GOP Knows What to do on Guns, But Doesn’t Have the Backbone

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In the wake of the Connecticut school shooting, there is a desire to do something to try to prevent similar types of incidents from occurring again. The liberals understand this, and have run with it. They have run in the direction that feels good, but has no proof of effectiveness. Conservatives have the solution that has been proven everywhere it has been tried, yet are silent on this issue. Rather than Republicans answering questions about bad Democratic ideas, the President should be answering questions about Republican legislative proposals. Where is the proposal from a republican to allow for concealed carry rights throughout the country? This has helped reduce gun violence everywhere it has been tried, and could be administered by each state. With one proposal the conversation could be changed from what feels good to what works.

There are now 39 states that have concealed carry laws (where you can receive a concealed weapon permit if you meet certain criteria). This is up from 9 states that had these laws in 1986, and has been pointed to as being instrumental in the drop in gun violence in these states. The recent shootings in CT and Colorado were cases where concealed carry guns were not allowed. In the case of Sandy Hook school, it is not allowed in the entire state. In the case of the Colorado movie theater, there is concealed carry allowed in Colorado, but specifically not allowed in that particular theater. Imagine if the 5-10% of the population who typically carry guns when permitted, had them in that Colorado theater that night, or in the Sandy Hook school that day. How many lives might have been saved? Concealed carry should be part of the national debate on guns.

In 2008 some of the strictest gun control laws were lifted in Chicago and Washington DC. According to the conventional wisdom in the media, this was supposed to lead to the “wild west”. Instead gun crime and murder rates have plummeted in both cities. The fact that you have heard nothing from the media in terms of the removal of these gun control laws, is all that you need to know. If there was a case to be made that the elimination of gun control led to more crime, rather than hearing crickets, it would be force fed to us daily in the anti-gun media! This is typically what happens when these laws are removed or concealed carry is implemented. John Lott has been a leading light on this issue started with his book, “More Guns, Less Crime”.

Right now all we hear from Democrats and the media is which guns we can eliminate, or what restrictions we can put on the law abiding citizenry. Even gun advocates are taking a narrow, elitist view with the idea of one armed guard in each school. Where are the voices advocating more freedom to defend ourselves from horrific crimes such as these? With over 200 million guns currently in the US, we already know the bad guys can get them. Let’s let the good guys to have them as well.
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Michael Porfido is relatively new to the writing ranks. He has been an editor and contributor at the website www.freemarketsfreepeople.net for the past 1 ½ years. He has over 20 years of diverse business experience from running complex operations where he managed hundreds of people, to starting and running small businesses such as www.realinterestfund.com. He is blessed, or perhaps cursed, with a logical mind which he uses to analyze government, media, politics, and culture. He believes that his life experiences help him bring a unique perspective to the issues of the day.

Poll: Future for U.S.? 42% Say Nation Will Collapse; Some See Dictator Soon

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One in seven Americans believes that the nation eventually will be ruled by a dictator, and another one in five says it eventually will break up into several sovereign regions, according to a new poll reflecting the dark shadow the country is facing.

More than one in four respondents believe the United States likely will collapse not just in their lifetime, but in the next decade, meaning the successor to Barack Obama would be unable to finish a second term.

Others believe a new “democracy” will arise from the ashes of the current republican form of government.

The results are from a telephone poll conducted for WND by the public-opinion research and media consulting company Wenzel Strategies. It was taken Jan. 9-12 and carries a margin of error of plus or minus 3.22 percentage points.

Asked to speculate on what would happen to the U.S. after a hypothetical failure of the current government, a plurality said they think some new sort of democracy would emerge.

Read more from this story HERE.

Rank and File Tell GOP Leaders to Keep Sequester, Shutdown ‘On the Table’

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photo credit: donkeyhotey

WILLIAMSBURG, VA. — GOP leaders on Thursday heard from rank-and-file members in a closed-door session, with many urging sequester cuts or a government shutdown to take effect in hopes of forcing the White House into accepting spending cuts.

Those options are “very much on the table,” veteran Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) told reporters on Thursday, from Virginia, where House GOP lawmakers are meeting for their annual retreat.

According to several sources, during the members-only brainstorming session, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) delivered “concise” remarks before opening the microphones to member feedback.

Despite recent internal House GOP squabbles over the handling of the “fiscal cliff” negotiations and a handful of defections against Boehner in the vote for Speaker, GOP lawmakers are looking to present a unified front ahead of crucial budget battles.

One lawmaker who was in the room said that members who spoke had been “polite.”

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Surprise: Government Report Concludes Food Stamp Program Isn’t Spending Enough

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photo credit: usdagov

(Reuters) – A report by a panel of experts released on Thursday questioned whether the federal government’s food stamp program adequately provides for healthy diets for the more than 47 million low-income people who rely on the benefit.

The report by the National Academy of Sciences found that the aid for families to pay for groceries, officially called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, does not account for many barriers to finding affordable, nutritious food by inner-city shoppers.

Panelists for the academy, an independent group of scientists who advise the federal government, also said benefits lag behind the increasing cost of food and the program penalizes beneficiaries with jobs.

The U.S. Agriculture Department, which administers the aid program, sought the report to help it determine the best way to assess whether food stamps benefits are adequate for recipients to have access to a healthy diet.

“We will thoroughly review the analysis and recommendations contained in this report and use them to help set our agenda for future program research,” USDA said in a statement.

Read more from this story HERE.

Sen. Rand Paul to Propose Bill to ‘Nullify’ Obama’s Executive Orders on Gun Control

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Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has announced he will propose a bill to “nullify” any of President Obama’s executive orders on gun control that give the appearance that the president is writing new legislation.

Paul released his plan, called the Separation of Powers Restoration and Second Amendment Protection Act 2013, on Wednesday. The document, which he plans to introduce early next week, has several purposes.

The bill intends to condemn the use of executive orders which undermine the powers reserved for Congress under the Constitution. It specifically mentions Article I of the Constitution which states, “All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States.”

Paul’s proposed legislation also declares “null and void” any executive order that “infringes on the powers and duties of the Congress under Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution and the Second Amendment.”

The bill also intends to prohibit funding for an “Executive Order Restricting [the] 2nd Amendment.”

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Obama Bypasses Congress, Attempts to Force Companies to Reveal Political Donations to SEC

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The Obama administration is attempting to bypass Congress and force publicly-traded companies to reveal their political donations through regulation.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporate Finance has begun the steps necessary to create a regulation that would in many ways mirror the DISCLOSE Act — a bill Senate Democrats have failed to pass through Congress.

Created in reaction to the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court ruling that said corporations and unions could not have limits placed on their political expenditures, the Senate bill would require political organizations to publicly name their donors and the amounts they give.

The SEC regulation would do the reverse — force companies to disclose the political groups they support — and have a similar effect.

“The Division [of Corporate Finance] is considering whether to recommend that the Commission issue a proposed rule to require that public companies provide disclosure to shareholders regarding the use of corporate resources for political activities,” reads the proposal, as reported to the president’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

Read more from this story HERE.

Iran Warns: Terrorism to Spread to Washington DC

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In a story carried by Iran’s FARS News Agency, a senior Iranian religious cleric warned that Washington, D.C. should prepare for terrorist attacks in the future.

This warning followed a brutal attack on Shiites in Pakistan that Iran blames on the United States and Saudi Arabia.

The FARS media outlet, effectively controlled by the Iranian government, said that Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi – a senior Iranian religious leader – condemned

the massacre of Shiite Muslims in a terrorist attack in Pakistan which he said has been financed by the US and Saudi Arabia, and warned that the terrorism that these countries support will one day backfire and target Washington, London and Riyadh.

“A horrible crime has happened in Pakistan and a number of predator animals who are called Wahhabi Takfiris have detonated bombs in a Shiite convention and martyred 120 people and injured hundreds,” Makarem Shirazi said in the Central city of Qom on Wednesday.

He blamed the US and Saudi officials for financing such crimes against the Shiite Muslims, and said, “Today this crime was committed in Quetta, Pakistan, and tomorrow it will be Washington’s, London’s, Egypt’s and even Saudi Arabia’s turn.”

Makarem Shirazi also blasted the Pakistani government for it loose security measures in protection of the Shiite community in the country.

A total of 129 people were killed and 280 wounded in three bomb attacks across Pakistan on Thursday.

Ninety-two people were killed and 200 others wounded in a twin bombing that targeted Shiite Muslims in a crowded billiards hall in the western city of Quetta. Earlier in the day, 12 security forces were also killed in a bomb explosion at a security check point in the city.

Read more from the Iranian press agency HERE.

Video: NRA Calls Obama An Elitist Hypocrite, Says ‘America Speaks for Itself’

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By The Telegraph. The US gun lobby lashed out at President Barack Obama on Tuesday as an “elitist hypocrite” for providing Secret Service protection to his daughters but balking at having armed guards in all schools.

In a 35-second video released on its website, the National Rifle Association slammed the duplicity of “protection for their kids, and gun-free zones for ours,” amid a heated, nationwide gun control debate in the wake of a deadly school shooting.

The advert was released just a day before President Obama unveiled new measures aimed at increasing gun control across the US.

The president called for a ban on the sale of “military-style assault weapons” such as the rifle used at Sandy Hook elementary on December 14, noting that former President Ronald Reagan, the hero of today’s Republican Party, urged Washington to prohibit their manufacture in 1994.

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Rush Limbaugh: Obama ‘Wants People to Snap’

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PALM BEACH, Fla. – President Obama’s newly announced gun-control initiatives are intended as “revenge” against many Americans, as he’s pushing them “to snap,” claims top-rated radio host Rush Limbaugh.

“I think he wants people to snap. I think Obama is challenging everybody’s sanity,” Limbaugh said on his show Wednesday afternoon. “Obama [is] literally pushing people to snap, attacking the very sanity of the country.”

Obama announced a sweeping set of directives he intends will cut down on Americans’ access to guns, setting the stage for a constitutional battle with states where lawmakers already are openly defying the latest power grab by the White House.

His plan would demand federal access to the details every time an uncle sells a .22 to a nephew, would ban some weapons outright through a limit on ammunition capacity, would waive medical privacy laws in some cases so individuals can be reported, and others.

Coming on the heels of a recent birth-control mandate, Limbaugh noted, “All of this is so in our face. Everything that people hold dear is under assault. Deliberately making people upset. This is not what presidents do.”

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Are We on the Verge of a Currency War?

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Despite global finance ministers promising in 2010 that they wouldn’t engage in “competitive devaluation,” it looks like the world is on the brink of a major currency war, or so says Alexei Ulyukayev, first deputy chairman of Russia’s central bank, according to Bloomberg.

“Japan is weakening the yen and other countries may follow,” Ulyukayev warned today at a conference in Moscow, adding later that the world is headed for a “currency war.”

Unfortunately, Ulyukayev isn’t the only one with currency concerns. Others have weighed in on the issue :
•Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker recently noted the “dangerously high” value of the euro.
•Norway and Sweden have expressed concern over currencies exchange-rates.
•The Bank of Korea has threatened “an active response” to current rates.
•Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said he’s “a little disturbed” by Japan’s actions and the risk of so-called “beggar-thy-neighbor” policies.
•Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said last week that he is worried “we’ll see the growth of actively managed exchange rates.”

In short, there’s a “degree of disquiet in the global policy-making community,” as Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Glenn Stevens puts it, and some think it could evolve into something far more dangerous for the world economy.

Read more from this story HERE.