“Even America’s bitterest enemies understand why we mark July 4th with parades, speeches and fireworks: to celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence. We’re proud of our nation, and justifiably so. So why do we virtually ignore September 17th? That’s the date, in 1787, when our Founding Fathers signed the Constitution. … Yet today, on many issues, this vital document is frequently ignored, even undermined, by some of the very people who have taken a public oath to uphold it.” –Heritage Foundation president Ed Feulner
“While America’s liberal elite have not reached the depths of tyrants such as Lenin, Stalin, Mao and Hitler, they share a common vision and, as such, differ only in degree but not kind. Both denounce free markets and voluntary exchange. They are for control and coercion by the state. They believe they have superior wisdom to the masses and they have been ordained to forcibly impose that wisdom on the rest of us. They, like any other tyrant, have what they see as good reasons for restricting the freedom of others.” –economist Walter E. Williams
“Why has the left directed so much time and effort into demonizing ordinary Americans? Because the Tea Party’s three primary planks — limited government, fiscal responsibility and Constitutional fealty — represent the greatest threat to liberalism since its flowering in the 1960s. A smaller, fiscally responsible government dedicated to a Constitution expressly designed to limit the power of the state is the death knell for those dedicated to the idea their worldview must be imposed on Americans by an ever-expanding state. The left’s worst nightmare is an America comprised of largely self-sufficient, clear-thinking individuals left to their own devices.” –columnist Arnold Ahlert
“Nearly all of the tax cuts Americans have seen the past year and a half advance some liberal moral or social good. The overriding goal of the stimuli and tax breaks — from the things we build to the jobs we save to the tax credits we get — is to pick economic winners, steer us in the right direction and wheedle citizens to be good boys and girls. To offer comprehensive, amoral cuts would be to admit ideological defeat. … This president would never surrender to such indignity.” –columnist David Harsanyi
“If you read this weekend’s New York Times’ hit job on would-be Speaker John Boehner and his ‘lobbyist friends,’ you might think, as the reporter clearly thinks, that John Boehner is cozier with lobbyists than most powerful politicians are. But did you know: · Nancy Pelosi has raised almost twice as much money from lobbyists this election as Boehner has? · At least 18 House Democrats have raised more lobbyist cash this election than Boehner has. · Chuck Schumer and Harry Reid have pocketed more lobbyist cash in the past 18 months than Boehner has raised in the past 6 elections, combined?” –columnist Timothy Carney
Huge Win in Delaware! — Christine O’Donnell Adds to String of GOA Victories
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
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Gun Owners of America-backed candidate Christine O’Donnell completed a dramatic come-from-behind victory in Tuesday’s Delaware Senate primary.
O’Donnell was up against a member of Congress who earned the notorious distinction as the most anti-gun Republican in the House. But despite the backing of the Republican establishment in Washington, Mike Castle was handily defeated by pro-gunner O’Donnell.
The implications of this win are huge, not only for the next session of Congress, but also in a potential lame-duck session later this year. Because this is a special election to fill the seat of Vice-President Joseph Biden, O’Donnell will take office immediately following the November election if she defeats her Democrat opponent.
Anti-gun congressional Democrat leaders seem intent on a lame duck session, but the addition of just a single constitutionalist to the Senate will go a long way towards stopping any gun control from sneaking through in the waning days of 2010.
Unfortunately, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) has already tried to pull the rug out from under Christine O’Donnell by announcing that the Committee will not support her campaign in the general election. It is an outrage that the NRSC would have spent millions of dollars on an anti-gunner, while it is not interested in helping a pro-gun constitutionalist.
But Christine won the primary without their help, and GOA will be sure to work with its grassroots network to drive support to the O’Donnell campaign. You can contact NRSC Chairman John Cornyn at info@nrsc.org to express your outrage at this decision.
Also on Tuesday, Ovide Lamontagne defeated the establishment candidate in the Republican primary in New Hampshire, in a race to replace retiring anti-gun Senator Judd Gregg. Lamontagne also earned the endorsement of GOA.
The O’Donnell and Lamontagne wins add to a string of victories for GOA-backed candidates this year in Senate primaries in Nevada, Kentucky, Utah, Colorado, as well as the non-primary in Florida (where Marco Rubio chased Gov. Charlie Crist out of the primary — and out of the Republican Party).
All of the candidates supported by GOA-PVF were opposed by the Republican establishment in their respective primaries. And all of these candidates agree with Gun Owners of America that it is not enough simply to defeat anti-gunners in elections. They must also be replaced with leaders who will fight to restore Constitutional liberties that have been under attack for decades. (You can visit www.goapvf.org to keep up with GOA candidates.)
It is safe to say that the 2010 elections may be the most important in our lifetimes, with America’s constitutional republic hanging in the balance.
And make no mistake, if establishment Republicans like Mike Castle were victorious in their primaries, it would not matter which party was in control of Congress. Both parties in Washington are guilty of growing the federal government at the expense of the peoples’ liberty.
But candidates supported by GOA — pro-freedom champions like O’Donnell, Sharron Angle, Rand Paul, and Marco Rubio, to name just a few — have no intention of coming to Washington to blend into the woodwork. If most or all of these candidates win in November, it will go a long way toward slamming the brakes on the anti-gun, socialist Obama agenda.
So we are really in the midst of exciting times, and GOA is looking forward to working with a slew of new members of Congress to protect and restore the right to keep and bears arms as the Founders intended.
Of course, GOA is only effective because of the activism and support of hundreds of thousands of members and supporters.
If you are not yet a member of the organization called “the only no compromise gun lobby in Washington,” please consider joining GOA today for a minimum contribution of only $20 at http://gunowners.org/ordergoamem.htm.
In Liberty,
Tim Macy
Vice-Chairman
PS — Please don’t forget to express your outrage at NRSC Chairman John Cornyn’s decision NOT to support pro-gunner Christine O’Donnell in the general election, now that she won the primary. You can email info@nrsc.org to send a message.
“On Thursday the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) announced the federal budget deficit for 2010 will exceed $1.3 trillion. This is already on the heels of a 2009 budget deficit of $1.2 trillion and on top of a national debt of some $13.3 trillion. The word ‘trillion’ seems to have, almost overnight, crept into our standard economic parlance and by the looks of it is here to stay. And with the CBO’s forecast of more than $6 trillion in federal budget deficits accruing over the next nine years from 2010 to 2019, many are logically wondering if the United States has effectively crossed, or is fast approaching, a virtual economic point of no return — an economic Rubicon if you will.” –columnist Matt O’Connor
“[P]rogressively over these three decades the Republican party has exempted every material component of the budget from cuts, including middle-class entitlements, defense, veterans, education, housing, farm subsidies, and even Amtrak! Like Casey, the GOP has been in the anti-spending batter’s box for 30 years, and has never stopped whiffing the ball. The final proof is that the one GOP spending cut plan with any integrity — the ‘roadmap’ of Congressman Paul Ryan — has the grand sum of 13 co-sponsors, and I dare say half would call in sick if it ever came to a vote.” –former Reagan budget director David Stockman
“Why isn’t the economy recovering? After previous recessions, unemployment didn’t get stuck at close to 10 percent. If left alone, the economy can and does heal itself, as the mistakes of the previous inflationary boom are corrected. The problem today is that the economy is not being left alone. Instead, it is haunted by uncertainty on a hundred fronts. When rules are unintelligible and unpredictable, when new workers are potential threats because of Labor Department regulations, businesses have little confidence to hire. President Obama’s vaunted legislative record not only left entrepreneurs with the burden of bigger government, it also makes it impossible for them to accurately estimate the new burden. In at least three big areas — health insurance, financial regulation and taxes — no one can know what will happen.” –columnist John Stossel
“[T]he conviction that government no longer works for the majority of Americans is spreading like wildfire. That nearly all of President Obama’s major policies have gone against public will is fueling voter anger across the nation.” –columnist Michael Goodwin
“Most elected officials cling to their ideological biases, despite the real-world facts that disprove their theories time and again. Most have no common sense, and most never acknowledge that they were wrong.” –economist Lawrence Kudlow
Politics for Conservatives in Colorado are in a flux this year. Alright, so the whining and moaning about the Governors race may have some reasoning behind it. At this point there really isn’t much that can be done. Read about that mess HERE.
Outgoing Governor Bill Ritter, played politics with his selection for the Colorado Supreme Court.
Colorado’s Supreme Court is out of control…
Repeated rulings by Colorado’s Supreme Court – called the “most activist, partisan state Supreme Court in the nation” – have demonstrated their contempt for the very Constitution they are sworn to uphold.
DID YOU KNOW that you have the right to vote “NO” on these unjust justices?
It’s true – even Supreme Court justices in Colorado ARE accountable to the people. In 2010, FOUR (er, THREE now – since Chief Justice Mullarkey quit rather than face the voters in the November elections) of the current Colorado Supreme Court justices NEED YOUR APPROVAL to be retained on the bench. DON’T GIVE IT TO THEM! Ditch the Mullarkey Majority – Vote “NO” on these unjust justices! (Justices Michael Bender, Alex Martinez, Nancy Rice and Chief Justice Mary Mullarkey)
WANTED:Off the Supreme Court Bench, for Aiding and Abetting
Sorry epic failure, but no, we don’t talk to you like you are a dog. Simply put, it’s the economy stupid! It’s what you and your cronies are doing to the nation. It’s what you are doing to the Constitution that you swore to uphold and defend. It’s about the Bill of Rights. It’s about the rule of law, all laws, not just the cherry picked ones that you happen to like. It’s about you paying off your cronies in the unions and other places. Like the Joyce Foundation and others.
Tuesday’s primaries in Arizona and Alaska pitted well funded and entrenched incumbent Republicans against upstart Tea Party-backed challengers. The Arizona incumbent survived, but the Alaska incumbent is left hoping to make up ground in absentee ballots.
First Arizona. Sen. John McCain, the GOP’s 2008 presidential nominee, faced the fight of his political career against former congressman J.D. Hayworth. Unfortunately, Hayworth turned out to be a weak candidate and McCain’s $21 million media blitz was too much for him to overcome. In the end, the race wasn’t even close, with McCain outspending Hayworth 7-1 and winning nearly 2-1.
Hayworth, now a radio talk-show host, staffed his campaign with Tea Party activists and tried to run to the right of McCain. While in Congress, however, Hayworth had a penchant for earmarks and, after losing re-election in 2006, he participated as a pitchman in a video offering advice on how to get “free money grants” from the federal government. One could argue that earmarks are just part of the game and congressman should fight to get their constituents’ money directed to their own district, but after numerous silly projects have been highlighted over the years, voters are souring on the idea. And pitching “free money”? Not exactly the Tea Party’s core message.
McCain successfully countered Hayworth by running to the right himself. He has been remarkably frugal on earmarks through the years, offsetting any advantage Hayworth might have had on fiscal issues. The senator also moved right on immigration, going so far as to do a commercial along the border in which he called on the federal government to “complete the danged fence.” Of course, McCain’s lifetime American Conservative Union (ACU) rating of 82 is nothing to write home about, and now he’ll be in the Senate for another six years.
In Alaska, incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski trailed upstart Joe Miller by more than 1,600 votes as we went to press. Several thousand absentee ballots remain uncounted, but those are mostly military voters who may lean to Miller. The count may stretch into September.
The Murkowski family has dominated Alaska politics for decades. Lisa’s father, Frank, held one of Alaska’s Senate seats for three terms before winning the governor’s mansion. He then appointed his daughter to fill his seat. Joe Miller, the heavily outspent challenger, is a West Point grad, decorated Gulf War vet and a federal magistrate backed by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. If he pulls off the upset, it would count as the second major knockout of the Murkowski clan for Palin, who beat Frank Murkowski in the GOP primary for governor in 2006.
To put it in generous terms, Murkowski is a moderate. Her lifetime ACU rating is a paltry 70 and 2009 only brought that lower. She half-heartedly opposed ObamaCare but refused to rule out a government-run system. She declared in a debate with Miller that the nation could suffer if the government funded only those things enumerated in the Constitution.
That sums up the debate: Are we a nation under the Rule of Law, or the rule of men? Is government limited by the Constitution, or can it, in the words of Rep. Pete Stark, “do most anything in this country.” We know that the debate is over in the Democrat party — to them, government can do anything a majority can pass. Republicans like Lisa Murkowski and John McCain all too often agree. This primary season and the upcoming election, however, provide an opportunity for constitutional conservatives to begin righting the ship.
Granted this is a little late folks. I’m still playing catch up. Contrast this with my earlier post about Matt Mead here in Wyoming.
GOA Scores Another Win in Tuesday’s Primaries
— Colorado’s Ken Buck Joins Growing List of Pro-gun Candidates
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
As we inch closer to the all-important 2010 general election, Gun Owners of America Political Victory Fund added one more name to the list of candidates who will come to Washington to slam the brakes on the Obama/Pelosi/Reid gun control agenda.
In Tuesday’s Republican primary in Colorado, Ken Buck won a hard fought victory with 52% of the vote.
Late in the campaign, Buck’s opponent criticized him for standing up for the rights of gun dealers when he worked as a federal prosecutor. In 1999, a U.S. Attorney appointed by President Clinton engaged in politically motivated prosecutions of several Colorado gun dealers. Buck took a bold stand to protect these businessmen and their Second Amendment rights in the aftermath of the horrific Columbine shooting.
Ken Buck’s victory is the latest in a string of wins for GOA-endorsed candidates.
In May, GOA-PVF supported Rand Paul in a primary against the hand-picked candidate of the Washington Republican establishment. Paul coasted to victory, defeating his opponent by more than twenty percentage points.
Dr. Paul, an eye surgeon, faces Democrat career politician Jack Conway.
GOA-PVF also opposed the reelection of long-time incumbent Senator Bob Bennett of Utah. Bennett went down in defeat at a Republican Party state convention in May. Solid pro-gunner Mike Lee is favored to win the general election.
Another GOA-PVF candidate, Marco Rubio of Florida, avoided a primary altogether when his opponent dropped out of the Republican primary to run as an Independent.
And in what is the most watched, and maybe most important race in the country, GOA-PVF candidate Sharron Angle emerged victorious from a grueling three-way primary. Mrs. Angle, a staunch, conservative pro-gun former state legislator, will take on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in November.
There are still several more Senate primaries to go before November. J.D. Hayworth in Arizona and Christine O’Donnell in Delaware is running against one of the most anti-gun members of Congress, Mike Castle.
GOA-PVF is also supporting Carly Fiorina, who is running against Sen. Barbara Boxer — one of the most anti-gun members of the U.S. Senate.
The 2010 elections may be the most important votes we cast in our lifetimes. To learn more about all of the candidates GOA-PVF is supporting, please visit www.goapvf.org.
“The October Surprise. We all know it’s coming. In what shape, idea, form — who’s to say? Evil always surprises. Its goals are constant, the ultimate objective never changes, but inevitably it manifests itself as the savior of the day, the savior of man. The 2008 Democrat October Surprise that ushered in the first hardcore radical post-American president in American history was the ‘economic collapse.’ Oh yes, that was a beaut. The time before that, the moochers and the looters tried to fake Bush documents — except that the conservative blogosphere caught them red-handed, so they missed their mark. But the party of haters, infiltrators, anti-capitalists, the party that is anti-freedom and anti-individual rights, is going to have to pull off something really catastrophic to stay in power this November. And they will, because it is abundantly clear now that they despise the premise of America and they mean to replace it with statism, the source of untold, incomprehensible human misery for centuries. … They build nothing, produce nothing, create nothing, invent nothing. They steal. They demand. They demoralize. They are destroyers. What will October’s Surprise be?” –columnist Pamela Geller
“Turn out the lights, the party’s over” Has the fat lady sang her song? I myself think it’s a bit early to be saying that. Not to mention that between now and “Judgment Day 2010” an awful lot of damage can be done by the neo-communist that are running things at present. Also despite the current thrills being enjoyed by the election of Scott Brown, he is a Massachusetts conservative, as exemplified by his voting record. That puts him somewhere to the left of RINO John McCain…
From the ‘Non Compos Mentis’ File
“You know, I was trying to think about who [Barack Obama] was tonight, and it’s interesting: He is post-racial by all appearances. You know, I forgot he was black tonight for an hour.” –MSNBC host Chris “thrill up my leg” Matthews, with a slobbering sycophantic (and genuinely racist) analysis of the SOTU
Election Preview: Democrats
Democrats have experienced a nearly unprecedented reversal of fortune lately, and the bad news just keeps on coming. Arkansas Representative Marion Berry became the sixth Democrat to announce his retirement, and his district is expected to go Republican in November. He told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that he urged the White House not to repeat the mistakes of 1994, when congressional Democrats were defeated resoundingly at the polls. He said Obama fired back, “Well, the big difference here and in ’94 was, you’ve got me.”
The arrogance necessary to make that kind of comment suggests that Obama has been tapping the keg of his own Kool-Aid. Given the disastrous results of his efforts on behalf of gubernatorial candidates in Virginia and New Jersey, and on behalf of Ted Kennedy’s senatorial heir apparent in deep-blue Massachusetts, he’s vastly overestimating his marquee value. His much-vaunted health care plan is all but dead, and now House and Senate Democrat leaders will be lucky to keep more members from retiring early. So maybe the “big difference” Obama was referring to is the loss of even more than 54 seats in the House.
Even Vice President Joe Biden’s son Beau has seen the writing on the wall. He announced this week that he would not run for the Senate seat vacated when his father became VP. Beau, who is Delaware’s Attorney General, indicated that he’s just too busy with a controversial child abuse case to focus on a statewide race. Yeah, right. If the Democrats in Massachusetts can’t keep the “Kennedy Senate seat” that they held for half a century, what chance does the vice president’s son have in Delaware? Republican candidate Mike Castle, a popular congressman and former governor, raised almost $2 million in campaign cash and has run virtually unopposed while Biden was still making up his mind about whether to run.
Election Preview: Republicans
The political landscape indeed favors Republicans, which also means tight races at the primary level. The contest for Florida’s Senate seat has turned into a statistical dead heat between Gov. Charlie Crist and former state House Speaker Marco Rubio. The moderate Crist’s comfortable lead has faded away in recent weeks, as he continues to take heat for Florida’s economic difficulties. The state has double-digit unemployment and was the hardest hit by the housing collapse. Crist’s popularity is dropping and Rubio, a solid conservative, is now closing the gap in the polls and in the cash department. Both candidates are comfortably ahead of Democrat Kendrick Meek.
In Arizona, erstwhile presidential candidate John McCain is facing a challenge for his Senate seat. Former Congressman J.D. Hayworth announced his candidacy, claiming he was motivated to take on McCain because the latter was an “enabler” of Obama’s fiscal policies. McCain certainly is not as conservative as he or the Leftmedia fancy. To name but a few examples, he co-sponsored the McCain-Feingold campaign finance debacle that the Supreme Court partly struck down last week; the McCain-Edwards-Kennedy Patient’s Bill of Rights imposing a new set of onerous mandates on the insurance industry; the McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship cap-and-trade bill; and the McCain-Kennedy Amnesty and Open Borders Act legalizing dozens of millions of illegal aliens. And that’s not to mention his opposition to the Bush tax cuts; his vicious attacks and vendettas against South Carolina Christians in the 2000 presidential primary, as well as the Swift Boat Veterans and Club for Growth; and his vote (one of six Republicans) against drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Of course, Hayworth’s voting record in Congress is nothing worth bragging about, either. He voted for the hefty farm and highway spending bills and also had a penchant for earmarks before he was ousted in 2006. Barry Goldwater, call your office.
Conservative Libertarian Outpost 