October 29th, 2009
Dear NAGR supporter,
Do you know which five letters gun owners despise the most?
B.A.T.F.E.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) is without peer as the leading anti-gun agency of the Federal Government.
In fact, the BATFE has been flooding the peaceful homes of law-abiding gun owners with rivers of blood for more than two decades.
And hardly a year goes by without another slew of scandals -- tales of misconduct, abuse of power, sexual harassment and corruption... it never ends.
Don’t you think it’s time Congress abolished this unconstitutional agency all together?
I know I do.
That’s why I hope you will join me in petitioning your member of Congress to abolish the BATFE.
Why should innocent, law-abiding gun owners have to live in fear of a rogue, anti-gun federal agency?
In 1992, gun-hating agents of the BATFE shot Randy Weaver’s wife Vicki in the head while she held her two-year-old son.
Her crime? Stepping in front of a “shoot on sight” BATFE agent.
By the time the dust finally settled at Ruby Ridge, Federal agents had acquitted Randy Weaver of virtually all charges -- but not before murdering two members of his family in cold blood.
In a clear admission of Government guilt, the Weaver family was awarded millions of dollars in compensation for the wrongful deaths of Vicki Weaver and her son Sam.
Isn’t that just typical government nonsense? They screw up, and then try to pay off their victims’ families to make the problem go away.
Haven’t you had enough of this government corruption?
I know I have.
Recently, the BATFE used your tax dollars to buy their agents Leatherman knives engraved with the words “Always Think Forfeiture.”
That’s just how the BATFE thinks...
They’re not interested in protecting the Constitution or enforcing the law. The BATFE only wants to confiscate your firearms and your assets.
That’s why the BATFE is also trying to shut down licensed home gun dealers.
By regulating when and where licensed dealers can sell guns and how they must keep their records -- with an eye to eliminate “certain kinds” of purchases -- the BATFE has effectively put home dealers out of business...
...which infringes on the right to keep and bear arms, disrupts the free market, and makes it more difficult for you and me to find local, trustworthy dealers to buy from.
Not only that, but it increases gun and ammunition costs since it discourages competition! I call it the hidden “BATFE tax.”
And gun owners like you and me are supporting this agency with our hard-earned tax dollars!
I’m sure you agree this has to stop!
So please join me in demanding Congress abolish the tyrannical and out-of-control Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
This is the same gang whose agents admit to routinely falsifying documents and perjuring themselves to get warrants and wiretaps against law-abiding gun owners.
Decorated Army drill instructor David Olofson found this out the hard way. He lent an AR-15 style rifle to a friend, who took it shooting. At the range, it malfunctioned and fired a three-round burst.
That’s all it took for the BATFE to confiscate the rifle as a possible “machine gun.”
The BATFE’s Firearms Test Bureau (FTB) conducted months of secret and unsupervised tests on Mr. Olofson’s gun -- all without any standards, regulations or written procedures.
But even without any testing standards, the BATFE indicted Mr. Olofson on the trumped up charge of transferring a “machine gun” -- after, that is, they modified it and got it to malfunction again.
The BATFE even bribed Mr. Olofson’s friend to testify against him.
Sounds like an effective racket for jailing political enemies if you ask me... confiscate, modify, indict.
I could go on and on with these stories of BATFE abuse. But one thing is absolutely clear: The BATFE must go...
...and you can help.
Please help the National Association for Gun Rights stamp out the jack-booted thugs in the BATFE by doing these three things.
1. Sign your petition to Congress, and tell them enough is enough: It’s time to abolish the BATFE.
2. Call the United States House of Representatives at (202)225-3121 and tell them to stop funding the BATFE’s campaign of terror against gun owners.
3. Consider making a generous contribution of $50, $100 or even $200 to help the National Association for Gun Rights combat the BATFE’s iron fist.
Your generous gift will enable us to continue taking the fight to the BATFE where it hurts the most –- right on Capitol Hill.
Through the grassroots support of gun owners like you, we can force Congress to stop using our tax dollars to fund this campaign of terror against law-abiding citizens.
The National Association for Gun Rights can mobilize thousands of grassroots gun rights activists just like you through the mail, online and over the phone.
It’s high time Congress took action against the BATFE thugs.
By signing the National Association for Gun Rights “Abolish the BATFE” petition, you can help make that happen.
Your generous donation of $50, $100 or even $200 will go directly toward our efforts to fight the BATFE on Capitol Hill.
I know everyone’s had to tighten his financial belt with the downturn in the economy. I’ve certainly noticed it in my home.
But rest assured, your contribution to the National Association for Gun Rights actually goes toward the fight against the BATFE and the anti-gun cabal in Washington.
Unlike the institutional gun groups -- who prefer political cocktail parties to the hard work of freedom -- the National Association for Gun Rights will never compromise.
Thank you in advance for signing our “Abolish the BATFE” petition and for your very generous donation of $50, $100 or even $200.
For Freedom,
Dudley Brown
Executive Director
National Association for Gun Rights
P.S. Please take a moment to sign the petition to your member of Congress. Demand Congress take action at once and abolish the anti-gun BATFE.
And please consider a generous contribution of $50, $100 or even $200 to the National Association for Gun Rights so that we can continue to fight the anti-gun Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
To help the National Association for Gun Rights grow, please forward this to a friend.
To view this email as a web page, please click this link: view online.
Help fight gun control. Donate to the National Association for Gun Rights!
Friday, October 30, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
The 1st Amendment is under attack
Hey Folks,
Thanks to my friend Russ S. for the following link:
www.theobamafile.com
This is a site that collect all available info on Obama, his administration, etc. I do not claim that it is definitive, or entirely accurate. Only that it gives the reader things to ponder and to decide for oneself if believable and rivulet.
The 1st Amendment is under attack. I hope that you are aware that the White House (WH) is attempting to discredit and silence FoxNews for being critical of Obama. Today, the WH attacked the AP for presenting facts that questions the WH's jobs info. The OEM (Obama Enabling Media) seems to go along with these attacks on Freedom of the Press. The rational for this action by the OEM escapes me, maybe they think that they'll get to keep their jobs.
Because the OEM has no credibility, only 4% of Americans think (per Rasmussin Polls) that the OEM reporters know more than the average American about what is happening in DC, and else where. Readership of printed news has dropped by 10+% this last summer. Most printed media is going bankrupt. So there is discussions of a possible taxpayer funded bail-out for the newspapers.
Question, can any of you imagine the affect on such a bail-out. Bail-outs for the printed media means government controls. Do we become a third world country where the government owns the press? How many news organizations will publish something critical of the administration, knowing that they control the purse strings. Freedom of the Press will become a memory.
'Internet Neutrality' legislation pending is a shame. If you take the time to read it, you'll find that it in effect gives big business, ATT, Google, etc. the power to regulate access, and speed, to the internet. These are the big cooperate contributors to the Obama campaign and continuing to contribute to the reelection of the members of Congress. Oppose this legislation.
The 1st Amendment makes us unique in the world. Don't let it slip away.
Thanks to my friend Russ S. for the following link:
www.theobamafile.com
This is a site that collect all available info on Obama, his administration, etc. I do not claim that it is definitive, or entirely accurate. Only that it gives the reader things to ponder and to decide for oneself if believable and rivulet.
The 1st Amendment is under attack. I hope that you are aware that the White House (WH) is attempting to discredit and silence FoxNews for being critical of Obama. Today, the WH attacked the AP for presenting facts that questions the WH's jobs info. The OEM (Obama Enabling Media) seems to go along with these attacks on Freedom of the Press. The rational for this action by the OEM escapes me, maybe they think that they'll get to keep their jobs.
Because the OEM has no credibility, only 4% of Americans think (per Rasmussin Polls) that the OEM reporters know more than the average American about what is happening in DC, and else where. Readership of printed news has dropped by 10+% this last summer. Most printed media is going bankrupt. So there is discussions of a possible taxpayer funded bail-out for the newspapers.
Question, can any of you imagine the affect on such a bail-out. Bail-outs for the printed media means government controls. Do we become a third world country where the government owns the press? How many news organizations will publish something critical of the administration, knowing that they control the purse strings. Freedom of the Press will become a memory.
'Internet Neutrality' legislation pending is a shame. If you take the time to read it, you'll find that it in effect gives big business, ATT, Google, etc. the power to regulate access, and speed, to the internet. These are the big cooperate contributors to the Obama campaign and continuing to contribute to the reelection of the members of Congress. Oppose this legislation.
The 1st Amendment makes us unique in the world. Don't let it slip away.
Obama's Gun Free America
Hey Folks, especially gun owners and all 2nd Amendment supporters,
Its time to fill up a few inboxes (I recommend congress.org). H.R. 45 is dangerous. I did some research and found that the law refers to all "qualifying weapon," which is, any weapon with a "detachable magazine." That would include all "assualt" rifles, any deer rifle that is magazine fed, and your favorite plinker, the 10/22. And, all hand guns that are magazine fed, including your Glock 9mm and our all time favorite the 1911 .45cal.
Take a stand, let your congress wo/man know that you will not stand by and let them require you to register your weapons, nor require you to get a license in order to you give a weapon to your children, or grand children. My great granddaughter, Lillian, will get a rifle when I think she is ready, in spite of the government.
Its time to fill up a few inboxes (I recommend congress.org). H.R. 45 is dangerous. I did some research and found that the law refers to all "qualifying weapon," which is, any weapon with a "detachable magazine." That would include all "assualt" rifles, any deer rifle that is magazine fed, and your favorite plinker, the 10/22. And, all hand guns that are magazine fed, including your Glock 9mm and our all time favorite the 1911 .45cal.
Take a stand, let your congress wo/man know that you will not stand by and let them require you to register your weapons, nor require you to get a license in order to you give a weapon to your children, or grand children. My great granddaughter, Lillian, will get a rifle when I think she is ready, in spite of the government.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Time to write your Rep and Sens.
HOUSELEGISLATIVEUPDATE-WI05@LS1.HOUSE.GOV
Please see Congressman Sensenbrenner's weekly column as originally published on Thursday, October 22, in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The high price of cap-and-tax
With the health care debate grabbing most of the headlines, you may not have heard much about the energy war in Congress. A California-Massachusetts team of legislators is pushing expensive regulations on carbon emissions that would be paid for by the industries and consumers of the Midwest.
Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.) recently introduced a bill similar to legislation that has passed the House. Like its House counterpart, the bill would result in a steep tax on coal, America's most affordable and plentiful fuel source. Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.) sponsored the House bill. It is no coincidence that they are also a California-Massachusetts duo.
Only 12 states use less coal as a percentage of electricity production than Massachusetts, which gets about 25% of its power from coal. Only three states use less coal than California.
Which states use coal? Michigan, Missouri, Minnesota, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas and Ohio use coal to generate more than 50% of their electricity. Wisconsin gets more than two-thirds of its electricity from coal.
How much would cap-and-tax cost you? The National Association of Manufacturers projects that nationwide cap-and-tax would cost each household an average of $1,248. But in Wisconsin, NAM found, cap-and-tax would cost each household more than $1,400.
After the Waxman-Markey bill passed the House, the National Mining Association produced a map that showed how cap-and-tax would impact individual states. States with the highest costs were shown in deep red; states with the lowest costs were shown in green. The result was striking. The map showed a deep sea of red, bracketed by a few green states on the West Coast and in the Northeast.
With costs like these for most of America, it is no surprise that a majority of people oppose this scheme. The opposition has led the bill's sponsors to attempt to rebrand their efforts. Instead of cap-and-trade, supporters of the Senate bill are calling their proposal "pollution reduction and investment." I think cap-and-tax is a more accurate and honest description.
A recent poll shows 65% of Americans want Congress to work on creating jobs. Cap-and-tax won't create jobs, despite a desperate insistence by the bill's supporters that government spending on so-called green jobs will stop the decline in employment that's miring our economy.
To understand the truth on green jobs, we need look no further than Spain. The Spanish government dumped $1.6 billion into green jobs last year and trumpeted 200,000 new jobs it said the subsidies created. But a study by an economist at Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid showed that for every job created through green-job subsidies, up to 2.2 jobs were lost in other sectors. And Spanish taxpayers had to pay about $855,000 for each green job, most of which proved to be only temporary construction jobs. Spain's unemployment rate is currently above 18%.
Cap-and-tax isn't yet the law of the land, but carbon emissions fell 6% this year. How is this possible? It's a result of the recession. The Senate bill's goal is a 20% emission cut by 2020. As Kerry recently said: "We are effectively saying we need to go another 14%."
A bill like the one Kerry is pushing just might get us there. After all, a study of the House bill projected that it would cause 2.4 million job losses by 2030 and up to a 2.4% reduction in Gross Domestic Product. A prolonged recession of that magnitude likely would lead to the emissions cuts that Kerry is seeking.
This not-so-secret plan was spelled out in a report from a U.K. think tank. It advocated a "planned recession" to help meet steep carbon emission goals. The cap-and-tax bill that Democrats are pushing would have a similar effect, especially for those of us in the Midwest.
Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner of Menomonee Falls is the ranking Republican on the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.
###
Please see Congressman Sensenbrenner's weekly column as originally published on Thursday, October 22, in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The high price of cap-and-tax
With the health care debate grabbing most of the headlines, you may not have heard much about the energy war in Congress. A California-Massachusetts team of legislators is pushing expensive regulations on carbon emissions that would be paid for by the industries and consumers of the Midwest.
Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.) recently introduced a bill similar to legislation that has passed the House. Like its House counterpart, the bill would result in a steep tax on coal, America's most affordable and plentiful fuel source. Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.) sponsored the House bill. It is no coincidence that they are also a California-Massachusetts duo.
Only 12 states use less coal as a percentage of electricity production than Massachusetts, which gets about 25% of its power from coal. Only three states use less coal than California.
Which states use coal? Michigan, Missouri, Minnesota, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas and Ohio use coal to generate more than 50% of their electricity. Wisconsin gets more than two-thirds of its electricity from coal.
How much would cap-and-tax cost you? The National Association of Manufacturers projects that nationwide cap-and-tax would cost each household an average of $1,248. But in Wisconsin, NAM found, cap-and-tax would cost each household more than $1,400.
After the Waxman-Markey bill passed the House, the National Mining Association produced a map that showed how cap-and-tax would impact individual states. States with the highest costs were shown in deep red; states with the lowest costs were shown in green. The result was striking. The map showed a deep sea of red, bracketed by a few green states on the West Coast and in the Northeast.
With costs like these for most of America, it is no surprise that a majority of people oppose this scheme. The opposition has led the bill's sponsors to attempt to rebrand their efforts. Instead of cap-and-trade, supporters of the Senate bill are calling their proposal "pollution reduction and investment." I think cap-and-tax is a more accurate and honest description.
A recent poll shows 65% of Americans want Congress to work on creating jobs. Cap-and-tax won't create jobs, despite a desperate insistence by the bill's supporters that government spending on so-called green jobs will stop the decline in employment that's miring our economy.
To understand the truth on green jobs, we need look no further than Spain. The Spanish government dumped $1.6 billion into green jobs last year and trumpeted 200,000 new jobs it said the subsidies created. But a study by an economist at Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid showed that for every job created through green-job subsidies, up to 2.2 jobs were lost in other sectors. And Spanish taxpayers had to pay about $855,000 for each green job, most of which proved to be only temporary construction jobs. Spain's unemployment rate is currently above 18%.
Cap-and-tax isn't yet the law of the land, but carbon emissions fell 6% this year. How is this possible? It's a result of the recession. The Senate bill's goal is a 20% emission cut by 2020. As Kerry recently said: "We are effectively saying we need to go another 14%."
A bill like the one Kerry is pushing just might get us there. After all, a study of the House bill projected that it would cause 2.4 million job losses by 2030 and up to a 2.4% reduction in Gross Domestic Product. A prolonged recession of that magnitude likely would lead to the emissions cuts that Kerry is seeking.
This not-so-secret plan was spelled out in a report from a U.K. think tank. It advocated a "planned recession" to help meet steep carbon emission goals. The cap-and-tax bill that Democrats are pushing would have a similar effect, especially for those of us in the Midwest.
Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner of Menomonee Falls is the ranking Republican on the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.
###
in just 53 weeks we have a chance to take back our beloved country
Hey Folks,
Just a friendly reminder that in just 53 weeks we have a chance to take back our beloved country. On the 2nd day of November 2010, we can effect real change. All 435 members of the House of Representatives must stand for re-election. Also, 36 members of the Senate must stand for re-election. It is time to vote out of office all incumbents and put in people who will listen to us and represent our values.
Listen to, and heed, this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=UZkvkLmkYVg
Just a friendly reminder that in just 53 weeks we have a chance to take back our beloved country. On the 2nd day of November 2010, we can effect real change. All 435 members of the House of Representatives must stand for re-election. Also, 36 members of the Senate must stand for re-election. It is time to vote out of office all incumbents and put in people who will listen to us and represent our values.
Listen to, and heed, this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=UZkvkLmkYVg
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Daily transition between battle, home takes a toll on drone operators
CREECH AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. – The daily work duties are arduous, involving close tracking of insurgents, patiently watching them dart in and out of shelters and, if the opportunity presents itself, occasionally raining missiles down on their heads.
But at the end of each day, the Air Force crews who control the Predator and Reaper drones circling high above the battlefields in Afghanistan and Iraq stand up from their Naugahyde chairs, emerge from their cramped air conditioned trailers on this remote Nevada air base and climb into their cars for the drive home, arriving in time to tuck their kids into bed.
Call it combat as shift work, a new paradigm of commuter warfare that is blurring the historical understanding of what it means to go off to battle. And the strain of the daily whiplash transition between bombs and bedtime stories, coupled with the fast-increasing workload to meet relentlessly expanding demand, is leading to fatigue and burnout for the ground-based controllers who drive the drones.
“We have 5,000 years of one type of warfare and only a couple of years of this new kind,” said P.W. Singer, author of “Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century.” “These guys are simultaneously at home and at war. It may be that human psychology isn’t designed for that. We don’t know yet.”
Once downrange, “you sleep, you eat, you fight, you work out and then you repeat. I very rarely had contact with my family,” he said.
Having to balance being active in a war zone and fully present at home has stressed some marriages. The domestic issues prompted the previous commander to make a couples counseling program available.
“The family pressures don’t go away, they heighten,” Singer said. “You’ve just been on a combat mission and half an hour later your spouse is mad at you because you’re late to soccer practice.”
Friction at home can stem from just that simple question upon walking through the door: “How was your day?”
“Combat is a very personal event,” Gersten said. Getting questions at home at the end of each shift means “that compartment is being breached to a degree.” Even for those willing to share that aspect of their lives with their spouse, they feel limited by the secret nature of their job.
“It’s clear that we’ve pushed our units not to the breaking point, but close,” said Col. Eric Mathewson, the Unmanned Aerial Systems Task Force commander.
‘18 inches away’
Those who fly drones are sometimes derided as being part of the “Chair Force” and as being too distanced from the fight to really be a part of it.
“A lot of people downplay it, say ‘You’re 8,000 miles away. What’s the big deal?’ But it’s not really 8,000 miles away, it’s 18 inches away,” Gersten said. “We’re closer in a majority of ways than we’ve ever been as a service.”
“There’s no detachment,” he said. “Those employing the system are very involved at a personal level in combat. You hear the AK-47 going off, the intensity of the voice on the radio calling for help. You’re looking at him, 18 inches away from him, trying everything in your capability to get that person out of trouble.”
The Air Force didn’t recognize the potential combat stress when the mission started. The pilot-centric service viewed combat stress as something that could be experienced only by a fighter or bomber pilot. Those flying drones at home in the States didn’t qualify and, as a result, “some of the senior leadership wasn’t giving them the support that they needed,” Singer said.
Now Creech offers counseling and has its own chaplain corps, and Gersten said he’s confident that the Air Force is taking steps to deal with new incarnations of combat stress, which he said haven’t reached alarming levels.
‘Tired, disgruntled, disillusioned’
Most commanders think the fatigue stems from the tempo. The demand for drones is insatiable and the Air Force is struggling to keep up.
The current goal is to increase from 37 drones in the air at any given time to 50, but the demand isn’t expected to end there — or even pause.
Air Force officials said they need to double the number of crews available to operate each drone, and are a year and half from being fully staffed.
The resulting shortage is keeping morale low, airmen said. Much of the grumbling comes from a sense that they are stuck at Creech forever, doing a mission they didn’t sign up for.
The majority of the pilots who fly drones were pulled from fighter jets, cargo planes and other aircraft.
“It’s hard to forge that esprit de corps, that tribe mentality when you can’t all go to the bar after work and decompress together,” Mathewson said.
Singer said military experts consider that one of the challenges of remote warfare — not having cohesive units that deploy together, stay together and then come home together. Overall, Predator and Reaper crews tend to be “tired, disgruntled and disillusioned,” Kent said.
In 2006, a military study found Predator crews are at least as fatigued, if not more so, than pilots deployed downrange. Changes were made to the shifts, but a follow-up survey last year still showed “emotional exhaustion and burnout.”
The studies found many crew members are chronically fatigued, with about 40 percent reporting “a moderate to high likelihood of falling asleep in the [ground control station] while operating a weaponized, remotely piloted aircraft.”
Mathewson said conditions have improved, but sleep deprivation hasn’t stopped being an issue. Gersten said the fatigue is being “realized in vehicle accidents” on the drive home from base.
“It’s insane,” Kent said. “You can’t run an Air Force like this without burning your people out.”
Don says: This adds a whole new dimension to the phrase 'battle fatigue.'
Don of Indy
But at the end of each day, the Air Force crews who control the Predator and Reaper drones circling high above the battlefields in Afghanistan and Iraq stand up from their Naugahyde chairs, emerge from their cramped air conditioned trailers on this remote Nevada air base and climb into their cars for the drive home, arriving in time to tuck their kids into bed.
Call it combat as shift work, a new paradigm of commuter warfare that is blurring the historical understanding of what it means to go off to battle. And the strain of the daily whiplash transition between bombs and bedtime stories, coupled with the fast-increasing workload to meet relentlessly expanding demand, is leading to fatigue and burnout for the ground-based controllers who drive the drones.
“We have 5,000 years of one type of warfare and only a couple of years of this new kind,” said P.W. Singer, author of “Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century.” “These guys are simultaneously at home and at war. It may be that human psychology isn’t designed for that. We don’t know yet.”
Once downrange, “you sleep, you eat, you fight, you work out and then you repeat. I very rarely had contact with my family,” he said.
Having to balance being active in a war zone and fully present at home has stressed some marriages. The domestic issues prompted the previous commander to make a couples counseling program available.
“The family pressures don’t go away, they heighten,” Singer said. “You’ve just been on a combat mission and half an hour later your spouse is mad at you because you’re late to soccer practice.”
Friction at home can stem from just that simple question upon walking through the door: “How was your day?”
“Combat is a very personal event,” Gersten said. Getting questions at home at the end of each shift means “that compartment is being breached to a degree.” Even for those willing to share that aspect of their lives with their spouse, they feel limited by the secret nature of their job.
“It’s clear that we’ve pushed our units not to the breaking point, but close,” said Col. Eric Mathewson, the Unmanned Aerial Systems Task Force commander.
‘18 inches away’
Those who fly drones are sometimes derided as being part of the “Chair Force” and as being too distanced from the fight to really be a part of it.
“A lot of people downplay it, say ‘You’re 8,000 miles away. What’s the big deal?’ But it’s not really 8,000 miles away, it’s 18 inches away,” Gersten said. “We’re closer in a majority of ways than we’ve ever been as a service.”
“There’s no detachment,” he said. “Those employing the system are very involved at a personal level in combat. You hear the AK-47 going off, the intensity of the voice on the radio calling for help. You’re looking at him, 18 inches away from him, trying everything in your capability to get that person out of trouble.”
The Air Force didn’t recognize the potential combat stress when the mission started. The pilot-centric service viewed combat stress as something that could be experienced only by a fighter or bomber pilot. Those flying drones at home in the States didn’t qualify and, as a result, “some of the senior leadership wasn’t giving them the support that they needed,” Singer said.
Now Creech offers counseling and has its own chaplain corps, and Gersten said he’s confident that the Air Force is taking steps to deal with new incarnations of combat stress, which he said haven’t reached alarming levels.
‘Tired, disgruntled, disillusioned’
Most commanders think the fatigue stems from the tempo. The demand for drones is insatiable and the Air Force is struggling to keep up.
The current goal is to increase from 37 drones in the air at any given time to 50, but the demand isn’t expected to end there — or even pause.
Air Force officials said they need to double the number of crews available to operate each drone, and are a year and half from being fully staffed.
The resulting shortage is keeping morale low, airmen said. Much of the grumbling comes from a sense that they are stuck at Creech forever, doing a mission they didn’t sign up for.
The majority of the pilots who fly drones were pulled from fighter jets, cargo planes and other aircraft.
“It’s hard to forge that esprit de corps, that tribe mentality when you can’t all go to the bar after work and decompress together,” Mathewson said.
Singer said military experts consider that one of the challenges of remote warfare — not having cohesive units that deploy together, stay together and then come home together. Overall, Predator and Reaper crews tend to be “tired, disgruntled and disillusioned,” Kent said.
In 2006, a military study found Predator crews are at least as fatigued, if not more so, than pilots deployed downrange. Changes were made to the shifts, but a follow-up survey last year still showed “emotional exhaustion and burnout.”
The studies found many crew members are chronically fatigued, with about 40 percent reporting “a moderate to high likelihood of falling asleep in the [ground control station] while operating a weaponized, remotely piloted aircraft.”
Mathewson said conditions have improved, but sleep deprivation hasn’t stopped being an issue. Gersten said the fatigue is being “realized in vehicle accidents” on the drive home from base.
“It’s insane,” Kent said. “You can’t run an Air Force like this without burning your people out.”
Don says: This adds a whole new dimension to the phrase 'battle fatigue.'
Don of Indy
TAX PAYER MONEY IS BEING REDISTRIBUTED TO WELFARE RECIPIENTS FOR FREE CELL PHONES
OBAMA PHONE
welfare recipients are now eligible to
receive
(1) a FREE new
phone and
(2) approx 55
minutes of FREE minutes every month.
TAX PAYER MONEY IS BEING REDISTRIBUTED TO WELFARE RECIPIENTS FOR FREE CELL PHONES. This program was started earlier this year. You can click on the link below to read more about the “Obama phone”…
https://www.safelinkwireless.com/EnrollmentPublic/home.aspx
Lifeline Assistance is part of a program that was created by the government to provide discounted or free telephone service to income-eligible consumers. To help bring you this important benefit, SafeLink Wireless is proud to offer Lifeline Service. Through our Lifeline Service you will receive FREE cellular service, a FREE cell phone, and FREE Minutes every month! SafeLink Wireless Service does not cost anything – there are no contracts, no recurring fees and no monthly charges.Any Minutes you do not use will roll-over. Features such as caller ID, call waiting and voicemail are all also included with your service.
Don says: I going to hold out for a pony
_______________
welfare recipients are now eligible to
receive
(1) a FREE new
phone and
(2) approx 55
minutes of FREE minutes every month.
TAX PAYER MONEY IS BEING REDISTRIBUTED TO WELFARE RECIPIENTS FOR FREE CELL PHONES. This program was started earlier this year. You can click on the link below to read more about the “Obama phone”…
https://www.safelinkwireless.com/EnrollmentPublic/home.aspx
Lifeline Assistance is part of a program that was created by the government to provide discounted or free telephone service to income-eligible consumers. To help bring you this important benefit, SafeLink Wireless is proud to offer Lifeline Service. Through our Lifeline Service you will receive FREE cellular service, a FREE cell phone, and FREE Minutes every month! SafeLink Wireless Service does not cost anything – there are no contracts, no recurring fees and no monthly charges.Any Minutes you do not use will roll-over. Features such as caller ID, call waiting and voicemail are all also included with your service.
Don says: I going to hold out for a pony
_______________
Monday, October 26, 2009
"Hey Vets (et al) this is our CinC"
RE: My posting yesterday of "Hey Vets (et al) this is our CinC"
Please read this snopes assessment in its entirety:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/veteranshealth.asp
Now for all of you who want to beat me, please do so with a wet noodle, for you are only going to get half of an apology.
Yes, snopes says that the quotes attributed to Obama contained in the posting are nor verifiable (NOTE: Sure sounds like him to me.). OK, but, what about the bigger issue, "Why did the man even consider such a proposal?" That part can be verified. Is the man so ignorant, arrogant, etc. as to think that such a proposal would float? What kind of advisors does he have. I wonder if anyone lost their job over this, probably not. It took the combined efforts of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reps from all the Vet organizations, and a strong letter writing campaign to change his mind.
In my opinion, this is an example of the man's distain for military personnel. An example of a man that will stop at nothing, say anything, to nationalize our health care system. Again, I question the man's motives for even considering such a proposal. CinC, in name only.
PS for Unknown:
RE: "He wants the right to bill private insurance companies for injuries, but the government will still support all soldiers' care. Since insurance companies are enjoying massive profits, why can't they help the soldiers too?"
I recommend you go back and re-read the snopes posting. What part do you not understand that he proposed that vets use their own private health insurance to reimburse the VA for treatment? Which means that vets would be required to purchase private insurance. Treatment that should be free, except for maybe some co-pays. What makes this even worse, it included those troops who were wounded defending our Constitution, and, sickenley, him.
"...but the government will still support all soldiers' care." That fails the logic test. If the gov is to support the troops, then why would the troops be required to use their private insurance to help cover costs?
It was mentioned that there would be no "out of pocket" expense to the vet. Excuuuse me! Who pays the vet's insurance premiums? Who pays the deductibles? Are you naive enough to think that the health insurance company are going to reimburse the VA out of the goodness of their heart. Bet me!
BTW: In a separate posting, I'm forwarding an article that explains that Obama and crew are propagating a myth about the "excessive" profits being made by the health care insurance industry as justification for nationalizing our health care system. Even Jack-in-the-Box and Tupperware have a higher profit margin than most health insurance companies. Does 2.2 percent profit sound excessive to you?
Don of Indy
Please read this snopes assessment in its entirety:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/veteranshealth.asp
Now for all of you who want to beat me, please do so with a wet noodle, for you are only going to get half of an apology.
Yes, snopes says that the quotes attributed to Obama contained in the posting are nor verifiable (NOTE: Sure sounds like him to me.). OK, but, what about the bigger issue, "Why did the man even consider such a proposal?" That part can be verified. Is the man so ignorant, arrogant, etc. as to think that such a proposal would float? What kind of advisors does he have. I wonder if anyone lost their job over this, probably not. It took the combined efforts of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reps from all the Vet organizations, and a strong letter writing campaign to change his mind.
In my opinion, this is an example of the man's distain for military personnel. An example of a man that will stop at nothing, say anything, to nationalize our health care system. Again, I question the man's motives for even considering such a proposal. CinC, in name only.
PS for Unknown:
RE: "He wants the right to bill private insurance companies for injuries, but the government will still support all soldiers' care. Since insurance companies are enjoying massive profits, why can't they help the soldiers too?"
I recommend you go back and re-read the snopes posting. What part do you not understand that he proposed that vets use their own private health insurance to reimburse the VA for treatment? Which means that vets would be required to purchase private insurance. Treatment that should be free, except for maybe some co-pays. What makes this even worse, it included those troops who were wounded defending our Constitution, and, sickenley, him.
"...but the government will still support all soldiers' care." That fails the logic test. If the gov is to support the troops, then why would the troops be required to use their private insurance to help cover costs?
It was mentioned that there would be no "out of pocket" expense to the vet. Excuuuse me! Who pays the vet's insurance premiums? Who pays the deductibles? Are you naive enough to think that the health insurance company are going to reimburse the VA out of the goodness of their heart. Bet me!
BTW: In a separate posting, I'm forwarding an article that explains that Obama and crew are propagating a myth about the "excessive" profits being made by the health care insurance industry as justification for nationalizing our health care system. Even Jack-in-the-Box and Tupperware have a higher profit margin than most health insurance companies. Does 2.2 percent profit sound excessive to you?
Don of Indy
Huge Health Insurance Profits?
Hey Folks,
Here is a myth being propagated by the Dems in order to justify their attempt to nationalize our health care system.
BTW: Check out:
http://d.yimg.com/kq/groups/8856721/481341925/name/Fromthe50s%2Ewmv
FACT CHECK: Health insurer profits not so fat October 25, 2009 12:45 PM EDT
WASHINGTON - Quick quiz: What do these enterprises have in common? Farm and construction machinery, Tupperware, the railroads, Hershey sweets, Yum food brands and Yahoo? Answer: They're all more profitable than the health insurance industry.
In the health care debate, Democrats and their allies have gone after insurance companies as rapacious profiteers making "immoral" and "obscene" returns while "the bodies pile up."
Ledgers tell a different reality. Health insurance profit margins typically run about 6 percent, give or take a point or two. That's anemic compared with other forms of insurance and a broad array of industries, even some beleaguered ones.
Profits barely exceeded 2 percent of revenues in the latest annual measure. This partly explains why the credit ratings of some of the largest insurers were downgraded to negative from stable heading into this year, as investors were warned of a stagnant if not shrinking market for private plans.
Insurers are an expedient target for leaders who want a government-run plan in the marketplace. Such a public option would force private insurers to trim profits and restrain premiums to compete, the argument goes. This would "keep insurance companies honest," says President Barack Obama.
The debate is loaded with intimations that insurers are less than straight, when they are not flatly accused of malfeasance.
They may not have helped their case by commissioning a report that looked primarily at the elements of health care legislation that might drive consumer costs up while ignoring elements aimed at bringing costs down. Few in the debate seem interested in a true balance sheet.
But in pillorying insurers over profits, the critics are on shaky ground. A look at some claims, and the numbers:
THE CLAIMS
-"I'm very pleased that (Democratic leaders) will be talking, too, about the immoral profits being made by the insurance industry and how those profits have increased in the Bush years." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who also welcomed the attention being drawn to insurers' "obscene profits."
-"Keeping the status quo may be what the insurance industry wants their premiums have more than doubled in the last decade and their profits have skyrocketed." Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, member of the Democratic leadership.
-"Health insurance companies are willing to let the bodies pile up as long as their profits are safe." A MoveOn.org ad.
THE NUMBERS:
Health insurers posted a 2.2 percent profit margin last year, placing them 35th on the Fortune 500 list of top industries. As is typical, other health sectors did much better - drugs and medical products and services were both in the top 10.
The railroads brought in a 12.6 percent profit margin. Leading the list: network and other communications equipment, at 20.4 percent.
HealthSpring, the best performer in the health insurance industry, posted 5.4 percent. That's a less profitable margin than was achieved by the makers of Tupperware, Clorox bleach and Molson and Coors beers.
The star among the health insurance companies did, however, nose out Jack in the Box restaurants, which only achieved a 4 percent margin.
UnitedHealth Group, reporting third quarter results last week, saw fortunes improve. It managed a 5 percent profit margin on an 8 percent growth in revenue.
Van Hollen is right that premiums have more than doubled in a decade, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation study that found a 131 percent increase.
But were the Bush years golden ones for health insurers?
Not judging by profit margins, profit growth or returns to shareholders. The industry's overall profits grew only 8.8 percent from 2003 to 2008, and its margins year to year, from 2005 forward, never cracked 8 percent.
The latest annual profit margins of a selection of products, services and industries: Tupperware Brands, 7.5 percent; Yahoo, 5.9 percent; Hershey, 6.1 percent; Clorox, 8.7 percent; Molson Coors Brewing, 8.1 percent; construction and farm machinery, 5 percent; Yum Brands (think KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell), 8.5 percent.
Don of Indy
Here is a myth being propagated by the Dems in order to justify their attempt to nationalize our health care system.
BTW: Check out:
http://d.yimg.com/kq/groups/8856721/481341925/name/Fromthe50s%2Ewmv
FACT CHECK: Health insurer profits not so fat October 25, 2009 12:45 PM EDT
WASHINGTON - Quick quiz: What do these enterprises have in common? Farm and construction machinery, Tupperware, the railroads, Hershey sweets, Yum food brands and Yahoo? Answer: They're all more profitable than the health insurance industry.
In the health care debate, Democrats and their allies have gone after insurance companies as rapacious profiteers making "immoral" and "obscene" returns while "the bodies pile up."
Ledgers tell a different reality. Health insurance profit margins typically run about 6 percent, give or take a point or two. That's anemic compared with other forms of insurance and a broad array of industries, even some beleaguered ones.
Profits barely exceeded 2 percent of revenues in the latest annual measure. This partly explains why the credit ratings of some of the largest insurers were downgraded to negative from stable heading into this year, as investors were warned of a stagnant if not shrinking market for private plans.
Insurers are an expedient target for leaders who want a government-run plan in the marketplace. Such a public option would force private insurers to trim profits and restrain premiums to compete, the argument goes. This would "keep insurance companies honest," says President Barack Obama.
The debate is loaded with intimations that insurers are less than straight, when they are not flatly accused of malfeasance.
They may not have helped their case by commissioning a report that looked primarily at the elements of health care legislation that might drive consumer costs up while ignoring elements aimed at bringing costs down. Few in the debate seem interested in a true balance sheet.
But in pillorying insurers over profits, the critics are on shaky ground. A look at some claims, and the numbers:
THE CLAIMS
-"I'm very pleased that (Democratic leaders) will be talking, too, about the immoral profits being made by the insurance industry and how those profits have increased in the Bush years." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who also welcomed the attention being drawn to insurers' "obscene profits."
-"Keeping the status quo may be what the insurance industry wants their premiums have more than doubled in the last decade and their profits have skyrocketed." Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, member of the Democratic leadership.
-"Health insurance companies are willing to let the bodies pile up as long as their profits are safe." A MoveOn.org ad.
THE NUMBERS:
Health insurers posted a 2.2 percent profit margin last year, placing them 35th on the Fortune 500 list of top industries. As is typical, other health sectors did much better - drugs and medical products and services were both in the top 10.
The railroads brought in a 12.6 percent profit margin. Leading the list: network and other communications equipment, at 20.4 percent.
HealthSpring, the best performer in the health insurance industry, posted 5.4 percent. That's a less profitable margin than was achieved by the makers of Tupperware, Clorox bleach and Molson and Coors beers.
The star among the health insurance companies did, however, nose out Jack in the Box restaurants, which only achieved a 4 percent margin.
UnitedHealth Group, reporting third quarter results last week, saw fortunes improve. It managed a 5 percent profit margin on an 8 percent growth in revenue.
Van Hollen is right that premiums have more than doubled in a decade, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation study that found a 131 percent increase.
But were the Bush years golden ones for health insurers?
Not judging by profit margins, profit growth or returns to shareholders. The industry's overall profits grew only 8.8 percent from 2003 to 2008, and its margins year to year, from 2005 forward, never cracked 8 percent.
The latest annual profit margins of a selection of products, services and industries: Tupperware Brands, 7.5 percent; Yahoo, 5.9 percent; Hershey, 6.1 percent; Clorox, 8.7 percent; Molson Coors Brewing, 8.1 percent; construction and farm machinery, 5 percent; Yum Brands (think KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell), 8.5 percent.
Don of Indy
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Support for our troops
I applaud the efforts of the organization cited and their support for our troops. And, of the other like organization. I'm a member of the committee of the Freedom Group of America/Indiana, affiliated with the national 'Tea Party Patriots.' Another member made a suggestion that we start a letter writing effort to support our troops. I volunteered to lead the effort.
I decided that we should support the home town troops. I contacted a person I know in the IN ARNG's Public Affairs Office. IN NG has many units on active duty in Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Jabuti. BTW, I'm biased. I from IN and back in the mid-60s, I spent two years of my military career working with the IN ARNG. When I visit my friend at Stout Field, Indianapolis, her building is across the street from the building I worked in.
Today, we have several efforts underway.
1. Using NG equipment we are arranging for two tele-conferencing events. One on Thanksgiving Day and one on Christmas Day. On Thanksgiving Day, family members will be given the chance to tele-conference with their loved ones in Kosovo. The Christmas Day event will be with either a unit in Iraq or Afghanistan. The unit in Jabuti does not have the reciprocating equipment. Due to security issues, the equipment must be set up inside an Armory, or other military facility. We will provide transportation for families, refreshments, etc. during the events.
2. In the home town of each activated unit, is an established 'Family Support Group' (FSG). Membership is made up primarily family members and civilian volunteers. Our local Patriot group has adopted a unit from our county. We write letters, prepare packages, etc. and pass them to our FSG. We have passed along POCs for all the other FSGs in IN to the 30 different Tea Party Patriot groups in IN, asking them to contact a local FSG.
3. Another program we, and the other Patriots groups, are getting involved in is 'Adopt a Family for a Holiday.' Here, through a FSG, you are given the name and contact info for a family that would appreciate some holiday cheer. Then you invite the family to share Thanksgiving and/or Christmas with you and your family. This one has been a little slow getting started, mostly due to the pride of those families contacted. I hope my family comes around.
Now, why am I boring you? It is to encourage you to get involved and through supporting you "home town troops" make you contribution less anonymous; and you can enjoy the smiles. It is going to require some work on your part. If you know of a local Guard unit that is on active duty, contact their Armory and see if they have a FSG. Then go from there. If you do not know, go online and find the home page for your state's NG HQ. Then look for the Public Affairs Office. And, ask questions. I'm sure you'll be pleased by the warm reception you get for supporting our 'home town troops.'
Make your support for the troops more than a warm fuzzy feeling.
Don of Indy
I decided that we should support the home town troops. I contacted a person I know in the IN ARNG's Public Affairs Office. IN NG has many units on active duty in Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Jabuti. BTW, I'm biased. I from IN and back in the mid-60s, I spent two years of my military career working with the IN ARNG. When I visit my friend at Stout Field, Indianapolis, her building is across the street from the building I worked in.
Today, we have several efforts underway.
1. Using NG equipment we are arranging for two tele-conferencing events. One on Thanksgiving Day and one on Christmas Day. On Thanksgiving Day, family members will be given the chance to tele-conference with their loved ones in Kosovo. The Christmas Day event will be with either a unit in Iraq or Afghanistan. The unit in Jabuti does not have the reciprocating equipment. Due to security issues, the equipment must be set up inside an Armory, or other military facility. We will provide transportation for families, refreshments, etc. during the events.
2. In the home town of each activated unit, is an established 'Family Support Group' (FSG). Membership is made up primarily family members and civilian volunteers. Our local Patriot group has adopted a unit from our county. We write letters, prepare packages, etc. and pass them to our FSG. We have passed along POCs for all the other FSGs in IN to the 30 different Tea Party Patriot groups in IN, asking them to contact a local FSG.
3. Another program we, and the other Patriots groups, are getting involved in is 'Adopt a Family for a Holiday.' Here, through a FSG, you are given the name and contact info for a family that would appreciate some holiday cheer. Then you invite the family to share Thanksgiving and/or Christmas with you and your family. This one has been a little slow getting started, mostly due to the pride of those families contacted. I hope my family comes around.
Now, why am I boring you? It is to encourage you to get involved and through supporting you "home town troops" make you contribution less anonymous; and you can enjoy the smiles. It is going to require some work on your part. If you know of a local Guard unit that is on active duty, contact their Armory and see if they have a FSG. Then go from there. If you do not know, go online and find the home page for your state's NG HQ. Then look for the Public Affairs Office. And, ask questions. I'm sure you'll be pleased by the warm reception you get for supporting our 'home town troops.'
Make your support for the troops more than a warm fuzzy feeling.
Don of Indy
Friday, October 23, 2009
Sounds like Deja VU - Giving up our freedom? for what?
This sounds a little familier . . .
This kinda mirrors what's going on today's in our political world. . . . and it's important that we do something about it.
Subject: An Interesting Cartoon made in 1948
Friends,
How could they get it so right in 1948, but they can’t understand it in 2009?? Tony Culver,
Harding College put this out in 1948.
Take a Look
Click Here:1948Cartoon
http://nationaljuggernaut.blogspot.com/2009/09/this-cartoon-seemed-far-fetched-in-1948.html
In 1948 this Dr. Utopia was in a cartoon. Today Dr. Utopia is for real promising change, and there are so many who cannot wait to sign on the dotted line.
This kinda mirrors what's going on today's in our political world. . . . and it's important that we do something about it.
Subject: An Interesting Cartoon made in 1948
Friends,
How could they get it so right in 1948, but they can’t understand it in 2009?? Tony Culver,
Harding College put this out in 1948.
Take a Look
Click Here:1948Cartoon
http://nationaljuggernaut.blogspot.com/2009/09/this-cartoon-seemed-far-fetched-in-1948.html
In 1948 this Dr. Utopia was in a cartoon. Today Dr. Utopia is for real promising change, and there are so many who cannot wait to sign on the dotted line.
Health Care in the Senate running amok
I'm not necessarily endorsing this group. but, I do encourage you to view the video and see how our Senate is run amok
Health Care in the Senate
Health Care debate in the Senate under reconciliation
The attached video (3:42) on health Care in the Senate is pretty powerful & needs to be made public. The "read the bill" campaign will seem trivial compared to the dozens of back to back votes that will occur, without debate, on the vital issue of health care.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA-KKJxXbBQ
Elizabeth B. Letchworth
Owner-Founder GradeGov.com
Elizabeth@gradegov.com
PS: Stay tuned how GradeGov members can participate in a conf. call to occur shortly after the results of the Nov. elections in the Governors races in VA & NJ are announced. Details to come.
Health Care in the Senate
Health Care debate in the Senate under reconciliation
The attached video (3:42) on health Care in the Senate is pretty powerful & needs to be made public. The "read the bill" campaign will seem trivial compared to the dozens of back to back votes that will occur, without debate, on the vital issue of health care.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA-KKJxXbBQ
Elizabeth B. Letchworth
Owner-Founder GradeGov.com
Elizabeth@gradegov.com
PS: Stay tuned how GradeGov members can participate in a conf. call to occur shortly after the results of the Nov. elections in the Governors races in VA & NJ are announced. Details to come.
GOOOH, which means, Get Out of Our House, [House of Representatives]
Hey Folks,
Dick is a member of the Indy Tea Party.
I went to the meeting of the 6th District Constitutional Patriots in Bluffton. We had Tim Cox, the founder of GOOOH, which means, Get Out of Our House, [House of Representatives] The group started by the Benediction, pledge and statements, Mr. Cox came on. Tim gave his story, worked for Dell, NASA and assorted software companies.
First of all, HE WANTED NO MONEY! [we ALL couldn’t believe it!] Here is his mission statement.
Mission
GOOOH stands for 'Get Out of Our House' and is pronounced like the word 'go'. It is a NON-PARTISAN plan to evict the 435 career politicians in the U.S. House of Representatives and replace them with everyday Americans just like you.
If you are tired of career politicians, GOOOH is for you. If you believe money has corrupted Washington, GOOOH is for you. If you believe politicians have too much power, GOOOH is for you. If you are weary of the death grip the two parties have on our government, and are ready to return control of our government to the people, then GOOOH is for you.
GOOOH is NOT just another political party. It is a system that will allow you and your neighbors to choose, among yourselves, the person who can best represent your district.
GOOOH is an evolving system and your input is requested. The questions are changing based on the feedback of members just like you. Participate in the forums, take the survey, and send us your thoughts. This is YOUR system. We will perfect it with your input.
GOOOH is a new system that will allow "we the people" to select true representatives, not choose between a Democrat and a Republican. If we continue to elect career politicians who represent their party, the special interests that fund them, and themselves, nothing will change. GOOOH is a non-partisan process that will allow us to effect the change we all know we need.
GOOOH will allow you to:
Help select your Representative - while being considered yourself
Hold your Representative accountable
Replace career politicians - with true representatives
Take the money out of the process
The GOOOH process allows Americans of every political leaning to participate in the selection of their District's Representative while being considered themselves. Through GOOOH's Candidate Selection Sessions you and your peers will select the candidate in your district who best represents your district's views. Even if you do not wish to become your district's representative you will want to participate in the process and have a direct say in who is chosen to represent your district. GOOOH will fund a single national campaign to promote the 435 candidates (one from each district) who are selected to run against the party politicians. Because GOOOH is a process for selecting representatives (not an agenda-based party platform) we expect a person left of center to be selected in San Francisco and one right of center in Colorado Springs -- but it will be up to the GOOOH members in each district to decide.
For GOOOH to succeed we will need at least 500,000 participants. We will continue to build our base of supporters until we have the participation we need, at which time we will begin our effort to have the GOOOH party added to the ballot in the 50 states and to select our 435 nominees. There are many variables involved in reaching this level of support, but we believe it is only a matter of time.
Originally, the founder of GOOOH proposed excluding lawyers, members of political families, and individuals with more than $11.5 million in assets (250 times the median income). They were not to be excluded because they are bad people, but because they are overly represented in government today and, generally speaking, no longer seem to represent the common man. However, based on input from our members, the Question Committee has voted to remove the exclusion of laywers and the wealthy. Instead, it has been decided that members of these two groups must simply declare that they are a lawyer or have more than $11.5m in assets in each Selection Session in which they participate. It will be up to the participants in each pool to decide whether or not that is of concern. We believe this change is indicative of the continuing evolution of the GOOOH system.
We hope you will join GOOOH today and help us take our House back from the politicians!
He concluded by saying a quote:
"If ever a time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin." Samuel Adams, 1776
So, there you have it! I had already joined when Mr. Cox came to Bluffton, BUT was MORE impressed when he left! I am an independent, almost a Libertarian, but voted Republican in the House of Representatives, Senate and the Presidential races. I am soooo sick and tired of the politicians saying one thing to get elected, and another when they GET elected! I’m going to vote GOOOH from now on!
Dick
Dick is a member of the Indy Tea Party.
I went to the meeting of the 6th District Constitutional Patriots in Bluffton. We had Tim Cox, the founder of GOOOH, which means, Get Out of Our House, [House of Representatives] The group started by the Benediction, pledge and statements, Mr. Cox came on. Tim gave his story, worked for Dell, NASA and assorted software companies.
First of all, HE WANTED NO MONEY! [we ALL couldn’t believe it!] Here is his mission statement.
Mission
GOOOH stands for 'Get Out of Our House' and is pronounced like the word 'go'. It is a NON-PARTISAN plan to evict the 435 career politicians in the U.S. House of Representatives and replace them with everyday Americans just like you.
If you are tired of career politicians, GOOOH is for you. If you believe money has corrupted Washington, GOOOH is for you. If you believe politicians have too much power, GOOOH is for you. If you are weary of the death grip the two parties have on our government, and are ready to return control of our government to the people, then GOOOH is for you.
GOOOH is NOT just another political party. It is a system that will allow you and your neighbors to choose, among yourselves, the person who can best represent your district.
GOOOH is an evolving system and your input is requested. The questions are changing based on the feedback of members just like you. Participate in the forums, take the survey, and send us your thoughts. This is YOUR system. We will perfect it with your input.
GOOOH is a new system that will allow "we the people" to select true representatives, not choose between a Democrat and a Republican. If we continue to elect career politicians who represent their party, the special interests that fund them, and themselves, nothing will change. GOOOH is a non-partisan process that will allow us to effect the change we all know we need.
GOOOH will allow you to:
Help select your Representative - while being considered yourself
Hold your Representative accountable
Replace career politicians - with true representatives
Take the money out of the process
The GOOOH process allows Americans of every political leaning to participate in the selection of their District's Representative while being considered themselves. Through GOOOH's Candidate Selection Sessions you and your peers will select the candidate in your district who best represents your district's views. Even if you do not wish to become your district's representative you will want to participate in the process and have a direct say in who is chosen to represent your district. GOOOH will fund a single national campaign to promote the 435 candidates (one from each district) who are selected to run against the party politicians. Because GOOOH is a process for selecting representatives (not an agenda-based party platform) we expect a person left of center to be selected in San Francisco and one right of center in Colorado Springs -- but it will be up to the GOOOH members in each district to decide.
For GOOOH to succeed we will need at least 500,000 participants. We will continue to build our base of supporters until we have the participation we need, at which time we will begin our effort to have the GOOOH party added to the ballot in the 50 states and to select our 435 nominees. There are many variables involved in reaching this level of support, but we believe it is only a matter of time.
Originally, the founder of GOOOH proposed excluding lawyers, members of political families, and individuals with more than $11.5 million in assets (250 times the median income). They were not to be excluded because they are bad people, but because they are overly represented in government today and, generally speaking, no longer seem to represent the common man. However, based on input from our members, the Question Committee has voted to remove the exclusion of laywers and the wealthy. Instead, it has been decided that members of these two groups must simply declare that they are a lawyer or have more than $11.5m in assets in each Selection Session in which they participate. It will be up to the participants in each pool to decide whether or not that is of concern. We believe this change is indicative of the continuing evolution of the GOOOH system.
We hope you will join GOOOH today and help us take our House back from the politicians!
He concluded by saying a quote:
"If ever a time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin." Samuel Adams, 1776
So, there you have it! I had already joined when Mr. Cox came to Bluffton, BUT was MORE impressed when he left! I am an independent, almost a Libertarian, but voted Republican in the House of Representatives, Senate and the Presidential races. I am soooo sick and tired of the politicians saying one thing to get elected, and another when they GET elected! I’m going to vote GOOOH from now on!
Dick
Thursday, October 22, 2009
MOAA Legislative Update: TRICARE Inpatient Fee Hike Prevented
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October 8, 2009
.............
Colonel Ulses,
TRICARE Inpatient Fee Hike Killed
When the Pentagon announced last week that it would raise inpatient copays for retired TRICARE Standard beneficiaries by $110 per day, MOAA swung into action, writing the Secretary of Defense, contacting the White House, and writing Hill leaders to reverse that plan.
MOAA members did their part by generating almost 20,000 messages to the Hill.
These combined efforts yielded positive results, as the newly released FY2010 Defense Authorization Act includes a provision barring any inpatient copay increase.
New Defense Bill Has Pluses and Minuses
House and Senate leaders finished their negotiations on the FY2010 Defense Authorization Act. As usual, there are many things in it to be pleased about, but several significant disappointments as well. See a brief comparison of the House vs. Senate vs. final provisions here. More details follow below.
House Passes Military Tax Relief
New legislation would restore the tax-exempt status of military homeowner assistance program payments and extend another year to use the first-time home-buyer tax credit for personnel assigned overseas.
Coalition Recognizes Key Legislators and Staffers
On Oct. 6, The Military Coalition hosted a Capitol Hill reception to present its annual awards to two legislators and two Congressional staff members who have championed compensation and benefit improvements for military members and families.
New Defense Bill has Pluses and Minuses
There will be plenty of cheers and plenty of jeers, depending on which issues are most important to you, for the final version of the FY2010 Defense Authorization Act announced this week by House and Senate Armed Services Committee leaders.
First the good news. Among other provisions, the legislation will:
• Authorize a 3.4% pay raise for active duty, Guard and Reserve members (vs. the budgeted 2.9%)
• Bar the Pentagon from implementing any TRICARE inpatient care copay increases for FY2010
• Authorize an extra 30,000 troops for the Army (15,000 above the budget request), and an additional 30,000 in FY2011 and FY2012, provided the Pentagon budgets for the increase
• Authorize premium-based TRICARE coverage for "gray area" reserve retirees who haven't yet attained age 60
• Authorize special compensation on behalf of caregivers of severely wounded warriors while on active duty (tracks with VA "aid and attendance" payments for vets who need caregivers)
• Require retention of wounded Guard/Reserve members on active duty through completion of disability determination process, unless they request earlier release
• Require a medical examination before administrative separation of members affected by traumatic brain injury or PTSD
• Mandate a long list of initiatives to protect absentee voting rights for military members and families
• Extend family medical leave rights to employees who are family members of deploying active duty members
• Expand the window of active-duty TRICARE eligibility for activating Guard/Reserve members/families
• Require a variety of measures to expand beneficiary access to mental health providers
• Authorize $49 million to assist school districts with significant populations of military children
• Authorize active-duty-level dental coverage for children of members who die on active duty
• Establish formal requirements for needs assessment and delivery of assistance to military families with children with special needs
• Authorize a pilot program to create federal internships for military spouses
• Express the sense of Congress that DoD should authorize Flexible Spending Accounts to let currently serving military members set aside pre-tax dollars to cover out-of-pocket medical and dependent care expenses
• Require a DoD plan to improve access of beneficiaries to health care providers
• Establish a new DoD Task Force to assess progress on care, management and transition of recovering wounded, ill and injured servicemembers
Unfortunately, the new legislation also produced some significant disappointments in that it:
• Dropped the House plan to phase out the disability offset to retired pay for medically retired (chapter 61) members. This is a particularly devastating setback because, for the first time, the President’s budget had included this measure, and House leaders had found funding for the first year. Some in the Senate objected to the specific funding sources identified by the House, and leaders could not find other offsets to comply with Senate budget-scoring rules
• Dropped the Senate initiative to repeal the deduction of VA survivor benefits from military SBP annuities, again for lack of funding offsets
• Reduced the Senate-approved Army manpower level by 15,000 for FY2010 (though it did provide extra increases in 2011-12). MOAA had urgently supported the extra increase for FY2010 to provide much needed relief for Army families affected by grievous over-deployment of a too-small force
• Dropped a Senate-approved provision to authorize retroactive Reserve retirement age credit for active duty service since Sept. 11, 2001 (current law credits only service since Jan. 28, 2008), again for lack of funding offsets
• Dropped a House-passed provision to authorize shipment of a second personal vehicle for members on PCS orders to Hawaii, Alaska, or US territories
• Authorizes daily proration of combat and hazard pays (under current law, any part of a month in a combat zone triggers pay for the month). MOAA believes this is an over-reaction to reports of abuse (e.g., scheduling two-day in-theater trips starting the last day of the month) that would have been better addressed by a requirement to spend more than 30 days in theater to receive more than one month’s pay credit
• Dropped a Senate-passed provision that would have allowed military spouses to choose to establish the same domicile as their servicemember for voting and tax purposes
• Dropped a Senate-passed provision expressing the sense of Congress that military retirement and health benefits are the primary offset to the extraordinary demands and sacrifices inherent in a military career, that career members deserve a health benefit commensurate with their sacrifices, and that DoD needs to look at other ways to reduce health care spending than shifting more costs to beneficiaries
MOAA continues to be extremely frustrated by Congress' selective application of budget rules. In recent years, those rules have been routinely waived to pass trillions of dollars in tax reductions, stimulus packages, and bailouts of all sorts (which, to be fair, have included such things as the new GI Bill and military homeowner tax relief), while denying relief to tens of thousands of even more deserving groups whose military service cost them their health, their livelihood and the very lives of their loved ones.
We pledge to continue beating against this arbitrary budget wall until it comes down.
Many in Congress are, in fact, doing their level best to get these things done, and share our frustration at being turned back again and again by budget rules that seem to get tougher each year for our disabled and survivors simply because Congress has kept waiving the rules for so many others that deficits continue to mount ever higher.
That rationale simply doesn't fly when, year after year, so many big-ticket, politically expedient issues continue to be exempted from the so-called rules while disabled retirees, military widows and Guard/Reserve members with multiple combat tours since 9/11 repeatedly get left with the short end of the budget stick.
Back to top
House Passes Military Tax Relief
On Oct. 8, the House of Representatives passed legislation (HR 3590) incorporating several tax relief measures affecting military people.
Most significantly, it would restore tax-exempt status for military Homeowner Assistance Program payments to certain servicemembers, wounded warriors and survivors who had to sell their homes in conjunction with military relocations and were upside down on their mortgages.
In the past, HAP payments have been exempt from taxation, but a glitch in the legislative language of the economic stimulus package approved early this year inadvertently took away the tax exemption. In some cases, that would have cost affected members $10,000 or more. Assuming the Senate follows suit as expected, they’ll be able to breathe a big sigh of relief.
In addition, the bill would extend the first-time homebuyers' tax credit, another economic stimulus provision, by one year for members of the armed forces, Foreign Service and intelligence agency personnel who are serving overseas in 2009.
The bill, sponsored by Representative Charles Rangel (D-NY), passed by a vote of 416-0. The bill will authorize the tax credit, a maximum of $8,000, through Nov. 30, 2010 for members who had at least 90 days of overseas-duty assignments during 2009.
The legislation will also waive the requirement to repay the tax credit for service personnel who are reassigned on extended government orders within three years of purchasing their first home. Under current law, anyone who sells the home within three years after purchase must repay the tax credit.
For more information on the HAP program click here.
Back to top
Coalition Recognizes Key Legislators and Staff
On Oct. 6, The Military Coalition (TMC) presented its highest awards (first announced in August) to two legislators and two Congressional staff members who have championed legislative improvements for military families.
Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) was presented the TMC Award of Merit for her leadership in sponsoring legislation to improve National Guard and Reserve GI Bill benefits, provide tax relief for certain disabled military retirees, and improve compensation for military widows.
Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) received the same award for his leadership in supporting military pay comparability with the private sector; retirement equity for Guard and Reserve members activated since Sept. 11, 2001; military health care improvements; and elimination of compensation inequities for disabled retirees and military survivors.
Colonel Steve Strobridge (USAF-Ret), TMC Co-Chair and Government Relations Director of MOAA said, "Senator Lincoln has been in the forefront of multiple initiatives to improve the quality of life for the military community. Her efforts paved the way for adoption of an 'earn as you serve' principle for activated reservists to qualify for the Post-9/11 GI Bill."
Michael Cline, TMC President and Executive Director of the Enlisted Association of the National Guard of the United States, said, "As Ranking Minority Member of the House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee, Rep. Wilson has played an influential role on almost every aspect of military personnel and compensation improvements this year. We’re especially grateful for his leadership in working to improve this year's military pay raise and seeking fairer retirement and health care coverage for the Guard and Reserve community."
Congressional Staff members Ms. Allison Witt, Legislative Director for Rep. Robert Latta (R-OH) and Mr. Tony McClain, Military Legislative Assistant for Sen. Lincoln were presented the annual Freedom Award for their work promoting support for military issues behind the scenes.
Back to top
Health Care Happenings Keeps You Informed
Meet MOAA's new health care lobbyist and get the latest updates on TRICARE issues and national health reform.
Housing Assistance Program Update
Last week the Pentagon started processing applications for the Housing Assistance Program (HAP). HAP provides partial reimbursement for certain military homeowners for losses on sales of their primary residence.
This message was sent to you at the following email address: rjulses@hughes.net | Manage Subscription
©2009 MOAA, All rights reserved 201 N. Washington St., Alexandria, Va. 22314 | (800) 234-6622 (MOAA)
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One Powerful Voice.®
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Alexandria, VA 22314
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You were added to the system April 22, 2008. For more information
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October 8, 2009
.............
Colonel Ulses,
TRICARE Inpatient Fee Hike Killed
When the Pentagon announced last week that it would raise inpatient copays for retired TRICARE Standard beneficiaries by $110 per day, MOAA swung into action, writing the Secretary of Defense, contacting the White House, and writing Hill leaders to reverse that plan.
MOAA members did their part by generating almost 20,000 messages to the Hill.
These combined efforts yielded positive results, as the newly released FY2010 Defense Authorization Act includes a provision barring any inpatient copay increase.
New Defense Bill Has Pluses and Minuses
House and Senate leaders finished their negotiations on the FY2010 Defense Authorization Act. As usual, there are many things in it to be pleased about, but several significant disappointments as well. See a brief comparison of the House vs. Senate vs. final provisions here. More details follow below.
House Passes Military Tax Relief
New legislation would restore the tax-exempt status of military homeowner assistance program payments and extend another year to use the first-time home-buyer tax credit for personnel assigned overseas.
Coalition Recognizes Key Legislators and Staffers
On Oct. 6, The Military Coalition hosted a Capitol Hill reception to present its annual awards to two legislators and two Congressional staff members who have championed compensation and benefit improvements for military members and families.
New Defense Bill has Pluses and Minuses
There will be plenty of cheers and plenty of jeers, depending on which issues are most important to you, for the final version of the FY2010 Defense Authorization Act announced this week by House and Senate Armed Services Committee leaders.
First the good news. Among other provisions, the legislation will:
• Authorize a 3.4% pay raise for active duty, Guard and Reserve members (vs. the budgeted 2.9%)
• Bar the Pentagon from implementing any TRICARE inpatient care copay increases for FY2010
• Authorize an extra 30,000 troops for the Army (15,000 above the budget request), and an additional 30,000 in FY2011 and FY2012, provided the Pentagon budgets for the increase
• Authorize premium-based TRICARE coverage for "gray area" reserve retirees who haven't yet attained age 60
• Authorize special compensation on behalf of caregivers of severely wounded warriors while on active duty (tracks with VA "aid and attendance" payments for vets who need caregivers)
• Require retention of wounded Guard/Reserve members on active duty through completion of disability determination process, unless they request earlier release
• Require a medical examination before administrative separation of members affected by traumatic brain injury or PTSD
• Mandate a long list of initiatives to protect absentee voting rights for military members and families
• Extend family medical leave rights to employees who are family members of deploying active duty members
• Expand the window of active-duty TRICARE eligibility for activating Guard/Reserve members/families
• Require a variety of measures to expand beneficiary access to mental health providers
• Authorize $49 million to assist school districts with significant populations of military children
• Authorize active-duty-level dental coverage for children of members who die on active duty
• Establish formal requirements for needs assessment and delivery of assistance to military families with children with special needs
• Authorize a pilot program to create federal internships for military spouses
• Express the sense of Congress that DoD should authorize Flexible Spending Accounts to let currently serving military members set aside pre-tax dollars to cover out-of-pocket medical and dependent care expenses
• Require a DoD plan to improve access of beneficiaries to health care providers
• Establish a new DoD Task Force to assess progress on care, management and transition of recovering wounded, ill and injured servicemembers
Unfortunately, the new legislation also produced some significant disappointments in that it:
• Dropped the House plan to phase out the disability offset to retired pay for medically retired (chapter 61) members. This is a particularly devastating setback because, for the first time, the President’s budget had included this measure, and House leaders had found funding for the first year. Some in the Senate objected to the specific funding sources identified by the House, and leaders could not find other offsets to comply with Senate budget-scoring rules
• Dropped the Senate initiative to repeal the deduction of VA survivor benefits from military SBP annuities, again for lack of funding offsets
• Reduced the Senate-approved Army manpower level by 15,000 for FY2010 (though it did provide extra increases in 2011-12). MOAA had urgently supported the extra increase for FY2010 to provide much needed relief for Army families affected by grievous over-deployment of a too-small force
• Dropped a Senate-approved provision to authorize retroactive Reserve retirement age credit for active duty service since Sept. 11, 2001 (current law credits only service since Jan. 28, 2008), again for lack of funding offsets
• Dropped a House-passed provision to authorize shipment of a second personal vehicle for members on PCS orders to Hawaii, Alaska, or US territories
• Authorizes daily proration of combat and hazard pays (under current law, any part of a month in a combat zone triggers pay for the month). MOAA believes this is an over-reaction to reports of abuse (e.g., scheduling two-day in-theater trips starting the last day of the month) that would have been better addressed by a requirement to spend more than 30 days in theater to receive more than one month’s pay credit
• Dropped a Senate-passed provision that would have allowed military spouses to choose to establish the same domicile as their servicemember for voting and tax purposes
• Dropped a Senate-passed provision expressing the sense of Congress that military retirement and health benefits are the primary offset to the extraordinary demands and sacrifices inherent in a military career, that career members deserve a health benefit commensurate with their sacrifices, and that DoD needs to look at other ways to reduce health care spending than shifting more costs to beneficiaries
MOAA continues to be extremely frustrated by Congress' selective application of budget rules. In recent years, those rules have been routinely waived to pass trillions of dollars in tax reductions, stimulus packages, and bailouts of all sorts (which, to be fair, have included such things as the new GI Bill and military homeowner tax relief), while denying relief to tens of thousands of even more deserving groups whose military service cost them their health, their livelihood and the very lives of their loved ones.
We pledge to continue beating against this arbitrary budget wall until it comes down.
Many in Congress are, in fact, doing their level best to get these things done, and share our frustration at being turned back again and again by budget rules that seem to get tougher each year for our disabled and survivors simply because Congress has kept waiving the rules for so many others that deficits continue to mount ever higher.
That rationale simply doesn't fly when, year after year, so many big-ticket, politically expedient issues continue to be exempted from the so-called rules while disabled retirees, military widows and Guard/Reserve members with multiple combat tours since 9/11 repeatedly get left with the short end of the budget stick.
Back to top
House Passes Military Tax Relief
On Oct. 8, the House of Representatives passed legislation (HR 3590) incorporating several tax relief measures affecting military people.
Most significantly, it would restore tax-exempt status for military Homeowner Assistance Program payments to certain servicemembers, wounded warriors and survivors who had to sell their homes in conjunction with military relocations and were upside down on their mortgages.
In the past, HAP payments have been exempt from taxation, but a glitch in the legislative language of the economic stimulus package approved early this year inadvertently took away the tax exemption. In some cases, that would have cost affected members $10,000 or more. Assuming the Senate follows suit as expected, they’ll be able to breathe a big sigh of relief.
In addition, the bill would extend the first-time homebuyers' tax credit, another economic stimulus provision, by one year for members of the armed forces, Foreign Service and intelligence agency personnel who are serving overseas in 2009.
The bill, sponsored by Representative Charles Rangel (D-NY), passed by a vote of 416-0. The bill will authorize the tax credit, a maximum of $8,000, through Nov. 30, 2010 for members who had at least 90 days of overseas-duty assignments during 2009.
The legislation will also waive the requirement to repay the tax credit for service personnel who are reassigned on extended government orders within three years of purchasing their first home. Under current law, anyone who sells the home within three years after purchase must repay the tax credit.
For more information on the HAP program click here.
Back to top
Coalition Recognizes Key Legislators and Staff
On Oct. 6, The Military Coalition (TMC) presented its highest awards (first announced in August) to two legislators and two Congressional staff members who have championed legislative improvements for military families.
Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) was presented the TMC Award of Merit for her leadership in sponsoring legislation to improve National Guard and Reserve GI Bill benefits, provide tax relief for certain disabled military retirees, and improve compensation for military widows.
Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) received the same award for his leadership in supporting military pay comparability with the private sector; retirement equity for Guard and Reserve members activated since Sept. 11, 2001; military health care improvements; and elimination of compensation inequities for disabled retirees and military survivors.
Colonel Steve Strobridge (USAF-Ret), TMC Co-Chair and Government Relations Director of MOAA said, "Senator Lincoln has been in the forefront of multiple initiatives to improve the quality of life for the military community. Her efforts paved the way for adoption of an 'earn as you serve' principle for activated reservists to qualify for the Post-9/11 GI Bill."
Michael Cline, TMC President and Executive Director of the Enlisted Association of the National Guard of the United States, said, "As Ranking Minority Member of the House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee, Rep. Wilson has played an influential role on almost every aspect of military personnel and compensation improvements this year. We’re especially grateful for his leadership in working to improve this year's military pay raise and seeking fairer retirement and health care coverage for the Guard and Reserve community."
Congressional Staff members Ms. Allison Witt, Legislative Director for Rep. Robert Latta (R-OH) and Mr. Tony McClain, Military Legislative Assistant for Sen. Lincoln were presented the annual Freedom Award for their work promoting support for military issues behind the scenes.
Back to top
Health Care Happenings Keeps You Informed
Meet MOAA's new health care lobbyist and get the latest updates on TRICARE issues and national health reform.
Housing Assistance Program Update
Last week the Pentagon started processing applications for the Housing Assistance Program (HAP). HAP provides partial reimbursement for certain military homeowners for losses on sales of their primary residence.
This message was sent to you at the following email address: rjulses@hughes.net | Manage Subscription
©2009 MOAA, All rights reserved 201 N. Washington St., Alexandria, Va. 22314 | (800) 234-6622 (MOAA)
MOAA - Military Officers Association of America
One Powerful Voice.®
201 N. Washington Street
Alexandria, VA 22314
This message was intended for: rjulses@hughes.net
You were added to the system April 22, 2008. For more information
click here.
Update your preferences | Unsubscribe
Left Coast is at it again, hang on to/stock up on your ammo
Hey Folks,
Subject: Sportsmen's and gun groups up in arms over passage of AB 962 | Outposts | Los Angeles Times
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/outposts/2009/10/ab-962-sportsmen.html
California is taking control of all ammo purchases and banning mail/email orders. Keep an eye out in your own state, and expect more shortages as more owners will start buying everything that is available. Manufacturers cannot keep up now.
When you read the article, don't stop there; scroll on down and read the comments by the citizens. Very informative and some points that I had not thought about. i.e. it cuts off ammo for competitions, including prep for the Olympics.
Don of Indy
Subject: Sportsmen's and gun groups up in arms over passage of AB 962 | Outposts | Los Angeles Times
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/outposts/2009/10/ab-962-sportsmen.html
California is taking control of all ammo purchases and banning mail/email orders. Keep an eye out in your own state, and expect more shortages as more owners will start buying everything that is available. Manufacturers cannot keep up now.
When you read the article, don't stop there; scroll on down and read the comments by the citizens. Very informative and some points that I had not thought about. i.e. it cuts off ammo for competitions, including prep for the Olympics.
Don of Indy
Military Appreciation
Hey Folks,
If you qualify, then take advantage. If not, but, know someone who is, tell them about this.
Mark your calender:
Applebee's Veteran and Active Duty Free Entree
http://www.applebees.com/vetsday/
Valid Veteran and Active Duty Identification to Obtain Free Entree:
U.S. Uniform Services Identification Card U.S. Uniform Services Retired Identification Card Current Leave and Earnings Statement (LES) Veterans Organization Card (i.e., American Legion and VFW) Photograph in uniform Wearing uniform
Available during business hours on November 11, 2009 at participating Applebee’s only. Dine-in from limited menu only. Beverages and gratuity not included. Veterans and active duty military simply show proof of military service.
====
And,
Golden Corral's 9th annual Military Appreciation Monday
http://www.goldencorral.com/military/
Military Appreciation Monday
Free "Thank You" Dinner
Monday, Nov. 16, 2009,
5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Golden Corral's 9th annual Military Appreciation Monday dinner will be held on Monday, November 16, 2009, from 5 to 9 pm in all Golden Corral restaurants nationwide.
The free dinner meal is a special "thank you tribute" to any person who has ever served in the United States Military. If you are a veteran, retired, currently serving, in the National Guard or Reserves, you are invited to join us for Golden Corral's Military Appreciation Monday dinner.
Don of Indy
If you qualify, then take advantage. If not, but, know someone who is, tell them about this.
Mark your calender:
Applebee's Veteran and Active Duty Free Entree
http://www.applebees.com/vetsday/
Valid Veteran and Active Duty Identification to Obtain Free Entree:
U.S. Uniform Services Identification Card U.S. Uniform Services Retired Identification Card Current Leave and Earnings Statement (LES) Veterans Organization Card (i.e., American Legion and VFW) Photograph in uniform Wearing uniform
Available during business hours on November 11, 2009 at participating Applebee’s only. Dine-in from limited menu only. Beverages and gratuity not included. Veterans and active duty military simply show proof of military service.
====
And,
Golden Corral's 9th annual Military Appreciation Monday
http://www.goldencorral.com/military/
Military Appreciation Monday
Free "Thank You" Dinner
Monday, Nov. 16, 2009,
5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Golden Corral's 9th annual Military Appreciation Monday dinner will be held on Monday, November 16, 2009, from 5 to 9 pm in all Golden Corral restaurants nationwide.
The free dinner meal is a special "thank you tribute" to any person who has ever served in the United States Military. If you are a veteran, retired, currently serving, in the National Guard or Reserves, you are invited to join us for Golden Corral's Military Appreciation Monday dinner.
Don of Indy
Your tax dollars at work
Why is it that people are losing their homes but others are getting free golf carts?
Your tax dollars at work.
Cash for Clubbers
Congress's fabulous golf cart stimulus.
We thought cash for clunkers was the ultimate waste of taxpayer money, but as usual we were too optimistic. Thanks to the federal tax credit to buy high-mileage cars that was part of President Obama's stimulus plan, Uncle Sam is now paying Americans to buy that great necessity of modern life, the golf cart.
The federal credit provides from $4,200 to $5,500 for the purchase of an electric vehicle, and when it is combined with similar incentive plans in many states the tax credits can pay for nearly the entire cost of a golf cart. Even in states that don't have their own tax rebate plans, the federal credit is generous enough to pay for half or even two-thirds of the average sticker price of a cart, which is typically in the range of $8,000 to $10,000. "The purchase of some models could be absolutely free," Roger Gaddis of Ada Electric Cars in Oklahoma said earlier this year. "Is that about the coolest thing you've ever heard?"
The golf-cart boom has followed an IRS ruling that golf carts qualify for the electric-car credit as long as they are also road worthy. These qualifying golf carts are essentially the same as normal golf carts save for adding some safety features, such as side and rearview mirrors and three-point seat belts. They typically can go 15 to 25 miles per hour.
In South Carolina, sales of these carts have been soaring as dealerships alert customers to Uncle Sam's giveaway. "The Golf Cart Man" in the Villages of Lady Lake, Florida is running a banner online ad that declares: "GET A FREE GOLF CART. Or make $2,000 doing absolutely nothing!"
Golf Cart Man is referring to his offer in which you can buy the cart for $8,000, get a $5,300 tax credit off your 2009 income tax, lease it back for $100 a month for 27 months, at which point Golf Cart Man will buy back the cart for $2,000. "This means you own a free Golf Cart or made $2,000 cash doing absolutely nothing!!!" You can't blame a guy for exploiting loopholes that Congress offers.
The IRS has also ruled that there's no limit to how many electric cars an individual can buy, so some enterprising profiteers are stocking up on multiple carts while the federal credit lasts, in order to resell them at a profit later. We should note that some states, such as Oklahoma, have caught on to the giveaway and are debating whether to cancel or limit their state credits. But in Congress they're still on the driving range.
This golf-cart fiasco perfectly illustrates tax policy in the age of Obama, when politicians dole out credits and loopholes for everything from plug-in cars to fuel efficient appliances, home insulation and vitamins. Democrats then insist that to pay for these absurdities they have no choice but to raise tax rates on other things—like work and investment—that aren't politically in vogue. If this keeps up, it'll soon make more sense to retire and play golf than work for living.
Printed in The Wall Street Journal
Your tax dollars at work.
Cash for Clubbers
Congress's fabulous golf cart stimulus.
We thought cash for clunkers was the ultimate waste of taxpayer money, but as usual we were too optimistic. Thanks to the federal tax credit to buy high-mileage cars that was part of President Obama's stimulus plan, Uncle Sam is now paying Americans to buy that great necessity of modern life, the golf cart.
The federal credit provides from $4,200 to $5,500 for the purchase of an electric vehicle, and when it is combined with similar incentive plans in many states the tax credits can pay for nearly the entire cost of a golf cart. Even in states that don't have their own tax rebate plans, the federal credit is generous enough to pay for half or even two-thirds of the average sticker price of a cart, which is typically in the range of $8,000 to $10,000. "The purchase of some models could be absolutely free," Roger Gaddis of Ada Electric Cars in Oklahoma said earlier this year. "Is that about the coolest thing you've ever heard?"
The golf-cart boom has followed an IRS ruling that golf carts qualify for the electric-car credit as long as they are also road worthy. These qualifying golf carts are essentially the same as normal golf carts save for adding some safety features, such as side and rearview mirrors and three-point seat belts. They typically can go 15 to 25 miles per hour.
In South Carolina, sales of these carts have been soaring as dealerships alert customers to Uncle Sam's giveaway. "The Golf Cart Man" in the Villages of Lady Lake, Florida is running a banner online ad that declares: "GET A FREE GOLF CART. Or make $2,000 doing absolutely nothing!"
Golf Cart Man is referring to his offer in which you can buy the cart for $8,000, get a $5,300 tax credit off your 2009 income tax, lease it back for $100 a month for 27 months, at which point Golf Cart Man will buy back the cart for $2,000. "This means you own a free Golf Cart or made $2,000 cash doing absolutely nothing!!!" You can't blame a guy for exploiting loopholes that Congress offers.
The IRS has also ruled that there's no limit to how many electric cars an individual can buy, so some enterprising profiteers are stocking up on multiple carts while the federal credit lasts, in order to resell them at a profit later. We should note that some states, such as Oklahoma, have caught on to the giveaway and are debating whether to cancel or limit their state credits. But in Congress they're still on the driving range.
This golf-cart fiasco perfectly illustrates tax policy in the age of Obama, when politicians dole out credits and loopholes for everything from plug-in cars to fuel efficient appliances, home insulation and vitamins. Democrats then insist that to pay for these absurdities they have no choice but to raise tax rates on other things—like work and investment—that aren't politically in vogue. If this keeps up, it'll soon make more sense to retire and play golf than work for living.
Printed in The Wall Street Journal
Screwed Again!
--------------- Social Security..................
For the first time in history, the new Congress will not allow an increase in the social security COLA (cost of living adjustment).
In fact, The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation predicts there may not be any COLA for the next three years.
However, the per person monthly Medicare insurance premium will be increased from the 2009 premium of $96.40 to $104.20 in 2010 and to $ 120.20 for the year 2011.
Send this to all seniors that you know. Remind them to not vote for any of the incumbent senators and congressmen in the 2010 and the 2012 elections that voted for this huge hit on seniors. BTW, the new Congress voted for a nice increase in pay for themselves.
Don says: Obama declared that he would not approve a new health care plan that added to the national deficit. One way to avoid that is to rob Peter (those of us on Medicare) to pay Paul (uninsured illegal aliens). Why wait for the election, write, call, and fax you congressmen and tell them that you intend vote them out of office. Give them fair warning, which they seem reluctant to give us.
PS: Also for all you military retirees, we don't get a COLA this year, maybe for the next few years. We have a double reason to clean House next year and take 1/3 of the Senators with them. Maybe they'll get the message.
Don of Indy
For the first time in history, the new Congress will not allow an increase in the social security COLA (cost of living adjustment).
In fact, The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation predicts there may not be any COLA for the next three years.
However, the per person monthly Medicare insurance premium will be increased from the 2009 premium of $96.40 to $104.20 in 2010 and to $ 120.20 for the year 2011.
Send this to all seniors that you know. Remind them to not vote for any of the incumbent senators and congressmen in the 2010 and the 2012 elections that voted for this huge hit on seniors. BTW, the new Congress voted for a nice increase in pay for themselves.
Don says: Obama declared that he would not approve a new health care plan that added to the national deficit. One way to avoid that is to rob Peter (those of us on Medicare) to pay Paul (uninsured illegal aliens). Why wait for the election, write, call, and fax you congressmen and tell them that you intend vote them out of office. Give them fair warning, which they seem reluctant to give us.
PS: Also for all you military retirees, we don't get a COLA this year, maybe for the next few years. We have a double reason to clean House next year and take 1/3 of the Senators with them. Maybe they'll get the message.
Don of Indy
Ready to Revolt Oath Keepers pledges to prevent dictatorship in United States
Hey Folks,
I have joined this organization. I took the pledge. BTW: Here is an endorsement from Sheriff Mack, I encourage you to view the video, and pay attention to the last few lines. I'm ready to stand with them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLJgPuNAh60
Don
Ready to Revolt: Oath Keepers pledges to prevent dictatorship in United States
Las Vegas Review Journal via Drudge Report ^ | 10/192009 | ALAN MAIMON
Group asks police and military to lay down arms in response to orders deemed unlawful
Depending on your perspective, the Oath Keepers are either strident defenders of liberty or dangerous peddlers of paranoia.
In the age of town halls, talk radio and tea parties, middle ground of opinion is hard to find.
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Launched in March by Las Vegan Stewart Rhodes, Oath Keepers bills itself as a nonpartisan group of current and retired law enforcement and military personnel who vow to fulfill their oaths to the Constitution.
More specifically, the group's members, which number in the thousands, pledge to disobey orders they deem unlawful, including directives to disarm the American people and to blockade American cities. By refusing the latter order, the Oath Keepers hope to prevent cities from becoming "giant concentration camps," a scenario the 44-year-old Rhodes says he can envision happening in the coming years.
It's a Cold War-era nightmare vision with a major twist: The occupying forces in this imagined future are American, not Soviet.
"The whole point of Oath Keepers is to stop a dictatorship from ever happening here," Rhodes, a former Army paratrooper and Yale-trained lawyer, said in an interview with the Review-Journal. "My focus is on the guys with the guns, because they can't do it without them.
"We say if the American people decide it's time for a revolution, we'll fight with you."
That type of rhetoric has caught the attention of groups that track extremist activity in the United States.
In a July report titled "Return of the Militias," the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center singled out Oath Keepers as "a particularly worrisome example of the Patriot revival."
The Patriot movement, so named because its adherents believe the federal government has stepped on the constitutional ideals of the American Revolution, gained traction in the 1990s and has been closely linked to anti-government militia and white supremacist movements.
The movement is blamed for spawning Timothy McVeigh, who bombed a federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995, killing 168 people.
"I'm not accusing Stewart Rhodes or any member of his group of being Timothy McVeigh or a future Timothy McVeigh," law center spokesman Mark Potok said. "But these kinds of conspiracy theories are what drive a small number of people to criminal violence. ... What's troubling about Oath Keepers is the idea that men and women armed and ordered to protect the public in this country are clearly being drawn into a world of false conspiracy theory."
Oath Keepers got some unwanted attention in April when an Oklahoma man loosely connected to the group was arrested for threatening violence at an anti-tax protest in Oklahoma City. Rhodes called the man "a nut" who had no real affiliation with his group.
Nonetheless, Potok's group now monitors Oath Keepers on its Web site blog "Hatewatch."
Oath Keepers is not preaching violence or government overthrow, Rhodes said. On the contrary, it is asking police and the military to lay down their arms in response to unlawful orders.
The group's Web site, www.oathkeepers.org, features videos and testimonials in which supporters compare President Barack Obama's America to Adolf Hitler's Germany. They also liken Obama to England's King George III during the American Revolution.
One member, in a videotaped speech at an event in Washington, D.C., calls Obama "the domestic enemy the Constitution is talking about."
According to the law center, militia groups are re-emerging in this country partly as a result of racial animosity toward Obama.
It's the "cross-pollinating" of extremist groups -- some racist, some not -- that is of concern, Potok said. As evidence that the danger is real, he points to several recent murders committed by men with anti-government or racist views.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security reached a similar conclusion in a report earlier this year about the rise of right-wing extremism. The report said the nation's economic downturn and Obama's race are "unique drivers for right-wing radicalization and recruitment."
The homeland security report added that "disgruntled military veterans" might be vulnerable to recruitment by right-wing extremist groups.
That warning was enough to make Rhodes feel paranoid.
"They're accusing anybody who opposes Obama of being a racist or a potential terrorist," he said. "What they're saying is, 'We're coming after you.'"
The motto of Oath Keepers: "Not on our watch!"
The message Rhodes hears from the government: We're watching you.
Las Vegas police Lt. Kevin McMahill said his department's homeland security bureau isn't overly concerned with Oath Keepers at this point, even though Rhodes says several active-duty Las Vegas officers are members of the group.
"I wouldn't classify Oath Keepers as no threat at all, but I wouldn't classify them as a threat either," McMahill said. "There's always a chance an individual can step outside the boundaries of what an organization stands for and do something wrong."
Rhodes, a former firearms instructor, said he easily could have started Oath Keepers during the Bush administration, but his focus during those years was first on getting his law degree and then volunteering on the 2008 presidential campaign of Texas Congressman Ron Paul, a libertarian Republican in whose office Rhodes worked during the 1990s.
What Rhodes terms "the rise of executive privilege" during the post-9/11 years of the Bush presidency will in his opinion only accelerate with Obama in office. What's worse, he said, is that "gun-hating extremists" now control the White House.
Two things have happened since the Homeland Security Department and Southern Poverty Law Center released their reports on extremism: Membership of Oath Keepers has spiked dramatically. And Rhodes has had to do a lot of explaining.
"We're not a militia," he said. "And we're not part and parcel of the white supremacist movement. I loathe white supremacists."
Oath Keepers doesn't offer paramilitary training; nor does it have a military command structure. It instead has board members, which include directors in seven states and outreach coordinators to currently serving local and federal law enforcement and military personnel. The group's state director in Montana, who goes by the name Elias Alias, has said Montana and other states should consider seceding from the United States in protest of the federal government's conduct.
Leaders of the group will come together in Las Vegas starting Oct. 24 for the inaugural national conference of Oath Keepers.
Among the group's other leaders is Dave Freeman, an Army veteran and former Las Vegas police sergeant who spent more than 30 years with the Metropolitan Police Department.
For Freeman, Oath Keepers has become something of a family affair. He recruited his niece, a former police chief, to serve as state director for Oath Keepers in Massachusetts.
"When you believe in something, you have to do more than just pay it lip service," said Freeman, the group's Southern Nevada director and national peace officer liaison. "This is a crusade I believe in."
Another prominent Oath Keeper is former Arizona sheriff Richard Mack, who has long been an outspoken government critic.
The Southern Poverty Law Center calls Mack a "longtime militia hero" who helped weaken gun control laws.
An incident earlier this year in rural Iowa, not inside the Washington Beltway, motivated Rhodes to start Oath Keepers.
He questioned why the Iowa National Guard planned to use residents of a small town to participate in training on door-to-door searches for weapons.
The Guard said the training was to help soldiers who might be asked to carry out similar searches in Iraq or Afghanistan.
But for Rhodes, it looked like preparation for a future declaration of martial law. It reminded him of the response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 when police officers reportedly confiscated legally owned firearms. What the government called emergency response after the levees broke, Rhodes saw as the imposition of martial law.
If it hadn't been for April 19 of this year, Oath Keepers might not have gained the notoriety it now has.
On the anniversary of the Battle of Lexington Green, the Massachusetts battle that started the American Revolution in 1775, a group of Oath Keepers went to the battle site and reaffirmed their pledge to the Constitution.
The gathering was mentioned in the Southern Poverty Law Center report because April 19 is also the anniversary of the deadly end to the federal siege on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, in 1993; and of the retaliatory bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995.
Rhodes and Potok have never talked, but if they did, they might find themselves speaking a different language.
"Let them say what they want to say, but April 19 has very much become a day for the extreme radical right," Potok said.
Rhodes couldn't disagree more.
"There are thousands of Americans who go to Lexington to watch re-enactments of people shooting at troops," Rhodes said. "But if you're a group of military and police there, they somehow find this offensive."
Rhodes said he hopes Oath Keepers members think about the lawfulness of day-to-day orders they receive.
For example, if a police officer feels he is being asked to do an illegal search of a home or vehicle, he should stand down.
Rhodes eventually wants to create a legal defense fund for Oath Keepers who are disciplined by their employers for defying orders they deem unlawful or immoral.
"The message to law enforcement is not to become a tool of oppression," he said.
Rhodes, a husband and father of five home-schooled children, said he gets hundreds of e-mails a day, mostly from people interested in knowing more about his group.
He also gets a lot of questions from "birthers" wanting to know if he thinks Obama is really an American citizen and from "truthers" asking whether he believes the attacks of 9/11 were an inside job. The group doesn't have an official position on either issue, he said.
Some of his responses to questions have turned would-be allies against him.
"I've been accused of being a traitor or a CIA operative because I'm not coming out and declaring that the H1N1 (swine flu) vaccine is a biological weapon," he said.
Contact reporter Alan Maimon at amaimon @reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0404.
WOW. Good to know that such a movement exists!
Let’s hope lots of others join them.
Wow...the “fuse” is really this close to being lit?
There was a youtube video of a former cop explaining this, not too long ago .. a year or less ...
I love it. Let’s keep the heat on our non-citizen pres__ent! Let him know that real Americans will not take his shenanigans lying down. In the words of Twisted Sister-”We’re not going to take it anymore!”
I think this will become huge. Obama is going to have to listen to them. The military and law enforcement is sworn to protect us. This could be what really kills Obamacare.
Between hearing about this and the anti-tax, second amendment tea party in WI, I'm feeling really good and will sleep with a smile on my face tonight.
GOD BLESS AMERICA!
The RJ is a pretty ‘honest’ paper, as far as papers go.
Or, you can go to the source
http://oath-keepers.blogspot.com/
If I was Obama, my biggest fear would be the emergence of an armed insurgency by freedom lovers.
Proud member of Oath Keepers
The 10 Order That will not be obeyed,
1. We will NOT obey orders to disarm the American people.
2. We will NOT obey orders to conduct warrantless searches of the American people
3. We will NOT obey orders to detain American citizens as “unlawful enemy combatants” or to subject them to military tribunal.
4. We will NOT obey orders to impose martial law or a “state of emergency” on a state.
5. We will NOT obey orders to invade and subjugate any state that asserts its sovereignty.
6. We will NOT obey any order to blockade American cities, thus turning them into giant concentration camps.
7. We will NOT obey any order to force American citizens into any form of detention camps under any pretext.
8. We will NOT obey orders to assist or support the use of any foreign troops on U.S. soil against the American people to “keep the peace” or to “maintain control.”
9. We will NOT obey any orders to confiscate the property of the American people, including food and other essential supplies.
10.We will NOT obey any orders which infringe on the right of the people to free speech, to peaceably assemble, and to petition their government for a redress of grievances.
Like the rest that have joined, I took an oath years ago to defend the constitution and have never recanted it.
Who will B. Hussein Obama turn to when local law enforcement and military personnel refuse to turn on American citizens?
None other than the United Nations “Peacekeeping” Forces.
I doubt that Chi-coms and North Koreans would blink an eye at gunning down freedom loving Americans.
Being on Drudge gives it positive points...thanks.
In a July report titled "Return of the Militias," the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center singled out Oath Keepers as "a particularly worrisome example of the Patriot revival."
The Patriot movement, so named because its adherents believe the federal government has stepped on the constitutional ideals of the American Revolution, gained traction in the 1990s and has been closely linked to anti-government militia and white supremacist movements.
Huh?
First extremist propaganda unit to go is the Southern Poverty Law Center.
What scares Obama is the fact that units who do revolt will do so with their weapons and equipment.
“Southern Poverty Law Center”
I could write their pamphlets in my pajamas in 20 minutes.
What do they do?
Do they have a staffed “center”?
Do they practice law”
Do they do anything to help poverty?
Do they have an opinion on the out of control fed?
the Southern Poverty Law Center
Honest lawyers versus worrisome retired Military and Cops.
Gee, I wonder who I'd go with?
I will not accept unconstitutional government. I know they may kill me, but I’ll make it as expensive for them as I can.
The SPLC doesn’t like me either.
God bless these officers & God have mercy on us.
SPLC is a wing of the communist party.
Make no mistake the SPLC is probably one of the
largest intelligence gathering organizations in
the country. Not to mention a liberal mouthpiece
much like the muslim CAIR.
They are DUE for an investigation all their own~!
The SPLC doesn’t like me either.
I have no doubt.
God bless ‘em! I’m glad to see that they are out there, & I just now joined their group on FaceBook.
The Feds did it before and they will try to do it again.
By 1863, the United States Army accepted black soldiers into segregated units. Many enlistees were formerly slaves from Florida and other southern states. The general orders issued to the 1st and 2nd South Carolina Colored Troops also revealed the overall Federal strategy for the state. “The main objects of your expedition are to carry the proclamation of freedom to the enslaved; to call all loyal men into the service of the United States; to occupy as much of the state of Florida as possible with forces under your command; and to weaken, harass, and annoy those who are in rebellion.”
November 14-22 1861 Expedition through Accomack and Northampton Counties Virginia REPORTS etc. No 1. Instructions to Brigadier General Henry H. Lockwood, U.S. Army [First letter] Baltimore, November 11, 1861 GENERAL: You will proceed with the forces under your command into the Counties of Accomac and Northampton, Virginia, and carry out the assurances given in the proclamation to be issued by me on the 13th instant. One of the objects in view, though not stated in the proclamation is to bring these counties back to their allegiance to the United States and reunite them to the Union on the footing of West Virginia. The first step in the accomplishment of this object is to disarm and disperse the military corps encamped within them. If these corps are in the service of the Confederates, they should be made prisoners and sent to this city. A conciliatory course should be pursued in regard to those who are not under arms and have not been in the pay of the Confederate Government. It will require great discretion and prudence in bringing about the desired result; but if the people of these counties but if the people of these counties can be induced to declare their independence of the Confederates, the strongest assurance may be given to them of an efficient protection by the Government.
Could that be why he wants his civilian army (probably made up of Acorn and SEIU personnel)?
He and the Ci-cago gang find upholding the Constitution revolting; it disgusts them because it would frustrate their totalitarian goals to achieve fascist bossism as a replacement for the Constitution.
God bless everyone involved. Get out and do some exercise, you need it, Your country will need you soon.
Isn’t it telling that the SPLC is worried about people who swear to uphold the Constitution?
"We say if the American people decide it's time for a revolution, we'll fight with you."
Oath Keepers has it 180 degrees backwards. A revolution can only occur against a government's existing laws, in this case the Constitution. The people seek to prevent a revolution by defending, not overthrow the Constitution. BO and his fellow socialists in Congress are the revolutionaries.
They just need to amend that pesky Constitution. Get rid of the “mistakes” like the BOR etc. Give it the full Obama makeover.
Won’t be easy, though. Millions of us swore to defend the Constitution we have, and we’re armed, and we don’t forget an oath.
They just need to amend that pesky Constitution.
Why would they bother with that? It's not like it's actually been observed for the last few decades or anything.
First extremist propaganda unit to go is the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Tick, tock-------
It’s said that Admiral Yamamoto, architect of the Pearl Harbor attack, declared the impossibility of a land invasion of the United States by noting that “there will be a rifle behind every blade of grass” confronting any invader.
Some challenge the veracity of this quote, but history confirms Yamamoto’s reluctance to attack the “sleeping giant”.
IMHO, a rifle behind a blade of grass can be aimed in any direction. The sleeping giant is known to bitterly cling to guns and religion.
Now that this link is on Drudge, I have a feeling Oath Keepers will see an increase in size....
Why would they bother with that? [Amending the Cons.]It's not like it's actually been observed for the last few decades or anything.
Because if they stretch the real Constitution too far, they may ignite a forceful countermovement to defend the Constitution. Including by members of the military and LE.
OTOH, if they ram through some Marxist-oriented constitutional convention, then the military will simply have a "new" constitution to defend. One that say, enshrines income guarantees, free housing, free medical, redistribution of wealth, no 2nd Amd, etc.
Many or most in the military would gladly accept the "new" constitution. That is the coming gambit, a few years hence.
Estimated right now....50 million armed Americans. Find a bigger force!!!!
And as a someone with prior military experience, I can tell you that most soldiers in any organized Army or militia are only issued one firearm. How many of "we" 50 million have more than just one gun to turn to???
Well, I am not a member of Oath Keepers but I did take more than one oath. I intend to honor them.
I would like to offer this thought, cribbed from the Communists, and altered in spirit to suit this occasion: "From each according to his ability, TO each according to their need."
The government has been taken over ..let’s face reality. Obama has just started. Look at the insane people he has in power around him. I’m afraid there will be a revolution in this country . I’m ready .I assure you Obama will take total control of the media in a year’s time. FR will be no more. We will have to get our information through underground means.
Keeping the population armed is the only solution.
Many or most in the military would gladly accept the "new" constitution.
And there's whole bunch of 'em who won't. And a whole lot more former military who remember what it was we swore our Oath to.
I'm one of those.
I'll make 'em pay for every word and every yard.
“most soldiers in any organized Army or militia are only issued one firearm. How many of “we” 50 million have more than just one gun”
Very interesting point. Never thought of that, but yer right!
“””It’s said that Admiral Yamamoto, architect of the Pearl Harbor attack, declared the impossibility of a land invasion of the United States by noting that “there will be a rifle behind every blade of grass” confronting any invader.”””
Maybe the commies have learned from this quote. And now they have decided to become the enemy from within! Getting elected and destroying this country from within. No guns and not a shot fired from behind every blade of grass.
"...we’re armed, and we don’t forget an oath."
Amen
I was ready a vanity thread earlier on "what are your hobbies" and was surprised how many play with unconventional stuff...the cross bow enthusiasts make me think...perfect quiet, stealthy weapon in guerrilla warfare, especially if backed by your buddy with a tripod mounted .50 cal :)
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