Yesterday we spotlighted the positive Ad about Education by Democrat candidate Joe Dorman who is supported by a wide cross section of people. May come as a shock to the hard right but we do have Republican teachers in Oklahoma who support Dorman. Democrats in Oklahoma have common sense about a wide variety of topics compared to the Repubicans in this State you could say were stuck on stupid.
If you don't believe the GOP is stuck on stupid remark, please read he latest out of the an OK GOP county organization who is hosting a fundraiser later this month. Their flyer (copy below) caused GOP Governor Fallin to pull out of an event where she was advertised to speak. Would be freaking me out if I was still supporting Republicans because it is one of the dumbest moves I have seen out of a County Party even in Oklahoma. Thought I had seen it all but I was wrong. It reinforces why I support Joe Dorman for Governor plus why I am leaving the hard right GOP behind. Whoever came up with the truth is stranger then fiction deserves all the accolades after this debacle as chronicled by The Business Insider:
Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin (R) will not be attending a fundraiser for a local Republican Party chapter after the group distributed a flyer promising the event would feature a discussion of "some things that you may not know" about the Ku Klux Klan. However, one of the event's organizers insisted the fundraiser was not "connected" to the KKK and was simply going to include information about how Democrats can be linked to the group. Fallin spokesman Alex Weintz told Business Insider on Wednesday that the governor's office contemplated having her attend the GOP Bean Feed hosted by the Garvin County Republicans on Aug. 23, however, she will not be going to the event.
"They had invited her to go, we had said we would look to put it on her schedule. She is not going," said Weintz.
A flyer distributed by the Garvin County Republicans promised the event would feature a "great agenda" including remarks from Fallin and an opportunity to "discuss issues with fellow conservatives and find out some things that you may not know about the NRA, Planned Parenthood, Ku Klux Klan, and other organizations." Weintz would not say whether the flyer prompted Fallin's decision not to attend the event.
"All I can tell you is she is not going and certainly that flyer was not something that is run by our office. ... If she had gone, she would have talked about her plan for economic growth in Oklahoma," Weintz said, adding, "The governor was never going to speak about any of those topics. Her plan was always to speak about her re-election campaign and her goals for the state."
For the latest update, please click the link for Business Insider
Would be willing to bet the Fallin campaign originally told Garvin County GOP she would be there until her campaign saw this flyer. First time I can remember that a County had to run a flyer past a candidate before it could be released. If you haven't guessed, the Oklahoma Governor's Office is not an open book because it takes months to get a Freedom of Information request honored and some just sit there. This is the same ALEC Governor that this spring vetoed over 15 bills including two that she wanted to teach the legislature a lesson so they would give her what she wanted across the board.
It is even funny the Fallin campaign thought they could say it was never on her calendar and everyone would believe the story. Anyone who has been around politics knows full well you don't put a Governor's name on a flyer that they are speaking unless it has been confirmed. Must admit this flyer is a doozy:
Just think Governor Fallin attending an event as the Guest Speaker where the KKK is discussed on the same program as the NRA, Planned Parenthood, and other organizations. Bet that flyer sent shockwaves through her campaign staff along with Governor's office staff.
The menu is even funny to me as the Democrats are noted in Oklahoma for their Cornbread and Beans luncheons. Used to be the standard menu for Norman Democrats at their monthly luncheon. Is the Garvin GOP made up of former Democrats? If they are, the GOP needs to keep them!
Let's move Oklahoma forward on 4 November 2014 by sending the Republicans to the unemployment line and bringing back elected officials who will put all Oklahomans first not just the wealthy! If you don't mind, I would also like people with a brain with common sense to be elected. Don't think that is too much to ask after some of the dumb statements I see daily out of Republicans.
Glenn Beck leads the way during the NRA Convention to show Americans how extreme and out of touch the NRA has become.
Reading the article from Media Matters on the NRA started me thinking back and remembering some of the statements like 'jack-booted thugs' coming out of NRA members in Texas. The militia in Kerville were always touting their NRA membership as if it made them legitimate as part of the mainstream. In Oklahoma in 2010, a candidate for Republican Governor wanted the militia to become the military arm of the Tea Party as part of the 2nd amendment. I thought he was nuts but looks like he wasn't the only one as the NRA has been playing to the militia movement according to Media Matters:
The NRA was forced to make a choice. Would it be a fiercely ideological yet mainstream organization? Or would it side with its worst demons and become the Washington trade association for anti-government militias?
NRA board member Ted Nugent gave us a clue to the answer at the beginning of April when he reiterated his pre-election statement that "if this America-hater, if this freedom-hater, if this enemy of America becomes the president again I'll either be dead or in jail" and tied it to background check legislation that subsequently failed in the Senate.
For decades the NRA toyed with the violent extremes of America politics, reaping members and dollars. After this weekend's annual meeting there should be no confusion about what the NRA is - a group fully controlled by the rhetoric of anti-government extremists.
What has changed that Glenn Beck felt free to run this attack on Mayor Bloomberg during his speech? Seems the NRA has decided to stop wearing two masks by jettisoning the one for mainstream America on gun safety with backing some form of background checks. Today they have chosen to take off their other mask permanently to showcase they are a group who caters to the hard right including militia types of this Country. Looks like the internet and other sources of news have finally outed the real NRA that was being hidden from public view.
Comparing Mayor Bloomberg to Hitler is not mainstream America - it is extremism that is permeating the hard right today with their conspiracy theories. IMHO it is harmful to America because some people actually believe what the hard right out of touch people are saying. That defies my belief that even Beck would go that far but truthfully I should be more surprised if Beck said something that was not radical. Beck and Sarah Palin made a good pair on their visits around the Country several years ago playing to the hard right. Palin was also back at it at the NRA Convention. Wonder if they paid her as she has been trolling for dollars since even Fox News cut her like they did Beck.
Leading the charge of the hard right was none other then Glenn Beck according to Media Matters:
This weekend former Senator Evan Bayh echoed the beliefs of many in the media that the National Rifle Association has only recently moved to the fringe, telling Politico "their position is now in the end zone, not at the 40-yard line."
These extremes were on display at the NRA annual meeting this weekend where Glenn Beck, during a keynote address just days after the announcement that New York's Cablevision would soon begin to carry his Blaze network to millions of households, displayed on the screen a poster-like image of Michael Bloomberg giving the Sieg Heil salute. To equate the Jewish mayor of New York City to Nazis used to be beyond the pale in American politics.
One could say this outrageous hate speech was Beck acting like Beck, demonstrating his herculean effort to prove Godwin's Law, but Nazi comparisons have been part and parcel of the NRA's rhetoric for decades.
In 1995, former President George H.W. Bush resigned his lifetime membership in the organization after Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre signed a fundraising letter that claimed the Assault Weapons Ban passed earlier that year "gives jackbooted Government thugs more power to take away our constitutional rights, break in our doors, seize our guns, destroy our property and even injure and kill us."
Bush told the organization, "your broadside against Federal agents deeply offends my own sense of decency and honor; and it offends my concept of service to country."
The rhetoric might have been new to Bush, but the organization had freely referred to law enforcement officials as "jackbooted thugs" for years. It was only in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing that previously ignored communications, such as direct mail pieces, were scrutinized by the media, outing this disgraceful language.
Likewise Beck's Nazi rhetoric is nothing new for the NRA. In 1994, a year before Bush resigned from the organization, LaPierre claimed in the organization's magazine The American Rifleman that Federal agents "are scarier than the Nazis -- who at least never concealed their faces." This was after writing that "it may be that this is a valid comparison" to "compare the behavior our uncontrolled Federal agents to that of the Nazis in the Third Reich."
Is the rhetoric coming from the NRA and its allies today any more extreme?
The difference is, in an age of communications transparency created by the internet, the organization can no longer maintain two faces. While they've long used language designed to appeal to militia members and other anti-government extremists they depend on to fill their membership roles, they used to also employ more moderate language designed to appeal to lawmakers and the media - in 1999 the organization claimed to support background checks at gun shows - and even some left leaning Democrats could formally claim an alliance with the organization.
NRA adopting a resolution from World Net Daily, home of the conspiracy theories, shows just how far out of the mainstream the NRA is today. No wonder they have lost a lot of common sense members who don't want to be associated with this organization.
The membership of the National Rifle Association has unanimously adopted a resolution proposed by a WND columnist expressing opposition to any and all additional restrictions against guns during the session of its annual meeting. This position puts the activists in attendance out of step not only with the American people, but with the broader membership of the organization.
The resolution was offered by fringe gun activist Jeff Knox during the open session of the May 4 meeting. Knox is head of the Firearms Coalition, a hardline organization that promotes the "unencumbered right to arms" and opposes "any moves toward more restrictive and/or intrusive gun laws." He also writes a column about gun policy for WND, a discredited right-wing website known for its conspiracy theories. Knox's father Neal is credited with leading NRA hard-liners to crush the group's moderate wing in the 1970s and 1990s, helping to establish the organization as a no-compromises right-wing lobbying powerhouse.
The text of Knox's resolution cites its necessity as "a public repudiation of the lies and distortions from the media and politicians suggesting that the majority of NRA members support the expansion of gun control laws as clearly and unequivocally we do not." Polling indicates that the public -- including self-described NRA members -- overwhelmingly support at least one proposal to strengthen gun laws, the expansion of the background check system.
On July 4th, there is a 1,000 (sponsor wants 10,000 now) loaded rifle carrying man march planned on the Capitol which is in violation of the DC laws which prohibit open or concealed carry. These hard right gun people don't care about laws as any law on guns doesn't apply to them because they believe there should be no gun laws. Would like to see the whole bunch thrown in jail after being arrested, have to post bond, and fined big time by the District. A lot of people go to DC for the 4th of July festivities that have to do with celebrating the birth of our Country who don't want to be around a group of rifle carrying gun nuts who believe their rights supersede our right to live a peaceful life.
It was announced Sunday that over 900 gun enthusiasts have RSVPed for a July 4 march on Washington, D.C. where the protestors plan to carry loaded rifles.
While it is against the law to openly carry a gun in D.C., libertarian radio host Adam Kokesh, the organizer of the event, said the march is an act of "civil disobedience" that attempts to prove gun advocates’ point in the “SUBTLEST way possible.”
The event's Facebook page is describing the planned march as nonviolent, “unless the government chooses to make it violent":
This is an act of civil disobedience, not a permitted event. We will march with rifles loaded & slung across our backs to put the government on notice that we will not be intimidated & cower in submission to tyranny. We are marching to mark the high water mark of government & to turn the tide. This will be a non-violent event, unless the government chooses to make it violent. Should we meet physical resistance, we will peacefully turn back, having shown that free people are not welcome in Washington, & returning with the resolve that the politicians, bureaucrats, & enforcers of the federal government will not be welcome in the land of the free.
There’s a remote chance that there will be violence as there has been from government before, and I think it should be clear that if anyone involved in this event is approached respectfully by agents of the state, they will submit to arrest without resisting. We are truly saying in the SUBTLEST way possible that we would rather die on our feet than live on our knees.
Protests over gun control are heating up.
There is only a guess as to whether or not the march will even take place, as Kokesh has said he wants 10,000 RSVPs to make it happen, and it may be that he thinks there will be strength in numbers. With the NRA pushing for a "stand and fight" response from its members this weekend, Kokesh may end up getting his troops.
Many people feel that brandishing a loaded firearm is a recipe for disaster. It has been done before. On August 17, 2012, thirty gun-toting activists stormed a public library in Virginia, scaring adults and children.
They were protesting the library's concealed carry policy. One sentence sparked the ire of the Virginia Citizens Defense League.
Tide is already starting to turn against the NRA but they refuse to admit that their bought and paid for members of Congress are getting all kinds of heat from the 90% of us who support background checks. Like so many on the hard right they are living in denial and refusing to face reality that times are changing and people are fed up with the NRA, along with their bought and paid for politicians who refuse to take action in the Senate.
We are marching to mark the high water mark of government & to turn the tide
How arrogant is that statement from the Facebook page for the march? They are about to find out in 2014 that a lot of Americans are fed up with the NRA and their puppets in Congress. A lot of Republicans are saying no to the hard right and yes to common sense candidates from the Democrats. Hard right is systematically destroying the Republican Party and the NRA is a willing accomplice.
We need to oust the hard right NRA members from Congress who are running for reelection in 2014.
NRA has overstepped and time for us to fight back. Let's make sure our children are safe from guns by starting to enforce child endangerment laws when there is a loaded gun in the house available for children to get their hands on to shoot. Time to put restrictions on the age that children can be given guns as five is way too young. The little five year old that shot and killed his sister will have to live with that the rest of his life. Is that what the NRA wants with no laws on guns? Never figured out why gun locks are not required by the law in homes with children.
Time for common sense to prevail over NRA gun extremists.
“If you’re a freshman — the guys who’ve been up here the last year, we can go home and say listen, we voted 36 different times to repeal or replace Obamacare. Tell me what the new guys are supposed to say,” he said. “We haven’t had a repeal or replace vote this year.” (Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC)
Have you been in a store when a child wants something that their Mother says they cannot have and they throw a fit? That is what Freshman Republican Representatives are doing as they have never been able to vote on repeal of Obamacare. Poor babies! What a bunch of whiners make up the GOP Conference in the House. How many times do they have to vote to end Obamacare when they know full well it will never pass the Senate. They spend time and our tax dollars (almost $50M) to repeal Obamacare 36 times but don't have the time in their 3-day work week to pass jobs bills including one for veterans or the farm bill for small farmers not the conglomerate farms owned by Republican big donors.
The reason for all the votes is so they can tell Republicans in their districts that they voted against Obamacare:
"this is the issue that so many people around the country who love the Republican Party are frustrated with.” (Rep Mick Mulvaney (R-SC)
Are they too dumb to realize that all these votes have actually turned long time 'common sense' Republicans against the GOP in the House? I find this demeaning to the oath they took because it is all about politics with the hard right conservative Tea Party crowd. Their whole aim seems to be to make Obama look bad and screw up the Government by allow the sequester to take place, Bet Republicans are the first ones to complain about flight delays as they leave DC to return home after a three-day work week where they spent their time deciding whether to debate Obamacare again or to send Representatives to the Joint Resolution Committee on the Budget.
Part of the reason House Republicans may not be able to put their futile efforts to repeal Obamacare behind them is that party freshmen won’t let them.
Now, four months in to Obama’s second term, as House GOP leaders promote modest measures and a gentler tone to rebrand the party, freshmen and their conservative allies are kicking it old school, demanding a frontal assault on the Affordable Care Act they know will fail.
At a Wednesday panel organized by the Heritage Foundation, conservative Republicans lamented that it’s been too long since they had the opportunity to vote to wipe out the Affordable Care Act in its entirety — and that the newest members haven’t had the chance yet. “We need to get a vote on full repeal, and I’ve asked leadership for this. I’m a cosponsor of Michele Bachmann’s bill … that just goes straight at it for full repeal,” said Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), the chairman of the influential and deeply conservative Republican Study Committee.
“We need to continue fighting for repeal. We need a clean vote on repeal.”
Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) urged leadership to hold a repeal vote so freshman members can serve up the same anti-Obamacare talking points for their conservative constituents that more senior Republicans enjoy.
“If you’re a freshman — the guys who’ve been up here the last year, we can go home and say listen, we voted 36 different times to repeal or replace Obamacare. Tell me what the new guys are supposed to say,” he said. “We haven’t had a repeal or replace vote this year.”
“We have not had a chance as freshmen to do that,” said first-term Rep. Trey Radel (R-FL).
“Even if it’s just symbolic — and even if we understand that process-wise we are not going to be able to say, okay we want repeal, it’s done, and it’s over. But this is the issue that so many people around the country who love the Republican Party are frustrated with.”
If Obamacare wasn't enough, for four years we have had the Republicans in the House complaining the Senate never passes a budget. The Senate has now passed a budget and the House Republican leadership refuses to appoint anyone because of some rule -- excuses, excuses:
Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and his team are preparing to turn up the pressure on Republicans over a budget conference committee aimed at reaching a broad debt deal. Senior aides said the top Democrat was expected to seek a deal with the GOP this week to formally appoint Senate budget conference negotiators. They said the move was a response to the statement by Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio last week that he will not name House conference negotiators unless both chambers can first work out a framework for agreement.
Boehner cited concerns about a House rule that would allow rank-and-file members on both sides to force votes, or what Boehner called “politically motivated bombs,” on motions to instruct conferees if no agreement has been reached within 20 days once a conference committee is named.
(snip) It remains unclear, for now, whether Republicans would block the appointment of conferees, either to provide political cover for Boehner or to force a second budget debate with amendments. “It would seem they are not sincere about wanting a budget resolution if they block the appointment of conferees,” said Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin of Illinois.
Speaker Boehner seems to be afraid of his own shadow these days seeing everyone out to get him on both sides. There may be some truth to that because from the day he allowed the hard right Tea Party to dictate to leadership, it has been downhill ever since. When he does stand up to them, he usually backs down and gives into their demands.
If the House Republicans are a reflection of the makeover of the Republican Party, it has failed completely. All you have to do is look at some of the dumb statements still coming out of Republican elected office holders and candidates. There are so many examples that it is hard to pick a favorite, but mine is the South Carolina House race with former Appalachian hiker Mark Sanford broke into his ex-wife's home for camping gear and boots and then is photographed debating a cardboard cut-out of Nancy Pelosi. Truth is stranger then fiction when it comes to Mark Sanford. He is so bad that even though he won the run-off, the NRCC has stopped all funding! Would you fund a candidate who debates a cardboard cutout?
This latest poll shows the Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch pulling away from Sanford. What I find extremely interest was this comment from PPP:
Although Sanford's unpopularity is clearly the main reason Democrats have a chance to win in this district, it's interesting to note that there is some backlash against Republicans over last week's vote on background checks. 86% of voters in the district say they support them to only 12% opposed, and 45% of voters say the GOP's opposition to them makes it less likely they'll support the party in the next election compared to only 21% who consider it a positive. That anger over the gun vote comes despite Barack Obama having only a 41% approval rating in the district with 51% of voters disapproving of him.
Been saying for sometime as readers of this blog and those on Twitter know that the disgruntled Republicans like myself and others are going to tip the balance to the Democrats in 2014 because we refuse to support or vote for Republican candidates in 2014 when they are truly the Party of "NO" with their refusal to pass simple legislation on firearms or vote for the Violence Against Women Act. They are so bought and paid for by the NRA and wealthy donors, they have blinders on to the rest of the American people.
This race in a very red Congressional District is a microcosm of Republican voters across the Country who are totally fed up with the GOP today. No amount of rebranding and rhetoric is going to work. When you have trouble winning a race in SC as former Governor, the GOP may be in for a bad night in November 2014. They may discover they cannot take GOP voters fore granted while treating us like we are to dumb to notice their rhetoric has no basis in fact. With being a former member of the House and Governor, Sanford should be having high favorable numbers among Republicans but it is not working out that way with some Republicans refusing to even go vote. Be interesting to watch this play out because the big loser in all of this could be the NRA and their puppets in the Congress.
PPP's newest poll on the special election in South Carolina finds Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch expanding her lead to 9 points over Mark Sanford at 50/41. Green Party candidate Eugene Platt polls at 3%.
Colbert Busch's lead is on the rise for several reasons. She has a 51/35 advantage with independents. She's winning over 19% of Republicans, while losing just 7% of Democrats. And it also seems that after last week's revelations about Sanford that a lot of GOP voters are planning to just stay at home- while the district supported Mitt Romney by 18 points last fall, those planning to turn out for the special election voted for him by only a 5 point spread.
Sanford continues to be unpopular in the district with 38% of voters rating him favorably to 56% with a negative opinion. 51% say the revelations about his trespassing last week give them doubts about his fitness for public office. Interestingly the events of the last week haven't hurt Sanford too much with Republicans though- 65% say the trespassing charges don't give them any doubts about him, and his favorable with GOP voters has actually improved from 55/39 a month ago to now 61/32.
Although Sanford's unpopularity is clearly the main reason Democrats have a chance to win in this district, it's interesting to note that there is some backlash against Republicans over last week's vote on background checks. 86% of voters in the district say they support them to only 12% opposed, and 45% of voters say the GOP's opposition to them makes it less likely they'll support the party in the next election compared to only 21% who consider it a positive. That anger over the gun vote comes despite Barack Obama having only a 41% approval rating in the district with 51% of voters disapproving of him.
Should be an interesting night to watch the results come in on the Busch/Sanford race. Stay tuned to see what the hard right loon Sanford pulls next in his quest to return to the House and create even more havoc!
Time for NRA and Gun Lobby to be honest with Gun Owners that the Government is not coming to take their guns which they know is the truth
Where in the 2nd Amendment does it say that any entity has a right to tell me that I have to own a gun? My reading comprehension is pretty high and just don't see anything that tells me it is mandatory I have to own a gun only that I have a right to own a gun - huge difference. Yet Nelson, GA is now saying otherwise with making gun ownership mandatory in their town outside of Atlanta. How long before it spreads to other parts of the Country? I don't see the word 'mandatory' in the 2nd amendment:
Amendment II A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
The new law exempts people who don't want to own firearms for religious purposes. How about those of us who don't want guns in our homes period. I can still my remember when my oldest daughter was small and my husband's brother and wife who were both ATF agents visited us since his parents were there for the Christmas holidays and New Years. Our daughter went into her room where they were staying to get something from her closet and came running down to tell me there was a gun on top of her dresser. I admit I flipped out and had a few choice words for my husband after he refused to say anything. My father-in-law took care of it. At least there was one sane person in the group.
Every time I see an article about a child getting their hands on a handgun and shooting themselves or someone else, I am reminded of that incident. Fortunately, my daughter got scared of the gun and came down to tell me.
Now a town in Georgia wants to make sure that everyone owns a gun. Glad I don't live there or I would be dialing up an attorney to file suit against the city council for infringing on my rights. Love the part where council says we are not going to enforce it. Next time you get a speeding ticket in this town, the person needs ask how you can enforce one law and not another one. NRA and anti-gun control people are out of control especially in the South.
At least the Oklahoma Senate yesterday effectively killed teachers carrying guns when they are refusing to hear the House bill that passed in committee. Oklahoma Senators seem to have more common sense then those in the House. How long before the gun rights people start threatening OK Senators? You know that is coming because the gun rights groups don't take rejection kindly. They act like they are the only ones who have a right to say which gun laws are passed (none) and the GOP goes right along with them like the little lemmings or another way to say it is the GOP are bought and paid for by the NRA along with some Democrats. Shame on all of them for putting the NRA/Guns over American lives.
This just takes the cake - Georgia once again shows how they got their reputation for being 'good ole boys' with this new law in one of their towns. They have ten days to come to their senses before the bill is law. I wouldn't count on that happening. If I was driving through GA, I would boycott Nelson, GA - none of my money would buy gas or pay for food in a town that is this radical:
Late Monday, Nelson, Georgia passed a law called the “Family Protection Ordinance” that requires every adult in the 1,300-person town to own a gun “for purposes of emergency management and general safety of the city.”
The town’s Police Chief, Heath Mitchell, told the AP that he hopes “having a gun would help residents take their protection into their own hands,” since the town has an understaffed police department and slow response time to 911 calls.
One councilman even used the National Rifle Association’s call for arming all Americans to defend the law, saying “I really felt like this ordinance was a security sign for our city. Basically it was a deterrent ordinance to tell potential criminals they might want to go on down the road a little bit.” Overall, the measure signals that government officials believe residents, not police departments, should be responsible for their own protection and rejects state and federal governments’ efforts to reduce gun violence through increased regulation of firearms.
The law exempts felons and the disabled, and anyone who objects to carrying a gun can refuse to participate with no penalty. Nelson’s city council claims that the requirement will preempt efforts by the government to “confiscate personal firearms,” something no one has proposed doing:
Councilman Duane Cronic, who sponsored the measure, said he knows the ordinance won’t be enforced but he still believes it will make the town safer.[...]
The city council’s agenda says another purpose of the measure is “opposition of any future attempt by the federal government to confiscate personal firearms.”
The mayor said he never dreamed his small city would be the focus of national and international media attention, but he understands it.
“It bumps up against the national issues on guns,” he said.
One resident told the AP that he wasn’t so sure about the measure. “Really, I think it would be more fair to put it to a vote,” he said.
Nelson’s initiative is part of a national backlash to discussions about gun regulations. After the massacre at Newtown renewed conversations about how to promote gun safety, legislatures and city councils around the country proposed similar measures, requiring or suggesting gun ownership for residents or teachers, or hosting gun giveaways to ‘take back‘ the town.
All the screeching out of the hard right and NRA about the government going to confiscate guns is a flat out lie and the NRA knows it but they want to sell more guns and ammo as lobbyists for gun/ammo manufactures. NRA knows they can control the people on the hard right with rhetoric the government is coming to take their guns which only leads to more paranoia. Now that paranoia has turned into this overreaching gun law in Nelson, GA.
Why is the NRA so afraid of background checks to buy a gun? Takes a 3-day wait for a marriage license in FL after providing the required information but you can walk into a gun show, buy a gun from a private dealer with no ID required, and walk out with your gun in five minutes. There is something really wrong and it needs fixed NOW not in a couple of years. Too many young children are dying because of guns left around the home by people who demand they have a right to weapons no matter what.
Time for Congress to throw the NRA lobbyist out of Congress and get some sensible gun legislation passed.
"Wayne and I had both warned that if the president were to win a second term," Keene said, "it would be but a matter of time before he launched an assault on private firearms ownership. And that is what has happened." (Interview with Howard Fineman, Huffington Post)
Talk about delusional in order to sell more firearms, this is it. Guess they missed Newtown and the impact it had across America which started individuals demanding gun/ammo control along with much tougher background checks. People on the left were mad at President Obama for not doing anything on gun control in his first four years. NRA doesn't think twice about lying and stirring up people in order to sell more guns/ammo to gun enthusiast. Charlton Heston most likely wouldn't recognize today's NRA.
What we are seeing today from the NRA is an organization formed for gun owners to tout gun safety morphing into a lobbying group for gun and ammo manufacturers. Find Wayne LaPierre creepy and David Keene, former head of American Conservative Union, someone who will do and say anything to make money. Didn't realize his former wife embezzled from the ACU which explains why he left. Found this from the Huffington Post interesting as the President of the NRA in the past has been a regular guy and now they named a political type?
In the years before Columbine, Aurora and Newtown became synonymous with gun violence, the National Rifle Association chose hunters and sportsmen to hold what was regarded as a ceremonial post. "They had Charlton Heston, of course, but the presidents tended to be guys from Montana or Wyoming who knew very little about politics or Washington or the media," said Craig Shirley, a political consultant and leading historian of the conservative movement.
"He's the NRA's first political president," said Shirley.
(Keene's career also has been marked by trouble and controversy. In a sad irony given his current role, his son David was sentenced to 10 years in prison for firing a gun during a road rage incident a decade ago. More recently, Keene's former wife, Diana Hubbard Carr, pleaded guilty to embezzling funds from the American Conservative Union.)
No wonder the NRA is out of touch with most Americans including some current and former NRA members who they refuse to acknowledge are former so their numbers stay high. Naming Keene who was out of touch with most of America with CPAC shows that the NRA doesn't care about most Americans only the gun and ammo manufacturers as their rhetoric has shown since Newtown. The use of scare tactics to get people to buy more guns is reprehensible. The rhetoric is a scam so they can make more money as the NRA gun lobbyists for gun/ammo manufacturers. What got to me out of his interview with Howard Feinman's were Keene's comments about Wayne LaPierra and the NRA after the Newtown Shooting. Obvious that Keene refuses to face reality.
For I had asked him whether he or the NRA regretted its first responses to the mass murder of children by a killer with an assault weapon at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
The answer was "no."
Not long after the December 2012 shooting, Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the NRA, had said that the only way to prevent more Sandy Hooks was to place armed guards in every school. The NRA had posted a web ad calling President Barack Obama an "elitist hypocrite" because Secret Service agents are posted outside his daughters' school. More recently, the NRA has pushed its case via robocalls throughout Connecticut, including Newtown, ostensibly to fight a tide of new gun control measures pending in the state Legislature.
Keene told me that the NRA had no regrets or second thoughts and that gun control advocates had seized on the Newtown tragedy to pursue their own unconstitutional political agenda.
"We had to try to get some balance into the conversation," he said. "And we are in better shape now than our critics and even some within our ranks believed possible when this battle started."
Keene is delusional if he thinks the NRA is in better shape then when this battle started as the American people are turning against the NRA in much bigger numbers and demanding gun control/tightened background checks now not years away. NRA has bought so many members of Congress that they are pretty convinced no gun control laws will pass even tightened background checks as their puppets in Congress vote the NRA line. The very idea you can go to a gun show and buy a semi-automatic rifle with no ID from a private seller tells most people with common sense that the NRA is out of control or they would be on board with tightened background checks.
Guess the NRA leaders figure that the voters will just go along and vote their puppets back into office. They may be in for a rude awakening in 2014 and then in 2016 because people are getting madder at the NRA and their puppets in Congress. They can brag about gun sales going through the roof but guns/ammo are being sold mostly to the same people not to new gun owners. With the amount of deaths of young children in homes with loaded guns, you would think the NRA would go back to pushing safety not more guns.
I want to know why when a person leaves a loaded gun in their home and a child shoots himself or someone else charges are not filed against the gun owner for child endangerment. It makes no sense. The number of people killed by guns today leaves you wondering when this is going to end with common sense laws passed. No one is taking guns away but I object to anyone walking into a gun show with no ID to buy a gun from a private owner.
Watch this video from VoteVets.org and ask yourself why these type semi-automatic weapons are needed by individuals. This ad is for Senator Flake of AZ but there are more on their website for other Senators:
More from the Interview with Howard Fineman at the Huffington Post:
Keene, LaPierre and others worked to put gun rights front and center during the 2012 GOP primaries (Mitt Romney lamely bragged about hunting "varmints") and in congressional and local races.
The NRA and the GOP have lost ground, of course. After Newtown, surveys show that nine in 10 voters favor "universal" background checks. But the NRA remains a fearsomely focused force on the Hill, and in late March GOP Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas -- two stars of the conservative movement -- vowed to block even a background check measure from coming to a vote.
"Wayne and I had both warned that if the president were to win a second term," Keene said, "it would be but a matter of time before he launched an assault on private firearms ownership. And that is what has happened."
"Gun control advocates were ready," Keene argued. "Newtown gave them the chance to do just that. They launched their current anti-gun campaign even before the kids and teachers who died in that tragedy had been buried. [Democratic] Senator [Dianne] Feinstein [of California], who had her new assault weapons bill in a drawer, pulled it out. The president and vice president went after guns. Their question was not 'What can we do to prevent gun crime or mass murders?' but 'What can we do about guns?'"
Keene has helped plan and carry out the response to those efforts since December. The idea is to amp up gun rights support by stoking populist resentment of the supposedly "elitist" gun control advocates, to threaten members of Congress with campaign-year retaliation if they stray from the NRA-approved line, and to push for school security and mental health measures to show the organization's concern.
Keene's roots are libertarian, but his arguments tend to be more political and legal than philosophical.
"Gallup and other pollsters began to find that most Americans blamed not guns, but the lack of school security, a dysfunctional mental health care system and a culture of violence more than guns," he said.
"Still, to most people, the idea of something like a universal background check sounds logical, and it therefore has public support," he conceded. "The problems lie in interpretation and execution. Should it apply to relatives, neighbors, friends or just to people who buy guns at a gun show? Should it be legal for a firearms owner to lend a shotgun to his neighbor when they go out to the duck blind or allow his nephew to use a .22 to shoot at tin cans?" Inside the NRA and on its web page, the rhetoric is heated and apocalyptic, and almost any proposed gun regulation is treated as the first step toward a government that will "take up the guns" from law-abiding citizens.
Keene shrewdly focuses on mechanics.
"If it were possible to provide an essentially instantaneous background check not just for purchases from licensed dealers or private parties at gun shows but for others, that didn't impose an unreasonable burden on their right to exercise their Second Amendment rights, that would be one thing," he said. "But many of the current restrictions and proposals for universal background checks would impose just such unreasonable burdens on that fundamental right."
At lunch and in later follow-ups by email, I asked Keene about assault weapons and other matters:
I get guns and handguns. I get that the Constitution says the right to bear arms shall not be "infringed." But it is not the right to bear ANY kind of arms, is it?
No, the Second Amendment does not extend to a private right to own bazookas, rocket launchers or RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades]. When the Constitution was written, the authors were concerned with making sure citizens would always have the right to own personal arms (long arms and sidearms).
It didn't extend to cannons then, or to ballistic missiles today. The Supreme Court recognized this distinction in the [District of Columbia v.] Heller case (in 2008), which is why severe restrictions on the private ownership of fully automatic firearms imposed in the thirties are seen as legitimate. The Court said the test was whether arms in the hands of the civilian population are widely owned and commonly used for legitimate purposes.
It is the explicit language of the Court in its Heller decision that forces me to the conclusion that a ban on semi-automatic long arms such as Senator Feinstein supports will not meet constitutional muster if enacted. There are today more than 4.5 million AR-15s in private hands. They are the most used firearm in training and competitive shooting. They are widely used by hunters (particularly for varmint hunting) and are often the firearm of choice for women seeking a long arm for home protection because of their ease of handling and light recoil.
So the NRA's educational and PR initiatives in effect make banning such weapons all the more difficult because they are becoming more "widely owned and commonly used for legitimate purposes."
We are developing several programs designed to reach beyond our base support because firearms are so much more popular today than they were a decade ago, that far more women, minorities and young people are getting involved in the shooting sports. We're trying to reach them not simply to talk about gun rights, but to let them know of the many enjoyable activities in which they might want to engage.
Where do you see all of this headed?
I have said consistently that gun owners and the NRA are going to lose a battle or two as we have in the past. But we aren't going to lose the war. Moreover, we aren't going away. We have sometimes taken a decade or more to roll back obnoxious restrictions or pass legislation we believe enhances gun rights, but we have never rolled over or given up.
The arrogance of Keene, LaPierre, and some more outspoken NRA members is an affront to my intelligence and ability to reason - know I am not alone. How Keene can even think that owning a semi-automatic weapon with huge magazines is allowed by the 2nd Amendment is ludicrous. If you want to protect your property, get a shotgun.
Many of us will be remembering the votes of House and Senate NRA members when we go to the polls in 2014/2016 and vote out the members who put the NRA over the safety of the American people.
NRA, GOA, gun lobby, conservative talk radio/sites, Fox News pundits, and some members of Congress are pushing Fear of the Federal Government as the reason to oppose any reasonable gun control
This morning my other blog, Democrats for Sale, is back up only for me now to get the content which is new because for days I could not even get to the content. It was back on-line for about four hours before it was taken down after a complaint on Terms of Service which made no sense. When you consider the subjects I have been covering with being anti-NRA, anti-RNC, and anti-GOP Congress, it makes sense. I have started posting here on Voices from the Heartland during this time DfS has been down. BTW, I am contemplating taking Voices to a paid website in the near future so I don't have to bothered by those who object to my free speech.
We have a class in this Country of hard right who only believe Freedom of Speech belongs to them starting with the conservative talk radio pundits led by Rush Limbaugh and Hannity, most of the hosts on Fox News Channel (not counting Shepherd Smith or Greta), conservative websites/bloggers and paid harassers who go from site to site posting their hard right conservative talking points. Truth doesn't matter to these people, it is the hard right conservative narrative.
When it came out that Reagan had pushed for the Assault Weapons Ban, he became a RINO. The same thing happened to Justice Scalia when he said that the 2nd amendment didn't give you the right to own military style weapons and that the militia of the Constitution is the National Guard/Reserves of today so now he is a RINO. In 2004 when the Assault Weapons Ban was going to be allowed to expire by Republicans, President Bush couldn't fathom why they were allowing it to expire so he became a RINO and most likely why he had so much trouble with the Republican Congress when he was re-elected as he made the NRA mad.
This graphic was linked on Twitter to show exactly what they are talking about when they say Assault Weapon according to the NY Times:
“Assault rifle” was first used to describe a military weapon, the Sturmgewehr, produced by the Germans in World War II. The Sturmgewehr — literally “storm rifle,” a name chosen by Adolf Hitler — was capable of both semiautomatic and full-automatic fire. It was the progenitor for many modern military rifles.
But the term “assault rifle” was expanded and broadened when gun manufacturers began to sell firearms modeled after the new military rifles to civilians. In 1984, Guns & Ammo advertised a book called “Assault Firearms,” which it said was “full of the hottest hardware available today.”
“The popularly held idea that the term ‘assault weapon’ originated with antigun activists, media or politicians is wrong,” Mr. Peterson wrote. “The term was first adopted by the manufacturers, wholesalers, importers and dealers in the American firearms industry to stimulate sales of certain firearms that did not have an appearance that was familiar to many firearm owners. The manufacturers and gun writers of the day needed a catchy name to identify this new type of gun.”
Yesterday's "Gun Appreciation Day" originally co-sponsored by a white supremacist group turned out to be comedy with five people shot at gun shows due to 'accidents' when people shot a loaded gun and five people got hurt. You couldn't take this stuff up that a gun dealer pointed a gun he had purchased, shot, and it hit someone as there was a bullet left in the gun after the clip had been removed. Abject stupidity and yet these are the people who want to own military style guns with large clips. Don't get the large clips except the talk show circuit and websites have convinced some people who are not the brightest bulb in the pack that the Federal Government is going to send the military to attack them.
Why are the hard right conservatives led by Senator Rand Paul trying to stir up these people who believe what they say and could be a threat to our military and police officers around the Country if they perceive they are doing something that bothers them. We are not dealing with common sense, we are dealing with people who do cling to their guns and try to be all macho like they are some kind of a gunslinger. Do they have the temperament that if someone made fun of them open carrying a gun, they might take it out and shoot. Common sense people don't carry guns to go shopping.
Then there is the NRA an organization who has lost touch with being an organization that supports hunting, gun safety, and reasonable laws. They are now hard right money makers as the lobbying arm of the gun/ammo manufacturers. Today someone will pay $4,000 for a gun that is worth about $600 because of the increased demand for guns since this Country elected its first black president, the gun manufacturers have increased the price for guns knowing those who scare easily into thinking this Country is going socialist or communist because of President Obama are going to pay the price. Some of these people would live on beans to buy a gun. When you see someone post that their guns are before family because it is the only way to protect them, you realize you most likely are not dealing with someone with a full deck.
What is the scary part is that these people consider themselves patriots and the federal government is the enemy which brings us back to Ruby Ridge, David Koresh and Waco, and then their shining triumph according to Timothy McVeigh when he planned to kill as many federal workers as he could with bombing the federal Murrah Building in Oklahoma City. He and his partner(s) not only killed federal workers but also young children who were in the day care center. Yet even today there are some loons in the militia who consider what McVeigh did as the right thing to do.
The worst part is that members of Congress just not conservative talk shows and websites are touting the President is not legitimate, the Federal Government is coming to take your guns, new laws are Unconstitutional as the President has no right to sign Executive Orders on gun control and the list goes on and on all in order to stir up the hard right so they can line their pockets with money from the NRA, GOA, and gun/ammo manufacturers who support their campaigns/sites. After all, both sides have to do four hours of fundraising every afternoon and don't want to shut down the NRA/Gun Lobby dollars and that includes Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) who is balking at tougher filibuster requirements who is in the hip pocket of the gun lobby so it cuts both ways.
This post is dedicated to the person(s) who decided to have a four year old blog declared spam. What horrible thing did I do? I took on the gun lobby of NRA, RNC, Republicans in Congress, and the Koch Brothers organizations! If they think reporting my blog as spam is going to make me be quiet, they are in for a rude awakening. Not only will it not silence me, but I intend to dig in even more to help Democrats defeat the GOP in the House in 2014 because they are nothing but obstructionists and believe free speech only belongs to them.
The RNC Chair wants to change the way the President is elected so they can scam the voters just like they have with gerrymandering House seats. Only way they can win is to change the rules and suppress votes. I cannot believe I am even a member of the Republican Party today where guns are more important than the lives of people. More details later about the RNC plan to change awarding electoral votes in some states.
Tomorrow, I will have more but for tonight there is no Democrats and Republicans for Sale until blogspot determines it is not spam. Will be back with more information about the President's plan and how the GOP is out of control calling for his impeachment and states saying they will not enforce federal law. Absolutely disgusting.
Must admit that this press release from the Fallin for Governor campaign gave a chuckle this morning. This site took some heat when we said that Mary's opponent Jari Askins should not be endorsed by the NRA because of her stance on gun owner's rights. We stood by the fact that Askins did not support concealed or open carry. We did admit that she sponsors the Turkey hunt every year that Mary Fallin started as Lt Governor. Guns for hunting are not the same as open and/or concealed carry which her office purposely seemed to not understand.
Now with this endorsement the NRA has come down strong on the side of Mary Fallin showing there is only ONE person in the race who supports individual gun owner's rights -- Mary Fallin. Askins should never have been considered by the NRA to get an A for her stance on guns when it only included guns for hunting. Looks like the NRA got a wake-up call from Oklahoma gun owners.
***In Case You Missed It***
NRA-PVF Endorses Mary Fallin for Governor of Oklahoma
Fairfax, Va. – The National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund (NRA-PVF) is endorsing Mary Fallin for Oklahoma Governor this November.
“The National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund supports Mary Fallin because she is a champion and staunch defender of the Second Amendment freedoms of law-abiding Oklahoma gun owners,” said Chris W. Cox, chairman of NRA-PVF. “As a Congresswoman, Mary has worked to preserve and protect our gun rights, and I know she is committed to continuing this work as governor.”
During her time in Congress, Mary Fallin has supported many pro-gun efforts, including signing pro-gun congressional “friend of the court” briefs in both the Heller and McDonald cases, stating that the Second Amendment guarantees a fundamental, individual right that protects all Americans. Fallin opposes any effort to reenact the Clinton semi-auto ban. She voted in favor of allowing law-abiding citizens to carry in national parks and wildlife refuges and voted to protect access to federally-owned or administered lands for hunting, fishing, trapping and recreational shooting.
Fallin’s voting record in Congress and her support for the Second Amendment have earned her an “A” rating and the endorsement of the NRA-PVF.
“On November 2nd, I urge all Oklahoma NRA members, hunters and gun owners to vote Mary Fallin for Governor,” Cox concluded.
Established in 1871, the National Rifle Association is America’s oldest civil rights and sportsmen's group. Four million members strong, NRA continues to uphold the Second Amendment and advocates enforcement of existing laws against violent offenders to reduce crime. The Association remains the nation's leader in firearm education and training for law-abiding gun owners, law enforcement and the armed services.
