Republicans: Postal Service Has Green Light To End Saturday Mail Delivery

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Photo Credit: MoneyBlogNewz

The GOP’s interpretation of language in a bill funding the government could set up a showdown with Senate Democrats. House Republican leaders believe the Postal Service has a green light to implement its reduction in Saturday service, even though a House-passed spending bill contains a provision requiring six-day delivery.

The interpretation by the House GOP could set up a showdown with Senate Democratic leaders, who have argued that the legislative language prohibits the cash-strapped agency from limiting letter delivery to five days a week.

The Postal Service (USPS), which lost nearly $16 billion in 2012, announced in February that it would end Saturday delivery of first-class mail starting in August, a move that it says would save $2 billion annually. Package delivery on Saturdays would continue.

Postal officials have for years pushed to limit Saturday delivery, but had previously insisted they would need congressional approval to do so.

But last month, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said the agency would move forward with its modified six-day plan and urged Congress not to try to tie the agency’s hands via legislative directive. In crafting the latest stopgap spending measure, House appropriators kept in place a 30-year-old provision that states, “6-day delivery and rural delivery of mail shall continue, at not less than the 1983 level.”

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UPDATE: Number Of U.S. Gun Makers Refusing Sales To Gov’t In ‘Firearms Equality Movement’ Triples In Two Weeks

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“caveman chuck” coker

On February 22, “Right Views” reported that a growing number of firearm companies have suspended the sale of guns to states, counties, cities and municipalities that restrict their citizens’ rights to own them.

In just two weeks, the number of companies participating in what has been named the “Firearms Equality Movement,” has more than tripled from 34 companies to 118.

The Police Loophole lists every company and links to the statements that each has released regarding their new policies.

Wilson Combat, a custom pistol manufacturer located in Berryville, Arkansas, joined the movement on February 28 stating the following:

“Wilson Combat will no longer provide any products or services to any State Government imposing legislation that infringes on the second amendment rights of its law abiding citizens. This includes any Law Enforcement Department, Law Enforcement Officers, or any State Government Entity or Employee of such an entity. This also applies to any local municipality imposing such infringements.”

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Establishment GOP Wages War On Newcomers

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Photo Credit: WND

Old guard Senate Republicans are using the term “wacko” to describe new members promoting the tea party call for smaller government and accountability, and a congressional source for WND says it’s a sign of an emerging inter-party clash.

Referring to the fallout from the filibuster this week by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a top Republican aide said there “could not have been a starker contrast in terms of the new reformers of the Senate, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Mike Lee, all fighting the overreach of this executive, versus on the handful of senators having dinner in one of the most expensive hotels in the country.”

Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who both criticized Paul for his nearly 13-hour filibuster of the vote on John Brennan for CIA director, were among the Republican leaders who dined with Obama. According to the Huffington Post, McCain referred to tea party Republicans, including Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., as “wacko birds.”

“I don’t think you could get a clearer and starker vision of what one side thinks Washington should be doing versus the other,” the source said. The energy generated by Paul’s filibuster and the stances taken by Sens. McCain and Graham show why “they don’t have the backing and support of the American people,” the source said.

In the hours after Paul’s filibuster, both McCain and Graham launched deeply critical attacks against Paul, claiming that, fundamentally, the American people have nothing to fear from their government. Paul, Cruz and Lee raised alarm when the Obama administration wouldn’t immediately assure the public it would not kill an American citizen on home soil with a drone.

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Rand Paul: ‘McCain Is On The Wrong Side Of History’ (+audio)

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On Friday, Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul stopped by “The Mike Huckabee Show,” where he sharply criticized Sen. John McCain’s opposition to his dramatic filibuster earlier in the week.

Photo Credit: Daily Caller

“You know, I think he’s just on the wrong side of history, and the wrong side of this argument, really,” Paul said. “When you think about it, it is pretty important. … Our soldiers go overseas, and they’re fighting for our Bill of Rights, and I was sitting next to a war veteran here at a conference just a few minutes ago, and the whole idea is that it wouldn’t be important that everybody gets their days in court — that you could accuse someone of something, and they wouldn’t get to defend themselves.”

“I really think that goes against everything America stands for,” Paul continued. “I had this exchange with Sen. McCain on the floor about a year ago. The government can indefinitely detain someone — an American citizen — and I said, ‘Does that mean you could send them to Guantanamo Bay from America without a trial?’ And he said ‘Yes, if they’re dangerous.’ But that begs the question: Who gets to decide whether you’re dangerous person or not?”

Listen to audio:

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Teachers Get Permission To Carry Guns In Class

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Photo Credit: WND

It’s the law. Teachers in South Dakota can carry guns in the classroom. Republican Gov. Dennis Daugaard signed the bill today.

It appears to be the first state law in the nation that specifically allows teachers to carry firearms. Other states have gun laws that could make it possible for teachers to carry arms, but the South Dakota law is apparently the first to directly allow it.

The law does not force teachers to carry guns, and it does not require school districts to arm teachers. The South Dakota law also does not specify that guns carried by teachers must be concealed, but it does require a valid permit to carry a concealed weapon.

Similar bills introduced in about two dozen states since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Newton, Conn., have stalled. Supporters of the South Dakota law say it is particularly important in a rural state where emergency responders may be many miles away from schools.

The bill’s main sponsor, Rep. Scott Craig, R-Rapid City, says rural districts do not have the money to hire full-time law officers, so they want to arm teachers or volunteers.

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Brennan Takes Oath On Draft Constitution—Without Bill of Rights

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Photo Credit: David LienemannOh, dear. This is probably not the symbolism the White House wanted.

Hours after CIA Director John Brennan took the oath of office—behind closed doors, far away from the press, perhaps befitting his status as America’s top spy—the White House took pains to emphasize the symbolism of the ceremony.

“There’s one piece of this that I wanted to note for you,” spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters at their daily briefing. “Director Brennan was sworn in with his hand on an original draft of the Constitution that had George Washington’s personal handwriting and annotations on it, dating from 1787.”

Earnest said Brennan had asked for a document from the National Archives that would demonstrate the U.S. is a nation of laws.

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House Republicans Launch ‘2nd Amendment Initiative’ v. Obama Gun Agenda

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Photo Credit: Rep. Stutzman’s officeThe House Republican Study Committee (RSC) has launched a Second Amendment Initiative for the 113th Congress under the leadership of Indiana Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Third District) to counter what they believe is President Barack Obama’s “out-of-touch agenda” on gun control.

In a press release, RSC Chairman Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Indiana) asserted that the president’s “radical anti-gun agenda is a threat to our constitutional right to keep and bear arms.”

“Efforts to take away the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans will not reduce crime or prevent criminals from breaking the law,” Scalise said. “We will not allow President Obama and liberals in Congress to take away our right to bear arms.”

The president, according to Politico, has reined in major gun prohibition groups to concentrate on pushing new measures, including so-called “universal background checks” and a ban on so-called “assault weapons” and their original capacity magazines. Politico, quoting unnamed sources, noted that none of the participants will openly discuss what goes on in meetings at the White House with Bruce Reed, chief of staff for Vice President Joe Biden.

In exchange for what amounts to obedience to the Obama agenda, these groups, Politico reported, have “a voice in the discussions, a role in whatever final agreement is made and weekly meetings at the White House…”

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Godfather Doubles Down: Chicago May Expand ‘Gun Offender’ Registry

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Photo Credit: Ted CoxChicago’s gun offender registry needs to be expanded to include the names of people busted committing crimes with a gun, Ald. Ed Burke (14th) said Thursday. And Mayor Rahm Emanuel agrees. The powerful alderman wants to force anyone convicted of a violent crime with a firearm, including kidnapping, assault, robbery and vehicular hijacking, to end up on the list, which now has 584 names on it of those convicted of less serious gun violations.

Burke said he was shocked to hear the current list had so few names. “Clearly I felt that there are thousands of offenders that should have been added to the registry,” Burke said.

In July 2010, the City Council passed an ordinance establishing a “gun offender registry,” similar to a sex offender registry. But the law only requires those convicted of unlawful use of a weapon, which includes illegal possession of a gun among other charges, to register with police.

Burke’s plan to expand the list was approved at the City Council’s Committee on Public Safety hearing Thursday and is on the agenda in front of the full council Wednesday. “We believe the ordinance can be implemented and will help achieve the Mayor’s goal of reducing gun violence and illegal weapons in the city of Chicago,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office said in a statement.

Thomas Byrne, chief of the Chicago Police Department’s Bureau of Detectives, told the committee that the number of people that would be added to this registry is currently uncertain.

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Vitter: EPA Lied About Official’s Use Of Private Emails For Government Business

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Photo Credit: Washington Examiner Sen. David Vitter, R-LA, charged today that Environmental Protection Agency officials “lied” about the extent of former Region 8 Administrator James Martin’s use of private email accounts to conduct official business.

“EPA should start owning up to the facts piling up before them. Their blatant disregard for proper procedure and transparency is now being regularly exposed, and EPA’s leadership must be held accountable,” Vitter said. An EPA spokesman has been asked for a response.

Vitter’s charge comes on the eve of Sunshine Week, which begins Sunday, March 10, 2013. Sunshine Week is intended to commemorate passage of the federal Freedom of Information Act in 1966, which guarantees the public the right to obtain copies of all government documents not otherwise exempted from disclosure.

Sunshine Week coincides with the birthday of James Madison, who wrote the First Amendment and its guarantee of freedom of the independent press.

Martin resigned shortly after Vitter, the ranking Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, R-CA, announced on Jan. 29, 2013, a joint investigation of the EPA official’s email practices.

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Republicans Denounce NYC Terror Trial For Bin Laden Son-In-Law

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Photo Credit: APRepublicans are denouncing the Obama administration’s decision to bring Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law to New York for a civilian trial, arguing he belongs in military custody in Guantanamo Bay.

Slaiman Abu Ghayth pleaded not guilty to a charge of conspiring to kill Americans Friday in a brief appearance in New York federal courtroom. The presence of bin Laden’s son-in-law, who serves as a spokesman for al Qaeda, in New York City just blocks from where the World Trade Center towers were demolished — is reigniting a fiery debate over whether terrorists should be tried in civilian court or military commissions.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said the decision to try Mr. Ghayth in New York demonstrates “a stubborn refusal” to hold additional terrorists at the Guantanamo Bay facility and could impede intelligence collection.

The intelligence team that located Osama bin Laden, Mr. McConnell said, relied on information gathered through the interrogation of detainees. Right now, the nation’s intelligence community is trying to locate al Qaeda’s new leader Ayman al-Zawahiri and do everything they can to disrupt potential terrorist attacks.

Citing public records, Mr. McConnell also said Mr. Ghayth possesses “valuable knowledge of al Qaeda’s activities within Iran.” “Our intelligence community and military are laboring to understand the structure, threat and communications methods of al Qaeda affiliates in Yemen, North Africa and the growing threat of Al Nusra front within Syria,” he said. “They deserve the same access to intelligence and methods of defeating the enemy available to the team that found bin Laden.”

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