Senate Democrats Want to Take Guns Away From Returning War Vets

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photo credit: jsmjr

A major defense-spending bill hit an unexpected bump on its journey through the U.S. Senate over an amendment on veterans’ gun rights, which devolved into a heated floor debate and foreshadows a potential battle over Democrats’ vows to tweak the filibuster rules in the clubby, traditionally collegial body.

Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican, wants veterans who have been deemed “mentally incompetent” to have their cases adjudicated by a judge — rather than the Department of Veterans Affairs, as happens currently — and argued that veterans who simply cannot support themselves financially are needlessly given the label and, as such, cannot buy or possess firearms.

“We’re not asking for anything big,” Mr. Coburn said Thursday evening on the Senate floor. “We’re just saying that if you’re going to take away the Second Amendment rights … they ought to have it adjudicated, rather than mandated by someone who’s unqualified to state that they should lose their rights.”

The late-night tussle served to pick at the scab of the ongoing debate over Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s bid to reform the chamber’s filibuster rules to place limits on the minority party’s ability to hold up debate on legislation, however.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, objected to Mr. Coburn’s proposal once he found out it was part of a package of amendments to the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act the body was to vote on.

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Palin to GOP: ‘This Won’t Be Forgotten Come 2014’

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Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said Tuesday that she thinks House Speaker John Boehner’s purge of conservatives from powerful committees is a sign the GOP establishment is out of touch with America.

“We send good conservatives to D.C. to fulfill the promises they made to the electorate, and yet when they stay true to their word the permanent political class in their own party punishes them,” Palin said in a Facebook comment. “This won’t be forgotten come 2014. Right now the GOP establishment is more concerned about the opinion of the media and the Georgetown cocktail circuit than they are ‘we the people’ who hired them. For all this new talk of how the GOP needs a ‘populist movement,’ it would do them good to remember they already have one; it’s called the Tea Party movement, and it won for them the majority they now enjoy in the House.”

On Monday, Boehner pulled conservative GOP Reps. Tim Huelskamp of Kansas and Justin Amash of Michigan from the House Budget Committee. The Speaker also removed conservative Republican Reps. David Schweikert of Arizona and Walter Jones of North Carolina from the House Financial Services Committee.

The members believe they were pulled from those committee assignments – from which they would be able to influence fiscal policy – because they have solid conservative voting records.

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Senate Rejects U.N. Disabilities Treaty

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Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked ratification of a U.N. treaty that promotes equal rights for disabled people, saying the measure shouldn’t be brought up in the lame-duck session and could cede U.S. sovereignty to the global body.

Supporters of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities said the treaty is nonbinding and wouldn’t change or challenge U.S. law. They said the international pact is based on the landmark Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 and would help protect disabled Americans abroad.

But a 61-38 vote in favor of the treaty fell five votes shy of the two-thirds majority needed to pass all treaties. Eight Republicans and two independents supported the measure, while not one Democrat voted against the treaty.

The United Nations adopted the treaty in 2006. President Obama signed it in 2009, though it failed to move through the Senate — which must ratify all treaties — until this year. It has been signed by 154 nations and ratified by 126.

Critics fear the treaty could strip Americans of fundamental rights, such as denying parents the ability to home-school a child with disabilities if the U.N. committee — or another body carrying out its recommendations — determined it would be in the best interests of the child. Some also worry that language calling for the disabled to have equal rights to reproductive health services could lead to abortions.

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Obama: The Communist Candidate

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No. Really.

Erwin Marquit, a member of the International Department of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), recently told a conference of communist political parties from around the world that communists in the U.S did not run their own candidate for president on November 6 because they worked within the Democratic Party for the reelection of Barack Obama and the victories of “progressive” Democrats to Congress.

“The Communist Party USA not only welcomes the reelection of President Barack Obama, but actively engaged in the electoral campaign for his reelection and for the election of many Democratic Party congressional candidates,” Marquit declared at the conference, hosted by the Lebanese Communist Party.

Under Obama, he said, “…we have been forming Party clubs in states in which we previously had very few or even no members. This influx of new members led us to have a national Party school earlier this year to acquaint new members with the Marxist-Leninist orientation of the Party.”

The question here is whether the Communists have come around to supporting Democrats, or whether Democrats have come around to supporting Communists, and how much difference is there anymore?

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Workplace Freedom States Soared While Ohio and Michigan Economies Crashed

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Job creation in Ohio lagged far behind all 22 workplace freedom states from 1991 to 2011, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) records. Without cherry-picking data as union bosses must in order to defend forced unionism, total seasonally adjusted non-farm employment growth shows a huge advantage for residents of right to work states.

With the exception of Indiana, which passed a right to work law in February 2012, Ohio and each of its neighbors – Michigan, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Kentucky – allow unions to force workers to pay dues as a condition of employment.

During the two decades from 1991-2011, no workplace freedom state had a lower job creation rate than Pennsylvania, Ohio, or Michigan.

Of the 22 states which protected the right of employees in unionized workplaces to choose whether to pay a union boss, 17 had job growth rates better than Ohio and all five of Ohio’s forced-unionism neighbors.

While varying demographics, geography, and innumerable government regulations affect businesses’ ability to create new jobs, the past 20 years have been marked by anemic growth in Ohio compared to every workplace freedom state.

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Students Don’t Know Where Electricity Comes But Are Being Indoctrinated in Global Warming

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When I went to grade school, one of the first field trips our class made, was to a hydro electric dam.

After the hour ride, the bus parked and we were taken for a guided tour through a maze of machinery, deep inside the main power generating operations of a massive hydro electric dam.

I never forgot that day, as the manager of the complex proudly explained how electricity was produced by water turning the blades of the huge generators and how it flowed through power lines to everyone in the community

This education was provided at an early impressionable age and gave me the basic knowledge of how power is produced and relayed to every home and factory in America. We went on to learn, with coal, oil, gas, or nuclear; the principle was the same…Produce energy at an affordable price to power our modern society.

We also learned that protecting the environment was important, as stringent controls were put on our power producing facilities. Soon the skies of our cities were clear as those laws took effect. We all breathed easier.

But something happened in intervening years and a new message has come out to our children. Instead of taking a field trip to a local power generating plant to see how wonderful modern power is for our country, children were treated to an Al Gore movie. His movie, “The Inconvenient Truth,” shows the earth is on the edge of an environmental disaster caused by the very fuels that power our society.

Although Al Gore has been preaching disaster for many years and claimed his version of climate science is settled “science,” thousands of scientists, physicists, phd’s, meteorologists, and others very much disagree with his facts.

So why did many of our public schools decide to force our young children to watch the Al Gore climate movie without first questioning the truth of his science? That’s a good question and needs to be answered. What is the agenda?

Since the Gore movie was released in 2006, it has been shown to millions of school age children and portrayed as scientific fact. It has scared them. It leads them to believe that fossil energy is evil and the use of it will mean the destruction of the earth.

Along with the anti fossil fuel message; a line of thought set on the destruction of many of our hydro electric dams is starting to creep in. The dam destruction is done in the name of restoring our environment to its original condition…before the presence of modern man spoiled it.

Of course nuclear power has been maligned so long it will never get over the stigma of being non earth friendly.

That leaves us with wind/solar/bio fuels and unicorn dust to power our modern society. Which if past performance and present technology demonstrate, there is a dark and bankrupt future in store for our country.

An interesting video was sent my way a few days ago. These are University of Chicago students who are speaking about having their school and other institutions divest themselves of fossil energy investments.

As you can see, they lack an understanding of what comes next. What approved method of power will take the place of our carbon based energy they are so fearful of?

These kids were freshmen in high school when they first viewed the Al Gore film and it seems they never got an alternate message to it. I’ll also suppose they never were able to take a field trip to a local power generating facility to see exactly what it takes to turn on the lights and heat their homes.

Perhaps it’s time to revise our school curriculum’s, to be more rounded and show the other side of the war on our energy sector…Just what the consequences will be if our country “divests itself” of our fossil energy.

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Ed Farnan is the conservative columnist at IrishCentral, where he has been writing on the need for energy independence, strong self defense, secure borders, 2nd amendment, smaller government and many other issues. His articles appear in many publications throughout the USA and world. He has been a guest on Fox News and a regular guest on radio stations in the US and Europe.

Boehner Tax Increase Sparks Conservative Backlash

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Sen. Jim DeMint, a tea party favorite, ripped House Republican leaders for offering a budget framework that embraced new taxes, saying the GOP plan to raise $800 billion in new revenue would hurt the economy, kill jobs and not reduce the national debt by a penny.

“This isn’t rocket science,” Mr. DeMint, South Carolina Republican, said. “Everyone knows that when you take money out of the economy, it destroys jobs, and everyone knows that when you give politicians more money, they spend it. This is why Republicans must oppose tax increases and insist on real spending reductions that shrink the size of government and allow Americans to keep more of their hard-earned money.”

Led by House Speaker John A. Boehner, House GOP leaders sent a $2.2 trillion “fiscal cliff” counteroffer to President Obama on Monday that included the $800 billion in tax increases, which would be generated through eliminating loopholes and deductions in the federal tax code.

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Tax Exodus: Five States that Residents Are Fleeing

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The past few years have really put the squeeze on cash-strapped states to find new sources of revenue. This environment has generated a level of tax aggression from certain states, which in turn has resulted in a net loss of revenue instead of the intended gain. Residents have begun voting with their feet, deciding to move out of the state instead of thinning their pocket through unwanted taxation. So which states are chasing away their residents? And how does it impact you if you live in one of them? We track migratory patterns through our residency product data, and while some of the states are no-brainers, others may surprise you. Following are our top five ‘shrinking’ states in ascending order:

5. Ohio: The Buckeye State is one of the few around that actually has a balanced budget. One of the reasons is because they tax their residents so well. The interesting part about Ohio though, is that a constant stream has always existed out of the state. Some of the migration is probably due to weather, but they also have very strict well-defined rules surrounding residency. Ohio’s Bright-Line Test names the specific number of days over, under, and in between that dictate someone as resident, non-resident, or other (the burden of proof is on the resident in question for ‘other’). These rules make it simple for an Ohioan to decide whether to stay put or make a run for it.

4. New Jersey: Oh, Jersey. Always the brunt of jokes, our most densely populated state, and a bastion of high taxation. Including local taxes, New Jersey has the highest tax rate in the country. Without going into painful detail, the cocktail of crowded, expensive, and verbal assault makes the Garden State an easy exit for most.

3. California: The Golden State is nearly a tie for the number-two spot, and we are constantly surprised it isn’t at the top of the list given the fiscal issues present there. Municipality balance sheets are in shambles, the state already has high tax rates, and many residents are staying close but merely hopping the border into more tax advantageous states like Nevada. Yes, the weather can be great, the people creative, and they still have one of the most productive economies around, but we haven’t seen a decrease in the flow of residents out of the state which is always a cause for concern.

2. New York: One of the easy guesses for sure. New York has been bleeding residents for some time. Tom Golisano, the founder of Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX), wrote a letter that was published in the New York Post about why he was leaving the state. And he didn’t mince words, explaining he was taxed out of the state for greener pastures to no-income-tax Florida. And it shouldn’t be a shock, Florida welcomed him with open arms.

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Deceitful Debate Over Women in Combat

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Oblivious to important differences between men and women, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is suing the Department of Defense to lift all combat exemptions for women. Not putting women into combat deprives them of their constitutional rights, the ACLU is arguing on behalf of four servicewomen in a complaint filed Tuesday in a federal court in San Francisco.

“It’s harming women in the field now,” said Elizabeth Gill, a staff attorney with ACLU Northern California, to U.S. News & World Report. “Significant numbers of women have fought alongside their male counterparts in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and, in fact, are fighting in combat situations.”

Talk about harm. Women are coming home maimed or in body bags. A saner course would be to suggest that the military rethink its decision to put women closer to combat.

In the ACLU’s parallel universe, women are just as aggressive, strong, fast and warlike as men. You know, like in the National Football League, where female linebackers strike terror in the hearts of Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers.

Much of the pressure for this march toward barbarism is coming from career feminist military personnel, who argue that lack of combat experience hurts their chances for advancement. In other words, because a few women want to climb the ladder of rank, all women in the military should be put at risk for combat duty, whether they want it or not…

The military has kept women out of direct ground combat for a moral reason: Deliberately putting women in harm’s way is not right; and for practical reasons: Women are not as physically strong, and they have an impact on the men around them. In a civilized society, men are raised to protect women. Now some of America’s elite warrior units train men to be indifferent to women’s screams. That’s what passes for “progress” in a “progressive” military.

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Romney Campaign Regrets Immigration Stance

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Mitt Romney and his team are not eager to dwell on regrets.

But his campaign manager now says that the forceful posture taken against immigration in the Republican primary inflicted lingering damage with Latino voters in the general election.

The Romney campaign chief, Matt Rhoades, acknowledged that point during a forum here at the Harvard University Institute of Politics, where advisers to all candidates in the 2012 campaign gathered to discuss the race.

When asked directly whether Mr. Romney regretted tacking to the right on immigration to appeal to conservative primary voters, the room fell silent.

Stuart Stevens, a senior strategist to Mr. Romney, shook his head no. But after pausing for several seconds, Mr. Rhoades said, “I regret that.”

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