Posts Tagged ‘obamacare’

Musings After Midnight — With ear to the ground, more rumblings heard from the political landscape

December 24, 2013

Much has happened since the last time we met here on this forum, which has become our virtual fireside chat about the events of the day, the preservation of liberty, and other such issues of vital importance.

So, sit back and relax. Have a soothing beverage. Have a cigar. Or maybe the pipe. I have some of the finest tobacco to be found anywhere, courtesy of a local dealer who offers only the very best to his customers.

Recently I have discovered the pleasures of the corncob pipe. They are very inexpensive, which is probably why the higher end tobacco shops do not carry them. But I will guarantee you that you will get a mellow, fine smoke from these pipes that have a very long history.

I have to watch myself with this, though, because as an intermittent asthmatic, I cannot smoke like I want. So, I have to limit myself to special occasions.

Now, let’s get down to business.

As most of you already know I try to keep my ear to the ground to ascertain what is going on in the vast political landscape. And I must be quick to say that there is always something going on there. It is relentless. And some of the most important activity is that which we cannot see. The political underground is where the power is, where the forces of good make plans to keep the fires of liberty flickering…and where the evil forces reside in their attempt to snuff out those fires. These individuals rarely show their faces above the ground, except for the purpose of wearing masks. Masking is vital to the forces of collectivism and progressivism, for this is the only way they can succeed. Dangerous enemies of liberty would never make any headway if they told the truth to the public. Most Americans would find the ultimate ends of progressivism so repulsive, so untenable, so unconscionable, that they would relegate the proponents of such tyranny to the dustbin of worthless radicals who are not to be taken seriously, much less elected to public office.

Most progressives/collectivists are smart enough to know this. They know they cannot tell the truth. They know that telling the truth will mean the end of their movement. Their goals, their dreams, all they have worked for since the late 1800s would go up in smoke right before their very eyes.

Thus, the progressives must lie to get elected. They must lie to get their agenda and proposals accepted by the public. They must lie to get their proposed laws passed by Congress. And they must lie to the public once again about the nature of the fallout of that agenda.

Welcome to the world of the vast political underground. Nothing is as it seems in public. And I mean nothing. People are not who you think they are. Their real goals are usually the opposite of what they have led you to believe. This is the only way they can lure you into supporting them.

It just so happens that 2008 was the year of the perfect political storm. All of the various components of the collectivist agenda came together in one nightmarish superstorm, a demonic cyclone in which Marxists, Islamofascists, Nazis, totalitarians, liberals, and others who affirm the goals of collectivism/progressivism all coalesced together to take control of the White House and both houses of Congress, with supermajorities that insured the minority Party had no power whatsoever.

This demonic cyclone rammed through an unpopular law in the middle of the night with no support at all from the minority Party in either the House or the Senate. This has never happened in the history of the country. For the very first time in our history, a broad, sweeping law that would not only totally change and revamp the healthcare system but change the very nature of our Republic, was passed without any support from the Party not in power. In the past such sweeping legislation was passed with at least some bipartisan support in both houses of Congress. But not this time.

Not a single Republican voted in favor of Obamacare in either the House or the Senate.

Now, I want you to let that sink in for a bit. Conservatives such as myself have often bemoaned the fact that Republicans have been stymied and hamstrung by dangerous progressives (RINOS) who form what is known as the Republican leadership establishment. These Republicans often vote with Democrats on legislation that is denounced by conservatives. Yet when it came to Obamacare, even John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Lisa Murkowski, Olympia Snowe, John Boehner, and Eric Cantor voted against it. All of them, every single one.

That alone should have told us something about the danger lurking in the Obamacare law. And the very fact that Reid, Pelosi, Obama, Biden, Schumer, Hoyer, and others would ram through this legislation and approve it without ANY Republican support whatsoever, should have been enough to show the country that this crowd is not interested in “looking out for the people” or “reaching across the aisle for bipartisan solutions.” In a pig’s eye they were. They don’t care about you or me. They don’t want bipartisanship except when THEY are the minority Party. The ONLY thing they want is power, control, money, and bigger and bigger government. They wish to be the ultimate authority in all matters.

And now that we know what Obamacare is all about, we can understand why they rammed it through, why no Republican voted in favor of it, why they lied incessantly about its provisions, and finally, why Nancy Pelosi said, “We have to pass the law before we can know what’s in it.”

Most did not read it, for sure. But I will guarantee you that just as sure as the sun rises the ones in leadership knew full well what was about to happen, which is why they lied and why they did not want to tell us what was in the law. Even if they did not read the entire law, they had been fully briefed by the authors of it, such as Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel (Rahm “Dead Fish” Emanuel’s brother), and David Cutter of Harvard, among others.

Yes, Pelsoi knew. Reid knew. Schumer knew. Hoyer knew. Even Kirsten Gillibrand, the junior Democratic senator from New York, admitted that she knew. Gillibrand has not been around that long. So what would lead us to believe that a junior senator knew but Pelosi, who has been around forever, did not? Such a notion is laughable. They ALL knew.

Oh, but if you like your current plan and your current doctor, you can keep them. You knew that didn’t you.

One commentator counted the number of times Obama made that promise to the American people. He got as high as 48 and quit counting. But now, the Fuhrer has relented and “allowed” people to keep these plans for an extra year. An extra year? Why not, like, from now on? And nevermind that most of these plans have already been cancelled due directly to the provisions of the Obamacare law, which forbids companies from offering to the public any plan that is not approved by Obamacare.

So, the Obama one-year extension comes just a tad late for most people. They have already been dropped. Their plans have been discarded in accordance with what the providers thought was the law. And now they are being asked to go back and resurrect those plans because Obama is taking a political shellacking from the public? Of course he is paying them off to sooth ruffled feathers. They are being bribed to continue supporting the Obamacare law. But no need for worry, any losses they incur will be more than compensated through health insurance company bailouts and hidden taxes in the new law that are designed to go directly to the insurance companies.

This is what it has come to, folks. If a private corporation had engaged in bribery, you and I both know what would happen. But not if government does it. What kind of a perverted standard is that?

These people are criminals. And those who aid and abet them are criminals, and that includes companies and voters who continue to support them in spite of their known lies and corruption.

Yeah, that’s right, I said it. If you support this bunch, you yourself must be a criminal. 

I can be most forgiving and accommodating toward those who were genuinely fooled by Obama and company. I realize that many people today are stretched to the limit. There are limits on their time, limits on their money, limits on their ability to keep up their mortgage payments, and the like. Many do not have the time or the energy to keep up with politics.

These people can learn a valuable lesson in all of this. Politics is important, and we had best pay close attention. We had best not accept what we are told at face value, but dig much, much deeper to get at the real truth. If you have learned these lessons sincerely, I can fully embrace you.

But if you can sit back and look at the lies of Obama, incessant lies, lies upon lies, lies he even told to you directly, making promises to you that he knew he could not keep, but he made them anyway just to get your support, and yet you still support this scam we call the Obama administration and their enablers in Congress, then I have no qualms whatsoever about telling you that you are aiding and abetting criminals. And you know what that means. People who support criminal activity become accessories to the crime. That means you, yourself, are a criminal.

My friend, you need to do some deep, serious soul searching. You need to understand the gravity of your position. You cannot claim any regard for morality or ethics or spirituality of ANY kind if your heart is so corrupt that you can fully embrace the deception and debauchery of the present administration and their allies in Congress.

Now, at the outset I told you I had heard more rumblings from the political landscape that should be of great interest to you. Not all of it is good, but not all of it is bad.

First, the bad news.

I have become aware in recent days that in spite of losing significant support from the American people (Obama’s approval rating is down to only 37 percent), the Obama camp is most resilient and has incredibly deep support from leftwing financiers and those who are committed to the progressive vision for the country and the world. These people never give up. They have been around since the late 1800s under various and sundry names. Who would have thought that in 2008, after over 100 years since they first made waves in the world of politics, that they would show such considerable strength?

But when one looks at who, exactly, is in this movement, it soon becomes all too clear that we who oppose them have a most arduous task on our hands. They will not be easily defeated. Consider some of the main players: the leadership of the Council on Foreign Relations, George Soros and his various organizations, the Federal Reserve, Wall Street mega-banks, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the EPA, the FBI and the ATF, the NSA, the FISA Court, the IRS, John Podesta’s Center for American Progress, and murky financiers from the European Union and from radical Islamic nations who wish to influence U.S. policy.

Remember that the Clintons and Obama have been the recipients of thousands of political donations from overseas, the names of which have been kept secret. But what we do know is that Communist China has pumped money into leftwing politics in this country. So have Islamic extremist nations. No wonder the American Leftwing finds itself in bed with Islamic radicals, the “Palestinians,” the Muslim Brotherhood, and other like-minded groups. Following the money trail is always such an incredibly enlightening process.

Further, we have seen how far the Obama camp will go to achieve their goals. Lying to the public is only part of it. We now know that the administration manipulated the unemployment figures just two months prior to the 2012 elections. Many of us said at the time that something was amiss, that what we were observing in the corporations and small businesses at the time was not consistent with the unexplained, sudden drop in the jobless rate in September of that year.

Well, now we know that the administration had cooked the books. The real unemployment rate (that is, as “real” as the government can be) was at least three-tenths of a percent higher than what was being reported. This meant that an unemployment rate of 8.1 dropped, in one month’s time, to 7.8 — just in time for the presidential election. Obama could then claim, “My policies are working.”

Of course, I had already outed the government on its false figures on unemployment, along with others who saw the same thing. The government has gradually changed the manner in which it calculates unemployment. At the height of the recession in 2009, the government claimed that the jobless rate was in the 8 to 9 percent range. But if we were to use the same method that was used during the Great Depression of the 1930s to calculate unemployment, the rate would be 20 percent…some economists placed it even higher than that. This matches the unemployment figures of the 1930s.

The Obama administration has never, ever counted as part of its calculation of unemployment the number of people who have quit looking for work in despair. Many have gone five years without a full time job, despite their best efforts. Many of these gave up after so much disappointment.

Well, guess what. When you drop out of the employment market, you are no longer counted as unemployed, in spite of the fact that you have no job.

How convenient for the administration and Congressional Democrats.

Thus, not only were the books manipulated by ceasing to count those who drop out of the job market in despair, but the administration cooked the books on its own skewed jobless figures. What they saw was a jobless rate of 8.1 percent. What they reported was 7.8 percent.

This is why I contend that nothing in this administration is as it seems to be. It is all smoke and mirrors. Manipulated figures. Outright lies and deception. And this has happened not once, not twice, but over and over and over again.

Fast and Furious. TARP I and II. The bailouts. The economic stimulus that wasn’t. Benghazi. Egypt. The Fox News-Associated Press eavesdropping scandal perpetrated by the Feds. The NSA spying scandal. The IRS scandal that targeted the Tea Party, conservatives, Christian groups, etc. And now the Obamacare scam.

“If you like your current healthcare plan, you can keep it. If you like your present doctor, nobody is going to take that away from you, period.”

Anyone who would do these things and deceive the American people this way, over and over, is not to be trusted. That should go without saying. But some Americans, apparently, are slow to learn. How can you trust someone who lies to you on a daily basis about the most important issues effecting your life?

And that is why I say we are entering a most dangerous period in this whole sordid saga. Obama and his minions have shown they will not hesitate to do anything to keep their power and to amass more power. They will lie, cheat, deceive, steal, bribe, and who knows what else, to maintain their current status as the kings and queens of the hill.

Now that millions of Americans are onto them, many for the first time since this crowd took office, the faceless, nameless figures of the vast army of underground operatives and thugs are probably becoming more desperate. In all likelihood they will become even more desperate as we edge closer to the 2014 midterm elections.

We have already seen at least some signs of their desperation. In Texas, cops set up a roadblock on a major roadway and took saliva samples from every single driver. Who ordered such an act of tyranny? Where were the court-issued warrants?

In addition, some trustworthy citizens are already sitting in federal prison on trumped up charges. You didn’t hear that from me. But if your government would lie to you about your healthcare, what is to prevent them from arresting you simply because they don’t like your views? If they decide you are expendable, then off you go to prison.

And remember, New York State has already implemented a provision of its new gun and ammo law that encourages citizens to turn in their family members, neighbors, and friends if they have seen them loading more than seven bullets into a gun in the privacy of their homes.

Any government entity that will do that will kill you if you get in their way.

We are not dealing with nice people here. They are not good, honest, trustworthy public servants. They are deadly tyrants.

And so, my friends, we are going to see increasing confrontations between the forces for liberty and the forces for government control of our lives. The rubber is about to meet the road. Are you ready?

And let me be very clear about one thing. If you wish to deprive me of my guns and ammunition, then you are not for liberty and you are not my friend. If you wish to dictate to me what I can and cannot eat, what I can and cannot drink, what I can and cannot smoke, and such, then you are not for liberty and you are not my friend. If you wish rob me of my right to have the doctor of my choosing, and the healthcare plan of my choosing, and even the right to decide I don’t want any damn insurance at all, then you are not for liberty and you cannot be my friend.

It all boils down to liberty vs. tyranny. Freedom vs. slavery. If you support measures that restrict my liberties and freedoms, then you are automatically for tyranny and slavery to an all-encompassing, all-powerful central government. There is no middle ground here.

That’s the bad news. Now for the good news.

Patriots all across this land are awake and paying attention. In some ways the Obamacare debacle was a blessing in disguise. It woke some people up who have not been awake in years, and not even Benghazi, the NSA spying scandal, or Fast and Furious could wake them. But Obamacare sure did.

It is very personal, and sobering, when you believed your president when he promised you that you could keep your current insurance plan and doctor if you like them, only to find that within the last seven weeks since Obamacare was rolled out you received a piece of mail telling you that since your current plan is no longer allowed by federal law, it has been discontinued and you are thus dropped from your insurance plan.

Yes, it is now very personal. As one lady put it, a 58 year old who received one of those letters, “He lied to me!!”

Well, he sure did. Now what are you going to do?

At least she is awake, and millions like her who thought they could trust Obama, Reid, Pelosi, and even Hillary, are awake as well. And they are damn mad.

Trust is a lot like toothpaste that leaves the tube. Once it is gone, it is awfully hard to get back.

This means that millions of people who were not watching closely before are now watching with a telescope. They are placing every word uttered by Obama and his minions to the test. Is this yet another falsehood? Another deception? Another ruse? Can I trust this smiling face? He seems so likable. But, but…he was smiling and entirely likable when he lied to me. So how can I trust these smiles? Maybe there is much more to a person than simply the likability factor. Ted Bundy was a charming individual too.

We as Americans have GOT to get over our obsession with how a person “comes across on TV.” We CANNOT accurately make judgments about a person’s character or trustworthiness based upon how they look on television. Those who know how to manipulate the masses through videos, TV, and such, are taught how to fool you. Even an actor is taught how to fool you. When you watch them in a movie, the name of the game is to get you to believe they ARE the person they portray on the screen. Nothing is wrong with that, for sure, but it makes my point. Those who know how to manipulate the masses through images are very good at fooling you, some for nothing more than entertainment purposes, but others for evil intent.

I’m glad that Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, Robert De Niro, and others can so thoroughly entertain me by their ability to actually become a fictitious character on a movie screen. They are so very good at what they do. Good acting is one of life’s pleasures. But I don’t want my president to be a good actor. I don’t want him to fool me. And when he does, he loses something vital to governance — in a free society you cannot lead unless the people can trust that what you tell them is the truth.

And that is precisely what has been lost.

There are many ways that the liberty and patriot movement is making headway. Gone are the days when progressives in power can successfully enact gun bans. They tried, but they failed except in the most virulently blue states. Gone are the days when JBTs can perpetrate a Ruby Ridge, a Waco, etc, and not expect some sort of response from citizens who will not stand for oppressive violence by ANY government official.

Patriots are doing their part, most often in secret, away from public view. They are not violent in any manner whatsoever. But they ARE cunning and courageous. They know how to thwart the plans of tyrants under cover and without a single shot being fired. They are smuggling “illegal” firearms into states that have banned what most citizens would view as perfectly acceptable means of self-defense. But they are not going to allow government tyrants to deprive them of a guaranteed Constitutional right. So, the vast underground is very active, much as it was during Prohibition when again, government jackbooted thugs tried to prevent citizens from drinking alcohol.

How did that work out for ya, you progressive knucklehead?

And one more thing, my dear patriot friend, remember that as long as human beings long for the freedom to make their own decisions, chart their own course, live out their lives as they see fit, apart from the crazed nannies and social change agents of the surveillance state, then liberty will never be totally removed from the earth. It is much bigger than you or me. Liberty is part of our deepest longings, our hopes, and our dreams. People don’t dream of becoming slaves. They dream to be free, to fly, to be their own person as a competent, reliable, and self-reliant human being. This means our cause is part of the human spirit. It is part of our nature as human beings to want to live free. And that is why, in the end, we cannot lose.

SOURCE

A Government shutdown: SO WHAT!

October 1, 2013

The various pundits are all up in arms about the government shutting down. Police, Fire and all other essential services will not be there when needed, and all that.

Guess what folks? It’s all a dog and pony show. No essential services will be turned off, none, period. No, grandma will not be forced to eat dog food because of a shut off of Social Security. Veterans will not be denied medical care, or any of the other doomsday theories that are flying around. No, the prisons will not have the doors thrown open either.

So, then what is happening? What we are seeing is called direct democracy being carried out by the elected representatives of the people. The fiasco known as obamacare, a disaster beyond any doubt, is being challenged as the founders saw fit to place in our Constitution. Would you rather have an armed revolution, or widespread rioting take place. As happens in other nations all to often? Perhaps I shouldn’t ask that given the current mood of we the people.

The onerous law passed by onerous people in positions of power needs to be scrapped, completely. Perhaps followed up by a rather lengthy session of tar and feathering for those responsible for it’s passage.

Cowards and Liberals and RINO’s Oh My!

August 7, 2013

Cowards can find a thousand reasons for not doing what they’re afraid to do.

After staging 38 votes to repeal the anti-gun ObamaCare law — and having Harry Reid throw their bills in the wastebasket 38 times — House and Senate Republicans now have a chance to force ObamaCare repeal right down Harry Reid’s throat.

The only question is whether or not they have the courage.

Gun owners have opposed ObamaCare since its inception, given that a national health database could be used by federal bureaucrats to disarm millions of law-abiding Americans.  The use of medical data has already been used to disarm gun owners in New York — and has led to more than 150,000 military veterans losing their gun rights for ailments such as PTSD.

This law must be defunded prior to October 1, when two things happen:

* The first is that the “health care exchanges” are supposed to come on line. People — and particularly young people — will find out how much money they’re going to have to flush down the toilet for inflated politically correct premiums, under penalty of law.

* The second thing that happens on October 1 is that much of the federal government will “slow down” — not shut down as has been erroneously reported — unless a funding bill called a “Continuing Resolution,” or CR for short, is approved. For better or worse, most of the federal government will continue to operate as usual, and all “essential” discretionary functions will continue as well.

But there’s one thing that’s definitely “not essential,” and that’s ObamaCare.

In the Senate, Republican Mike Lee of Utah sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on behalf of almost a dozen colleagues, stating that they will not support a Continuing Resolution that funds the implementation of the anti-gun ObamaCare law.

In the House, Rep. Steve Stockman introduced H.Res. 333 on Friday — a resolution that, if passed, would forbid the House of Representatives from passing a CR that funds ObamaCare.

So to recap the bidding: On the very day that the American people flip their lids over this wildly unpopular ObamaCare mandate, Republicans have the opportunity to stage a showdown. And if they win, ObamaCare goes down the tubes, along with the rest of Barack Obama’s agenda.

So, given that option, why would the GOP not want to pursue it?  Just listen to what a few Republican senators have said recently:

* Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) said that using the CR to defund ObamaCare is the “dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”

* Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) said that, “I think it’s a silly effort.”

* Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) said this was the “dumbest idea” he had ever heard.

* And Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said the effort was “a bridge too far for me.”

Despite these acts of cowardice, the American people are firmly behind Congress doing something to defang this anti-gun law.

According to a CNN poll, 73% of the American people favor repealing ObamaCare, either fully or partially (March 2012).  So given the widespread opposition to this anti-gun law, why are many GOP legislators balking at this opportunity to drive a stake through its ugly heart?

There are at least five misrepresentations that some Republicans are using to justify their cowardice on ObamaCare.  Click here to see what these misstatements are and how they can be easily answered.

ACTION: Contact your Senators and Representatives. Tell them to insist that NO Continuing Resolution to fund the government contain money for the ObamaCare individual mandate.  Take these three actions right away:

1. Click here to contact your Senators and Representatives.  Urge your Senators to sign onto the Lee letter and your Representative to sign onto the Stockman resolution (H.Res. 333).  You can also call your legislators using the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121.

2. Distribute this alert to all your family, friends and co-workers and encourage them all to take action.

3. Be sure to visit your legislators in person at any Town Hall meetings they schedule this month during their August break.  You can contact their offices (at 202-224-3121) to find out when they’ll be hosting a Town Hall meeting in your area.

How is President Obama Assaulting the Constitution?

February 18, 2012

With tens of millions of Americans watching, Barack Obama stood at the West Front of the U.S. Capitol on January 20, 2009, with his left hand on the Bible and his right hand held aloft, swearing to God and country that he would preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. Yet despite that pledge, President Obama has time and time again taken actions contrary to the principles of the founding document he swore to uphold, setting forth on a heretofore uncharted path of unconstitutionality that will fundamentally change the character of this Republic for the worse, not for the better.

Last week, America erupted in protest against one of those actions — the White House’s determination to force all insurance plans to cover, at no charge, contraceptives, abortion-inducing drugs, and sterilization as part of Obamacare. That mandate includes employers like Catholic hospitals, Christian schools, and faith-based pregnancy care centers, all of which must offer the coverage, regardless of their beliefs. This assault on the First Amendment’s protection of religious liberties met with opposition from all corners, prompting the president on Friday to address the American people and pledge his commitment to protecting religious liberties by offering an “accommodation” to these institutions — forcing insurance companies to offer free contraception so religious institutions don’t have to.

The trouble is, that “accommodation” was merely hypothetical and Obama’s commitment to protecting religious liberties was illusory. Obamacare’s anti-conscience mandate did not change in a final rule that was posted later that day. And even if the president’s hypothetical became reality, Heritage’s Jennifer Marshall explains that the religious liberty problem still remains:

It does not disentangle religious employers, since insurers will shift the burden back to religious groups through higher premiums in one form or another. Nor does it address the potential religious liberty concerns of other employers or individuals.

This is only the beginning of the problems Americans will continue to see as the Obamacare ‘essential benefits’ package takes shape. The anti-conscience mandate is a warning sign for us all of how one-size-fits-all health care requirements will trample religious liberty as well as individual liberty.

Yesterday at The Heritage Foundation, Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) spoke of his opposition to this latest Obamacare mandate. Afterward, in an exclusive interview with Heritage, Blunt called the move a “genuine assault on First Amendment freedoms” and dismissed the president’s proposed “accommodation” as nothing more than an “accounting gimmick.” “This is not about cost. It’s about the Constitution,” Blunt said. “And if you can decide this no longer offends me because I don’t have to pay for it, I guess your concern is financial all the time and not faith-based.”

Unfortunately, the president’s disregard for the First Amendment is not his first assault on the Constitution. Earlier this year, President Obama cast aside our government’s fundamental separation of powers when he made four unconstitutional appointments without bothering to seek the advice and consent of the U.S. Senate, as the Constitution requires.

Yesterday, Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), who was among the first to warn about the consequences of the president’s unilateral action, spoke at Heritage about the ramifications of those appointments. In an exclusive interview, he explained that today, more than a month after the illegal appointments, a new director is running the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and three members of the National Labor Relations Board are conducting business — all in blatant violation of the Constitution.

“He’s reading the Constitution in a way that’s manifestly wrong,” Lee explained. “It’s contrary to the text. It’s contrary to tradition and practice, and it’s contrary to logic.”

“This is not a partisan issue for me. I would be equally outraged if this were a Republican president doing this same thing,” Lee added. “Once this gains some momentum, this practice could be very destructive to the Senate’s prerogative of advice and consent. This is a power that doesn’t belong to the president. It belongs to the people of the United States of America.”

President Obama, of course, offers justifications for his actions. In the case of the illegal appointments, he says that he simply “can’t wait” for the Congress to act. In the case of the Obamacare contraception mandate, he insists he is acting in the best interest of the American people, while offering a “fair” accommodation to religious institutions. The trouble is that the president is measuring himself against his own subjective standard while disregarding the objective limitations on his power.

In a government where there are no practical limits on executive overreach, there are likewise no limits on the government’s ability to impose its will on the people. With the president’s trampling of religious liberties, the country is getting its first taste of the consequences of Obama’s unmitigated power grab. And if this power remains unchecked, there are certainly more consequences to come.

SOURCE

And people wonder why I am a member..?

 

 

Rep. Rehberg’s Legislation Protects Veterans’ Second Amendment Rights

October 17, 2011

The House this week adopted legislation protecting the Second Amendment rights of veterans.

Sponsored by Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-MT), the legislation requires that before a veteran can lose his or her gun rights, they must receive due process in a court of law.  Rehberg offered the measure as an amendment to H.R. 2349, which passed the House on a voice vote.

Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) told GOA he plans to introduce a Senate version of the bill right away.  GOA is working to get as many cosponsors to this legislation as possible.  In the last Congress, Sen. Burr’s bill passed out of committee only to be derailed by Harry Reid and anti-gun Senate Democrats.

Veterans Disarmament Act

It might seem like a no-brainer.  In America, no one—be they in the military or a civilian—should be stripped of their constitutional liberties without having their day in court, right?  But it can happen, and it does happen.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) can deem a veteran as a “mental defective” for the sole reason of having a third party appointed over their financial affairs.  Veterans with mental health issues such as temporary memory loss or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) commonly turn over control of their finances to a spouse or family member.

Because persons found to be “mental defectives” are prohibited from owning firearms, the names of these veterans are turned over to the FBI’s NICS system.

No crime needs to have been committed.  No finding that the person is even remotely dangerous.  No trial by a jury of one’s peers.  A veteran can be stripped of his or her gun rights simply by the capricious action of government bureaucrats.

Ok, some may protest, but this must happen rarely.  It must be an aberration, a mistake.  Wrong.

Since 1999, over 150,000 honorably discharged veterans have lost their gun rights in precisely this manner. And though it’s theoretically possible to get off the list, that rarely—if ever—happens.

Gun owners who are not veterans can also be affected by the current law because the definition of “mental defective” used by the VA applies to anyone.  It affects veterams particularly hard because of the ease of information sharing between one federal agency (VA) and another (FBI).

But under ObamaCare, medical records for all Americans will be made increasingly available to Washington bureaucrats.  What safeguards are in place to ensure that those records will not likewise be abused?  None.

That’s why it is vitally important that all gun owners contact their two Senators and insist that they support Sen. Burr’s Veterans Second Amendment Protection Act.

This bill ensures that a veteran cannot lose his or her gun rights without a finding in a court of law that the person is a danger to self or others.

This would mean no more “psychiatric gun bans” for vets, and it will serve notice to the federal government that the same thing will not be allowed to happen to the rest of the population.

GOA is working to get as many cosponsors as possible.  Due process under the law is something even anti-gunners should support (they won’t, of course), and we are pushing to get a veto-proof majority behind this legislation.

ACTION: Please contact your Senators and urge them to cosponsor the Second Amendment Veterans Protection Act.

Click Here to Send Your Senators a prewritten email message

SOURCE

The Second Amendment is Coming Under Fire! Vote could occur as early as Wednesday

September 20, 2011
Earlier this month, we alerted you to the fact that Congress will have an opportunity to defund some of the anti-gun programs that the Obama Administration has foisted upon the American people.
Well, we are sorry to report that the congressional leadership is not yet listening to you. The House will soon be taking up H.J.Res. 79, which bundles all 12 appropriation bills to fund the federal government for the next month and a half.
According to GOA’s sources on Capitol Hill, this bill contains:
  • NO DEFUNDING of ObamaCare;
  • NO DEFUNDING of Operation Fast & Furious which was used to demonize American gun owners, while helping send arms to Mexican drug cartels;
  • NO DEFUNDING of requirements that will register American gun owners in the Southwest — regulations that were instituted by the Obama Administration as a way of deflecting attention from their involvement in Fast & Furious;
  • NO DEFUNDING of the shotgun and rifle import bans; and,
  • NO DEFUNDING of the Administration’s ability to engage in negotiations on an anti-gun small arms treaty.
ACTION: We need to redouble our efforts. Please use the pre-written letter to contact your congressman, and urge your friends and family to do the same. Time is of the essence!
Tell your Representative to stake out a position early and publicly that they will oppose any continuing resolution which does not defund ObamaCare, Fast & Furious, the illegal long gun multiple sales regs, the illegal shotgun and rifle bans, and the UN negotiations to produce a treaty which will register American gun owners.

The Push to Expose ATF’s Gunrunner Cover-up Continues

June 14, 2011
Leaders from Gun Owners of America attended a congressional hearing yesterday where Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) laid the groundwork for what could, ultimately, send several federal agents to jail.
Rep. Issa, who has been investigating the scandal known as Project Gunrunner, questioned a panel of witnesses with experience in investigating corruption in the Executive Branch.
The question of the day was: Does the Justice Department have to respond to subpoenas relating to Project Gunrunner — a scandal which involves corruption in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)?
So far, the Department of Justice has sat on many crucial documents that have been subpoenaed by Congressman Issa.
But, to a man, each one of the witnesses on this star-studded panel — many of them former Democrat operatives — all told Rep. Issa that (short of some unforeseen circumstance) the Obama Administration SHOULD COMPLY with the subpoenas and give Congress the documents it is requesting (but which are currently being withheld).
Last week, GOA once again called upon the Congress to cut funding for a program that allows the Obama Administration to put guns into the hands of suspected gun smugglers, and then to turn around and blame law-abiding gun owners for the problem!
Battle heating up over anti-gun ObamaCare
In other efforts to cut anti-gun spending, the battle to repeal ObamaCare is still being waged. But recent news over budget battles in Congress are somewhat distressing.
If Congressional Quarterly is correct, gun owners are going to be disappointed with a deal that is being hammered out right now on Capitol Hill. In exchange for raising the debt ceiling, said CQ last week, politicians are promising that many spending cuts will not occur until “the next decade or longer.”
This is a real problem. As pointed out by RedState.org last week, it will be ‘difficult, if not impossible, for Congress to enforce these promised cuts on a future Congress.’
That means we would get increased spending (for things like anti-gun ObamaCare) with a promise of cuts in the future that will almost certainly never occur.
We need to let our Congressmen know that a vote to raise the debt ceiling WITHOUT voting to cut ObamaCare NOW is an anti-gun vote. Don’t let them sell you on the phony promise that they will get spending cuts 20 years down the road. Those cuts will never materialize!
According to RedState last week: “Members of the Tea Party and the conservative movement need to be prepared for some serious disappointment if news reports are correct.”
Why? Because in exchange for raising the debt ceiling, politicians are promising future cuts to spending which will occur so far in the future that “many of these politicians cutting the deal will be long gone from Washington, DC.”
That’s why we need to demand spending cuts right now. And cutting anti-gun ObamaCare and Project Gunrunner would be two good places to start.
ACTION: Please click here to send a email urging your Representative to vote NO on raising the debt ceiling unless there are REAL CUTS to defund ObamaCare and Project Gunrunner that will take place immediately.

epic fail obamacare: The Constitution, what Constitution..?

December 16, 2010

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli won a major victory today when a federal judge in Richmond ruled ObamaCare’s individual mandate unconstitutional.

Of course, this battle over the anti-gun national heath care law — which could allow the government to disarm many gun owners based on medical records — is not over.  Twenty other states, led by Florida, also have legal challenges to ObamaCare, and this issue is guaranteed to go to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Certainly, the decision in Richmond is good news for the Constitution and good news for all Americans.

Attorney General Cuccinelli also recently backed GOA’s effort to get the Congress to read the U.S. Constitution at the start of the new session in January.  We could hope that had the 111th Congress read the Constitution, there would have been no ObamaCare.

If you have not already signed the petition, please do so at http://readtheusconstitution.org (and encourage others to so as well).  Below is the text of a letter that Ken Cuccinelli released last week:

———————–

Dear Friend of Liberty,

My friends at Gun Owners of America (GOA) have a great idea to begin the 112th Congress: Read the Constitution!

Not just read it privately, but have it read out loud on the floor of the U.S. House and Senate.

In January, all Members of Congress will swear an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States.  Yet every day in Washington, that document is ignored by those same people.

Ours was intended to be a government of limited, enumerated powers.  But by disregarding the law of this land, Congress is reaching into the every aspect of American life.  This must stop, and the first step is to remind the politicians about that document that they swore to defend.

It is time to restore constitutional fidelity, and to put the federal government back under the restraints laid out for it by the Founding Fathers.

I hope you will join with GOA and hundreds of thousands of like-minded Americans and sign the petition urging the Congress to read the Constitution in January, before it takes up even one piece of legislation.

You can read and sign the petition at www.readtheusconstitution.org.

Sincerely,
Ken Cuccinelli, II
Attorney General of Virginia

http://www.gunowners.org

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


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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