Category Archives: National

Romney’s “RNC Power Grab”: What Really Happened

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By Dean Clancy on August 29, 2012

Determined to neuter the grassroots and head off future insurgencies like those of Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, and Ron Paul, Republican party bosses have pulled off an audacious coup, high-handedly turning the Grand Old Party into a much more top-down, centralized party.

Yesterday, the Republican National Committee in Tampa adopted some rules changes that shift power from the state parties and the grassroots to the RNC and the GOP presidential nominee. Former Governor John Sununu of New Hampshire touted the new rules as providing “a strong governing framework” for the party over the next four years. But in fact the new rules should be very troubling and disappointing to conservative grassroots activists, because they move the national Republican Party away from being a decentralized, bottom-up party toward becoming a centralized, top-down party.

The Romney rules effectively disenfranchise grassroots delegates, and will thus tend to weaken and splinter the party over time. They specifically represent a blow to the Tea Party and the Ron Paul insurgency — to “the Republican wing of the Republican party” — to citizens who are strongly committed to economic freedom, fiscal common sense, and smaller, constitutionally limited government — and who want to have a voice in the Grand Old Party. The new rules force these grassroots conservatives to reconsider their future within the GOP.

Party sage and long-time RNC member (and conservative activist) Morton Blackwell led a last-minute effort to stop the changes — an effort FreedomWorks strongly supported, together with Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann. Phyllis Schlafly and RNC for Life also got involved, while Michelle Malkin, Mark Levin, and Rush Limbaugh helped sound the alarm.

Read more at FreedomWorks

Gun Makers May Leave if States Pass Mircrostamping Laws

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ILION, N.Y. — Executives of the historic firearms companies on America’s East Coast may not all be young men, but they might want to follow Horace Greeley’s advice, anyway. They may want to go west if legislators pass laws that would limit their sales while driving up their costs.

That could be the fate of the Remington Arms Company plant in Ilion, New York, the economic lifeblood of the small New York town lying halfway between Albany and Syracuse. The company’s roots in the town go back nearly 200 years, since Eliphalet Remington, Jr. forged his first rifle barrel there. Today the company employs about 1,000 workers in a town with a population of just over 8,000. But the company has suggested, none too subtly, that it may move its Ilion plant to another state if Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state’s lawmakers enact gun legislation now under consideration in Albany.

The proposals, the New York Times reported Friday, include a limit in firearms sales of no more than one per month to any one person and a background check of anyone purchasing ammunition. Most troubling to the manufacturers, however, is a plan to require, for the purpose of ballistics identification, the microstamping of every semiautomatic pistol sold in the state. The law would require manufacturers to laser-engrave the gun’s make, model, and serial number on the firing pin of each handgun so the information is imprinted on the cartridge casing when the gun is fired. Gun makers say the method is flawed, could easily be defeated, and would require a retooling of the industry that would add what Remington executive Stephen P. Jackson, Jr. called “astronomical sums” to the cost of manufacturing.

Read more at The New American

Neil Armstrong passes away at 82

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The first man to walk on the moon and immortalized the words “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” has passed away at the age of 82. The civilian test pilot was selected to command the mission and be the first to step off the ladder to show that it was a civilian exploration and not a military conquest of the moon.

On July 16th the Apollo 11 Saturn V rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral, now Kennedy Space Center, and landed on the moon on July 21st of 1969. There was even a speech prepared for Nixon if the landing did not go as planned.

According to CBS News, the family is asking for a tribute called “Wink at the Moon.” The statement Armstrong’s family released upon his death requested that the public honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, adding “and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink.”

Fox News poll: Voters want Uncle Sam to ‘Leave me alone’

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A Fox News poll asks which of two messages voters would send to the federal government. A 54-percent majority would tell Uncle Sam to “leave me alone,” while 35 percent would ask Washington to “lend me a hand.”

That’s just one of the findings from the poll, released Thursday, that asks likely voters about the role of government, the Democratic and Republican tickets and the future of the nation.

Democrats (59 percent) are nearly four times as likely as Republicans (15 percent) to say they would tell the government to “lend me a hand.”

Likewise, Republicans (80 percent) are about three times as likely as Democrats (27 percent) to say “leave me alone.”

Read more at FOX news

ICE agents sue Obama over non-deportation

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More at the Washington Times

Anti-Obama film raking in the bucks.

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The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that 2016: Obama’s America took in 1.2 million over the weekend and its theater coverage is expanding from 61 to 169 theaters. It is the number 2 non-nature documentary so far this year.

The documentary is based on conservative author Dinesh D’Souza’s book The Roots of Obama’s Rage. The movie, co-directed by D’Souza and John Sullivan, will be playing in 1,075 theaters in an aggressive expansion that comes on the eve of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., which gets underway Aug. 27.

The film was number 3 in the Union Square theater in New York. One film executive joked that they must have thought it was a pro-Obama film. There are no reports of how many people walked out.

Crucifixion in Cairo

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On January 28, 2011 Barack Obama and administration officials made public statements endorsing the overthrow of Mubarak in Egypt. This public disclosure made it clear that he was working behind the scenes to ensure Mubarak’s ouster. They began portraying Mubarak as an evil monster, declaring him a “dictator”. Apparently this word “dictator” was thought by the administration to be so inflammatory that its use would outrage Americans to the point of supporting the Obama administration’s efforts to overthrow him.

Many people became alarmed and demanded that the administration explain its course of action if the Muslim Brotherhood were to take control of Egypt. The administration never denied that possibility, instead they promised us that the Muslim Brotherhood wasn’t so bad after all.

On February 10, 2011, Obama’s Director of National Intelligence James Clapper clarified the administration’s position on the Brotherhood by telling the world, they weren’t your Daddy’s Muslim Brotherhood. They were no longer dangerous. They weren’t the Muslim Brotherhood of our collective memories. They had changed. They were peaceful now and non-violent. In his testimony, Clapper said:

The term ‘Muslim Brotherhood’ is an umbrella term for a variety of movements. In the case of Egypt, a very heterogeneous group, largely secular which has eschewed violence and has decried al-Qaida as a perversion of Islam. They have pursued social ends, betterment of the political order in Egypt, etc.”

Read more at Freedom Torch

Labor Department spends stimulus funds for ads during Olbermann, Maddow shows

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The Labor Department paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal stimulus funds to a public relations firm to run more than 100 commercials touting the Obama administration’s “green training” job efforts on two MSNBC cable shows, records show.

The commercials ran on MSNBC on shows hosted by Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann in 2009, but the contract didn’t report any jobs created, according to records reviewed recently by The Washington Times.

Spending reports under the federal Recovery Act show $495,000 paid to McNeely Pigott & Fox Public Relations LLC, which the Labor Department hired to raise awareness “among employers and influencers about the [Job Corps] program’s existing and new training initiatives in high growth and environmentally friendly career areas” as well as spreading the word to prospective Job Corps enrollees.

Read more at Washington Times

Hero guard shot thwarting attack at Family Research Council HQ

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A security guard at the Family Research Council’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. is being hailed as a hero after he stopped a gunman posing as an intern, taking a bullet in the arm before wrestling the suspect to the ground.

The gunman, identified as 28-year-old Floyd Lee Corkins II, entered the lobby of the organization’s Chinatown headquarters around 10:45 a.m. and expressed disagreement with the conservative group’s policy positions, sources tell Fox News.

When the guard asked him where he was going, he opened fire, according to police.

Read more: Fox News

USS Constitution to sail under own power for second time in over a century

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BOSTON — The world’s oldest commissioned warship will sail under its own power for just the second time in more than a century to commemorate the battle that won it the nickname “Old Ironsides.”

The USS Constitution, which was first launched in 1797, will be tugged from its berth in Boston Harbor on Sunday to the main deepwater pathway into the harbor. It will then set out to open seas for a 10-minute cruise.

The short trip marks the day two centuries ago when the Constitution bested the British frigate HMS Guerriere in a fierce battle during the War of 1812. It follows a three-year restoration project and is the first time the Constitution has been to sea on its own since its 200th birthday in 1997.

Read more at CBS News