Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here
Posted on 09/24/2005 9:51:57 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
A storm is brewing. It has the potential to utterly destroy the Republican Party.
For years, under both Democrat and Republican administrations, American citizens -- cornerstones of their communities -- have been falsely charged and railroaded into prisons. Their lives have been ruined. Their families have been shattered. It has all been because of accusations and sham trials that belong in Communist China, not the United States of America.
We're talking about the decades of abuses committed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). We're talking about the _continuing_ abuses that are ruining innocent gun owners and gun makers today. Worse, we're now also talking about political cover-up and complicity.
A HISTORY OF ABUSE
For evidence of the abuses, see:
http://www.jpfo.org/alert20050103.htm
http://www.jpfo.org/savagebatfe.htm
http://www.jpfo.org/savage2.htm
People are being convicted on utterly meaningless testimony from "expert" witnesses who don't know what they're talking about and who work for an agency that uses arbitrary testing methods designed to yield whatever results bureaucrats and politicians want.
Do the Republicans know about this? Yes. Of course they do. They've known since at least 1982, when Congress recommended curbing the ATF's powers. Instead of controlling the ATF, administration after administration, of both parties, has handed the ATF more money and more power.
NEW EVIDENCE OF A COVER-UP
But it's worse. Not only does the current administration know about these unjust persecutions, these outrageous, trumped-up charges, they're now blatantly aiding and abetting the very agency that so horribly abuses American gun owners.
Here's what we're discovering:
Earlier this year, firearm manufacturer Len Savage and JPFO worked together to reveal that ATF Firearms Technology Branch (FTB) actually has NO standards for determining what constitutes an "illegal machine gun"!
One agent might decide that a semi-automatic rifle is an "illegal machine gun" if it can be made to fire full-auto after 15 minutes of casual tinkering. Another ATF agent might say another semi-automatic rifle is an "illegal machine gun" if a gunsmith with a machine shop can make it fire full-auto after eight hours of expert modification.
But each "expert" can then give testimony that puts the innocent owner of a semi-automatic rifle in prison.
Sometimes, they do no real testing or examination of firearms at all. Don't believe it? Watch the video of the "testing" of John Glover's FAL, and see for yourself: http://www.jpfo.org/batfevideo.htm. You'll see an ATF "expert" claim that a semi-automatic rifle is an "illegal machine gun" because it had a broken part and would occasionally fire two shots on one trigger pull. No one from the ATF ever even disassembled the gun to look for the cause of the malfunction before charging Glover with a federal felony!
When the Glover footage became public, the prosecutor ordered the charges against Glover dropped. Later, the head of the ATF himself ordered Mr. Glover's guns returned to him. (If you know someone being attacked by the ATF, make sure they have a copy of the footage to use!)
GUN OWNERS ATTEMPT TO HOLD THE ATF'S FEET TO THE FIRE
Recently, many concerned gun owners have contacted their congressional representatives requesting the FTB's firearms-testing procedure manual. The response has been -- shockingly, but not surprisingly -- that _no such manual exists_. The ATF is now being forced to admit that for decades it's been "making it up as it goes along" -- at the expense of American gun owners.
BUT ... Instead of defending gun owners in this simple matter of commonsense and justice, powerful Republicans are helping the ATF cover up!
The FTB has _refused_ to release its manual to the Congressional Research Service. Note: It's not admitting the truth -- that there is no manual, that there are no standards. It's just saying it won't release it. And the Department of Justice (under which the ATF now operates) is backing up its underlings.
Congressman James Sensenbrenner - Chairman of the House Committee on the Judiciary - is scrambling to give the FTB time so that it can hurriedly write some sort of fake manual - anything! - to show the public when knowledge of this travesty becomes widespread.
But by doing so, the FTB will be facing unintended consequences: If the standards for testing firearms have only _now_ been written, then literally thousands of _previous_ gun owner convictions will become suspect, and may well be overturned. The Department of Justice fears (accurately) that there will be a wave of retrials or even complete exonerations for imprisoned gun owners when the public discovers this fetid coverup.
But the current VIPs of the Republican Party and the Bush administration are actually trying to _prevent you and me from learning what their agents are doing to us_.
Only one congressman, Phil Gingrey of Georgia, stands alone in opposition to the ATF's domestic terrorism. He has written a bill to force the ATF to video-record all firearms tests. He made the first requests for the non-existent manual. Yes, Gingrey is a Republican, and a courageous one. But his attempts to get justice have been stymied at every turn by Republican James Sensenbrenner and the Republican Department of Justice.
We're getting calls from outraged, patriotic gun owners. We're reading angry rumblings on second-amendment blogs and message boards. They're all saying the same thing: "If more gun owners begin to grasp the full depth of their betrayal, the Republican Party will not survive the fallout."
Republican betrayal of gun owners is unfortunately not new. The Brady law passed only because a powerful Republican (Bob Dole) enabled it. Republicans who claimed to oppose various Clinton-era gun laws have vigorously supported enforcement of those same laws through Project Safe Neighborhoods. It has been a _Republican_ administration, not a Democrat one that has appointed hundreds of special prosecutors just to handle "gun crimes" (which are often completely non-violent and technical "crimes").
Until now, many gun owners have either been oblivious to the depth of the Republican betrayal or they've held their noses and supported Republicans because they believed the Democrats to be worse.
Many Democrats are open and frank in their hatred of guns and gun owners. But for years the Republicans have looked us in the eye, smiled, shaken our hands, asked for our support -- then stabbed us in the back.
If this were a just world with an impartial media, this brewing scandal of Republican-supported abuse and Republican coverup would have the potential to make Whitewater or Iran Contra look trivial in comparison.
Because the media doesn't care about gun owners, and because gun owners themselves are so often willfully blind to Republican betrayal, we don't know that this scandal _will_ be the end of the Republican Party.
We only know an increasing number of concerned, patriotic gun owners are saying that it _should_ be.
- The Liberty Crew
For more background information and references, see: www.jpfo.org/batfearticles.htm
For a copy of JPFO's "BATFE Fails the Test" footage of BATFE testing procedures, see: www.jpfo.org/batfevideo.htm
Jews For The Preservation of Firearms Ownership, Inc.
P.O. Box 270143
Hartford, WI 53027
www.jpfo.org
Mirror site: www.jpfo.net
Phone (262) 673-9745
Fax (262) 673-9746
Nice try Jewish Dudes but you are a bit off. We are stronger now then ever, so slowly put down the New York Times and step away from your computer.
We will pick up seats in the next two cycles. We will keep the WH and we will have the Supreme Court. "End of the Republican Party"? My ass.
And obviously the base can live with that (as evidenced by the election of those two) and this is why McCain apparently believes that he can win without the Republican base. It would be far preferable for a Democrat to win the Presidency over any Republican who dismisses the conservative base, because anytime a Republican wins without the conservative base, it emboldens other cowards in the GOP to try to do the same thing. Eventually you will end up with a conservative base without a perty.
Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here
Ok lets say you are right and the republicans keep a majority in o6 and 08 when we had the house but bill clinton was president he tryed to get a massive helath care bill through and was shot down when georgie boy tryedto get a 1 TRILLION dollar prescription drug bill through it passed becasue no republican wantedto be told to never darken the doors ofthe white house for going against georgie boy like tancredo did.for the first 5 years of georgie boys administration federal spendding has gone up 30 percent and under the first 5 years of clinton i think it went up 15p ercent and thats with a dem majority in the congress and white house and senate. the best thing that could happen to this nation is if we lose the white house to hillary but keep amajority in congress and the senate that way the men in congress and senate will discover that the vagina they had between there legs since 2000 was actually testicles and a penis after all and they will stand up to the president for a change. If there is no difference between the spending policys of the demicans and republicrats its time to start voting Libertarian in mass.
Maybe we need a new political party that searches for truth and believes in the Constitution of the United States as a standard for discerning what the truth may be. The "Free Republic" party has a nice ring to it. How about it Jim Robinson?
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Therefore, we wholeheartedly support the Bush Doctrine of pre-emptive strikes on known terrorist states and organizations that are believed to present a clear threat to our freedom or national security. We support our military, our troops and our Commander-in-Chief and we oppose turning control of our government back over to the liberals and socialists who favor appeasement, weakness, and subserviency. We do not believe in surrendering to the terrorists as France, Germany, Russia and Spain have done and as Kerry, Kennedy, Clinton and the Democrats, et al, are proposing.
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"President Bush has pledged to do whatever it takes to rebuild the lives and communities devastated by Hurricane Katrina. This pledge comes with a price tag. To deliver this kind of aid, Congress and the President must set priorities and make sacrifices and trade-offs to pay for it. Offsetting the cost of rebuilding is all the more important because the rebuilding effort follows a 33 percent expansion of the federal government since 2001, a period that saw:
* The 2001 No Child Behind Act, the most expensive education bill in American history, which led to a 100 percent increase in education spending;
* The 2002 Farm Security and Rural Investment Act, the most expensive farm bill in American history;
* The 2003 Medicare Modernization Act, the most expensive Great Society expansion in history;
* A war in and the rebuilding of Iraq that, while justified, could cost between $300 and $600 billion, in total;
* International spending leap 94 percent;
* Housing and Commerce spending surge 86 percent;
* Community and regional development spending jump 71 percent;
* Health research spending increase 61 percent;
* Veterans’ spending increase 51 percent; and
* The number of annual pork projects leap from 6,000 to 14,000. http://www.heritage.org/Research/Budget/wm844.cfm
I do have a solution.The same solution that I have been using since the 2002 election voting straight Libertarian ticket.
They arent the lesser of two evils they are the good guys that will bring the federal government under control and limit them to only the 26 specific things spelled out in the constitution anything else will be eliminated or reassigned to the state level.
Holding you head high and voting Libertarian is a hell of a lot better then holding your nose and voting republican any day of the week.
I voted for Bush in 2000 ONLY because I refused to give my vote to that idiot Gore, had there been another viable choice I may have gone that way.
2004 was a no-brainer. After 9-11 I knew I could never return to an unbiased voting strategy. I voted for GWB in pure confidence that this was the person needed at that time.
I wish there was another solution. but I don't know one.
Were you also one of those people in the late 70s who kept saying that America's best days were behind her?
President Bush is not a socialist. Good grief.
Yep, looks like republicans are in DEEP trouble.
Some of the people here are mainly into politics as a sport. All they care about is there side winning, without regard to the kind of gvt they end up with.
Others seem to care mainly about particular social issues (abortion, gay amrriage), but don't otherwise care about the size or scope of gvt.
They also know about the phony polls, studies, etc., conducted by the Violence Policy Center, but use them anyway to justify their silence on whatever gun law changes the gun-grabbing left wants to push.
We clearly need to work harder, I am unsure how many sponsors are needed to get this bill out of committee for passage, but 55 is apparently not enough! ('')
The sooner those who have wrongly imprisoned are released the better! This is outrageous!
Nice try Jewish Dudes but you are a bit off. We are stronger now then ever, so slowly put down the New York Times and step away from your computer.
We will pick up seats in the next two cycles. We will keep the WH and we will have the Supreme Court. "End of the Republican Party"? My ass.
It's scary, isn't it -- a "party of principle" that's gradually morphed into a different type of party -- a TAILGATE party. The only thing that matters is "winning".
But WHAT is it that's "won", when PRINCIPLE is cast aside?
And obviously the base can live with that (as evidenced by the election of those two) and this is why McCain apparently believes that he can win without the Republican base. It would be far preferable for a Democrat to win the Presidency over any Republican who dismisses the conservative base, because anytime a Republican wins without the conservative base, it emboldens other cowards in the GOP to try to do the same thing. Eventually you will end up with a conservative base without a perty.
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