Yesterday, May 12, 2010, Congress once again ignored what Americans want and introduced a new gasoline tax as part of a global warming bill that also contains a cap and trade energy tax on utilities. The section on the gas tax begins on p. 361.
Introduced by Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT), this bill requires American oil companies to pay a fee to the government for their global warming emissions.
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who helped craft the gas tax, admitted the fee "will be passed on" to motorists in the form of higher gasoline prices.
But Senators Kerry and Lieberman are offended that any American would dare call it a gas tax.
Don't be fooled. This is a government requirement that will increase the cost of gasoline. It's a tax. So not only will we have to pay more for gas, we have the added insult of Senators insisting that what we can plainly see as a new gas tax is not actually a
gas tax.
No matter what politicians are calling it, it's a new gas tax.
In addition, this bill creates a cap and trade system that will dramatically increase the cost of residential and commercial electricity prices.
Even the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says cap and trade will kill jobs and reduce American productivity.
With one bill, Congress will raise gasoline and electricity prices, raise the cost of energy, and kill jobs. This is not the way to create jobs and prosperity.
This bill is wrong for America. Will you help us defeat it? Contact you Senators. Make sure they vote NO!
ATF Tries to Revoke "Montana Made"
State Sovereignty Laws
We all predicted this would happen.
In a move typical for that fear-mongering organization with an ever-swelling acronym, the BATFE has written gun dealers in the states of Montana and Tennessee to let them know the BATFE will be disregarding the states' sovereign gun laws.
The "Montana Made" law, just like Tennessee's Firearms Freedom Act, is very simple.
Much of the claimed federal authority to regulate firearm sales and transfers stems from a liberal interpretation of every American tyrant's favorite subterfuge, the "interstate commerce" clause. In essence, this is what gives the BATFE its nasty teeth.
With this in mind, Montana correctly understood that any weapon made in Montana by Montana residents and sold in Montana to Montana residents is Montana's business and Montana's business alone.
Montana thus sought to take charge of its firearms industry with the application of a simple truism:
Any gun made in Montana by Montana residents and sold in Montana to Montana residents is intrastate commerce, not "interstate commerce," and thus does not full under the purview of the federal government.
Potentially, the state would be able to say goodbye to NICS checks; Brady background checks; NFA taxes, bans and NFA databases -- and most importantly, federal "assault weapons" bans, which Montana and Tennessee rightly anticipated.
In effect, the "Montana Made" law would have permitted Montana gun companies to manufacture any kind of weapon banned by federal law -- including so-called "assault weapons" -- and sell them to fellow Montana residents.
Moreover, in this scenario, no one -- neither the manufacturer nor the dealer nor the buyer -- would have to kowtow to the BATFE by paying them a $200 tax and surrendering one's privacy to their notoriously inaccurate and oft-abused National Firearms Registry.
It was a new day for freedom -- and other states besides Tennessee were thinking of following suit: Alaska, Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas.
Well, the BATFE -- never one to have its power downplayed (or acronym belittled)-- has written letters to both Montana and Tennessee gun dealers letting them know that they proceed at their own risk.
A few of our members expressed interest in contacting the BATFE to vent some righteous anger -- the same thing we did when the Department of Defense said they were going to ban all once-fired military brass for resale.
Remember how the DoD reneged on that commitment after just a few days due to the widespread backlash from gun owners and law enforcement?
Well, this is a bit different. Writing the ATF and providing them with your information is akin to giving thieves your home address and the hours you won't be home.
We're going to take a different, less dangerous approach.
We've been talking to state officials from both Montana and Tennessee today to try to figure out the best way we can help these state laws succeed.
Please stay tuned to updates on this supremely important issue in our future emails.
For now, click here to read Luke's commentary on his blog and leave a comment as this development unfolds.
But before I leave you, would you consider a donation to the National Association for Gun Rights as we continue to fight for the right to keep and bear arms? Please click here to contribute.
In Liberty,
Dudley Brown
Executive Director
National Association for Gun Rights
Editorial from Investor’s Business Daily for consideration...
Tea Party Amendment
Posted 03/03/2010 07:04 PM ET
Fiscal Crisis: Tea Partyers have made it clear they don't trust politicians
— Democrat or Republican. Their historic uprising may now have a surefire
way to stop politicians from spending us into the abyss.
In what promises to be a consequential election year, Republican leaders are
eager to get the masses who make up the Tea Party movement on their side.
But Tea Partyers remember that the GOP Congress and GOP president themselves
spent way too much — even expanding the fiscally doomed Medicare entitlement
program. Some Tea Party leaders even accuse Republican spendthrifts of
practicing socialism.
GOP Reps. Jeb Hensarling of Texas, Mike Pence of Indiana and John Campbell
of California may have just hit on a way of focusing the energy of a
movement that's been accused by Democrats such as former Senate aide and
Forbes columnist Dan Gerstein of being "incoherent, indiscriminate" and "all
over the place" in its complaints.
The three have proposed a Spending Limit Amendment to the Constitution that
would restrain the federal government to the average expenditures of the
post-World War II era — 20% of the U.S. economy. It would take a declaration
of war or a two-thirds vote by Congress to waive the spending constraints.
Tea Partyers will no doubt be impressed by the fact that the idea comes from
no less than Thomas Jefferson. In 1798, the Declaration's author wrote: "I
wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution. I
would be willing to depend on that alone for the reduction of the
administration of our government."
There really is no credible argument against the idea. In common-sense
fashion, the constraint would be suspended during a declared war, and any
other real emergency would surely be recognized as such by two-thirds of
lawmakers.
Other attempts to save Americans from the drunken sailors they send to
Washington have failed. The automatic cuts of the Gramm-Rudman "sequester"
of the 1980s worked, but the Supreme Court judged much of the law to be an
unconstitutional restriction on presidential powers, and Congress defanged
it. Gramm-Rudman's successor, Paygo, didn't use fixed targets, and expired
in 2002. The line-item veto was famously ruled unconstitutional by the high
court.
The Hensarling-Pence-Campbell Spending Limit Amendment is actually
preferable to the line-item veto because it doesn't discriminate between
big-spending Congresses and profligate presidents. It snaps the public purse
closed on every Washington politician's fingers.
The SLA couldn't come at a more opportune time. The president and Congress
want to add to our current $12 trillion in national debt a $2-trillion-plus
big government health overhaul. Medicare, in the meantime, is less than a
decade from bankruptcy, Social Security less than three decades away. As the
plan points out, "if the SLA is not adopted, all of these programs are
doomed on their current auto-pilot glide path as these three entitlement
programs alone — Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid — are set to
consume the entirety of the federal budget by 2036."
Investor's Business Daily on Wednesday asked Hensarling and Pence about the
difficulties of getting three-quarters of the states to approve an amendment
when so many amendment attempts by both sides of the aisle — from equal
rights for women to abortion to flag desecration — have failed in recent
decades.
"We're not naive," Hensarling said, noting that of about 5,000 proposed
amendments only 27 have been ratified. But both men said that based on
attending town halls and other venues, they have never seen the American
people so incensed about runaway spending. The SLA "might be one of those
simple ideas," Pence said, whose time has finally come.
If the Tea Party movement embraces this simple idea, with Thomas Jefferson
as the SLA's avatar, there's no telling how big the political tsunami to
strike Washington could end up becoming.
by The Fundamental Transformation of America
When Obama wrote a book and said he was mentored as a youth by Frank, (Frank Marshall Davis) an avowed Communist, people said it didn't matter.
When it was discovered that his grandparents, were strong socialist, sent Obama's mother to a socialist school, introduced Frank Marshall Davis to young Obama, people said it didn't matter.
When people found out that he was enrolled as a Muslim child in school and his father and step father were both Muslims, people said it didn't matter.
When he wrote in another book he authored “I will stand with them (Muslims) should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.” people said it didn't matter.
When he admittedly, in his book, said he chose Marxist friends and professors in college, people said it didn't matter.
When he traveled to Pakistan, after college on an unknown national passport, people said it didn't matter.
When he sought the endorsement of the Marxist party in 1996 as he ran for the Illinois Senate, people said it doesn't matter.
When he sat in a Chicago Church for twenty years and listened to a preacher spew hatred for America and preach black liberation theology, people said it didn't matter.
When an independent Washington organization, that tracks senate voting records, gave him the distinctive title as the "most liberal senator", people said it didn't matter.
When the Palestinians in Gaza, set up a fund raising telethon to raise money for his election campaign, people said it didn't matter.
When his voting record supported gun control, people said it didn't matter.
When he refused to disclose who donated money to his election campaign, as other candidates had done, people said it didn't matter.
When he received endorsements from people like Louis Farrakhan and Mummar Kadaffi and Hugo Chavez, people said it didn't matter.
When it was pointed out that he was a total, newcomer and had absolutely no experience at anything except community organizing, people said it didn't matter.
When he chose friends and acquaintances such as Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn who were revolutionary radicals, people said it didn't matter.
When his voting record in the Illinois senate and in the U.S. Senate came into question, people said it didn't matter.
When he refused to wear a flag, lapel pin and did so only after a public outcry, people said it didn't matter.
When people started treating him as a Messiah and children in schools were taught to sing his praises, people said it didn't matter.
When he stood with his hands over his groin area for the playing of the National Anthem and Pledge of Allegiance, people said it didn't matter.
When he surrounded himself in the White House with advisors who were pro gun control, pro abortion, pro homosexual marriage and wanting to curtail freedom of speech to silence the opposition, people said it didn't matter.
When he aired his views on abortion, homosexuality and a host of other issues, people said it didn't matter.
When he said he favors sex education in Kindergarten, including homosexual indoctrination, people said it didn't matter.
When his background was either scrubbed or hidden and nothing could be found about him, people said it didn't matter.
When the place of his birth was called into question, and he refused to produce a birth certificate, people said it didn't matter.
When he had an association in Chicago with Tony Rezco, a man of questionable character, who is now in prison and had helped Obama to a sweet deal on the purchase of his home, people said it didn't matter.
When it became known that George Soros, a multi-billionaire Marxist, spent a ton of money to get him elected, people said it didn't matter.
When he started appointing "czars" (a communist term) that were radicals, revolutionaries, and even avowed Marxist/Communists, people said it didn't matter.
When he stood before the nation and told us that his intentions were to "fundamentally transform this nation" into something else, people said it didn't matter.
When it became known that he had trained ACORN workers in Chicago and served as an attorney for ACORN, people said it didn't matter.
When he appointed cabinet members and several advisors who were tax cheats and socialists, people said it didn't matter.
When he appointed a science czar, John Holdren, who believes in forced abortions, mass sterilizations and seizing babies from teen mothers, people said it didn't matter.
When he appointed Cass Sunstein as regulatory czar who believes in "Explicit Consent", harvesting human organs with out family consent, and to allow animals to be represented in court, while banning all hunting, people said it didn't matter.
When he appointed Kevin Jennings, a homosexual, and organizer of a group called gay, lesbian, straight, Education network, as safe school czar and it became known that he had a history of bad advice to teenagers, people said it didn't matter.
When he appointed Mark Lloyd as diversity czar and he believed in curtailing free speech, taking from one and giving to another to spread the wealth and admires Hugo Chavez, people said it didn't matter.
When Valerie Jarrett was selected as Obama's senior White House advisor and she is an avowed Socialist, people said it didn't matter.
When Anita Dunn, White House Communications director said Mao Tse Tung was her favorite philosopher and the person she turned to most for inspiration, people said it didn't matter.
When he appointed Carol Browner as global warming czar, and she is a well known socialist working on Cap and trade as the nations largest tax, people said it doesn't matter.
When he appointed Van Jones, an ex-con and avowed Communist as green energy czar, who since had to resign when this was made known, people said it didn't matter.
When Tom Daschle, Obama's pick for health and human services secretary could not be confirmed, because he was a tax cheat, people said it didn't matter.
When as president of the United States, he bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia, people said it didn't matter.
When he traveled around the world criticizing America and never once talking of her greatness, people said it didn't matter.
When his actions concerning the middle-east seemed to support the Palestinians over Israel, our long time friend, people said it doesn't matter.
When he took American tax dollars to resettle thousands of Palestinians from Gaza to the United States, people said it doesn't matter.
When he upset the Europeans by removing plans for a missile defense system against the Russians, people said it doesn't matter.
When he played politics in Afghanistan by not sending troops the Field Commanders said we had to have to win, people said it didn't matter.
When he started spending us into a debt that was so big we could not pay it off, people said it didn't matter.
When he took a huge spending bill under the guise of stimulus and used it to pay off organizations, unions and individuals that got him elected, people said it didn't matter.
When he took over insurance companies, car companies, banks, etc., people said it didn't matter.
When he took away student loans from the banks and put it through the government, people said it didn't matter.
When he designed plans to take over the health care system and put it under government control, people said it didn't matter.
When he set into motion a plan to take over the control of all energy in the United States through Cap and Trade, people said it didn't matter.
When he finally completed his transformation of America into a Socialist State, people finally woke up......... but it was too late.
Any one of these things, in and of themselves does not really matter. But.... when you add them up one by one you get a phenomenal score that points to the fact that our Obama is determined to make America over into a Marxist/Socialist society. All of the items in the preceding paragraphs have been put into place. All can be documented very easily. Before you disavow this, do an internet search. The last paragraph alone is not yet cast in stone. You and I will write that paragraph. Will it read as above or will it be a more happy ending for most of America? Personally, I like happy endings.
If you are an Obama Supporter, please do not be angry with me because I think the President of your choice is a socialist, but there are too many facts supporting this. If you seek the truth you will be richer for it. Don't just belittle the opposition. Search for the truth. I did. Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Constitutionalist, Libertarians and what have you, we all need to pull together. We all must pull together or watch the demise of a society that we all love and cherish. If you are a religious person, pray for our nation.
Never before in the history of America have we been confronted with problems so huge that the very existence of our country is in jeopardy. Don't rely on most television news and what you read in the newspapers for the truth. Search the internet. Yes, there is a lot of bad information, lies and distortions there too but you are smart enough to spot the fallacies. Newspapers are a dying breed. They are currently seeking a bailout from the government. Do you really think they are about to print the truth? Obama praises all the television news networks except Fox who he has waged war against. There must be a reason. He does not call them down on any specifics, just a general battle against them. If they lie, he should call them out on it but he doesn't. Please, find the truth, it will set you free.
Our biggest enemy is not China, Russia, Iran; no, our biggest enemy is a contingent of politicians in Washington DC.
Tony Passaro
Bel Air Tea Party Patriots
Alliance of American Patriots
Common Sense Citizens Network
What do we stand for:
1. Limited Government-As our founding fathers recognized limited government is necessary to protect the liberties of the people.
2. Fiscal Responsibility-Government at all levels must live within its means. To saddle future generations with the crushing burden of our excess spending is unconscionable.
3. Personal Responsibility-Liberty is unsustainable without responsibility. Each citizen must take responsibility for the consequences of his or her own actions while respecting the rights and dignity of others.
4. The Rule of Law-Consistent, independent and uniform application of the law is critical to a free and prosperous society.
5. National Sovereignty-We must maintain a strong national defense, effective security for our borders, and sole control over our land and our laws.
What we won’t stand for:
1. Personal Attacks-We’re debating positions and policies, not demonizing people or groups.
2. Unfounded Rumors-The easily verifiable facts are bad enough. Don’t weaken our position by stretching the truth.
The above are our core principles. Regardless of your party affiliation, if these principles resonate with you please join us. Go to http://Commonsensecitizens.net and click on Join Us.
Compliments of Neighborhood Group in 75040
Joline Tate has a copy of your precinct voter list. We would encourage you to get out in your neighborhood and recruit more conservatives to our cause. Email Joline at JolineTate@aol.com to obtain your list. This is where the rubber meets the road. Let's go get them.
The U.S. Senate Finance Committee is expected to vote within 48 hours on the Obama Health Care Bill. Three Democrats and one Republican are undecided on this bill. Please call these senators today and ask them to defeat this bill in committee. If this bill passes in committee, it would allow Harry Reid to use his procedural authority to merge the two competing ObamaCare bills and bring his own version of the bill directly to the Senate floor. Sen. Reid and President Obama will choose what they want in the bill and will force a vote.
This bill will:
--Cause health care rationing
--Cripple businesses
--Cause massive tax increases (13% of your income)
--Increase government control in our private lives
--Promote Socialism and will crush free market innovation
Call today:
Sen. Olympia Snowe: (202) 224-5344 UNDECIDED
Sen. Blanche Lincoln: (202) 224-4843 UNDECIDED
Sen. John D. Rockefeller: (202) 224-6472 UNDECIDED
Sen. Ron Wyden: 202-224-5244 UNDECIDED
'Obamacare' Supporters Plan Overhaul Push to Counter Opposition
Health Care for American Now, an umbrella organization of groups supporting Obama's plan, and Organizing for America, the Obama campaign organization which reputedly has an e-mail list of up to 13 million names, plan 1,000 events before the congressional recess ends September 8.
We're a group of regular citizens living in Zip Code 75040.
We rally around the following five organizing principles:
1. Limited Government
2. Fiscal Responsibility
3. Individual Responsibility
4. The Rule of Law
5. National Sovereignty
If you agree with those principles, you are invited to join us!
