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Allies like these: Italy serves up more than spagetti

December 16, 2010

It wasn’t all that long ago that Italy was being pounded on a regular basis by various terrorist organizations. The United States of America stood by Italy in it’s fight with the blood thirsty enemies of freedom and liberty. Often at our own peoples peril. This is how we are repaid for that loyalty.

ROME (AFP) – An Italian court upped the sentences for 23 CIA agents convicted in absentia of abducting an Egyptian imam in one of the biggest cases against the US “extraordinary rendition” programme.

The 23 CIA agents, originally sentenced in November 2009 to five to eight years in prison, had their sentences increased to seven to nine years on appeal in what one of the defence lawyers described as a “shocking blow” for the US.

SOURCE

Now, in all honesty I wouldn’t have bought into the Nuremberg style defense that was presented either. However, we are in a war, and have been for quite some time. Italy, is supposed to be a major ally, fellow member of the N.A.T.O. alliance and all that. So what do they do? Set their own people free based upon national security concerns that were just as involved as our own C.I.A. personnel but sentence our people to prison… Perhaps, in a juvenile sense it might be a bit fun to just let Italy sit and take it on the chin the next few times they get hit with terrorism. But “two wrongs don’t make a right.” Indeed, The United States of America should take the high road and maintain as cordial a relationship as possible.

That said there is a huge Italian demographic here, and those that still have ties to the old country should be talking to the officials in Italy about this issue, and do it like Americans. Loud and proud!

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Posted in Editorial, Opinion, Education, Law, News, Politics, War, Wordpress Political Blogs | Comments Off on Allies like these: Italy serves up more than spagetti

ANTLER COLLECTORS REMINDED OF RESTRICTIONS

December 14, 2010

I have been called a “rollover” for the Colorado Division of Wildlife, and worse in the past. What follows has some very serious problems… I’ll respond to any serious questions about my reservations with this latest episode in beast verses man, and Mankind…

GUNNISON, Colo. — The Colorado Division of Wildlife is reminding antler hunters that the collection of shed antlers in the Gunnison Basin is regulated by strict guidelines.

The purpose of the regulations is to protect vulnerable wildlife species, especially Gunnison sage-grouse and mule deer, explained J Wenum, area wildlife manager in Gunnison.

Collecting shed antlers for commercial use has grown significantly during the last decade in the Gunnison area. The activity can disturb Gunnison sage-grouse during their mating period, and also cause unnecessary harassment of deer and elk on winter range. Collectors are cautioned to know the regulations. Violations could result in confiscation of antlers, a $68 fine and five penalty points against hunting and fishing privileges.

“The Colorado Division of Wildlife takes the disturbance of wildlife species during the critical winter period very seriously,” Wenum said.

Over the years, unscrupulous antler collectors have been observed chasing deer on foot and with snowmobiles, searching areas at night, and going onto private land without permission.

Shed antler collection on public lands in Game Management Units 54, 55, 551, 66 and 67 is closed completely from Jan. 1 through March 14 annually. From March 15 through May 15, collecting is prohibited from sunset to 10 a.m. daily.

The regulations were adopted by the Colorado Wildlife Commission and based on a collaborative petition submitted by the Gunnison Basin Sage Grouse Strategic Committee, Gunnison-area sportsmen and shed antler collectors. The DOW worked closely with those groups to develop the regulations.

The period of the first closure (Jan. 1 to March 14) assures that deer herds and Gunnison sage-grouse are not harassed during the difficult winter months. The second closure period (March 15 to May 15) ensures that Gunnison sage-grouse are not disturbed during the critical early morning hours of their mating period.

The closures will be strictly enforced. Collectors are advised to consult official sunset tables and to obtain accurate public lands maps.

For more information, or to report violations or suspicious activity, call the DOW office in Gunnison at (970) 641-7060.

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


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Posted in Economics, Editorial, Opinion, Education, Hunting Fishing and the Great Outdoors, Law, Local Politics Colorado, News, Non Compos Mentis, Politics, States Rights, Uncategorized, Wordpress Political Blogs | Comments Off on ANTLER COLLECTORS REMINDED OF RESTRICTIONS

obamacare and the Courts…

December 14, 2010

Basic instinct as well as simple logic reveal that the mandated purchase of a product, any product, exceeds the power and authority of government. Yet, as expected, courts are issuing different rulings concerning this abominous assault on the personal liberty and freedom of all Americans.

I can already hear it though; you are just too stupid to be able to understand things like this. It’s just too complicated for you. To that I reply that when laws are beyond the ken of the common man then they are unenforceable, and violate the principles of natural and common law.

Within a fortnight of each other, two federal judges in Virginia, relying on identical precedents and hearing carbon-copy arguments, issued diametrically opposed decisions on the constitutionality of the federal health-care overhaul.

Read side by side, the two rulings reveal strikingly divergent views of what the case is about—and suggest that the fate of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 will rest on which depiction best satisfies the Supreme Court.

Full Story HERE

So what next..? A Supreme Court ruling that will treat all of us as wayward children that are incapable of making our own decisions about life and death matters? If so, then what of Juries, and our entire system of laws?

Related Story


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Posted in Economics, Editorial, Opinion, Education, Gun Control, Law, News, Politics, States Rights, Uncategorized, Wordpress Political Blogs | 2 Comments »

Honor Roll High School Student Faces Expulsion

December 10, 2010

Demari DeRue is a 16-year-old junior at Columbia Falls High School in Columbia Falls, Montana.  She is an honor roll student, a cheerleader and a hunter.  On Monday, December 13th, she faces expulsion from school because, after a recent weekend family hunting trip, she inadvertently left her unloaded and secured hunting rifle locked in her trunk, and then drove to school Monday morning and parked on school property.

The expulsion could be for as long as a year, but any expulsion could seriously hurt Demari’s college plans.

Details of Demari’s situation can be read here: http://www.dailyinterlake.com/news/local_montana/article_30256480-0282-11e0-ac8f-001cc4c03286.html

School officials claim they have no choice but to expel Demari.  But the facts of this case show the unreasonable nature of the “zero-tolerance” mindset.  Further, both federal and state law give discretion to school officials to modify the expulsion provisions in the statutes.

The no firearms rules were created to punish students who present a danger or who intend to commit crimes; not to punish an upstanding honor student who simply had a memory lapse.  Further, it was Demari who voluntarily informed school officials when she remembered she had left the rifle locked in the trunk of her car.  It is appalling that Demari is facing expulsion because of her honesty.

The hearing for Demari will be Monday, December 13, at 6:00 p.m. (plan to arrive by 5:00 p.m.), in the Administration Building at Glacier Gateway Elementary School, located at 501 sixth avenue west, in Columbia Falls.  If at all possible, please attend this hearing and support Demari.  Politely tell school district officials that blind adherence to unreasonable anti-gun policies does not make our kids safer, and in this particular case, would be a grave injustice.

Let them know that the only reasonable outcome of this hearing is to completely purge Demari’s high school record of this incident, so she won’t be in a position of trying to explain a “gun crime” to firearm-averse review committees considering college and scholarship applications.

Also, please contact high school officials, the superintendent and the school board and politely let them know that you support Demari, that you oppose any action to expel her and that a complete expungement of her record is in order. Contact information can be found below.

Mike Nicosia   Superintendent   mnicosia@sd6.k12.mt.us

Alan Robbins   Principal             arobbins@sd6.k12.mt.us

Scott Gaiser    Asst. Principal     sgaiser@sd6.k12.mt.us

School Board Members:

Jill Rocksund                            jrocksund@sd6.k12.mt.us
Dean Chisholm                        dchisholm@sd6.k12.mt.us
Barbara Riley                            briley@sd6.k12.mt.us
Darrell Newby                          dnewby@sd6.k12.mt.us
Gail Pauley                               gpauley@sd6.k12.mt.us

Jim Henjum                             jhenjum@sd6.k12.mt.us
Larry Wilson                             lwilson@sd6.k12.mt.us
Scott Emmerich                        semmerich@sd6.k12.mt.us

SOURCE

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Posted in Editorial, Opinion, Education, Gun Control, Hoplophobia, Hunting Fishing and the Great Outdoors, Law, News, Non Compos Mentis, Politics, States Rights, Stupid is as Stupid Does, Uncategorized, Wordpress Political Blogs | 10 Comments »

The facts, however, don’t stop the Left from their dishonest characterization

December 10, 2010

“Tax deal” is the buzz phrase of the week in Washington, as Barack Obama and congressional Republicans came to an agreement Monday on a two-year extension of current income tax rates for all Americans. Predictably, the Left went hysterical. House Democrats promptly held a voice vote to reject the compromise unless undisclosed changes are made to it, though the Senate began debate on a larded-up version of the proposal Thursday night with a test vote scheduled for Monday. As usual, the devil is in the details — and, in this case, the definitions.

Obama, his fellow Democrats and their acolytes in the media continue to frame the debate in terms of tax “cuts” versus the budget deficit — as if tax rates before 2001 were the natural order of things and to keep rates where they are is a “cut” that will increase the deficit. On the contrary, without the deal, everyone’s taxes will rise by hundreds or even thousands of dollars next year. With the deal, no one’s income taxes will be cut. In fact, some taxes will skyrocket. The estate (death) tax will be resurrected at 35 percent with a $5 million exemption — up from 0 percent this year, but down from the previous 55 percent. The only new cut would be a temporary payroll tax reduction of two percentage points.

The facts, however, don’t stop the Left from their dishonest characterization. “The far-reaching package … would add more than $900 billion to the deficit over the next two years,” The Washington Post lamented. Ditto for The New York Times, the Associated Press and others. This assumes that economic behavior won’t change if taxes go up, meaning federal revenue will increase by the exact amount of the tax increase. Ergo, if Congress prevents the tax hike, that lost revenue adds to the deficit. It’s a wrong assumption, demonstrable by the fact that federal revenue actually went up after the Bush tax cuts went into effect.

Meanwhile, Obama was so concerned about the “cost” that he insisted that unemployment benefits be extended for another year. Now that will actually cost nearly $60 billion, and it will cause the unemployment rate to remain higher than it otherwise should. On top of that, Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Tom Harkin (D-IA) secured various energy subsidies in exchange for their votes, and more pork is almost sure to follow.

The fact that Obama conceded to any deal is notable. The Wall Street Journal concludes, “Obama has implicitly admitted that his economic strategy has flopped. He is acknowledging that tax rates matter to growth, that treating business like robber barons has hurt investment and hiring, and that tax cuts are superior to spending as stimulus. It took 9.8% unemployment and a loss of 63 House seats for this education to sink in, but the country will benefit.” The flop is so complete that even former economic adviser Larry Summers warned of a “double dip” recession if taxes go up. John Maynard Keynes, call your office.

Though Obama did accept the deal with the GOP, he proved to be a rather disagreeable compromiser, calling Republicans “hostage takers” and the American people the “hostages.” Obama thus not only reneged on an oft-repeated campaign promise to repeal the Bush-era tax cuts “for the rich,” he also proved utterly ungracious to those lawmakers with whom he had just struck a deal. “[B]ecause of this agreement, middle-class Americans won’t see their taxes go up on January 1st, which is what I promised,” he said. “[But] I’m as opposed to the high-end tax cuts today as I’ve been for years. In the long run, we simply can’t afford them. And when they expire in two years, I will fight to end them.”

Some conservatives are opposing the bill because of the aded deficit spending. Club for Growth President Chris Chocola said, “The plan would resurrect the Death Tax, grow government, blow a hole in the deficit with unpaid-for spending, and do so without providing the permanent relief and security our economy needs to finally start hiring and growing again.”

Yet given that Democrats still control the White House and, until January, both houses of Congress, this deal may be the best we can hope for now. Republicans should fight to resist wasteful spending, but tax hikes must be prevented. If they are, taxpayers will keep billions of their hard-earned dollars over the next two years. With that renewed tax stability for small businesses, unemployment should go down, though not as much as if the rates were permanent. In 2012, Republicans could be in far better position to win a permanent solution.

Patriot Post

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Posted in Economics, Editorial, Opinion, Education, Law, News, Politics, States Rights, Stupid is as Stupid Does, Uncategorized, Wordpress Political Blogs | 18 Comments »

Year in Review: 2010

December 10, 2010

Your membership in — and activism with — Gun Owners of America has made a world of difference over the past several months.

The past couple of years were supposed to be the worst on record, as far as gun rights are concerned.  With the election of Barack Hussein Obama, Americans went rushing to gun stores and generated a buying spree that created shortages of firearms and ammunition around the country.

Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid were in charge of the legislative branch, and with the election of Obama, everyone was bracing themselves for the worst.

But even with the deck stacked against us, Gun Owners of America began working with friendly congressmen to get good legislation passed… and to defeat most of the anti-gun bills that were thrown our way.

What follows here is a record of what ALL OF US were able to accomplish by working together.  As you read about the amazing success that gun rights activists achieved, please also consider joining Gun Owners of America if you have not yet renewed your membership for next year.

For your convenience, you can go to http://www.gunowners.org/ordergoamem.htm to update your membership.

We thank you for your support, which makes this e-mail and web service possible.

And now for this year’s highlights. The following paragraphs review some of the major achievements that we accomplished together in 2010.

January

* The year begins with GOA taking the offensive in the battle against the anti-gun ObamaCare legislation.  While both houses of Congress have passed different versions of the bill, the fight against this legislation is far from over.  A conference committee will most likely have to iron out differences between the two bills and then send the finalized version to each chamber for another vote.

* Gun Owners of America gets involved in the Scott Brown race in Massachusetts.  Even though a month earlier, Brown was about 30 points down in his run for the U.S. Senate, GOA is hoping that a win in the Bay State will kill ObamaCare for the year.

After all, replacing the late Sen. Ted Kennedy with someone who opposes ObamaCare will give Republicans the exact number of votes to filibuster the health care bill.  Amazingly, Brown pulls off a dramatic come-from-behind win, and political pundits are declaring ObamaCare is now on life-support — if not dead for the year.

* In a case where GOA has submitted an amicus brief, the U.S. Supreme Court rules in favor of free speech rights in the Citizens United case.  The Court ruled unconstitutional huge portions of the McCain-Feingold law, which means that GOA will have greater freedom to hold legislators accountable for their anti-gun voting records.

* GOA begins rallying the grassroots in several different states to pass Firearms Freedom Act legislation.  These laws stipulate that a firearm which is made in a state — and stays in the state — is immune from federal gun laws that rely on the Interstate Commerce Clause for their justification.

February – March

* GOA continues its campaign to enact good Firearms Freedom Acts (FFAs).  Of special note, GOA works with the sponsor of the Wyoming bill to put “teeth” in his bill, thus making it the toughest FFA in the nation.  The Wyoming act criminalizes any federal official who attempts to impose a federal gun ban in contravention to The Cowboy State’s law.

* The National Parks gun ban finally expires!  GOA worked with Senator John Ensign (R-NV) to get a repeal added as an amendment to a must-pass bill in 2009.  This effort succeeded, and the repeal of the Reagan-era gun ban takes effect on February 22.

* The U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments in a very important gun-related case known as McDonald v. Chicago.  As Gun Owners of America submits a hard-hitting amicus brief in this case, USA Today asks Gun Owners to submit the Opposing View editorial taking aim at Chicago’s gun ban.

* House Speaker Nancy Pelosi cajoles enough “Blue Dog” Democrats to walk the political plank and vote for ObamaCare.  Because the House voted for an identical version of the legislation that passed in the Senate last year, Congressional leaders can send the anti-gun bill straight to the President’s desk, thus avoiding a Senate filibuster (now that Scott Brown is in the Senate).

GOA was able to gain modest protections for gun owners in ObamaCare.  Nevertheless, GOA is committed to repealing this law at the federal level.

* In Virginia, GOA works to successfully pass anti-ObamaCare legislation in the state that will prevent citizens in the Old Dominion from being forced to comply with the insidious federal mandates in the new anti-gun health care law.  Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) signs the legislation.

April – May

* One of GOA’s top priorities is getting permitless carry passed in states around the country.  To this end, GOA helps lobby for new legislation in Arizona (allowing concealed carry on one’s person) and in Virginia (allowing concealed carry in one’s car or boat) — without having to jump through government hoops.  Both bills are signed by the respective governors of each state.

* GOA begins a fierce lobbying campaign against Elena Kagan as the next Justice for the U.S. Supreme Court.  Of special note, GOA targets Senator Jon Kyl in his home state of Arizona.  Kyl, the Senate Minority Whip, goes on record saying that Republicans will probably not filibuster Kagan’s nomination.

* By the end of the state legislative season, several states have passed Firearms Freedom Act laws, including Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.

June – July (Part One)

* The Supreme Court hands down the McDonald decision, stating that Fourteenth Amendment applies the right to keep and bear arms (in the Second Amendment) to all 50 states.  GOA uses this opportunity to discuss the impact of the McDonald decision in dozens upon dozens of media outlets.

* Gun Owners of America is the only national gun group on Capitol Hill lobbying to defeat the DISCLOSE Act, which would hinder our ability to expose congressmen’s records around election time.  As the first battle is fought in the House, DISCLOSE narrowly passes by a mere seven votes.

* Erick Erickson of RedState.com thanks GOA for taking a strong stand against DISCLOSE, stating:  “I support Gun Owners of America, which is a consistent and uncompromising defender of the Second Amendment, not a weak little girl of an organization protecting itself while throwing everyone else under the bus.”

June – July (Part Two)

* The fight against DISCLOSE moves to the Senate, where GOA marshals the grassroots to inundate Senate offices with opposition to the bill.  Thankfully, there are enough votes to filibuster the anti-free speech legislation, as it dies on a party line vote.  (Scott Brown’s earlier victory is now paying tremendous dividends.)

Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) congratulates GOA for its hard work against the bill, saying that, “Gun Owners of America has been one of the key players in opposing the DISCLOSE Act.”

* GOA attorney Bill Olson testifies before Congress against Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, telling Senators that, “If [Kagan] were to go on the Court, with what we know about her now, she could be the most anti-gun justice on that Court.”

August

* The U.S. Senate debates the nomination of Elena Kagan.  Senator John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota, uses GOA testimony to underscore the problems with Kagan:  “After reviewing Ms. Kagan’s record and testimony at her confirmation hearing, the Gun Owners of America concluded that, ‘The available evidence portrays her as a forceful advocate of restrictive gun laws and driven by political considerations rather than rule of law.'”

* The Senate votes 63-37 to confirm Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court.  While this was very disappointing, it is important to note that we got more votes against Kagan than we have ever gotten against a Supreme Court Justice that we’ve opposed — more than we garnered against Justices Sotomayor or Ginsburg.  (On Justice Gingsburg’s nomination, there were only three negative votes.)

Bottom line:  we gained tremendous ground in our fight against Kagan.  There were Senators who voted against Kagan in August who had never before voted against a Supreme Court Justice.  And by the way, Senator Kyl was one of the Senators who supported the filibuster against her (see “April – May”).

September – November

* GOA’s Political Victory Fund has been busy all year long, working to get good candidates elected.  Some of the more notable highlights include knocking off long-time compromisers such as Sen. Bob Bennett in Utah, while helping many good candidates get their party’s nomination — like Kentucky’s Rand Paul in May and Florida’s Marco Rubio in August.

* In October, GOA publishes its biannual Congressional Voter Guide.  For 20 years, GOA has been the only gun group publishing an open-source national rating for gun owners to use.  Our rating has been so devastating in smoking out the anti-gun bias of phony politicians that the Brady Campaign even took us before an administrative court three years ago to try and silence us.  They lost.

* On November 2, scores of candidates backed by Gun Owners of America won tremendous victories.  In many cases, GOA was the ONLY national pro-gun organization to actively oppose Nancy Pelosi’s “Blue Dogs” Democrats.  Our aggressive opposition to these Representatives — who are mistakenly considered to be somewhat conservative — was well worth the effort as Pelosi was reduced to minority status.

December

* GOA, having spearheaded the victorious lobbying campaign against the Amtrak gun ban, celebrates its demise this month.  The repeal language was authored by Republican Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi.  The Wicker language takes effect December 15, 2010, and enforces a policy similar to airlines, so that firearms can be transported in checked bags on the trains so long as they are declared and carried in a prescribed manner.

Stand with Gun Owners of America!

As you can see, your activism helped us to accomplish many great things this year.  And this should encourage you and anyone you know who is concerned about Second Amendment rights.

. We are going to be fighting a lot of battles in the next Congress, and it’s good for gun owners all across the country to go into these skirmishes with a reminder that we can accomplish much together (and that we have done so in the past).

As you know, we were able to get two gun bans repealed this past year — the National Parks ban and the one on Amtrak trains.  Now we are going to be lobbying to shut down the BATFE (or to put a straitjacket on them, at a minimum); to liberalize concealed carry (so good people aren’t registered like sex offenders before exercising their rights); to block UN gun control; to pass Firearms Freedom Acts (which allow states to imprison any federal official who tries to enforce unconstitutional gun control laws); and much, much more.

Thanks for standing with us. You can go to http://www.gunowners.org/ordergoamem.htm to make sure that your support remains current.

 

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Posted in Blogroll, Editorial, Opinion, Education, Gun Control, Law, News, Politics, States Rights, Wordpress Political Blogs | 1 Comment »

Do ask, do tell

December 9, 2010

From the Patriot Post we have;

Do Ask, Do Tell?

The only legitimate DADT survey is…

“A good moral character is the first essential in a man…” –George Washington

New Unit Service Patch

Now that Republicans have temporarily halted Barack Hussein Obama’s effort to increase income taxes, let’s see what they can do to stop his effort to undermine the moral character of military combat units.

By way of defining the so-called “don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT) debate, let me say that it is not about the sexual habits of consenting adults. This debate is about making the normalization of homosexuality a matter of law in regard to Defense Department personnel, practices and policy.

In order to provide context for this debacle, here is a brief background.

One of Obama’s earliest campaign coming-out pledges was his promise to “end discrimination against gays and lesbians” who want military jobs. That “discrimination” was enacted by the Clinton administration and codified as law in Section 654 U.S. Code Title 10, which states, “The presence in the armed forces of persons who demonstrate a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts would create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability.”

On 12 October this year, DADT policy was subject to an injunction by U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips in California. Phillips, a Clinton appointee, ordered the Department of Defense “immediately to suspend and discontinue any investigation, or discharge, separation, or other proceeding, that may have been commenced” under Section 654.

However, because the Obama administration wants full faith and credit for ending the policy, they actually asked Phillips for a stay of her injunction, which she denied. Obama then appealed to the San Francisco-based Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which agreed to enter a stay so Obama could reclaim his political turf. U.S. appellate courts have consistently upheld this law.

In response, a homosexual advocacy group, Log Cabin Republicans, appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to vacate (overrule) the stay. In mid-November, SCotUS refused to lift the Ninth Circuit’s stay.

In the meantime, trying to beat the courts to the punch so Obama could curry favor with one of his most fervent constituencies, his DoD appointees released a “survey” which they claim justifies lame-duck Senate action to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell” before the 112th Congress (with a strong House Republican majority and six more Senate Republicans) is seated. (Soon-to-be-Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s House had already voted to repeal on 27 May of this year.)

“Today I call on the Senate to act as soon as possible so I can sign this repeal into law this year and ensure that Americans who are willing to risk their lives for their country are treated fairly and equally,” Obama said this week.

There is no question that Obama, given the beating he’s taken from his heretofore stalwart Leftist cadres on his broken promise to raise taxes, desperately wants to “win” the DADT debate, even though less than one percent of forced military discharges are related to sexual orientation, and the majority of those are, according to DoD, “uncontested and processed administratively.”

Defense Secretary Robert Gates lamented that there is a “very real possibility that this change would be imposed immediately by judicial fiat” and noted that such a “disruptive and damaging scenario” would be “most hazardous to military morale, readiness, and battlefield performance.”

So if the courts, instead of Obama, lift Section 654, it would be “hazardous to military morale, readiness, and battlefield performance”?

That is quite a revelation from an administration, which, in the Leftist tradition, seeks to use judicial diktat to amend the so-called “living constitution” and wholly subvert Rule of Law as established by our Founders.

For the record, the reliability of that voluntary DoD survey as a catalyst for revoking Section 654 is, at best, highly questionable. Of the 400,000 surveys that were distributed to military personnel and their families, only 115,000 were returned. That does not constitute an authentic statistical study with a genuine margin of error.

Questionable reliability notwithstanding, the Leftmedia’s reports implied that 70 percent of respondents answered that open homosexuality would either have a positive or mixed effect on morale. However, those same results could just as accurately have been reported as 70 percent of respondents answered that open homosexuality would either have a negative or mixed effect on morale. In fact, 30 percent answered “positive” and 30 percent answered “negative,” while a plurality answered “mixed.”

Gates did, however, admit that there was a much higher level of “discontent, discomfort and resistance to changing the current policy” among combat specialty units and the Service Chiefs, and added, “These findings do lead me to conclude that an abundance of care and preparation is required if we are to avoid a disruptive and potentially dangerous impact on the performance of those serving at the tip of the spear in America’s wars.”

To that end, I would argue that the only legitimate DADT survey that matters would be a scientific survey of frontline combat forces, warfighters, not rear echelon support personnel. Indeed, if our fighting forces exist for the purpose of winning wars, then unit cohesion and combat readiness must be sacrosanct. Any new policy that would be a “disruptive and potentially dangerous impact” on those essential attributes must be opposed.

By no means am I suggesting that Uniformed Service in a National Guard Armory in Kansas is any less honorable than serving in the Korengal Valley in eastern Afghanistan, but it is much less dangerous.

Complicating matters for Obama is the little-reported fact that, while he is advocating for homosexuals in the military, one who made it through the screening process, PFC Bradley Manning, is facing charges for unauthorized use and disclosure of classified information (UCMJ Articles 92 and 134). Manning will likely face charges of treason after taking it upon himself (with the “moral support” of his “self-described drag queen” partner) to release volumes of classified reports to WikiLeaks info anarchist Julian Assange, who himself may also face charges of espionage if he is extradited to the U.S.

George Washington, Commander of the Continental Army and our first Commander in Chief, offered this timeless observance: “The foundations of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality.”

Unfortunately, our current CINC’s national policy positions are a reflection of his corrupt, capricious and unprincipled private morality.

Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis!

Mark Alexander
Publisher, The Patriot Post

 

And let us not forget the Ballad of the Pink berets!

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Posted in Editorial, Opinion, Education, Law, Men's Issues, Military Science, Politics, Stupid is as Stupid Does, Uncategorized, Warfare, Wordpress Political Blogs | 1 Comment »

Remember ObamaCare?

December 8, 2010

GOA had managed to win some minor victories in the fight over this legislation last year.  At that time, the very-liberal Slate magazine lamented that GOA had won a skirmish over ObamaCare:

Score one for the Gun Owners of America, a lobby group positioned well to the right of the National Rifle Association…. [T]o pacify GOA, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid [has inserted into the health care bill] a section titled “Protecting 2nd Amendment Gun Rights” [which prevents the] disclosure or collection of any information relating to gun ownership.  (Slate, December 20, 2009.)

But even after being “cleaned up” for some of its anti-gun problems, the ATF can still use ObamaCare to troll a federal database for your medical information.  It can identify people with common ailments such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) — and take away their guns by sending their names to the FBI as “prohibited persons.”

For these and other reasons, GOA is still committed to repealing the anti-gun ObamaCare law.

So GOA was not particularly thrilled when Republican leaders went on the Sunday talk shows right before the election to explain why they could not repeal ObamaCare because of the threat of a presidential veto.

In fact, some have speculated that these cowardly pronouncements could have cost Republicans control of the Senate.

But, never mind, say the Republicans.  If they can’t repeal it, they can just “defund” ObamaCare.

So it came as a bit of a shock to us that Senate Republican Whip Jon Kyl appeared on the Greta Van Susteren program December 2 to announce that he would prefer to pass a stripped-down funding bill (a so-called Continuing Resolution) to fund the government until October 1, 2011.

In other words, money would flow for the next ten months — without ANY EFFORT WHATSOEVER TO DEFUND OBAMACARE.  This would take the pressure off Congress to act on ObamaCare for almost a year.

Do you want proof that Congress doesn’t like to act unless they have a “gun” put to their collective heads?  Consider a hot topic that’s been in the news lately:  tax cuts.  Congress has had almost 10 years to deal with this issue, but they’re only dealing with it now — as the time limit on the Bush tax cuts are about to expire on December 31.

We don’t want this to happen in our efforts to repeal the anti-gun health care law.  Putting off this issue would undermine the efforts of incoming congressmen who campaigned on getting rid of ObamaCare!  The will of the American people was made clear in the November elections.  If Congress extends the funding of the government beyond the first few weeks of 2011, it will pull the rug out from under the newly elected members and be a slap in the face to millions of voters.

Moreover, if Congress puts off dealing with ObamaCare until next fall, momentum for repeal will wane and the President will have won a significant public relations battle.  This may all sound a little like “inside baseball,” but if Congress passes another Continuing Resolution next October 1 — as they probably will — then it’s very possible that there will be no impetus to deal with repealing or defunding ObamaCare until after the 2012 elections.

This would allow Obama to run for reelection without the stain of public repudiation for his socialist policies.

The time to act is sooner, rather than later.  If Senate Republicans are serious about defunding ObamaCare, they need to fight to prevent a bill that funds the government beyond January or February.  If the funding measure is only for the short-term, then the new Congress can come to town and deal with nixing ObamaCare right away.

ACTION: Please urge your Senators to take action on repealing ObamaCare sooner, rather than later!  There are two different pre-written letters for this alert — one for Republicans and one for Democrats.

If you go to GOA’s Legislative Action Center to contact your Senators, the correct pre-written letter will AUTOMATICALLY be chosen.  If you choose to contact your Senators without going through the GOA website, then please make sure you choose the correct letter below for the correct Senator.

—– Pre-written letter to Republican Senators —–

Dear Senator:

Without question, repealing the anti-gun and anti-freedom ObamaCare legislation should be one of Congress’ top priorities next year.

Polls continue to show that an overwhelming percentage of the American people want to see this law repealed.

And this is why I was shocked to learn that Senate Republican Whip Jon Kyl appeared on the Greta Van Susteren program December 2 to announce that he would prefer to pass a stripped-down Continuing Resolution to fund the government until October 1, 2011.

Even worse, it would undermine the efforts of incoming congressmen who campaigned on getting rid of ObamaCare!  The will of the American people was made clear in the November elections.  If Congress extends the funding of the government beyond the first few weeks of 2011, it will pull the rug out from under the newly elected members and be a slap in the face to millions of voters.

Furthermore, if Congress puts off dealing with ObamaCare until next fall, momentum for repeal will wane and the President will have won a significant public relations battle.  And, if Congress passes another Continuing Resolution next October 1 — as they probably will — then it’s very possible that there will be no impetus to deal with repealing or defunding ObamaCare until after the 2012 elections.

This would allow Obama to run for reelection without the stain of public repudiation for his socialist policies.

The time to act is sooner, rather than later.  If Senate Republicans are serious about defunding ObamaCare, they need to fight to prevent a bill that funds the government beyond January or February.  If the funding measure is only for the short-term, then the new Congress can come to town and deal with nixing ObamaCare right away.

Sincerely,

—– Pre-written letter to Democrat and Independent Senators —–

Dear Senator:

Without question, repealing the anti-gun and anti-freedom ObamaCare legislation should be one of Congress’ top priorities next year.

Polls continue to show that an overwhelming percentage of the American people want to see this law repealed.

Please do everything in your power to defund or repeal this law.

Sincerely,

Sign the Petition!

Please remember to stop by http://readtheusconstitution.org to encourage Congress to read the U.S. Constitution, out loud, upon convening in January.  Way too often our elected officials act without even considering the source of their authority.

http://gunowners.org

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Posted in Blogroll, Editorial, Opinion, Education, Gun Control, Hoplophobia, Law, mysandry, News, Non Compos Mentis, Politics, States Rights, Uncategorized, Wordpress Political Blogs | Comments Off on Remember ObamaCare?

PETA VS. BIKERS

December 8, 2010

What a wonderful coming together of two diverse groups! We need more gatherings where the idiot activists are given warm, moist, aromatic welcomes like this one. This is why PETA usually protests women wearing fur rather than bikers wearing leather. Sounds to me like the old saying, “you mess with the bull, and you get the horns”. Gee, I guess these characters thought that Bikers where going to be politically correct like the rest of the wimpy world. HERE’S HOW POLICE FOUND ONE OF THEM.


Johnstown, PA (GlossyNews) – Local and state police scoured the hills outside rural Johnstown, Pennsylvania, after reports of three animal rights activists going missing after attempting to protest the wearing of leather at a large motorcycle gang rally this weekend. Two others, previously reported missing, were discovered by fast food workers “duct taped inside fast food restaurant dumpsters,” according to police officials.

“Something just went wrong,”said a still visibly shaken organizer of the protest. “Something just went horribly, horribly, wrong.”The organizer said a group of concerned animal rights activist groups, “growing tired of throwing fake blood and shouting profanities at older women wearing leather or fur coats,” decided to protest the annual motorcycle club event “in a hope to show them our outrage at their wanton use of leather in their clothing and motor bike seats.” “In fact,” said the organizer, “motorcycle gangs are one of the biggest abusers of wearing leather, and we decided it was high time that we let them know that we disagree with them using it. ergo, they should stop.”

According to witnesses, protesters arrived at the event in a vintage 1960’s era Volkswagen van and began to pelt the gang members with balloons filled with red colored water, simulating blood, and shouting “you’re murderers” to passers by.  This, evidently, is when the brouhaha began.

“They peed on me!!!” charged one activist. “They grabbed me, said I looked like I was French, started calling me ‘La Trene’ and duct taped me to a tree so they could pee on me all day!”

Still others claimed they were forced to eat hamburgers and hot dogs under duress.  Those who resisted were allegedly held down while several bikers “farted on their heads.”

Police officials declined comments on any leads or arrests due to the ongoing nature of the investigation; however, organizers for the motorcycle club rally expressed “surprise” at the allegations.

“That’s preposterous,”said one high-ranking member of the biker organizing committee.  “We were having a party, and these people showed up and were very rude to us.  They threw things at us, called us names, and tried to ruin the entire event.  So, what did we do?  We invited them to the party!  What could be more friendly than that?  You know, just because we are all members of motorcycle clubs does not mean we do not care about inclusiveness. Personally, I think it shows a lack of character for them to be saying such nasty things about us after we bent over backwards to make them feel welcome.”

When confronted with the allegations of force-feeding the activist’s meat, using them as ad hoc latrines, leaving them incapacitated in fast food restaurant dumpsters, and ‘farting on their heads,’ the organizer declined to comment in detail. “That’s just our secret handshake,”assured the organizer.

H/T to Neil, original source unknown.

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Posted in Editorial, Opinion, Education, Gun Control, Hoplophobia, Law, mysandry, News, Politics, Stupid is as Stupid Does, Uncategorized, Wordpress Political Blogs | 4 Comments »

Lessons learned: Not much… December Seventh

December 7, 2010

As I perused the main news pages this morning one thing was painfully apparent. The “Day of Infamy” seems lost in the forgotten past. Google had a single story on the subject.

So then, what have we done. We allowed a President to gut our intelligence services. Then spent a period of national despondency while a nation that allowed itself to be taken over by a bunch of religious radicals held us hostage. That lasted until a new President was elected. One that made no secret that we would take them to the wood shed upon his being sworn in.

Later, we elected yet another “Great appeaser” that took apart what had been rebuilding, and we got smacked again, and the end results of that fiasco are not all in and we are coming up on the tenth anniversary of that failure to “read the tea leaves.”

Now, we have a Commander in Chief in name only that bows to kings and other assorted despots. Not to mention that Iran, and South Korea are more dangerous than ever along with various assorted groups of terrorists around the world…

Let’s take a cursory look at our recent history, and see what things may be found that seem to occur when things like this go haywire.

There appears to be a pattern. Apply Keynesian type economics during an economic down turn. The Great Depression, the economic tragedy of the seventies, and our current Great Recession. The Viet Nam War spawned it’s own sort of turmoil of a different type, Hyperinflation, and guess what? We are headed in that direction again. Now, I can’t blame that particular situation on John Kennedy, but I sure as hell can on his successor. So then in summery;

  • Socialist Economic Policy during hard economic times.
  • Cut backs in Military / Intelligence Services because of said times.
  • Weak Presidents; Either in foreign/ domestic policy, or both.
  • In each case it was a Democrat President.

So what will we Americans do? More of the same..? More appeasement and negotiation from a position of despair and weakness?

I submit that we should learn from the hard won lessons of our Fathers and Mothers. From the mistakes as well as from the victories. From strength of conviction as well as actual military / physical strength. From things that have happened in the past. The day of infamy being just one.

“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

Benjamin Franklin

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Posted in Economics, Editorial, Opinion, Education, Historical Quotes, Immigration, Law, Military Science, News, Politics, States Rights, War, Wordpress Political Blogs | 4 Comments »

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