BREAKING NEWS: Gun Bill Passes Senate Hurdle as Filibuster Falls Short

Hat tip to Fox News for this report

Controversial gun legislation cleared a key Senate hurdle Thursday, as lawmakers voted 68-31 to start debate on the package which includes expanded background checks and new penalties for gun trafficking. 

Senate Democrats, joined by (16 Republicans), were able to overcome an attempted filibuster by GOP senators opposed to the current bill. Those senators could still slow-walk the debate, but the Senate will ultimately begin votes on amendments — one of which is considered crucial to winning support for a final vote. 

The amendment likely to be at the front of the line is one from Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., which would scale back the call for universal background checks. The plan would expand checks to gun-show and Internet sales, but exempt certain personal transactions. 

The National Rifle Association and other gun-rights supporters voiced concern about the new proposal, saying it still goes too far. But the plan, offered by two lawmakers who are at the conservative end of their respective parties, could help ease opposition ahead of a final vote. 

The legislation required at least 60 votes to advance Thursday. If the bill ultimately passes the Senate, it would still have to pass the Republican-dominated House.

“The hard work starts now,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid acknowledged after Thursday’s vote. 

He assured Democrats that a proposal to renew the assault weapons ban and a ban on high-capacity magazines would get a vote as an amendment, though it was dropped from the main bill amid intense opposition. 

Reid lost two Democrats in Thursday’s vote — Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., and Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, both lawmakers from states with a strong tradition of gun ownership. 

More than a dozen Republican senators for days had threatened to hold up the bill Thursday. They voiced concern that the proposal — namely, the background checks provision — would infringe on Second Amendment rights and impose a burden on law-abiding gun owners. They also expressed frustration that, while Manchin and Toomey touted their compromise measure, the bill on the table Thursday did not yet include that. Rather, it included a stricter background checks measure. 

“Because the background-check measure is the centerpiece of this legislation it is critical that we know what is in the bill before we vote on it,” Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky.; Ted Cruz, R-Texas; and Mike Lee, R-Utah, said in a statement. “The American people expect more and deserve better.”

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/04/11/gun-bill-clears-senate-hurdle-as-filibuster-falls-short/

 

Senate Democrats Pass First Budget Bill in Four Years Raising Taxes One Trillion Dollars

WASHINGTON –  An exhausted Senate approved its first budget in four years early Saturday, calling for almost $1 trillion in tax increases over the coming decade while sheltering safety net programs targeted by House Republicans.

While their victory was by a razor-thin 50-49, the vote let Democrats tout their priorities. Yet it doesn’t resolve the deep differences the two parties have over deficits and the size of government.

The nonbinding but politically symbolic measure caters to party stalwarts on the liberal edge of the spectrum just as the House GOP measure is crafted to appeal to more recent tea party arrivals.

Late Friday afternoon, the Senate then began a marathon session of votes on dozens of amendments to the 2014 budget proposal. Many of the proposals were offered in hopes of inflicting political damage on Democratic senators up for re-election in GOP-leaning states like Alaska and Louisiana.

The two main budget proposals produced by Senate Democrats and House Republicans are miles apart. The Senate plan does not attempt to balance the budget at all, though it does claim to reduce the deficit by imposing nearly $1 trillion in tax increases on top of more than $600 billion in higher taxes on top earners enacted in January. It also includes $875 billion in spending cuts, generated by modest cuts to federal health care programs, domestic agencies and the Pentagon and reduced government borrowing costs.

The House plan — by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., his party’s vice presidential candidate last year — claims $4 trillion more in savings over the period than Senate Democrats by imposing major cuts in Medicaid, food stamps and other safety net programs for the needy. It would also transform the Medicare health care program for seniors into a voucher-like system for future recipients.

“We have presented very different visions for how our country should work and who it should work for,” said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who chairs the Senate Budget Committee. “But I am hopeful that we can bridge this divide.”

Congressional budgets are planning documents that leave actual changes in revenues and spending for later legislation, and this was the first the Democratic-run Senate has approved in four years. That is testament to the political and mathematical contortions needed to write fiscal plans in an era of record-breaking deficits that until this year exceeded an eye-popping $1 trillion annually, and to the parties’ profoundly conflicting views.

“I believe we’re in denial about the financial condition of our country,” Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, top Republican on the Budget panel, said of Democratic efforts to boost spending on some programs. “Trust me, we’ve got to have some spending reductions.”

Though the shortfalls have shown signs of easing slightly and temporarily, there is no easy path to the two parties finding compromise — which the first months of 2013 have amply illustrated.

Already this year, Congress has raised taxes on the rich after narrowly averting tax boosts on virtually everyone else, tolerated $85 billion in automatic spending cuts, temporarily sidestepped a federal default and prevented a potential government shutdown.

By sometime this summer, the government’s borrowing limit will have to be extended again — or a default will be at risk — and it is unclear what Republicans may demand for providing needed votes. It is also uncertain how the two parties will resolve the differences between their two budgets, something many believe simply won’t happen.

Both sides have expressed a desire to reduce federal deficits. But President Barack Obama is demanding a combination of tax increases and spending cuts to do so, while GOP leaders say they won’t consider higher revenues but want serious reductions in Medicare and other benefit programs that have rocketed deficits skyward.

Obama plans to release his own 2014 budget next month, an unveiling that will be studied for whether it signals a willingness to engage Republicans in negotiations or play political hardball.

In a long day that began Friday morning, senators plodded through scores of amendments — all of them non-binding but some delivering potent political messages.

They voted in favor of giving states more powers to collect sales taxes on online purchases their citizens make from out-of-state Internet companies, and to endorse the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that is to pump oil from Canada to Texas refineries.

They also approved amendments voicing support for eliminating the $2,500 annual cap on flexible spending account contributions imposed by Obama’s health care overhaul, and for charging regular postal rates for mailings by political parties, which currently qualify for the lower prices paid by non-profits.

In a rebuke to one of the Senate’s most conservative members, they overwhelmingly rejected a proposal by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., to cut even deeper than the House GOP budget and eliminate deficits in just five years.

The Democratic budget envisions $975 billion in unspecified new taxes over the coming 10 years. There would be an equal amount of spending reductions coming chiefly from health programs, defense and reduced interest payments as deficits get smaller than previously anticipated.

This year’s projected deficit of nearly $900 billion would fall to around $700 billion next year and bottom out near $400 billion in 2016 before trending upward again.

Shoehorned into the package is $100 billion for public works projects and other programs aimed at creating jobs.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/03/23/senate-approves-first-budget-proposal-in-4-years/#ixzz2OMA781xN

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Sarah Palin Unchained at CPAC Conference: Calls Out the RHINOS and DEMOCRATS

Watch as Sarah Palin Unleashes the Truth about the Political Mob in Washington

Let us all Stand With Sarah and hold our Torches high

America needs Sarah Palin and we need to Stand with her as

‘We the People’

begin the work of taking Back

‘Our Country’

 

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The Sequstration Crisis is over and all is well

  After all the Hype and Fear Mongering by this White House it appears the Sun has risen yet another day in America.  The world did not come to an end and sadly we are still being lorded over by the same corrupt regime in DC

Perhaps now we can move “Forward” and deal with the real Crisis here in America!

*********************

The time has come to Discuss

“IMPEACHMENT“

 

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Gutting the 2nd Amendment: Were not Fools Mr. President

The discussion of target shooting, hunting, and “sporting purposes” is moot. There is no debate about taking away someone’s single shot trap gun or little double barrel dove gun. Anyone can look at the U.K., where firearms are not an acceptable form of self defense. Yet, they are allowed to break pieces of clay and kill released pheasants despite the lack of a 2nd Amendment. Some of the most oppressive regimes of the world grant scatter-gun privileges.

It is a foolish discussion, as breaking pieces of clay needs no protection. It is the same with the 1st Amendment, for non-controversial speech needs no protection. It is only the controversial, perhaps unsavory, perhaps troubling to some type of speech that needs protection. You may be disgusted with flag-burning, but that is protected free speech.

 The way rights are constrained and taken away is not hard to figure out; history shows exactly how it happens over and over again. A classic method is to covert a Right to a Privilege. Once that is accomplished, it opens up the hoary “what do you NEED it for” dialogue. If compelled to show a need, it is no longer a Right. The correct answer to “What Do You Need it For?” is called nobody’s business.

 Gutting the 2nd Amendment takes time, the most crazed anti-gunners know this. Unable to directly void the 2nd Amendment, they are clever enough to chip away at it, gobble up the perimeters, and divide the U.S. gun-owner. Knowing that Americans are a selfish lot and largely care only about the rights that they choose to personally exercise, it is throw bones and false assurances to hunters and target shooters so they are sheeped into inaction, feeling good that their little part of the firearm world is not imperiled.

 Now, the standard fare is to relabel, mislabel, and recast that which they wish to ban. Self-loading rifles are now “assault weapons” as are some pistols, weapons of war, weapons of mass destruction, the scourge of Mankind. Sheep a mindless population into believing repeating rifles and pistols are the same as Armed Predator Drones, landmines, booby traps, and rocket-propelled grenades and you are well on your way.

 Also, soft pedal and dumb down the actual facts: gun crime has declined in the United States by over 50% in the last twenty years. Gun crime declines year after year, according to the FBI, but the facts don’t mess with the emotional “we have to do something” shrill mantra of the uninformed. Standard technique: over-report gun crime, sensationalize it, don’t mention that gun control was a massive failure in Canada and that Mexico has some of the most radical gun laws in the world– but extremely high crime. Also, never report that over 2,000,000 times every year, crimes are thwarted by U.S. private citizens with guns. That needs to be kept hush-hush, for it doesn’t not work with the gun-grabster dialogue.

 Beyond that, lie. Lie like crazy, lie on Capitol Hill. Sit there with a straight face and tell people that 40% of the nasty crime guns come from gun shows. Lie, lie, lie. Don’t let the sheep of America ever know that according to the FBI data from 1997, 2% of the firearms acquired by Federal inmates came from gun shows.

 We know that Federal inmates, those convicted of crime, get 2% of their firearms from gun shows. 2%, yet recently in the Senate hearings 40% was stated as fact. It is a factual lie, but that doesn’t matter . . . for the gunshow has been re-branded as a “loophole” and if you cry “loophole” loud and long enough, some people will actually start to believe it. Overstating gun shows as a source of firearms for criminals by TWENTY TIMES is no accounting error: it is an amazingly bold, easily discernible lie.

 One can only hope that the American public will grow weary of being lied to and treated like sea-slug stupid sheep, not constituents. We should vote for candidates to actually protect rights, not steal them away.

ANY QUESTIONS?

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America’s Broken Government Agencies

The U.S. Postal Service was established in 1775. You have had 234 years to get it right and it is broke.

 Social Security was established in 1935. You have had 74 years to get it right and it is broke.

Fannie Mae was established in 1938. You have had 71 years to get it right and it is broke.

War on Poverty started in 1964. You have had 45 years to get it right; $1 trillion of our money is confiscated each year and transferred to “the poor” and they only want more.

Medicare and Medicaid were established in 1965. You have had 44 years to get it right and they are broke.

Freddie Mac was established in 1970. You have had 39 years to get it right and it is broke.

The Department of Energy was created in 1977 to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. It has ballooned to 16,000 employees with a budget of $24 billion a year and we import more oil than ever before. You had 32 years to get it right and it is an abysmal failure.

To President Obama and all 535 Voting members of the Legislature

 

Dear Gun Control Activists, Its time for you to Sober Up

ANY QUESTIONS?

Remembering when the expression Happy New Year actually meant something

A message to America from the

Grey-Haired Brigade

They like to refer to us as senior citizens, old fogies, geezers, and in some cases dinosaurs. Some of us are “Baby Boomers” getting ready to retire. Others have been retired for some time.

We walk a little slower these days and our eyes and hearing are not what they once were. We have worked hard, raised our children, worshiped our God and grown old together.

Yes, we are the ones some refer to as being over the hill, and that is probably true. But before writing us off completely, there are a few things that need to be taken into consideration.

In school we studied English, history, math, and science which enabled us to lead America into the technological age. Most of us remember what outhouses were, many of us with firsthand experience. We remember the days of telephone
party-lines, 25 cent gasoline, and milk and ice being delivered to our homes. For those of you who don’t know what an icebox is, today they are electric and referred to as refrigerators. A few even remember when cars were started with a crank. Yes, we lived those days.

We are probably considered old fashioned and out-dated by many. But there are a few things you need to remember before completely writing us off. We won World War II, fought in Korea and Viet Nam. We can quote The Pledge of Allegiance, and know where to place our hand while doing so. We wore the uniform of our country with pride and lost many friends on the battlefield. We didn’t fight for the Socialist States of America; we fought for the “Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.” We wore different uniforms but carried the same flag.

We know the words to the Star Spangled Banner, America, and America the Beautiful by heart, and you may even see some tears running down our cheeks as we sing. We have lived what many of you have only read in history books and we feel no obligation to apologize to anyone for America.

Yes, we are old and slow these days but rest assured, we have at least one good fight left in us. We have loved this country, fought for it, and died for it, and now we are going to save it. It is our country and nobody is going to take it away from us. We took oaths to defend America against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and that is an oath we plan to keep. There are those who want to destroy this land we love but, like our founders, there is no way we are going to remain silent.

It was mostly the young people of this nation who elected Obama and the Democratic Congress in 2008. You fell for the “Hope and Change” which in reality was nothing but “Hype and Lies.”

You have tasted socialism and seen evil face to face, and have found you did like it after all.

You make a lot of noise, but most are all too interested in their careers or “Climbing the Social Ladder” to be involved in such mundane things as Patriotism.

Many of you fell for the Great Lie yet again in 2012 and are now having some buyer’s remorse as you should.

With all the education we gave you these past four years, you didn’t have sense enough to see through the lies and instead drank more of the  Kool-Aid.

Now you’re paying the price and complaining about it. No jobs, lost mortgages, higher taxes, and less freedom.

This is what you voted for again and this is what you got.

We entrusted you with the Torch of Liberty and you traded it for Entitlements and a Free Ride.

This land does not belong to the man in the White House nor to the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.

It belongs to We the People and  We the People plan to Reclaim our land and our Freedom. We hope that next time, if there is one, you will do a better job of preserving it and passing it along to our grandchildren.

So if you ever have the chance to say the Pledge of Allegiance again, stand up, put your hand over your heart, honor Our Country, and Apologize to America and the

Grey-Haired Brigade

 

The end of Freedom in America

Did Ronald Reagan see all those many years ago the dangers of the Progressive Liberal Movement in the United States of America?

Did he not as our President fight with every fiber of his being to bring about the end of that Evil Empire and bring down the Berlin Wall?

Did he not destroy the workings of Communism in our age?

How then is it that today we are seeing the Berlin Wall beginning rise up again and this time in America? We are about to be destroyed by all those things which he and countless other Americans stood against and repeatedly warned us about?

Judgment day is here my friends and I fear that our greatest challenge today is our own President and all those Progressive Socialists who now hold power in our Capitol.

We the People must put a stop to this or I fear all will be lost and the Greatness that once was America will be no more!

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WE OWN THIS COUNTRY…..Clint Eastwood

WE OWN THIS COUNTRY

Clint Eastwood. Hollywood Legend.  Just Told Barrack Hussein Obama to Make His Day, along with thousands of Conservatives, Libertarians and Republicans in Tampa at the Republican National Convention.

In a moment that will be remembered for conventions to come, the gunslinger came out shooting.   A steady aim at the Administration and the policies of the last four years. The Eastwood speech was steady and grit filled.

The convention fell to a fever-pitch as the mega-tron screen went black and a massive silhouette of the iconic cowboy appeared behind a western canyon.

Eastwood began by assuring the crowd that there were conservatives in Hollywood.  It’s just that ”they don’t go around hotdogging it.”

The Cowboy then reminisced about the current President’s election “I remember three and a half years ago when Mr. Obama won the election…people were lighting candles…Oprah was crying, I was even crying.”

But Eastwood got serious really fast. “I haven’t cried that hard since I found out there was 23 million unemployed in this country. That is something to cry for because that is a disgrace, a national disgrace.”

“I think possibly now it may be time for another person to come along and solve the problem” he said to cheers.

Eastwood then began holding an interview with empty chair, with an invisible Obama sitting in it.  He ripped the President on Gitmo and Afghanistan.  All while faking that Obama was insulting him.  The best of which was:

“What do you want me to tell Romney? … he can’t do that to himself? you’re absolutely crazy. you’re getting as bad as Biden.  Of course we know Biden is the intellect of the Democratic party.”

But Dirty Harry wasn’t done yet.

“I never thought it was a good idea for attorneys to be president anyway. They’re always taught to argue. I think it’s maybe time, what do you think, for a businessman” the cowboy shrugged ”When somebody does not do the job, we‘ve got to let ’em go.”

Eastwood ended in poetic justice.  

Chanting along with every attendee in the convention,

GO AHEAD

MAKE MY DAY

The Administration is on notice…

Do They Feel Lucky?

Hat tip to The Blaze for this story

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/eastwood-comes-out-shooting-biden-is-the-intellect-of-the-democratic-party/

ANY QUESTIONS?