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David Keene Takes Over the NRA
Newsmax ^ | March 28, 2011 | Ronald Kessler

Posted on 03/28/2011 8:28:36 AM PDT by EternalVigilance

You might expect that the man who is incoming president of the National Rifle Association and was chairman of the American Conservative Union would be a double-barrel ideologue.

Not quite.

David Keene’s friends include liberal-leaning types like Al Hunt of Bloomberg News, former ABC correspondent Sam Donaldson, former New York Times reporter Adam Clymer, and former Democratic presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy.

Keene never hesitates to mention that his mother and father were labor union organizers in Wisconsin or that, as a teenager, he passed out literature for John F. Kennedy during the presidential primary.

Moreover, Keene has stood firm against attacks from within the conservative movement over his decision to keep the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) open to participation by such groups as GOProud, an organization of conservative gays.

(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Front Page News
KEYWORDS: banglist; bashnra; deathtothenra; keene; nra; nrasucks; thenraisthedevil
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To: EternalVigilance

Skunks in the Henhouse??


41 posted on 03/28/2011 9:52:29 AM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... Godspeed .. Monthly Donor Onboard .. Obama: Epic Fail or Bust!!!)
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To: RC one
what major legislative victories has GOA scored for the second amendment?

At least the GOA has not actively attempted to undermined the 2A... the NRA? It is well known that their fingerprints are all over many pieces of anti-2A legislation.

42 posted on 03/28/2011 9:58:19 AM PDT by AvOrdVet ("Put the wagons in a circle for all the good it'll do")
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To: rockrr
Here’s a FRiendly challenge for you: name for me one dhimmicrat who is unabashedly pro-2nd amendment.

john dingell (mi). can't stand him. he's been in office forever, and he comes down right on (directly) 2d amendment votes, but usually toes the dem line on bills that indirectly effect 2A.
43 posted on 03/28/2011 10:08:19 AM PDT by absolootezer0 (2x divorced tattooed pierced harley hatin meghan mccain luvin' REAL beer drinkin' smoker ..what?)
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To: NormsRevenge

More like foxes.


44 posted on 03/28/2011 10:08:36 AM PDT by EternalVigilance
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To: RicocheT; All
but when gun owners and users are under siege in localities, states or by the federal government, the NRA shows up and works hard to right wrongs.

Come on, the B.S. meter just pegged on that one... Most of the victories these days are not due to the NRA, most have been pushed and fought for by local/state activists and groups.

Usually, if the NRA does show up, its after the legwork has been done, deny it as you may, a search of the facts proves it is so.

My membership to the NRA expires next year and I was willing to give them the benefit of a doubt, hoping that they had learned their lessons from the beating they took last year.

Obviously they learned nothing from the member backlash and the Keene matter just sealed the deal, I'm out.

45 posted on 03/28/2011 10:11:32 AM PDT by AvOrdVet ("Put the wagons in a circle for all the good it'll do")
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To: rockrr
I applaud your open-mindedness but my problem (and I do admit that it is my problem) is that it’s difficult for me to extend too much faith in people that I have to constantly watch to ensure that they’re not stealing the silverware.

I like this! I think I'll adopt it for my own uses, and slightly tweak it to say "I applaud your open-mindedness in inviting all stripes of people to the dinner party, but it's difficult for me to have faith in those I have to constantly watch to make sure they're not stealing the silverware." That's how I feel about high crime neighborhoods when someone says "It would be perfectly safe, if only the police were more intimately involved on a community level"... and my thought is always "good people don't need a smiling cop watching over their shoulder to be good."
46 posted on 03/28/2011 10:19:43 AM PDT by Chiltepe
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To: RC one

The NRA is not lily white when it comes to the 2nd amendment. The 1968 gun control act was created by National Shooting Sports Foundation member companies with help from the NRA. It is documented and you will have to dig to find it. The NSSF members effectively shut off the imported and cheap weapons to make the domestic market their own and the NRA jumped right on board. The Heller case recently was very telling, the NRA Legal team actually did not support the case till the last minute, they even went out of there way to bad mouth the Heller legal team on many ocassions at several public venues while to case was in pre-trial and at the begining of the trial. The amicus brief by the NRA actaully is not part of the court records since it was sent late, just a PR stunt by the NRA when they realized the Heller case could be ruled in favor of the 2nd Amendment. Those are pesky FACTS.

No surprise here with this sh*tweed Keene at NRA throttles. The NRA is about creating the myth of protecting you, the taxpayer/citizen while making sure little is really done, so the funding to NRA keeps on going to them. The Heller decision was a major threat to this little game. THINK LARGE LABOR UNIONs and what they actually do for the members, ie not alot but they sure do have large slush funds and enjoy the big life in DC while doing very little. Additionally, the NSSF and SAAMI do not want a broad interpretation of the 2nd Amendment either. They just want to protect their markets. How do you think the 922c Commerce ruling came about that blocks barrels and internal parts from being imported came from? NSSF Lawyers with NRA Lawyers being quiet “suggested” this to a Federal Judge and Commerce Department got a “favorable” ruling. Favorable for who? Again, pesky facts....
I have been in the firearms industry for a long time and I can tell you the NSSF and NRA only care about what the SAAMI voting members want, not the 2nd Amendment or you the average gun owner, to them you are a source of revenue and that is all they care about.


47 posted on 03/28/2011 10:23:29 AM PDT by Article10 (Roger That)
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To: Joe Brower
Thanks for the ping. I'll be watching this one. The NRA is, after all, a DC-based lobbying organization and a very skillful one. There is a somewhat mercenary aspect to this; a professional lobbyist serves the client quite outside any personal beliefs, at least in theory. Results count.

Nevertheless, the latitude for compromise that goes with the job Keene has taken is fairly wide, and within that a single, seemingly harmless compromise such as the 1968 bill can open the door to disaster. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

48 posted on 03/28/2011 10:32:28 AM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: Billthedrill
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty; power is ever stealing from the many to the few. The hand entrusted with power becomes…the necessary enemy of the people. Only by continual oversight can the democrat in office be prevented from hardening into a despot: only by unintermitted Agitation can a people be kept sufficiently awake to principle not to let liberty be smothered in material prosperity."

- Wendell PHILLIPS, January 28, 1852


49 posted on 03/28/2011 10:36:42 AM PDT by EternalVigilance
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To: rockrr
I don’t know about you but his sort is the last guy I want on “my team”."

I don't know about you but I don't have a problem with having the senate majority leader loosely on my team instead of firmly on my opponents team.

I know a number of leftists who pay lip-service to 2nd Amendment rights issues

and I know plenty of republicans who do the same and I don't vote for them just because they have an R by their name. I will vote and I have, in fact, voted against Republicans that didn't support the 2A.

it’s difficult for me to extend too much faith in people

On that we definitely agree...

50 posted on 03/28/2011 10:36:53 AM PDT by RC one ("merchants have no country")
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To: RC one
I don't know about you but I don't have a problem with having the senate majority leader loosely on my team instead of firmly on my opponents team.

Which is more dangerous to the sheep, a wolf in sheeps' clothing, or a wolf in wolves' clothing?

Or, to put it another way, when the bombs have to be dropped, I'd just as soon the enemy was in his own camp, not in mine.

51 posted on 03/28/2011 10:40:34 AM PDT by EternalVigilance
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To: EternalVigilance
I have defended the NRA but I have not been blind to their flaws. I will not renew my membership in the NRA due to Keene. When and if the NRA gets a clue and fires Keens and announces their plan to lobby against all unconstitutional gun laws starting the 1927 mail order ban of concealable pistols.
52 posted on 03/28/2011 10:44:27 AM PDT by Durus (You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality. Ayn Rand)
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To: RC one

Those who say Reid is “loosely on our team” are either dangerously naive beyond words, or flat out liars.


53 posted on 03/28/2011 10:47:59 AM PDT by EternalVigilance
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To: EternalVigilance

The NRA’s stated history has been in support of all major gun laws that have been passed in the past 100 years. They are proud of it.


54 posted on 03/28/2011 11:08:16 AM PDT by CodeToad (Islam needs to be banned in the US and treated as a criminal enterprise.)
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To: Chiltepe

Thanks. Your revision makes the metaphor work ;-)


55 posted on 03/28/2011 11:11:39 AM PDT by rockrr ("Remember PATCO!")
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To: RC one

What litigative victories has the NRA scored for the 2nd Amendment?


56 posted on 03/28/2011 11:13:37 AM PDT by BCR #226 (07/02 SOT www.extremefirepower.com...The BS stops when the hammer drops.)
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To: RC one

“That is not to say that I won’t be watching this Focker closely of course”.

Punchline to an old joke: “Oh, that’s right, Ma’am, but them Fockers was flyin’ Messerschmidts”!


57 posted on 03/28/2011 11:16:48 AM PDT by mozarky2 (Ya never stand so tall as when ya stoop to stomp a statist!)
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Comment #58 Removed by Moderator

To: Joe Brower

Oh goody...


59 posted on 03/28/2011 11:19:30 AM PDT by Dead Corpse (explosive bolts, ten thousand volts at a million miles an hour)
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To: RicocheT
OK...can the NRA un-endorse NC Gov Bev Perdue, who signed a law that suspends many of our 2A rights when a state of emergency has been declared? Can they get that $5,000 primary contribution to Harry Reid back? Tom Gresham exposed Wayne LaPierre and Chris Cox as fools back during the election and I do not forgive and forget so easily. My NRA membership will always be a year-to-year decision, to keep them honest if nothing else. SAF is not tone-deaf when it comes to the link between our gun rights and all of our other freedoms. The NRA? Hell...who knows?
60 posted on 03/28/2011 11:44:45 AM PDT by Niteranger68 (Jared Lee Loughner - Disciple of Michael Moore)
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