Archive for October, 2009

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain…

October 19, 2009

Seems that the Iranian government can’t take what it dishes out. Supporting Hamas and Hezbollah is all fine and dandy when they are killing Americans, Israeli’s and anyone else that is not banging their heads on the floor in adulation of a pedophile.

What, however, will be the impostor in chiefs reaction to the overt threat against the United States? More kow towing? More “negotiation?” More kiss the worlds ass? For my part I hope that somehow, in some distant way or manner America was involved. Even if it was training some group or person way back when to fight the Soviets. However tenuous that might be.

If so, and I well expect that may indeed be the case, then BHO is free from the taint and evil  rude way things that happen in war are done by evil and rude men that make it safe for him to sleep at night. So I can keep my unsoiled disappointment in him without any reservations whatsoever. Or, is he The Man behind the curtain. The real puppet master, and Wizard of Oz?

Read on…

TEHRAN (Reuters) – The head of Iran‘s Revolutionary Guards on Monday vowed to “retaliate” against the United States and Britain after accusing them of backing the perpetrators of a suicide bombing that killed six Guards commanders.

Iranian media say the Sunni Muslim insurgent group Jundollah (God’s soldiers) has claimed responsibility for Sunday’s bombing in Sistan-Baluchestan province, which killed 42 people in all.

The incident threatened to overshadow talks between Iran and global powers in Vienna on Monday intended to tackle a standoff about Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

Guards commander-in-chief Mohammad Ali Jafari said Iranian security officials had presented documents indicating “direct ties” from Jundollah to U.S., British and, “unfortunately,” Pakistani intelligence organizations, the ISNA news agency said.

“Behind this scene are the American and British intelligence apparatus, and there will have to be retaliatory measures to punish them,” Jafari was quoted as saying.

Jundollah, which has been blamed for many attacks since 2005 in the desert province bordering Pakistan, says it is fighting to end discrimination against Sunni Muslims by Iran’s dominant Shi’ites. Its leader is Abdolmalek Rigi.

“This person himself and his plans are undoubtedly under the umbrella and the protection of these (U.S., British and Pakistani) organizations,” Jafari said.

“TRAINED BY U.S. AND BRITAIN”

Iranian television quoted General Mohammad Pakpour, commander of the Guards’ ground forces, whose deputy was killed in the bombing, as saying:

“The base of the terrorists and rebels has not been in Iran. They are trained by America and Britain in some of the neighboring countries.”

The United States, Pakistan and Britain have all condemned the bombing, the bloodiest attack in Iran since the 1980-88 war with Iraq, and denied involvement.

“We reject in the strongest terms any assertion that this attack has anything to do with Britain,” said a spokeswoman at Britain’s Foreign Office. “Terrorism is abhorrent wherever it occurs.”

The bombing of a mosque in Zahedan, capital of Sistan-Baluchestan, reportedly also claimed by Jundollah, killed 25 people in May.

The underdeveloped desert province, mostly populated by Sunni Muslims, borders both Pakistan and Afghanistan and has frequently been the scene of clashes between security forces, ethnic Baluch Sunni insurgents and heavily-armed drug smugglers.

The victims of the bombing in the city of Sarbaz included two employees of the state broadcaster IRIB, the company said, and number of tribal chiefs who were due to hold a meeting with the Guards to promote Shi’ite-Sunni unity. The Guards said the attack was aimed at fomenting sectarian strife.

VIENNA TALKS

The incident raised tension between Iran and major powers ahead of nuclear talks at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.

On the agenda was a proposal that Iran send low enriched uranium abroad for further enrichment, to be used in a reactor where it produces medical isotopes.

Ali Shirzadian, spokesman for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, said on Monday that Tehran would carry out the supplementary enrichment itself if there was no agreement in its talks with Russia, France and the United States.

Analysts say Iran’s governing hardliners may use the bombing incident as an excuse to further clamp down on moderate opponents of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose disputed re-election in June sparked huge opposition protests.

The Guards force, whose influence has increased since Ahmadinejad came to power in 2005, played a key role in suppressing the street protests after the election.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev offered Moscow’s cooperation in fighting terrorism and extremism in a letter to Ahmadinejad, Medvedev’s press service said.

“We are ready to cooperate with Iran in countering these threats,” he wrote.

Ahmadinejad urged Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari in a telephone call to help find the perpetrators of the attack, Iran’s IRNA news agency reported.

Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit told the Daily Times newspaper: “Pakistan is not involved in terrorist activities … we are striving to eradicate this menace.”

Pakistan has backed armed Sunni Muslim groups in the past, particularly in Afghanistan.

Relations between Iran and Pakistan have been generally good in recent years and the neighbors are cooperating on plans to build a natural gas pipeline link. But Iran has in the past said Jundollah members have been operating out of Pakistan.

Some analysts believe Jundollah has evolved through shifting alliances with parties including the Taliban and Pakistan’s ISI intelligence service, who saw it as a tool to use against Iran.

(Additional Reporting by Parisa Hafezi and Hashem Kalantari in Tehran and Augustine Anthony in Islamabad; Editing by Kevin Liffey).

SOURCE

DOW OFFERS GRANT MONEY FOR SHOOTING RANGE IMPROVEMENTS

October 19, 2009

DENVER, Colo.–The Colorado Division of Wildlife (DOW) is initiating a new grant program to provide funding for shooting ranges and shooting areas in Colorado.  The goal of the grant program is to increase public recreational shooting opportunities for hunter education, marksmanship training, youth shooting opportunities and other recreational shooting throughout the state.

The DOW Shooting Range Grant funding may be used for creating new shooting ranges and shooting areas, as well as to enhance existing ranges and shooting areas.

The grant funding will come from a combination of DOW cash funds from sale of sportsman licenses or federal funds from Section 10 of the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Programs Improvement Act of 2000.

The DOW anticipates making up to a total of $500,000 available for this program beginning with the state fiscal year that began July 1, 2009.  Applicants will be required to provide a minimum of 25% of their request in the form of funding or “in-kind” contribution as matching funds for federal funds.

Applications will be accepted for ranges that will be of a substantive public benefit. Substantive public benefit is considered to be: Enhancing the DOW Hunter Education Program opportunities; Expanding shooting opportunities for the general public; and Enhancing opportunities for youth mentoring programs.

Landowners, local governments, DOW, other state and federal agencies and organized shooting/sportsman and youth organizations are eligible for grant consideration.  Ranges that provide opportunities for hunter education classes and fulfillment of the live fire requirement in obtaining a hunting license, ranges closer to high population centers, and ranges that provide a broad range of shooting opportunities will receive a higher ranking during the review and approval process.

During the initial year of this program, the deadline for application submittal is Dec. 31, 2009. For details and further information visit the DOW Web site at (www.wildlife.state.co.us/hunting/resources) or contact the DOW Grant Program Shooting Range Grant Coordinator, Larry Strohl (303-291-7346) larry.strohl@state.co.us.

For more information about Division of Wildlife go to: http://wildlife.state.co.us.

One heck of a great response to the leftist’s!

October 19, 2009

Big Wyoming Hat Tip to Hsoi for this find. Bashing conservatives and libertarians by the left is nothing new. Nor are the arguments used by the various leftist’s whether they are in the MSM, or here on WordPress. After all, one poster here that gets high billing quite a bit uses the byline F**k  conservatives. I’d like to believe that Libertarians and Conservatives have, shall we say, a bit more class than that. Further, that what we have been saying about Liberty and Freedom has not changed very much over the years. What follows is a bit long, but well worth listening through to the end.

Liberty? What for?

October 19, 2009

“Conservative arguments against President Obama are becoming increasingly silly. They oppose Obama rescuing businesses despite all the jobs on the line, they’re against government taking control of health care from soulless insurance companies, and they oppose increased taxes on energy consumption despite the sorry state of the environment. And why do they oppose these most sensible actions? Because of their irrational, brain-dead obsession with liberty. Of course, everyone likes freedom — to a point — but there are a number of loud, stupid Americans who just take it to ridiculous extremes. They hoard their freedoms like greedy little dwarfs hoarding gold when they have little actual use for most of it. People need rules and order and guidance, but they hardly ever need liberty. Liberty doesn’t feed your family. Liberty doesn’t heal you when you’re sick. Liberty doesn’t educate your children. A strong government can do all those things, but apparently that’s against liberty. … Just look at this ludicrous debate over health care reform. Of course the government should provide health care for everyone; how obvious can anything be? The government has the money and smart people working for everyone’s interests to make sure all get health care, so why would anyone be against that? Because apparently people aren’t ‘free’ to make their health care choices for themselves. … Real freedom is not having to worry about health care, and that’s what you get when you have the government take it over. Yes, you’ll have little control over who gets what kind of care, but some people will just have to suffer some for the betterment of the whole. The advantage of having the government in control is that it makes sure the fewest number suffer, and those that do aren’t particularly important. … Most of the civilized world has moved beyond this uncompromising view of ‘freedom’ — if they were ever foolish enough to adopt it in the first place. Can you think of any other country that would permit its citizens to have guns like America does? Of course not; that’s beyond moronic. People know freedom is a dangerous, scary thing, and you have to be careful how much you tolerate.” –columnist Frank J. Fleming

(To submit reader comments click here.)

The preceding was satirical humor

SOURCE

Message to GOP: Don’t Take Tea Partiers For Granted

October 17, 2009

For my part the GOP, as well as the Republicans can just go away and never come back. The recently started American Conservative Party is also proving to be less than stellar as noted by friend and fellow blogger Texas Fred. The Libertarian Party still offers the best hope for limited government but, alas, they too have gone off the deep end on so many issues. I am seriously beginning to believe that secession may be the only method of restoring the unalienable rights, liberties, and freedoms of individuals. One state at a time…

It’s the dream of every political strategist: a large and highly motivated group of voters ready to get out, work for, and financially support a slate of candidates whom they align with politically. True to form, the national Republican Party missed the opportunity to take full advantage of the Tea Party movement, mainly because the GOP is continuing to back candidates who don’t always work for lower taxation and less government.

Tea Party protesters angered by Republicans supporting Wall Street bailouts and the Waxman-Malarkey cap-n-tax bill are also bitter at the GOP establishment — particularly the National Republican Senatorial Committee — for backing certain incumbent or anointed candidates who are working with Leftists in Congress.

To that end, conservatives and political activist groups such as Club for Growth are throwing their support behind candidates whom the GOP establishment has shunned, such as Chuck DeVore in California for U.S. Senate; Marco Rubio in Florida for U.S. Senate (who is in a primary battle against the “moderate” outgoing governor Charlie Crist); and Doug Hoffman of New York, who, as we reported last week, opted to run under the Conservative Party banner after being spurned by local Republican officials. Instead, ACORN-backed Dede Scozzafava, whose positions make the Democrat candidate look like Ronald Reagan, is the official Republican candidate running in the upcoming Nov. 3 special election in New York’s 23rd Congressional District, though her campaign is out of cash. Backing ACORN candidates is unfortunately illustrative of the elite GOP’s mindset.

In a year where the political winds and poor performance of Democrats both favor a Republican resurgence, their treatment of this motivated voter bloc shows the national party is doing itself no favors by listening to the Beltway insiders rather than the people. GOP big shots may look back after next November and lament a lost opportunity.

SOURCE

Passage Of Anti-Gun “Health” Bill Through Procedural Fraud Scheme

October 17, 2009
Harry Reid Tries To Ease Passage Of Anti-Gun “Health” Bill Through Procedural Fraud Scheme

Gun Owners of America
8001 Forbes Place Suite 102
Springfield VA 22151
Phone: 703-321-8585 / FAX: 703-321-8408
www.gunowners.org

Friday, October 16, 2009

We have been keeping you posted on the anti-gun “health” bill which would dump all of your most private health-related gun information into a federal database — and would allow the Obama administration to suspend your government-mandated insurance if you keep a loaded firearm for self-defense.

But this legislation ran into a buzz saw because it would cut health entitlements — primarily Medicare — by $404 billion.  In particular, under the health bill crafted by Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, Medicare payments to doctors would drop 25% after the first year — bringing the Medicare program to a screeching halt.

Now, Senate Democrat Leader Reid has crafted a procedural trick:  He’ll restore over $200 billion of the $404 billion in cuts in separate legislation — S. 1776.

Because it is a separate bill, he will continue to claim that health reform “doesn’t increase the federal deficit by a single penny,” even though it increases the deficit by 20 trillion pennies when you consider this second bill.

Suffice it to say that this tactic is corrupt, even by Harry Reid standards.

This fraud bill is being filibustered by Senate Republicans.  And the Senate will vote on whether to cut off debate on Monday, shortly after 5:00 EDT.

Killing this bill will go a long way toward stopping the anti-gun ObamaCare legislation.

ACTION: Contact your two U.S. Senators.  Ask them to vote against the effort to shut off debate to the deficit fraud bill, S. 1776, and to oppose the anti-gun health care bill.

You can use the Gun Owners Legislative Action Center at http://www.gunowners.org/activism.htm to send your senators the pre-written e-mail message below.

—– Pre-written letter —–

Dear Senator:

It is hard to believe the effort to pass anti-gun health care reform could be any sleazier.  Now there is an effort to grease the skids to pass ObamaCare by using slight of hand.

Senate Democrat Leader Reid has crafted a procedural trick to restore over $200 billion of the $404 billion Medicare cuts — and then pretend that he isn’t “increasing the federal deficit by a penny” merely because it is done in a separate bill.

Suffice it to say that this tactic is corrupt and dishonest, even by Harry Reid standards.

The motion to proceed to this fraud bill is being filibustered.  If you are serious about your commitment not to increase the deficit “by a penny,” I would urge you to vote against cloture on the motion to proceed to this fraud scheme, numbered S. 1776.

Sincerely,

“Task Force” Using Crime And Corruption In Mexico As Premise For Gun Control In U.S.

October 16, 2009

As previously reported here, the NRA is getting fired up over the “Bi-National” shenanigans that are thinly vield shots at U.S. sovereignty because Mexico can’t get a handle on corruption.

On October 13, the Associated Press reported that the so-called Bi-National Task Force on Rethinking the United States-Mexico Border has produced a report, which, among other things, calls for re-imposition of the federal “assault weapon” ban of 1994-2004, saying it would improve security in both countries.

The “border-rethinking” group has been put together by the Pacific Council on International Policy and the Mexican Council on Foreign Relations. The group consists mostly of former U.S. and Mexican officials and journalists, none of them currently elected by the people of the U.S. or Mexico to make policy on these issues.

According to the Pacific Council, the report is being released under the auspices of the Mexican CFR on November 13th and is absolutely unavailable until that time.  The Brady Campaign, naturally, has a copy of the report anyway, and quotes its executive summary as saying “The United States should intensify efforts to curtail the smuggling of firearms, ammunition, and bulk cash into Mexico by aggressively investigating gun sellers, regulating gun shows, [and] reinstituting the Clinton-era ban on assault weapons.”

Congress finished its hearings on the Mexico situation several months ago, and many members of Congress have declared their line-in-the-sand opposition to re-imposition of the ban.  So given that Brady Campaign seems to be the only outfit that has a copy of the embargoed report, it’s safe to conclude that the “task force” is trying to keep the public primed for the next attack on the ownership of firearms like the AR-15 and Remington 11-87, and ammunition magazines designed for defensive purposes.

Whatever the opinions of those who sip tea and nibble biscuits while musing about how to restrict the rest of us, re-imposing the ban would have no effect on Mexico’s historic problem of crime and corruption, for at least three reasons.

First, as has been amply demonstrated, the cartels are not limited to semi-automatic AR-15s and AK-47s.  They have hand-held and tripod-mounted, belt-fed machine guns; grenade launchers and grenades; and a variety of other high-end firearms, explosives, and special-purpose optics and communication gear acquired from countries other than the United States. Thanks to some Americans’ insatiable appetite for mind-altering drugs, they have enough money to buy the “task force” 10 times over, along with any weapon that can be found among any infantry platoon on Earth, no matter what kind of gun law gets imposed.

Second, most of the firearms seized from the cartels do not come from the United States. The claim that “90 percent” of Mexican “crime guns” originate in the U.S. is false. It does not relate to all firearms the Mexicans have seized from the cartels, but only to guns that the Mexicans have asked the BATFE to trace. As the Government Accountability Office has explained, “In 2008, of the almost 30,000 firearms that the Mexican Attorney General’s office said were seized, only around 7,200, or approximately a quarter, were submitted to [BATFE] for tracing.” The 6,700 guns that BATFE traced to the U.S. accounted for about 90 percent of the 7,200 guns that BATFE traced, but only 22 percent of all firearms seized by the Mexican government

Third, the ban did not stop the production and sale of any guns, it merely put a one-attachment limit on new guns. For example, before the ban, AR-15s had a pistol-type grip, flash suppressor and bayonet mount. The 750,000 AR-15s made during the ban had only the grip.  If the “task force” thinks the fate of Mexico hinges on whether a relatively small number of semi-automatic rifles have flash suppressors and bayonet mounts, its members ought to switch to decaffeinated tea and sugar-free cookies during their get-togethers.

Make no mistake, however. Even if the “task force” doesn’t understand the finer details of the old “assault weapon” ban, leading gun ban advocates like Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, the Brady Campaign, the Violence Policy Center, the Joyce Foundation, and the Legal Community Against Violence do.  If they have their way, they will eventually drag us into a much larger battle over the right to keep and bear semi-automatic shotguns, M1 Garands, M1 Carbines, and Ruger Mini-14s, in addition to the AR-15s, semi-automatic AK-47s, and other commonly owned firearms that were at issue during the 1994-2004 ban.

SOURCE

Obama administration reverses US stance on arms treaty

October 16, 2009

The obama cretins pissed on American sovereignty. Trashing our unalienable rights acknowledged in the Constitution and Bill of Rights can lead to no good whatsoever. Next it will be Americans being tried in some dumb ass world court stuffed with America haters.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States reversed policy on Wednesday and said it would back launching talks on a treaty to regulate arms sales as long as the talks operated by consensus, a stance critics said gave every nation a veto.

The decision, announced in a statement released by the U.S. State Department, overturns the position of former President George W. Bush’s administration, which had opposed such a treaty on the grounds that national controls were better.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States would support the talks as long as the negotiating forum, the so-called Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty, “operates under the rules of consensus decision-making.”

“Consensus is needed to ensure the widest possible support for the Treaty and to avoid loopholes in the Treaty that can be exploited by those wishing to export arms irresponsibly,” Clinton said in a written statement.

While praising the Obama administration’s decision to overturn the Bush-era policy and to proceed with negotiations to regulate conventional arms sales, some groups criticized the U.S. insistence that decisions on the treaty be unanimous.

“The shift in position by the world’s biggest arms exporter is a major breakthrough in launching formal negotiations at the United Nations in order to prevent irresponsible arms transfers,” Amnesty International and Oxfam International said in a joint statement.

However, they said insisting that decisions on the treaty be made by consensus “could fatally weaken a final deal.”

Treason Revealed Here

God and guns founded country

October 16, 2009

Chuck Norris nails it with this editorial!

God and guns are what our country was founded upon.

But more and more, these pillars of American life and liberty are being attacked and abandoned out of not only sheer bias but also ignorance of our Founding Fathers, the Revolutionary period and our Constitution. These pivotal American rights have become the brunt end of cultural jokes and often are regarded as biased lifestyle components of “rednecks” and rural citizens.

For example, gone but not forgotten is even President Barack Obama’s partiality on the campaign trail in April 2008. You might recall when he addressed the economic hardships, at a private California fundraiser, of those in Pennsylvania, with this quip: “You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years, and nothing’s replaced them. … And it’s not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion … as a way to explain their frustrations.”

Presently, with the Supreme Court back in session and new justice Sonia Sotomayor’s narrow view of the Second Amendment, gun rights are back again on the docket. Two weeks ago, concerning a case out of Chicago, the justices agreed to rule on whether the Second Amendment gives Americans a constitutional right to keep and bear arms that is enforceable against local and state gun laws.

The indifference toward and lack of education and passion regarding all of our Bill of Rights gravely concerns me. And while there is nothing funny about it, it is one of many reasons roughly one-fifth of the 101 short stories are “Freedom” entries in my new book, “The Official Chuck Norris Fact Book,” a fun yet inspirational and educational book in which I share my 101 favorite Chuck Norris “facts” — embedded within five core values: freedom, family, faith, fitness and fight. (It will be released Nov. 1 and is now available for pre-order on Amazon.com for less than $9. Proceeds will go to help http://www.KickStartKids.org.)

Full Article

Sleazy politics: it’s worse than watching sausage-making

October 16, 2009
Anti-gun ObamaCare Now Moves to the Senate Floor
— But Obama does not yet have the 60 votes he needs

Gun Owners of America E-Mail Alert
8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102, Springfield, VA 22151
Phone: 703-321-8585 / FAX: 703-321-8408
http://gunowners.org

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Well, there’s good news and bad news.

If you’ve been listening to the media, you know the bad news.  Senators voted the Baucus version of the ObamaCare bill out the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday, and the legislation now moves to the Senate floor.

So what’s the good news?  President Obama still doesn’t have the 60 votes he needs to overcome a filibuster of his nationalized health care bill.

In brief, the Baucus bill which passed out of committee will hurt you in several ways:

* You will have less money for buying firearms and ammunition. Hopefully, you have $25,900 that you don’t know what to do with — every year.  Because that’s how much the Baucus bill is going to cost an average family of four to pay for a government-mandated ObamaCare policy every year.

That’s right … $25,900 every year!  That will be your cost, according to a Price Waterhouse study of the Baucus legislation.  You will be required to purchase this ObamaCare policy and pay this amount under penalty of law under Baucus’ bill. (Go to http://www.politico.com/static/PPM116_pwc2.html to read the Price Waterhouse study.)

* Anti-gun medical database that can be used to deny your right to purchase firearms. As GOA has warned for several months, the ObamaCare legislation will pump your medical information into the medical database that was created under the stimulus bill earlier this year.

The federal government has already used medical diagnoses (such as PTSD) to deny more than 150,000 military veterans the right to own guns — without their being convicted of a crime or receiving any due process of law.  So don’t be surprised if socialized ObamaCare results in your medical information being used to infringe upon your Second Amendment rights.

* Discrimination against gun owners. ObamaCare legislation in Congress will very likely empower anti-gun bureaucrats to deny medical reimbursements to individuals who engage in supposedly “dangerous” activities, like hunting or keeping loaded weapons for self-defense.  As GOA pointed out in an earlier alert, this type of discrimination against gun owners has already occurred in the homeowner insurance industry. (See documented examples of this at http://gunowners.org/op0231.htm on the GOA website.)

Bottom line:  Don’t be surprised if an Obama-prescribed policy precludes reimbursement of any kind in a household which keeps a loaded firearm for self-defense.

Sleazy politics: it’s worse than watching sausage-making

In order to get a somewhat positive financial analysis from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) kept the details of his health care rationing scheme secret.  He did this by providing the CBO an outline of the legislation, rather than providing real legislative language.

In fact, at the hour that the Senate Finance Committee was being forced to vote on the Baucus bill, the legislative language was still not available!  So the Senate Finance Committee voted on a bill that will take over one-sixth of the American economy without even seeing specific legislative language.

Otto von Bismarck, the first Chancellor of the German Empire, used to say that, “Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made.”

That’s still true today.  In order to get this sleazy effort to the Senate floor without anyone knowing what is in the legislative language, the Senate leadership has developed a really contemptible scheme:

* They will take a totally unrelated piece of legislation — perhaps a bill that deals with AIG bonus legislation — and then amend it with a thousand-page health bill that no one, to this date, has been able to read.

* The Republicans will filibuster this attempt to vote on “secret legislation” — requiring the Democrats to muster 60 votes.  If Democrats are successful in doing so, many of them will be free to vote against the health care bill on final passage, since only 51 votes will be needed for the final passage vote.  These switch-hitting Democrats would then be free to tell their constituents that they “opposed” the anti-gun socialized medicine bill because they voted against it on “final passage” — a nearly irrelevant vote that only requires the assent of 51 senators.

But make no mistake:  The REALLY IMPORTANT VOTE is the one that requires 60 votes.  That’s the vote to end the filibuster (or “invoke cloture”) on the motion to proceed to the secret bill.

At this point, it is not clear that Obama has the 60 votes necessary to overcome a filibuster.  Already, one Democrat, Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, has announced he is opposed to the Baucus plan.

And Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa indicated recently that there may be one more Democrat who is leaning against the bill.

That’s why it’s IMPERATIVE that you contact both of your senators.  Don’t think:  “Oh, my Senator is a Democrat and he’s going to support the President.”  We can’t afford to think that way.  All we need to do is pick off one more Democrat Senator and this bill is dead!

At the same time, we need to make sure all the Republicans vote against this anti-gun monstrosity.  Even with liberal Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine defecting, it is still possible to win the war over this legislation.

ACTION: Contact your two U.S. Senators.  Let them know of your disgust for the Baucus bill, and urge them to vote against cloture on the motion to proceed to a “secret” composite bill crafted behind closed doors.

You can use the Gun Owners Legislative Action Center at http://www.gunowners.org/activism.htm to send your senators the pre-written e-mail message below.

—– Pre-written letter —–

Dear Senator:

This may come as a surprise to you.  But most Americans can’t afford $25,900 a year to pay for health insurance under the sleazy bill passed out of the Senate Finance Committee.

According to a Price Waterhouse study, by 2019, the cost of the average family’s government-mandated Obama-drafted health insurance policy — which I would be required to purchase under penalty of law — would be $25,900 A YEAR.  This is a much bigger increase in premiums than if Congress did nothing.

Furthermore, the Congressional Budget Office agrees that premiums would climb faster under the Baucus bill than if Congress did nothing.

Incidentally, please do not try to tell me that the “fines” for not purchasing an ObamaPolicy have been reduced and that I can’t be sent to prison.  This is largely a lie.

An ordinary family would pay $1,500 in fines when the bill fully kicks in.  And, while an amendment added by Senator Charles Schumer says you can’t be sent to prison if you can’t afford the policy, it does NOT say you can’t be sent to prison if you can’t afford the fine.

The next step will be a motion to proceed to a bill which would implement a government takeover of a sixth of the American economy — and put the government in charge of making decisions over whether my family and me live or die.

That motion to proceed will be made at a point when there is no CBO score based on legislation — and possibly no legislative language at all.

I would urge you, in the strongest terms, to vote against that motion to proceed — particularly if there is not a final CBO score BASED ON LEGISLATIVE LANGUAGE.

Please do not vote wrong on this crucial cloture vote — and then expect that you can trick me by voting “no” on a meaningless final passage vote which only requires 50 senators.

Sincerely,