Posts Tagged ‘epic fail obama’

Epic Fail obama: FY 11 Budget

February 6, 2010

Responding to The One’s latest budget proposal, Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) commented from the House floor, “[W]hen I look at the president’s budget for fiscal year 2011 [FY11], I think about what Albert Einstein said one time. He said that ‘doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result’ is the very definition of insanity.” Congressman Pence went on to note how Obama’s budget fits squarely within that definition, including the defense portion of that budget.

While Department of Defense (DoD) and administration staff juggle numbers at the fringes — witness the ongoing discussions over canceling the C17 Globemaster III production line and killing an alternative engine for the F-35 Lightning II — the reality is that both DoD and the administration are happy to continue the status quo.

The evidence? Despite the rhetoric-du-jour, the rubber meets the road with dollars, and notwithstanding pervasive hope ‘n’ change speechifying, virtually nothing has changed with respect to the U.S. defense budget. In this budget submission, for example, military outlays remain virtually unchanged, save a slight increase (less than two percent) over inflation.

Also, the president apparently has included supplemental budget items as an integral part of his FY11 proposal. Translation: The commercial sector’s interfacing with DoD might actually be able to depend on the budget for once rather than having to wait for end-of-year fallout money or congressional plus-ups to end the year in the black. That predictability should mean lower overall costs, rendering savings for national defense.

On the down side, however, we note that neither a new National Security Strategy (NSS) nor National Military Strategy (NMS) — the key “vision” pieces to national security — has been published since 2006. This demonstrates that despite all the hype about “change,” at least with respect to defense, not much is different — save, perhaps, a burning (dare we say, “flaming”) desire to appease the far left by eliminating DoD’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. Therein lies the rub: We have no real vision for tomorrow’s defense, but we face very real military budget tradeoffs today.

Budgets involve choices. What should we buy? What programs should we kill? What should we merely sustain? But these types of questions can’t be answered cogently without an overarching set of objectives. For national defense, those objectives should be articulated in both the NSS and the NMS.

The real issue for the president is determining our focus with respect to national security. Is it fighting a peer/near-peer nation? Is it conducting so-called “overseas contingency operations”? Is it some combination of both? Or is it something else? Unfortunately, the vehicle that should have answered these questions — the Quadrennial Defense Review — has become little more than a political football and/or shill for the service-of-the-hour. What is needed is an objective, disinterested look at the nation’s true national security requirements from an outsider’s perspective. Ultimately, this will lead to rational decision-making when it comes time to draft a viable national defense budget.

Fortunately, the president isn’t cutting the military to the bone, but this fact stands in contrast to the Left’s objectives, so expect considerable push-back on this portion when the budget arrives on House and Senate floors for review.

Barack Obama’s 2011 NASA budget will effectively terminate America’s manned space flight program, leaving space exploration leadership to the Chinese and the Russians. Read more here.

SOURCE
Oh, and the impostor in chief showed his true feelings about respecting the military…


At the National Prayer Breakfast Thursday, the commander in chief not only got a sailor’s name wrong, but couldn’t figure out how to pronounce “corpsman.” Yes, he said “corpse-man.”

Watch the video.


Obama Surrendering Internet to Foreign Powers

February 4, 2010

By golly! Didn’t Al Gore invent it?

Now for the bad news: In an effort to show the world how inclusive, sharing, cooperative, and international America can be, the Obama administration set off on a plan to surrender control and key management of the Internet by the U.S. Department of Commerce and its agents.

Full Story

Justice Alito Was Right: Well duh?

January 31, 2010

Epic fail obama really stepped into it at the SOTU. Once again attempting to pull the wool over the eyes of the American people…

Despite claims made by the president, last week’s Supreme Court opinion on campaign finance specifically excludes foreign nationals and foreign-owned corporations from its ruling.

The Supreme Court issued a ruling last week on the campaign finance that is still being discussed all over the country. In fact, it was even mentioned by President Obama at Wednesday night’s State of the Union address. The high court invalidated its own 20-year-old ruling — which had upheld a one hundred-year-old statute on group political contributions — and it also invalidated a portion of the McCain-Feingold Campaign finance law.

The 20-year-old ruling had forbidden any political spending by groups such as corporations, labor unions, and advocacy organizations (like the NRA and Planned Parenthood, for example). Ruling that all persons, individually and in groups, have the same unfettered free speech rights, the court blasted Congress for suppression of that speech. In effect, the court asked, “What part of ‘Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech’ does Congress not understand?” Thus, all groups of two or more persons are free to spend their own money on any political campaigns and to mention the names of the candidates in their materials.

Full Story

Epic Fail obama throws a temper tantrum

January 30, 2010

The impostor in chief acted like a two year old when he showed up at a GOP retreat. Just what we need in a POTUS right?

WASHINGTON – President Obama dove headfirst into the belly of the GOP beast Friday – and left the not-so-loyal opposition bleeding on a Baltimore ballroom floor.

He skewered Republicans for obstructionist tactics, dubious facts and a lack of civility in opposing his domestic agenda, especially health care reform.

Let’s see Mister President. You can’t seemtofigure it out, so I will address just a few of the issues that have the people of America not just angry, but thoroughly ticked off at you, and your gang of thugs!
  • Health care is for us to decide about not you, or any of your czars!
  • Cap and trade is nothing but a money making scheme that will cripple our economy even further.
  • Man made climate change is a farce. Call it what it is and get on with business…
  • Your closet attempts at gun control will only lead to a full blown revolution. Molan Labe!
  • The American people are against illegal immigration as well as any sort of amnesty for those that broke our laws. Figure it out bright boy!
  • Taking over private business’s should be done through our quasi free market system, not by politicians.
  • We really are in a war on terrorism, and as of late most terrorist’s are muslims. Admit it, and do your job as CIC.
  • Americans do not bow to foreign leaders, ever!
  • The stealth approach to gun control via the U.N. isn’t so stealthy, read above.
  • You hired a pervert to be “safe schools czar?”
  • The economy will not be helped by more Keynesian socialism. Stop spending our grandchildren’s  heritage.
  • Lastly, stop blaming Bush, it’s your agenda now.

No Mister obama, it’s not the Republicans. It is the American People that are against you, your programs, and the thugs that you have working on your team…

Epic Fail obama: The State of dis-union

January 28, 2010

Last evening I wanted to puke as I listened to epic fail obama. What follows, by Mark Alexander sums it up better than I could ever call out the impostor in chief!

State of the Union: Obama v. Constitution

“The duty imposed upon him to take care, that the laws be faithfully executed, follows out the strong injunctions of his oath of office, that he will ‘preserve, protect, and defend the constitution.’ The great object of the executive department is to accomplish this purpose; and without it, be the form of government whatever it may, it will be utterly worthless for offence, or defence; for the redress of grievances, or the protection of rights; for the happiness, or good order, or safety of the people.” –Justice Joseph Story

The ObamaPrompter

In the wake of Barack Hussein Obama’s first State of the Union address, much of the critical analysis from Republicans posited that he should do “this” instead of “that.”

Unfortunately, when there is no more constitutional authority for a president to do this rather than that, Republicans fail to distinguish themselves from Democrats since both parties are then advocating unlawful extra-constitutional policies.

Obama’s SOTU teleprompters fed him a steady stream of poll-tested rhetoric, none of which comports with the authority granted the Executive Branch, unless, of course, one subscribes to the adulterated “living constitution” as amended by judicial diktat.

Predictably, Obama offered only Socialist solutions to all ills, and not a single suggestion that individual responsibility or the private sector economy should shoulder that burden, at least not without government “incentives,” a.k.a. centralized social and economic planning.

In 6,200 words (second longest SOTU after Bill Clinton — two narcissists who just can’t hear enough of themselves), Obama referred to himself repeatedly, and alleged that he was the anointed spokesman for “we,” the American people, more than 100 times.

On the other hand, he mentioned the Constitution only twice.

First, in his opening remarks Obama said, “Our Constitution declares that from time to time the president shall give to Congress information about the state of our union.”

Correct.

Second, he asserted, “We find unity in our incredible diversity, drawing on the promise enshrined in our Constitution, the notion that we’re all created equal…”

As the Internet meme goes these days: FAIL! Uh, uh, uh, — that “notion” was enshrined in our Declaration of Independence, third paragraph, first sentence. One would think that this alleged professor of “Constitutional Law” at the University of Chicago Law School would have noticed such a simple, yet substantial, error.

Our Constitution is devoted to clearly delineating the limited role of the central government from the unlimited rights of the states and the people.

To that end, James Madison, author of our Constitution, wrote, “The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.”

Accordingly, Obama mentions freedom only once, and made absolutely no reference to liberty.

Nowhere in our Constitution is there any authority or provision for these key proposals from Obama’s SOTU:

1. The power to further centralize regulation of our economy.

2. The power to completely regulate our national health care system. (Note: both the Democrat and Republican proposals lack constitutional authority). Obama even repeated his claim that the American people are just not smart enough to get on board: “I take my share of the blame for not explaining it more clearly to the American people.”

3. The power to further regulate and tax the production of CO2.

Obama reiterated his claims that the current recession was caused by “Wall Street,” and then went on to insist that the only hope for ending the recession was government “investment,” a euphemism for taxing money out of the private sector, taking bureaucratic handling fees out, then giving it to political constituencies.

To correctly interpret Obama’s SOTU, you need only filter everything he says through his foremost pledge that the his administration’s charge is the “fundamental transformation of the United States of America.”

That is a line Obama lifted from the primary architect of his Socialist platform, Robert Creamer, who had earlier proclaimed, “If Barack Obama is elected president, then we have the opportunity to fundamentally transform American politics and the economy.”

It’s likely that you’ve never heard of Bob Creamer, because Barack Obama is very adept at concealing his association with his Marxist patrons.

In his younger days, Obama was not concerned about such associations: “I chose my friends carefully,” he wrote. “The more politically active black students; the foreign students; the Chicanos; the Marxist professors and structural feminists and punk-rock performance poets.”

But when he announced his aspirations to become a U.S. senator in 2004, Obama began to cover his tracks. He stopped associating publicly with Leftist colleagues and mentors such as Jeremiah Wright, Michael Pfleger, William Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, Khalid al-Mansour, Rashid Khalidi, Bob Creamer and others.

Creamer is a member of Obama’s Chicago mob, a fellow “community organizer” and disciple of Saul Alinsky. Like all of Obama’s Chicago benefactors, Creamer believes that he is above the law, or, more appropriately, that he is the law in today’s age of the rule of men. But like Tony Rezko, another of Obama’s slick Chicago political backers, Creamer was caught with his hand in the till and was convicted of a felony (bank fraud) back in 2004 when Obama was a state senator. Creamer got a softball sentence, though: five months in a minimum-security facility for white-collar criminals and another 11 months of house arrest.

With all that time on his hands, Creamer authored a book, “How Progressives Can Win,” which, along with Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals,” serves as the template for Obama’s campaign to “fundamentally transform” America.

Obama didn’t use the word “transform” in his SOTU, but he did insist that government must “lay a new foundation for long-term economic growth,” under the pretense of “reform,” in order to “give our people the government they deserve.”

“I campaigned on the promise of change, change we can believe in. I know there are many Americans who aren’t sure if they still believe that I can deliver it. I never suggested that change would be easy … and when you try to do big things and make big changes, it stirs passions and controversy.”

And well, it should.

Though Obama’s efforts to nationalize the nation’s health care sector have been temporarily stalled, he has no intention of giving up, announcing that he is redoubling his efforts to expand central government controls over the private sector under cover of “economic crisis.” As White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.”

Leading up to his SOTU, Obama endeavored to portray himself as a fiscal conservative: “We can’t continue to spend as if deficits don’t have consequences, as if waste doesn’t matter, as if the hard earned tax dollars of the American people can be treated like monopoly money, that’s what we’ve seen time and time again, Washington has become more concerned about the next election than the next generation.”

This is subterfuge.

Obama endeavors to portray himself as a constitutional conservative: “We will lead in the observance of … the rule of law. … Don’t mock the Constitution. Don’t make fun of it. Don’t suggest that it’s not American to abide by what the Founding Fathers set up. It’s worked pretty well for over 200 years.”

This is deception.

Obama endeavors to portray himself as a resolute commander in chief. Regarding Operation Iraqi Freedom he decreed, “Let me say this as plainly as I can: By August 31st, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end.” On Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, he declared, “After 18 months, our troops will begin to come home.” On the treatment of captive terrorists, he says, “I will restore America’s moral standing.” On the Long War with Jihadistan, Obama claims, “The United States is not, and will never be, at war with Islam.”

This is farce.

Obama is a dangerous neophyte in matters of national security, and he shows no signs of improving.

If Republicans really want to defeat Obama’s Leftist agenda, they need to adopt the tried and true conservative message founded on Essential Liberty. Only then can they truly take control of the debate.

And while Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell’s response to Obama’s SOTU address was encouraging, the current crop of Republican leaders continues to play by Democrat rules, attempting to sell a dangerous and debilitating elixir: “We don’t offend the Constitution as bad as they do.”

Bottom line: Republicans must refocus on First Principles and govern accordingly.

Republicans can best distinguish themselves from Democrats by, first and foremost, honoring their sacred oath to “support and defend” our Constitution.

To that end, Obama declared, “If you abide by the law, you should be protected by it.”

True, but on the other hand, if you are not going to abide by the law, you should be impeached.

P.S. If you are going to seat two police officers next to your wife in the gallery, the two who brought down the Ft. Hood jihadi terrorist, you might at least acknowledge them.

Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis!

Mark Alexander
Publisher, PatriotPost.US

State of Disunion : Epic Fail Obama

January 21, 2010

Mark Alexander hits out of the ballpark again, please see the blogroll for the link to The patriot Post.

Alexander’s Essay – January 21, 2010

State of Disunion

“I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” –Article II, Section I, U.S. Constitution

On Wednesday, 27 January, Barack Hussein Obama will deliver his first “State of the Union” speech as president, a self evaluation of his first year’s achievements.

Sprinkled between his infamous “let me be clear” or “make no mistake” introduction to his lies, he will, characteristically, attempt to spin a plethora of failures into something including these phony fallback phrases: back from the brink; signs of recovery; restored our reputation; achieved some successes; more work yet to do; fiscal restraint; greed on Wall Street; affordable health care; relief for working families; job creation.

He’ll also use the word “inherited,” as in “I inherited this mess.” He’ll speak of “unprecedented” reforms or achievements or challenges. And he’ll mention “those who seek to do us harm,” but he won’t dare utter the term “Islamic terrorists.”

In advance of his teleprompted propaganda, then, let’s take a reality check on Obama and his first year.

Never before in the history of our great nation has any sitting president held so much disregard and outright contempt for our Constitution and Rule of Law.

Perhaps the operative words in his oath were, “to the best of my ability”?

Of course, what were we to expect from a Marxist, whose views on government and economy were shaped by his surrogate father and communist mentor, Frank Marshall Davis; whose first campaign for political office was launched by Maoist anarchists William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn; whose political career has been stewarded by the likes of Leftists Richard Daley, Michael Pfleger, Khalid al-Mansour, Rashid Khalidi, et al.

And don’t forget his religious mentor, Jeremiah Wright, who married Barack and Michelle and baptized their children.

Wright preached hate, plain and simple: “The government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color. The government gives [black people] drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strikes law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America.’ No, no, no, g-d d— America. G-d d— America for treating our citizens as less than human. G-d d— America.”

Wright sermonized that our great nation is in fact the “U.S. of KKK-A” and is “controlled by and run by rich white people. Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run. We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in god. And god has got to be sick of this sh-t!”

How did Obama respond when asked about his pastor’s perennial anti-American tirades? “It sounds like he was trying to be provocative,” concludes Obama.

At a foundational level, Obama’s ability and his agenda have been shaped first and foremost by his condition as a pathological narcissist, a young man driven by a blinding need for acceptance and its coefficient, power — the result of a childhood characterized by his father’s, and then stepfather’s, rejection.

It should be noted that the young Barry Obama did not ask for or deserve the hardship he suffered as a child any more than millions of other children abandoned by their fathers today. In that respect, he deserves our compassion.

However, Obama’s insatiable pathological need for power renders him a very dangerous person in power.

He was elected on a promise that should have served as a warning sign: “This is our moment, this is our time to turn the page on the policies of the past, to offer a new direction. We are fundamentally transforming the United States of America.

He ran his charismatic campaign on a promise of “hope,” but in the words of Patrick Henry, “It is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth — and listen to the song of that siren, till she transforms us into beasts.”

As for “fundamentally transforming” our nation, that is a thinly veiled reference to an outright assault on our Constitution and our Essential Liberty, one that thrusts an ever more powerful central government upon us.

Not since 1860 has the Union been at such odds with the fundamental rights of the States and the People.

Obama’s effort to endow the central government with absolute authority follows his Socialist political playbook, Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals.”

Obama was elected just weeks after an economic collapse which can be tied directly to Leftist economic policies.

His effort to “Reclaim America” involves taxing and borrowing more than a trillion dollars from the private sector, sifting it through the bureaucracies of his political appointees, then “investing” it into the public sector to grow government and pay off his special interest constituencies and other benefactors.

He is plundering private sector resources under the pretense of private sector “job creation.”

He has attempted, with some success, to nationalize, by way of regulation, coercion or “investment,” the major industrial and service segments of the economy — including energy, banking, investment, education, insurance, automotive and real estate — and he has supplanted free enterprise with Socialism.

He is endeavoring to nationalize our nation’s largest single economic sector, health care, and he laughs off any suggestion that there is no constitutional authority for such folly. Moreover, the House version creates 111 new oversight bureaucracies. (1)

He has attempted to advance his domestic agenda on a global scale under the guise of “climate change.”

Further, Obama’s national security failures present even greater peril to life and liberty.

Coddling Islamic extremists, bowing to Saudi kings, apologizing to the world, politicizing terrorist interrogation methods at Gitmo, treating terrorism as “criminal activity” and moving the trial of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to New York, using Operation Enduring Freedom as campaign fodder and setting a timeframe for withdrawal from Afghanistan — these and many more grossly errant policy decisions served only to hinder and demoralize us and our allies while empowering and emboldening our enemies, thus enabling jihadi attacks such as the murder of 12 soldiers, one civilian, and an unborn baby at Ft. Hood, and the narrowly averted bombing of a U.S. airliner this past Christmas Day.

Of course, there were other ridiculous gaffes, like the one at his last public press conference (six months ago), when he offered his impromptu assessment of the arrest of his friend, Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, by claiming that the Cambridge Police “acted stupidly.” His subsequent “beer summit” was a forced and feeble attempt at damage control.

And then there was the Nobel Peace Prize, a ridiculous Euro-leftist albatross of an award that was bestowed upon Obama just days after he ascended to the presidency.

Were it not for the threat of unbridled laughter, Obama’s SotU address might also reflect on some of the most egregious prevarications from his brief tenure.

On his plans for massive government expansion: “Not because I believe in bigger government — I don’t.”

On his grand Socialist schemes: “I’ve never bought into these Malthusian, woe, Chicken Little, the earth is falling — I tend to be pretty optimistic.”

On the so-called “stimulus package” (i.e., record debt): “Less than one month after taking office, we enacted the most sweeping recovery package in history, and we did so without any of the earmarks, pork-barrel projects that are usually accompanying these big — these big bills.”

On bailouts for behemoth auto producers: “Let me be clear. The United States government has no interest in running GM. We have no intention of running GM.”

On his friends at ACORN: “You know, it’s — frankly, it’s not really something I’ve followed closely. I didn’t even know that ACORN was getting a whole lot of federal money.”

On blame shifting: “You haven’t seen me out there blaming the Republicans.”

On taxes: “I will tax just the rich. I want to give a tax cut to the middle class.”

On the cost of ObamaCare: “It won’t add to the deficit. And I mean it! … It’s designed to lower it!” And how about this one: “I have not said I am in favor of a single-payer system.”

On the transparency of his health care “reform” deliberations: “It’s going to be on C-SPAN.”

On jobs (record unemployment): “My administration has created or saved… [ad nauseam].” (2)

On the political influence of grassroots Tea Party participants: “Those people waving their little tea bags around…”

Clearly, Obama has underestimated the influence of those who support America’s First Principles. In addition, he has also grossly misread his mandate as the heir of the once-noble Democratic Party.

These miscalculations were manifest in the recent Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial elections, and again this week in Massachusetts.

Who woulda thunk it — that in the most liberal state of the union, whose legislature hastily amended laws so the governor could immediately appoint a Demo replacement for the seat vacated by the U.S. Senate’s most liberal member, Ted Kennedy, who had occupied the seat for 47 years since the departure of his brother, JFK, and whose life ambition was to nationalize health care, whose designated replacement, Martha Coakley ran on his platform — who woulda thunk that a Democrat who just weeks ago held a 30-point lead in the polls would be defeated by Scott Brown, a moderate Republican state legislator of the Mitt Romney variety, who ran on a platform against nationalized health care?

Clearly, the loss of a Senate seat in Massachusetts is a major reality check for Obama. When asked about the rising rejection of his “vision” for America, Obama responded, “I think the assumption was if I just focus on policy, if I just focus on this provision or that law or if we’re making a good rational decision here, then people will get it.”

In other words, “The people are just too dumb.”

And speaking of “the people,” when Scott Brown was asked in his last debate with Coakley if he would be willing to “sit in Teddy Kennedy’s seat” and vote against the health care bill, he responded, “Well, with all due respect, it’s not the Kennedy seat, and it’s not the Democrats’ seat, it’s the people’s seat.”

Every Republican and Independent running for election or re-election in 2010 should, first, take that cue from Brown — the seats they seek belong to the people. Second, they should take a cue from Ronald Reagan, who left a timeless template for success: Run on a platform that, first and foremost, insists on the re-establishment of constitutional Rule of Law, and then governs accordingly.

For too long, too many Americans have been complacent about liberty, believing it to be their birthright and the birthright of generations to come. They have enjoyed the fruit of liberty defended by others, taking rights for granted and knowing nothing of the obligations for maintaining that blessing.

Most Americans have never had to fight for liberty and, thus, have little concept of its value or any sense of gratitude for its accumulated cost — a cost paid by generations of Patriots who have pledged their Lives, their Fortunes and their Sacred Honor.

The election of Barack Hussein Obama was an egregious affront to our legacy of Essential Liberty, and a clarion call to action for the many good citizens who honor the rights and obligations of citizenship.

As was the case with the first American Revolution, we now face a crucial battle for liberty. The upcoming elections, more than any other in recent history, are about the restoration of constitutional integrity.

Indeed, fellow Patriots, this is our time. The road to recovery is long, but the momentum is with us.

Footnotes: 1. With the election of Brown, ObamaCare in its present form is dead, but expect Obama to call for passage of revised legislation, which has support of both Republicans and Democrats. Once passed, it can then be readily amended.

2. Credit where credit due — Obama’s recovery plan has not created any real jobs, but it did secure new employment for at least three Republicans: One in Virginia, one in New Jersey and now one in Massachusetts.

Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis!

Mark Alexander
Publisher, PatriotPost.US

The Fat Lady Sang, and Martha Coakley isn’t her name!

January 20, 2010

There are few times in life when something truly historical happens, and fewer still when there is a social upheaval that restores freedom and liberty.

The utter arrogance of the democrats was their downfall. But who would have thought that the peoples republic of Massachusetts would have thrown the bums out? Decent liberty loving Americans from across the nation, that is who. Martha Coakley is no law and order champion as portrayed by some supporters. She is a sexist that practices mysandry from her position of power. A closet Marxist, and supports some of the most egregious policies that ignore, and or destroys the Constitutional protections of Americans. Led by the nose by epic fail obama she received her just desserts. The fat lady sang in Massachusetts. Will she once again stand, and sing America the beautiful this coming November? We must, as always remain vigilant.

On behalf of the 4 million members of the National Rifle Association, we would like to offer congratulations to Senator-elect Scott Brown on his hard-fought and well-deserved victory in the Massachusetts U.S. Senate Special Election. We would like to thank all gun owners, hunters and NRA members in the Bay State for seizing this unique opportunity to elect a supporter of our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms to the U.S. Senate.

Scott Brown‘s victory is a stunning defeat for gun control extremists, including the Massachusetts-based “Stop Handgun Violence”, who spent significant manpower in an unsuccessful attempt to try and turn out anti-gun voters for Martha Coakley. Their crass attempts to misrepresent Brown’s record — a record that in stark contrast to Coakley’s, has been tough on criminals yet supportive of the rights of law-abiding Massachusetts gun owners — clearly failed.

Again, the NRA congratulates Senator-elect Brown on his outstanding and historic victory.

SOURCE
Related: Back to basics
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Related: Economy and the election

Lautenberg and Bloomberg’s terrorist watch list

January 18, 2010

This is a tad stale, what with all the hoopla over the special election, and soon to be apparent thuggery employed by Martha the mysandryist Coakley, and epic fail obama in the get out the vote pogrom. But, this is precisely what happens when you elect big government authoritarian Chicago style politicians to positions where they can wreck havoc.

As we’ve reported before, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), encouraged by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, wants to prohibit anyone on the FBI’s terrorist watchlist from possessing a firearm. Yet, the list and its criteria are secret, and Lautenberg’s bill would criminalize the exercise of a constitutionally protected right while denying a person the opportunity to clear himself of accusations in a fair and open hearing before a court of law. Even today, thousands of people who aren’t terrorists cannot prevent the list from misidentifying them, causing them delays and embarrassment when trying to board commercial aircraft.

It’s one thing when an adult gets the run-around at an airport, because he or she has a name identical or similar to someone the FBI is watching. As the American Civil Liberties Union has pointed out, the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) “automatic selectee” list — its list of people who are not permitted to board an aircraft without being given the once-over by the agency’s machines and uniformed, latex-gloved personnel — is based on people’s names, not on physical factors like age.

But when the system is so unorganized that it cannot distinguish a kid from a terrorist, what’s going on here? Yesterday, the New York Times reported that for the last six or seven years, one of Lautenberg’s constituents — eight-year-old New Jersey Cub Scout Michael “Mikey” Hicks — hasn’t been able to get on a plane without being patted down like your average neighborhood hubcap thief with his palms on the hood of a police cruiser and a nightstick between his legs. Repeatedly mistaken for someone on the FBI’s terrorist watchlist since he was two years old, Mikey’s encounters with the federal government have consisted of, as his mother puts it, “Up your arms, down your arms, up your crotch, someone is patting your 8-year-old down like he’s a criminal.”

To say that the situation is ironic is a gross understatement. The government can’t or won’t get Mikey’s situation straightened out. And he isn’t alone. The Times says that of nearly 82,000 travelers who have applied through the Department of Homeland Security to get their names cleared from the watchlist during the last three years, 25,000 are still waiting.

Yet, the government failed to add to the TSA’s “no-fly list” the self-proclaimed al Qaeda-trained Nigerian Islamist fanatic who allegedly smuggled military high explosives aboard a plane bound for Detroit on Christmas Day last year and almost blew the plane to kingdom come. As the White House report on the incident concluded, there was enough information to have placed him on the “no-fly list;” he was already in the government’s international terrorist identities database (the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, or TIDE). But, the government failed to recognize that he had a U.S. travel visa (which it could have revoked) because it had misspelled his name.

TSA can spell “Mikey,” however. Despite efforts by the boy’s parents and their congressman to get TSA to straighten out the error, the delays and pat-downs continue. Meanwhile, other non-terrorists tired of their airport delays have been able to get off TSA’s radar screen by changing their names or deliberately misspelling their names when purchasing a ticket.

Irrespective of how this relates to Second Amendment issues, we think — and more and more people are likely to agree — that while our fellow Americans in federal service have prevented virtually all terrorist attacks in the U.S. since the September 11 attacks, numerous problems with the watchlist apparatus remain and it is long past the time that these problems should have been corrected.

Mikey’s case, however, serves to remind us of the potential ramifications for the Second Amendment, if the watchlist is used by the likes of Lautenberg and Bloomberg to their nefarious ends.

SOURCE

What a year it has been: GOA’s State of the Union Update on Gun Rights

January 14, 2010

GOA’s State of the Union Update on Gun Rights
— Despite intense opposition, GOA members made giant strides in 2009

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

“The real gun lobby in Washington is the GOA.” — Senator Tom Coburn, August 14, 2009

Thursday, January 14, 2010
By the end of the month, President Barack Obama is expected to give the State of the Union address.

Oh, what a year it’s been.

It was almost a year ago that President Obama took his oath of office.  But soon after he raised his right hand and promised to “preserve, protect and defend” the Constitution, Americans became engaged in the fight of their lives to safeguard their liberties.  The extremist Obama administration began pushing an anti-gun, socialistic agenda of the kind that most Americans have not seen in their lifetimes.

The President began placing gun-hating radicals in high positions of power — both in the executive department and in the courts — and he pushed a socialistic gun control agenda that kept gun owners busy throughout 2009.

Yet through it all, Gun Owners of America rallied the troops to oppose the President each and every step of the way.  Some battles we lost.  Others we won.  Some are still at a stalemate.

Regardless, this 2009 review should encourage you.  It shows that even though every institution in Washington is slanted against us, we can slow down, stop or reverse the march towards gun control.

And, yes, Gun Owners of America has won some incredible victories.  In some cases, our organization fought these battles alone — although in truth, we haven’t been alone because we represent thousands upon thousands of active gun owners like you who are all determined to preserve our liberties.

In 2010, we need you to stay with us.  It takes less than five minutes to go to http://www.gunowners.org/ordergoamem.htm and sign up.  By doing so, you will be joining — in the words of Senator Tom Coburn — the “real gun lobby in Washington.”

The fight will be intense for another year — at least until the elections this November.  We need you to stand with us to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.

Until then, get ready for 2010 and be encouraged by what we accomplished together in 2009.

January – February

* President Obama nominates an anti-gun radical, Eric Holder, to the office of Attorney General.  GOA releases several alerts to mobilize the grassroots against Holder, and fights a lonely (uphill) battle against the nomination — as GOA is the only national gun rights organization lobbying against Holder.

In the end, Holder is confirmed, but not without cost to the President.  The fight over Holder represents the first step in a long effort to expose the President’s vulnerabilities, as his Approval Index drops more than 10 points during his first two weeks in office.  Leading up to the inauguration, Barack Obama was practically deified by many around the country, but now he is increasingly seen as being unable to shoot straight in selecting cabinet members.  By the end of the year, the President’s support will have dropped well below 50 percent.

* In a raw power grab, congressional Democrats try to gain three more seats in Congress (one in the House and two in the Senate) by bringing up the DC Voting Rights Act for a vote.  Three more legislators from Washington, DC would, undoubtedly, mean three more ferocious anti-gunners in Congress.

But GOA works with Republican Senator John Ensign of Nevada to attach a provision to the bill repealing the DC gun ban.  The Ensign amendment passes in the Senate, causing the overall Voting Rights bill to be extremely distasteful to House Democrats.  The bill passes the Senate, but is pronounced D.O.A. in the House.

* GOA’s Larry Pratt appears on Fox Cable News’ Glenn Beck program to highlight the dangers of HR 45, a bill that would ban the possession of handguns unless gun owners registered themselves like sex offenders.

March – April

* Following Larry Pratt’s appearance on Fox’s Glenn Beck show, GOA begins its campaign against HR 45, mobilizing gun owners across the nation to inundate Representatives with thousands of postcards against the gun registration bill.  The legislation gains much fanfare in the pro-gun community, and in the Congress the bill remains locked up in committee.

* Even though many in the conservative movement think the passage of a socialized health care is inevitable, GOA issues its first of many alerts to warn gun owners about the dangers contained in the ObamaCare legislation.

May – June

* The members of GOA once again fight a solo battle (among national groups) in the effort to repeal the Reagan-era gun ban in the National Parks.  Gun Owners rallies the troops, asking them to contact their Senators in favor of a repeal amendment authored by Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK).  The amendment passes the Senate and is signed into law by Memorial Day.

Senator Coburn praises the efforts of GOA members, saying that:  “Gun Owners of America was the most consistent and loudest voice on Capitol Hill in support of the effort to repeal the National Park Service gun ban.”

* Gun Owners of America wages another lonely battle to rally gunnies against the President’s anti-gun Supreme Court pick, Sonia Sotomayor.  Even though she was ultimately confirmed, GOA’s grassroots activists were able to help accomplish a tremendous feat.  To wit, there were 31 Republican Senators who opposed Sotomayor — which represents the most overwhelming show of opposition from Senate Republicans against a Supreme Court nominee in at least a generation.

* Gun Owners of America works in Tennessee to enact the nation’s first Firearms Freedom Act, a law mandating that guns which are made (and stay) in the state are exempt from federal gun restrictions.  Tennessee’s law is the first of its kind to become law, even though Montana was the first state to take up the issue.  Tennessee’s law went into effect in June of last year; Montana’s law in October.

July – September

* Gun Owners of America engages in a grassroots campaign to lobby squishy Republican Senators who are trying to reach a compromise on ObamaCare.  GOA’s message is:  We don’t want any socialized health care that can be used to infringe upon the rights of gun owners.  This campaign would ultimately be successful as every Republican would soon announce their opposition to — and vote against — the health care bill.

* The media begins picking up on GOA’s campaign against ObamaCare.  The newspaper of record on Capitol Hill reports that, “The Gun Owners of America group, which boasts more than 300,000 members, has been warning its ranks that the proposed healthcare legislation would compile the information of Americans into a government database.” (The Hill, August 21, 2009.)

* Another media outlet reports that, “Gun Owners of America (GOA) has been alone on the national stage in warning of the dangers of centralized health care to the rights of gun owners.” (Examiner.com, September 3, 2009)

* GOA spearheads a victorious campaign to support the Amtrak amendment in the U.S. Senate.  This amendment, offered by Republican Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi, allows law-abiding gun owners to safely and legally transport firearms when they travel on Amtrak.  The amendment is successfully attached to the transportation bill by a filibuster-proof margin of 63-35 and is later signed into law (in December).

October – November

* Gun Owners of America mounts an all-out offensive to rally gun owners to oppose the ObamaCare bill in the U.S. House of Representatives.  The bill passes narrowly by five votes.

* Given the increased media attention of GOA’s position — and the narrow vote in the House — the White House launches a broadside against GOA’s arguments, claiming there are no gun rights threats in the health care bill.  GOA publicly responds to the White House’s erroneous claims right before the Thanksgiving break.

Ironically, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will affirm GOA’s position less than a month later by including an amendment in the Senate version of the bill supposedly designed to allay gun owners’ concerns.  While the Reid “fix” will help in some small ways, it still leaves the majority of GOA’s concerns unaddressed.

* Gun Owners of America and Gun Owners Foundation file an amicus brief in the United States Supreme Court in support of four Chicago residents who are seeking to invalidate a city ordinance prohibiting them from owning or possessing a handgun in their own home (McDonald v. Chicago).  Oral arguments before the Court are scheduled for March 2, 2010.

December

* The very liberal Slate magazine ruefully declares:  “Score one for the Gun Owners of America” (December 20, 2009).  Slate’s declaration recognizes the fact that Majority Leader Harry Reid has tried to appease gun owners by placing a pro-gun “fix” in the bill.  But as mentioned earlier, the “fix” is more of a first step, as it falls short of addressing all the problems GOA has with the bill.

Senate Democrats later overcome a Republican filibuster with no votes to spare.  But despite this defeat, the ObamaCare legislation still has a long way to go.  GOA will continue to fight this bill — and all other attempts to enact gun control at the federal level — in 2010.

GOA will also be ramping up its efforts at the state level this year, most notably in leading the charge for Firearms Freedom and genuine (Alaska-style) carry reform.

PLEASE CONTINUE TO STAND WITH GOA THIS YEAR!

The ability of GOA to continue putting pressure on politicians depends on loyal activists like you. GOA has been the national leader when it comes to opposing the gun control in the socialized health care bill.

But don’t just take our word for it… listen to what others have been saying.  The media has declared that Gun Owners of America “has been alone on the national stage” and has “scored” legislative victories for gun owners.  Senator David Vitter (R-LA) said that, “GOA has led the national gun rights organizations in actively opposing Mr. Holder’s nomination….”

Our philosophy is to fight gun control without compromising our rights.  That’s why Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) has called GOA the “only no-compromise gun lobby” in the nation’s capital.

We can only continue fighting for your rights as long as you continue to fight with us. You can stand with us today by joining GOA or renewing your existing membership at http://www.gunowners.org/ordergoamem.htm

Thank you for your support!

Judgement Day Pledges

January 14, 2010

Do you like having things rammed down your throat? Like obamacare? I don’t give a damn if it’s prime rib I don’t want the government forcing me to buy anything…

CITIZENS: “I hereby pledge that if any federal health care takeover is passed in 2010, I will support – with my time, money, and vote – only candidates who pledge to support its repeal and replacement with real reforms that lower health care costs without growing government.”

LAWMAKERS: “I hereby pledge to the people of my state/district to sponsor and support legislation to repeal any federal health care takeover passed in 2010, and replace it with real reforms that lower health care costs without growing government.”

CANDIDATES: “I hereby pledge to the people of my state/district, upon my election to the House/Senate, to sponsor and support legislation to repeal any federal health care takeover passed in 2010, and replace it with real reforms that lower health care costs without growing government.”

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