6 Americans wonder where their next meal is coming from, Washington DC has the highest rate of fine wine consumption in the United States," said author Peter Schweizer of the Government Accountability Institute. Mr. Schweizer also pointed out that one out of four Americans has a mortgage that is underwater, while 7 out of 10 of the wealthiest counties in the nation are in the DC area.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/01/washington_dc_where_cash_is_king.html#ixzz2JLYSkYRO 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In an interview with Breitbart News Editor-at-Large Ben Shapiro, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) made the astute observation that Barack Obama is not just skeptical of our Constitution, but also has an alternative model in mind: the South African constitution. That document has been the object of fascination and envy for the American legal left ever since it was negotiated and passed in the mid-1990s, during South Africa’s transition to democracy.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last week, which began miserably enough with the defilement of the Bibles of both President Lincoln and Rev. King in support of a political program neither would have tolerated, ended much better than anyone had any right to expect.
As the week wound down, the agenda of our would-be Augustan overlord received two stiff blows from the judiciary. The first was a decision by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of Noel Canning v. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling that Obama's appointments to the NLRB while claiming that Congress was "in recess" (it wasn't, by any rational measure) were unconstitutional, rendering all actions taken by the Board since that date null and void. The decision throws the Board into chaos, which is exactly where it belongs, since the majority of its members played right along with Obama's stunt with no visible signs of scruples.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/01/two_good_signs.html#ixzz2JLa6yjcx 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
None of this technological innovation is due in any way to the Obama administration. It has not given any financial support to these innovations; indeed, they were developed long before his benighted regime assumed power. No, Obama corruptly chose to squander the vast majority of federal R&D spending on grotesquely inefficient so-called "green energy" sources, including proven losers such as solar and wind power (which produce their inconsistent and comparatively feeble streams of energy only with massive taxpayer subsidies), and new bizarre losers such as algae-derived biofuel.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/01/bypassing_obama.html#ixzz2JLaZWKRl -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To guarantee the will of the people would decide who would govern us our Founding Fathers gave each state has the right to apportion its Electoral College votes (ECVs) as it wished.

Democrats don’t really like this because it opens the door to changes that would give people more of a voice in the selection of our presidents. Throughout the last two hundred years, they have often relied on voter fraud to win presidential elections.

http://americac2c.com/profiles/blogs/it-s-rigging-the-electoral-college-vote-when-dems-can-t-cheat
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Jealous said Sunday, perhaps unwittingly, that black Americans “are doing far worse” than when President Obama first took office.
“The country’s back to pretty much where it was when this president started,” Mr. Jealous told MSNBC host David Gregory on “Meet the Press.” “White people in this country are doing a bit better. Black people are doing far worse.”

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A new study finds almost half of Americans with college degrees are working at jobs that don't require one. It's the latest example of how federal subsidies are creating a massive higher-education bubble.
Read More At IBD: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/012813-642236-subsidies-create-glut-college-graduates-student-aid.htm#ixzz2JMqUUJmh
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee, joined a chorus of skeptics who questioned President Barack Obama's recent comments about his hobby of skeet shooting, a sport where participants fire shotguns to break airborne clay disks.
"If he is a skeet shooter, why have we not heard of this? Why have we not seen photos? Why hasn't he referenced this at any point in time?" Blackburn said Monday on CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront."
"I tell you what I do think," she later added. "I think he should invite me to Camp David, and I'll go skeet shooting with him and I bet I'll beat him."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The former president of California’s largest union local was found guilty by a federal jury in Los Angeles on Monday of stealing from the low-wage workers he represented.
Tyrone Freeman, who led Local 6434 of the Service Employees International Union, was convicted on 14 criminal counts, including embezzlement of union funds, violating tax laws and mail fraud.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Treasury Department ignored its own guidelines on executive pay at firms that received taxpayer bailouts and last year approved compensation packages of more than $3 million for the senior ranks at General Motors, Ally Financial and American International Group, according to a watchdog report released Monday.



Posted by at No comments:

Monday, January 28, 2013

Monday January 28, 2013




If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be… if we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed. — Thomas Jefferson





 A Muslim Brotherhood-linked organization has partnered with the U.S. Department of Education and the State Department to facilitate an online program aiming to connect all U.S. schools with classrooms abroad by 2016.
Vartan Gregorian, a board member of the organization, the Qatar Foundation International, was appointed in 2009 to President Obama’s White House Fellowships Commission
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/01/muslim-brotherhood-group-to-connect-all-u-s-schools/#I6x77uG8KF825ErV.99

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No matter your view of the media’s role in Benghazi; no matter your take on whether U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice leveled with the country on the Sept. 16 talk shows; no matter your view of Fox News’s Benghazi campaign, it surely does make a difference whether it was “because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided they’d go kill some Americans.” It makes a difference to the media, the public, the government, everyone.
The trustworthiness of the administration’s version of events — even the early one — makes a difference. Whether it was hard-core terrorism or a spontaneous attack or something else — that makes a difference too, with strong implications for intelligence accountability. Goodness gracious, in her very own statement, Clinton herself even seems to acknowledge that it makes a difference, when she says, “It is our job to figure out what happened …”
At one point in the proceedings, Clinton stated, “Maybe we didn’t do a good enough job of explaining that we didn’t have a good picture.” Yes, that would have helped. http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2013/01/23/WaPo-To-hillary-yes-It-Makes-a-Difference
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
President Barack Obama just suffered a humiliating defeat in federal court. A top federal appeals court has removed three presidential appointees from power, and invalidated all actions they’ve taken over the past twelve months.
One year ago, Obama filled three seats on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)–an essential power center for Obama’s labor-union allies–with recess appointments, claiming that the U.S. Senate was in recess even though the Senate was still in session. [I will believe this when I see it.
I think they will all just ignore the court until forced to pay attention. After declaring a moratorium on offshore drilling, President Obama was declared to be in contempt of court for not allowing drilling permits, causing the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs. To this day he stalls those permits.  . http://www.theminorityreportblog.com/2013/01/25/obama-recess-appointments-unconstitutional-reactions/http://www.theminorityreportblog.com/2013/01/25/obama-recess-appointments-unconstitutional-reactions/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

New York Gun Owners Flip the Bird to "Assault Weapons" Registration Law

Dicker quotes a Cuomo administration official admitting, "Many of these assault-rifle owners aren’t going to register; we realize that." Which means that state officials were merely posturing rather than entirely ignorant of history when they penned the law and jammed it through. As I've written before, gun laws traditionally breed massive levels of non-compliance — even in places where you might think people have no strong history of personal arms, or of resistance to the state, When Germany imposed gun registration in 1972, the country's officials managed to get paperwork on all of 3.2 million firearms out of an estimated 17-20 million guns in civilian hands. Californians may have registered as many as ten percent of the "assault weapons" they owned when that state imposed registration in 1990 (though the New York Times put the figure rather lower, at about 7,000 out of an estimated 300,000 guns covered by the law).
The reason for such reticence isn't hard to fathom. When gun owners charge that politicians can't be trusted to resist using registration lists for future confiscation, they're not being paranoid — New York City and California have both done just that.  http://reason.com/blog/2013/01/25/new-york-gun-owners-flip-the-bird-to-ass
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Congressman Steve Stockman (R-Texas 36) introduced today the “Restore The Constitution Act.”  It is the House companion to Sen. Rand Paul’s “Separation of Powers Restoration and Second Amendment Protection Act.”  Stockman and Paul are working together on the joint effort.
“Last week I promised to thwart Obama’s unlawful orders, first by seeking to block, overturn and defund any action that violates the Constitution,” said Stockman.  “Promise made, promise kept.  No matter his intentions, the Constitution flatly prohibits the President from just making up his own laws.”
“The Orders issued by President Obama are not intended to execute laws passed by the Congress.  President Obama is abusing his authority to write his own unaccountable laws. http://stockman.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/stockman-introduces-bill-to-stop-obama-s-executive-orders
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

James Sherk of the Heritage Foundation is compiling a list of those cases likely to be invalidated [by the courts recent ruling that Obama's recess appointments were unconstitutional.  This list includes]:
a) The NLRB’s “ambush election” proposal that would shorten the timeframe for union elections to less than three weeks and limit the ability of employers’ lawyers to challenge NLRB  decisions about who votes in the election;
b) Forcing employers in all industries . . . to bargain with “micro-unions” that represent narrow groups of workers within a company (even workers of a single job title);
c) Limiting employees’ rights to not fund political activities by preventing workers from viewing auditors reports of union spending and by classifying lobbying expenses as “representational activities”’;Asserting NLRB jurisdiction over public charter schools;
i) Requiring employers to give unions copies of sworn witness statements in investigations into workplace misconduct, chilling the ability of employees to speak freely without fear of repercussions.

Consider the utter chaos caused by Obama’s power grab. In all likelihood, the rulings in the cases above will be voided. What happens to the employee who paid money into a union as a result of one of those cases? An employer who had to pay higher wages or pay money into a union pension plan? What if an employer had to shut down because of a union contract that he never should have been forced to sign? The myriad of complications and the economic and personal dislocation could be tremendous.
This, by the way, is the very reason why the rule of law is so valuable — it provides clarity, dependability and finality. But not in the Obama era. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2013/01/25/two-wins-against-unchecked-power-and-two-lefty-losses/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In a particular surprise, two of the three judges also ruled that recess appointments are only allowed to fill vacancies that arise during the time the Senate is in actual recess. This has not been the recent practice, and it means that Presidents could not wait, say, until a recess in December to appoint a controversial replacement for a Secretary of State who resigned in October.

Meantime, the ruling potentially invalidates dozens of NLRB decisions since the illegal recess appointments were made. A similar mess occurred in 2010 when the Supreme Court ruled in New Process Steel v. NLRB that some 600 decisions made by the NLRB without a three-member quorum were invalid.
The decision also means that Mr. Cordray has no authority to run the consumer financial bureau, which has been busy issuing thousands of pages of regulations since he was illegally imposed in the job. Mr. Obama renominated Mr. Cordray this week, which is an insult to the Senate and after this ruling to the Constitution too. [What is to be done about the salaries these people have been receiving while illegally in office?] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323539804578263793332301584.html?mod=rss_opinion_main
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CNSNews.com) - In data released Thursday afternoon, the Federal Reserve revealed that its holdings of U.S. government debt had increased to an all-time record of $1,696,691,000,000 as of the close of business on Wednesday.
The Fed's holdings of U.S. government debt have increased by 257 percent since President Barack Obama was first inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2009, and the Fed is currently the single largest holder of U.S. government debt. http://cnsnews.com/news/article/fed-s-holdings-us-govt-debt-hit-record-1696691000000-257-under-obama
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Friday it was revealed that the FBI is investigating Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) for allegedly sleeping with underage prostitutes in the Dominican Republic.Despite this, when Menendez was given a six-minute interview with Martha Raddatz on ABC's This Week Sunday, he was not asked one question about the investigation or the allegations (commentary follows with full transcript at end of post):
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------FOR EVIDENCE that the permanent campaign has become embedded in our national life, look no further than President Obama’s recent announcement that he is setting up a group to keep his supporters energized and enrolled for action in a second term. To be called Organizing for Action, the group will harvest the rich data — e-mails and names — of the Obama foot soldiers who knocked on doors and got out the vote.

“The president has the most exciting campaign apparatus ever built,” Robert Gibbs, the president’s former press secretary, declared in a television interview. “. . .It’s time to turn that loose for something more than just an election. If the NRA’s got a list, then Obama for America has a bigger
 list.”
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hillary Clinton's angry flip-out at Senator Ron Johnson during her Benghazi testimony was a charmed moment.  All at once, before the whole world, one of the highest ranking progressive authoritarians on the planet spilled the beans -- all of them -- about the left's modus operandi. 
The revelation might be overlooked, however, if we focus too closely on Clinton's easily quotable "What difference does it make?"  The line as quoted merely shows Clinton to be a trapped liar trying to fake her way through an awkward moment with pomposity and bravado.  In truth, however, "What difference does it make?" is merely a media-friendly ellipsis of her actual words.  What she actually said, without the convenient editing, is far more telling.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/01/hillary_gives_away_the_game.html#ixzz2JH0dV3Yk 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The congressional hearings on Benghazi last week led me to question just when it was that public integrity ceased to matter. After some research, I came to an unexpectedly specific answer -- January 26, 1992, the day America first met Hillary Clinton.
Earlier that month, Arkansas state employee Gennifer Flowers confessed to a tabloid that she and Bill Clinton had engaged in a 12-year affair. In a desperate attempt to save Bill's candidacy for president, the Clintons agreed to be interviewed by Steve Kroft on CBS's 60 Minutes.
Upon watching this interview, I was struck by how forcefully Kroft stuck it to the Clintons. I had all but forgotten that in days gone by news people expected the truth from public officials, even Democratic front-runners for the presidency. Starting with this interview, the Clintons would dramatically lower that expectation.


Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/01/hillarys_first_big_lie.html#ixzz2JH1EOL11 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------





Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)