Gun Control & the 2nd Amendment

                                   Commentary from We The Peeps 1 follows this oral diarrhea.

AS THE OLD SAYING GOES, "BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH (VOTE) FOR, AS YOU MAY GET IT." 

THE U.N. IS AND HAS BEEN ESSENTIALLY USELESS FOR YEARS.

                            You can kiss the U.S. Constitution goodbye if this goes through.
                                  
Civil War is Coming (THERE ARE MORE GUN OWNERS THAN SOLDIERS)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States reversed policy on Wednesday and said it would back launching talks on a treaty to regulate arms sales as long as the talks operated by consensus, a stance critics said gave every nation a veto.

The decision, announced in a statement released by the U.S.
State Department, overturns the position of former President George W. Bush's administration, which had opposed such a treaty on the grounds that national controls were better. On Wednesday, Obama Took the First Major Step in a Plan to Ban All Firearms in the United States. The Obama administration intends to force gun control and a complete ban on all weapons for US citizens through the signing of international  treaties with foreign nations. By signing international treaties on gun control, the Obama administration can use the US State Department to bypass the normal legislative process in Congress.

Once the US Government signs these international treaties, all US citizens will be subject to those gun laws created by foreign governments. These are laws that have been developed and promoted by organizations such as the United Nations and individuals such as George Soros and Michael Bloomberg. The laws are designed and intended to lead to the complete ban and confiscation of all firearms. It will never happen! The Obama administration is attempting to use tactics and methods of gun control that will inflict major damage to our 2nd Amendment before US citizens even understand what has happened.

Obama can appear before the public and tell them that he does not intend to pursue any legislation (in the United States) that will lead to new gun control laws, while cloaked in secrecy, his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton is committing the US to international treaties and foreign gun control laws. Does that mean Obama is telling the truth? What it means is that there will be no publicized gun control debates in the media or votes in Congress. We will wake up one morning and find that the United States has signed a treaty that prohibits firearm and ammunition manufacturers from selling to the public. We will wake up another morning and find that the US has signed a treaty that prohibits any transfer of firearm ownership. And then, we will wake up yet another morning and find that the US has signed a treaty that requires US citizens to deliver any firearm they own to the local government collection and destruction center or face imprisonment. This is not a joke nor a false warning.

As sure as government health care will be forced on us by the Obama administration through whatever means necessary, so will gun control. Please forward this message to others who may be concerned about the direction in which our country is headed; Straight into socialism if Obama has his way. We are being led like a lamb to the slaughter (Socialism/Dictatorship).
{The preceding was received in an e-mail.}

 
From the desk of We The Peeps 1:  

I, for one, will never “kiss the Constitution goodbye”. Maybe that comes from actually fighting for it. If you want to effect change on that level, join the process and earn it the old fashion way; work for it. Any one of us can write this drivel and beseech the recipients to forward it to everyone they know. If that is all the “game” you bring to the table, please, fold your tent and go home. President Obama is not going to take your big, bad guns away. He is sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States, and he is doing just that. The President is trying to make this Country a safer, more peaceful place to live. The oral diarrhea above does need forwarding with a caveat that the sender may not have all their oars in the water. And, may I suggest that these “authors” go back to school, and learn the English language, grammar, punctuation, and all.

Jumping off the Cliff

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/grover-norquist/fiscal-cliff_b_2173978.html

Commentary follows the hi-lighted footnotes.

Grover Norquist

President, Americans for Tax Reform

Two Thoughts on Navigating the "Fiscal Cliff"

Posted: 11/21/2012 5:46 pm

On January 1, 2013 three things happen:

First, the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts lapse along with a number of temporary tax reductions that have been extended so many times they are collectively known as "the extenders." (Note to self: possible name for female rock band.)^[1]  This collection of tax hikes total $500 billion in 2013. The $1,000 per child tax credit drops to $500. The Obama Social Security tax holiday ends again. The bottom tax rate jumps from 10 percent to 15 percent and the top personal income tax rate jumps from 35 to 39.6 percent -- plus Obamacare's new 3.8 percent surtax: total for top rate 43.4%. (Do be sure to add 10.3 percent for the state income tax if you live in California, 5.75 percent in Maryland or 8.82 percent in New York.)

And unless changed, the AMT will hit 30 million families, up from 4 million last year.^[2]  The AMT was originally created as the quintessential "tax on the rich" targeting all of 155 people.^[3]

Second, the "sequestration" or automatic spending reductions of about $100 billion a year for ten years. This will save taxpayers $1.2 trillion over the decade and was part of the Budget Control Act (BCA) that Obama and Boehner agreed to in 2011 to "pay for" the debt ceiling increase.^[4]

Third, the surtax on income of 2.9 percent rises to 3.8 percent and starting January 1, 2013 it hits capital gains making the total top rate not today's 15 percent, not Bill Clinton's 20 percent, but 23.8 percent. The top rate on dividends increases from today's 15 percent to not just 35 or 39.6 percent, but 43.4 percent total. (And then add state and local income taxes.)^[5]

Obama would like to have a "grand bargain" -- as in 1982 or 1990 -- where Republicans were promised they would get three or two dollars of spending reduction for every dollar of tax increase. (The tax hikes were real and permanent and spending was not cut but actually rose from baseline.) Reagan said 1982 was his greatest mistake. His second biggest mistake learned nothing and agreed in 1990 to "two imaginary dollars" of spending cuts for each dollar of tax hike.^[6]

How can Americans protect themselves against being TARPed again? This new verb is a favorite of congressmen and senators who feel they were rushed to vote for the Troubled Assets Relief Program the way a sleazy salesman urges you to buy the aluminum siding NOW without bothering your pretty little head with reading the contract.^[7]

There are two protections available to the American people:

First, we can and should demand that the negotiations between Congress and the White House on continuing the various "Bush" tax cuts be done in front of C-SPAN cameras. No more secret negotiations. Open covenants, openly arrived at. Every American -- not just PHARMA and the insurance companies -- should be in the room when something as large as Obamacare or today's $500 billion tax hike is under discussion.^[8]

Republicans should promise not to be snarky and must resist the temptation to remind Americans that C-SPAN coverage of such talks was one of Obama's key promises in 2008. Oh, well. Better late than never.^[9]

C-SPAN cameras will allow Americans to know who is being reasonable and who is not. Who presents real solutions and who repeats talking points. If Republicans demand the negotiations be covered by C-SPAN and Obama refuses -- then we would know, as King Solomon did -- who is acting in good faith and who is not. Perhaps Obama is dealing from the top of the deck and he will demand C-SPAN start-to-finish coverage.

Second, once a "deal" is agreed to, it should be written down in legislative language and put online for every American to read for seven full days: 168 hours. No rushing tired congressmen before cameras to endorse legislation they have not read because it only exists in outline form in someone else's briefcase.^[10]

If going into these "fiscal cliff" negotiations every participant knows that both his private and public statements will be heard by all Americans and that the final work product must stand the test of being read by citizens, the chance of another 1982 or 1990 or TARP 2008 will be greatly reduced.^[11] Risk can rarely be taken to zero. But the ability of the American people to watch the sausage made and read the contract before signing is a better guardian of our future than the hurried endorsements of the Washington establishment based on private assurances of politicians.^[12]

Commentary from the desk of We The Peeps1:

From the man who was to propel the GOP into the White House and gain control of the U.S. Senate, here is an article by Grover Norquist. Read with a careful eye and a smattering of history, this article seems to signal a sea change in the behind the scenes maneuvering in the Republican Party. If, indeed, Norquist is a “shaker and mover” in the GOP, what we have here is an “about face” in rhetoric, at the very least.

Based on the hi-lighted footnotes I placed throughout the article, we need to straighten a few things out:

[1]    ...."the extenders." (Note to self: possible name for female rock  

          band.)    

          Haven’t the folks of the Republican Party figured out that there are more women

              voters than  

              men? When do they intend to stop their verbal and fiscal assault on the women of

              this  Country?

[2]    ...30 million families, up from 4 million last year.

         Did anyone send the memo to dear little Grover that the Affordable Health Care Act

            kicked in this year, with more to come in 2013 & 2014? This increase is a calculated

            and known increase due precisely to that Act. This is a qouting of fact that has

            absolutely no bearing on our fiscal

            woes, at the moment.

[3]    ...targeting all of 155 people.

        This number is misleading, if you don’t put it in context. It is a number from 1980

            and the Reagan years. As of 2012, there are vastly more “Millionaires” than there

            were way back then.

[4]    ...Budget Control Act (BCA) that Obama and Boehner agreed to in

        2011...  

        To include a statement like this one is totally meaningless. It has no relevance

           whatsoever to any argument Grover could pose.

[5]    ...increases from today's 15 percent to not just 35 or 39.6 percent,

         but 43.4 percent...

         This is what they are complaining about?  How about asking the elder Senators and

            Representatives what their Fathers and Grandfathers paid in taxes for Capital Gains

            and Dividends? Those figures reached up to 90%, in some cases.

[6]    ..."two imaginary dollars" of spending cuts for each dollar of tax

         hike....

         Well, there you go, again. Trashing Ronnie for a few “minor” little mistakes he made

             in his vision of fiscal integrity for this Nation. OOOPS!

[7]    ...congressmen and senators who feel they were rushed to vote

         for the Troubled Assets Relief Program the way a sleazy

         salesman.......

            And, why was it that they were “rushed”? The Republican filibuster in the Senate

            caused the Bill to get backed into a corner at the Eleventh hour. The “sleazy

            salesmen” were your boys, Grover.

[8]    ...done in front of C-SPAN cameras. No more secret negotiations.

         Um...Mr. Norquist, do you think any of your puppets would ever agree to be live on

            camera, and doing the Nation’s business? You really do think that we’ve all lost our

            ability to remember just how infantile your Congressional Lemmings really are.

            Really? Cameras? Live?

[9]    ...Oh, well. Better late than never...

         Do I hear Grover coming over to President Obama’s point of view? Ladies and

            Gentlemen, we have a flip-flop!

[10]   ...and put online for every American to read for seven full days....

         I don’t know about your tired, overworked Congressmen and Senators, but the

            American People could very easily read these documents, front to back, at least twice

            in the given time frame. And, after all, isn’t transparency a Democratic issue?

[11]   ...the chance of another 1982 or 1990 or TARP 2008 will be

         greatly reduced...

         I’m actually beginning to think Grover is a Democrat, or, at least, a centrist and a

            moderate.

[12]   ...the ability of the American people to watch the sausage made

         and...

         So, according to Grover Norquist, our National Legislation is akin to a sausage? I

            hope this mislead, unfortunate man gets off the bus at the very next stop. The

           American People have endured enough of this oral diarrhea, and its time to clean up

           our ride into 2013 and beyond.

FROM THE DESK OF WE THE PEEPS 1

I have paid attention to the state of Israel for over forty years, and not once have I ever questioned their philosophy and, by and large, their right to exist as a Nation State. That is until now. The last ten years have led me look at Israel in a much more critical way. When it comes to handling their issues with the Palestinians, the Israelis have taken a position and fostered a policy that looks to be a mirror image of the positions and policies of those they choose to call terrorists. I think I can say with some certainty that the People of Israel do not want to conduct a massive military campaign to obliterate the Palestinians. I am equal certain that the People of Palestine do not care to return the favor.

Both sides of this issue have been guilty of mismanagement in their dealings with each other. There has been a long history of combativeness between the two practically since the inception of an Israeli State in 1949. It cannot go overlooked that most of the Arab States in the Middle East have voiced their wish for the destruction of Israel, at one point or another. The last ten years have brought the Middle East to a boiling point that I assure you renders the leadership in Iran absolutely ecstatic. During this period, it has been very hard for the World’s Super Powers to disengage from the old Cold War mentality of mutually assured destruction. As Russia, China, and The United States flex their diplomatic and military muscles in this region, there will be a tipping point where nothing short of a total disaster will occur.

I have my theories on what Iran is up to in this whole scenario. My primary theory involves the once popular “domino theory”. It sets up like this:

                #1 – Iran coddles Al-Qaeda allowing them to have full training facilities that they, Iran,

                         partially underwrite;

                #2-   Iran sets up a puppet government in Iraq (they’ve been after Iraq for centuries);

                #3 – Iran takes advantage of the “Arab Spring” to destabilize Syria and foment civil war

                         there;

                #4 –  To keep the Israelis occupied, Iran boosts the Palestinian’s military arsenal;

                #5 –  Iran shakes things up in Lebanon to agitate political instability there;

                #6 –  Iran does not have to worry about Afghanistan right now, because the United States

                         is currently involved in the destabilization of the Government and Military in that   

                         Country;

                #7 – The whole thing comes crashing down on Israel shortly after the United States leaves                          Afghanistan and Pakistan (which it will do by 2014);

                #8 – The United States not longer has a lust for fighting and dying in deserts andmountains 

                         of the Middle East, and is slow to come to the aid of Israel;

                #9 – Israel is summarily pushed into the Mediterranean Sea

The big #10 happens when Iran declares a Supreme Islamic Nation with the collapse of Kuwait, Jordan, the UAE, Yemen, Qatar, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.  From the border of India to the Mediterranean Sea, the new Islamic Order would have a commanding grasp of all but Saudi Arabia. With the United States still weak in knees, in come the Russians and the Chinese to add their unique way of doing things to the mix. Saudi Arabia does not stand a chance, and finally caves in, or is overrun, and becomes part of the fold.

 Scary times we live in; very scary, indeed.

Tell Me About Palestine

“Due to extensive travel the past few days, I've been subjected to far more television news coverage than is probably healthy, and it's just been staggering to see how tilted US media discourse is: Israeli officials and pro-Israel "experts" are endlessly paraded across the screen while Palestinian voices are exceedingly rare; the fact of the 45-year-old brutal occupation and ongoing Israeli dominion over Gaza is barely mentioned; meanwhile, every primitive rocket that falls harmlessly near Israeli soil is trumpeted with screaming headlines while the carnage and terror in Gaza is mentioned, if at all, as an afterthought. Two cartoons perfectly summarize this coverage: here and here.”

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/11/17-8

Glenn Greenwald is a columnist on civil liberties and US national security issues for the Guardian. A former constitutional lawyer, he was until 2012 a contributing writer at Salon. His most recent book is, With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful. His other books include: Great American Hypocrites: Toppling the Big Myths of Republican Politics, A Tragic Legacy: How a Good vs. Evil Mentality Destroyed the Bush Presidency, and How Would a Patriot Act? Defending American Values from a President Run Amok. He is the recipient of the first annual I.F. Stone Award for Independent Journalism.

 

 

In what dimension does one have to reside in order to get a view, or even a glimpse, of the Palestinian side of the equation? Mr. Glenn Greenwald has gone out on a limb. He has expressed dismay at the Western Media in their utter disregard for a People the United States and Western Europe have given “lip service” to over the past half a century.

It is time for People in America to stand up to the hypocrisy of their Government, and be heard on this unjust treatment of  Palestinian’s, who only want their own Homeland. Is that too much to ask for an ancient civilization whose land was stolen from them and turned over to unwanted emigrants from foreign shores?

The United States is eager to have the People of the World believe that only on the North American continent can true democracy reside. Couple that belief with the one that has the United States Government forcing this “democracy” on Nations and Cultures to whom democracy simply doesn’t make any sense. There is an ugly, elitist quality to America’s attempt to make the World in their mold.

Where are the cries of injustice and hypocrisy? How on Earth do the United States, the U.N., and Western Europe (sans France) get a pass on criticism when it involves the invented State of Israel? If no one in the Free World holds Israel accountable for their atrocities against Palestine and the Palestinian People, we have failed in our definition as free citizens. We all become that which we have so virulently fought against for decades. We become the despots and tyrants of religious colonialism and oppression that was the very essence of the founding of the United States of America.

People from across the globe still flock to the shores of America. They are searching for the kind of justice and freedom they have only heard, or read, about. Once on those shores they fast become disillusioned with the dream. They witness first hand that the dream is just that, a dream.

There is an urgent need for more Journalists the likes of Mr. Greenwald. I know they are out there. Please stand up and make your voices heard. Please make the case for justice and freedom that only a free press