Showing posts with label Grover Norquist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Grover Norquist. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

The NRA’s sinister roll outside gun rights lobbying

Think the National Rifle Assn. (NRA) only concerns itself with the right for anyone to buy a gun, no matter what their background is, and carry it anywhere in the U.S. they want to?  Think again.  This duplicitous organization, in its crusade to convince a bunch of brain-washed gun worshippers the 2nd Amendment gives them the right to do anything they choose with firearms, has an underlying reason for constantly appealing to members’ pocketbooks.

The NRA does hit up its members for donations that these gun chumps easily give up to keep them armed to the hilt, but there is a method in their madness.  The NRA wants to go big time in the lobbying of conservative causes.


Grover Norquist
 They are hooked up with one of the most ultra-conservative lobbying groups in the country, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), who dreams up legislation that is pro-business and anti-consumer, then takes it to dim-witted, mostly GOP state legislators throughout the U.S. who often pass the legislation verbatim.  A good example is the “stand your ground” law that is responsible for the shooting death of Trayvon Martin in Florida by George Zimmerman.

The NRA actually brought this proposed law to ALEC, who first got it passed in Florida and subsequently 20+ other states.  But the bullets hit the fan this past week when four of ALEC’s corporate sponsors dumped them, no doubt over the “stand your ground” law and the Trayvon Martin killing.  The companies were Coca Cola, Pepsico, Kraft and Intuit and according to some there may be more. 

Thanks to the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), ALEC is finally being exposed for the conspiracy it is.  You can see all the action at their site ALEC Exposed.



The CMD has also documented the NRA’s participation in other conservative legislation that has nothing to do with gun rights.  NRA lobbyist Tara Mica was instrumental in developing and coordinating the bill for voter ID that inhibits voting by the poor, ethnic groups and minorities.  Mica was also responsible for participating in the preparation of the model legislation that eventually became Arizona’s anti-immigration law, SB-1070. 

The question the NRA members might want to ask themselves at this point is just how much of their membership dues are being used for this non-gun lobbying.  Unless a majority of the enrollment are bigots who also are in favor of this same philosophy,
Karl Malone

Josh Horwitz, head of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (CSGV), says the NRA's role with ALEC cements his view that the NRA is really a base for the conservative movement.  Further, "People think the NRA is just a gun group. It's really not," he commented.  You might want to click on CSGV’s website, “Meet the NRA.org,” where you can check out the group, particularly its leadership.  People like: 

Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, and David Keene, former chairman of the American Conservative Union, Robert Brown, creator of Soldier of Fortune magazine, rock guitarist Ted Nugent, former NBA star Karl Malone, Chuck Norris, Oliver North and Tom Selleck.


Tom Selleck
 Robert Spitzer, a political scientist at the State University of New York at Cortland and at Cornell University, who has studied and written about the NRA for decades, talks of other non-gun issues in which the NRA has become involved.  As an example, the NRA fought hard against campaign finance reform in the days of McCain-Feingold. "They were taking a very much free-enterprise, government-hands-off-the-campaign-process (approach),"

Finally, Spitzer said that the NRA has its work cut out for it, because gun ownership is on the decline in America.  Now that’s the best news we’ve had in a long time.

Friday, November 25, 2011

“Have they gone nuts in Washington?”

David Gergen
David Gergen, senior political analyst with CNN, said it with gusto evidenced by the content of his commentary.  He says this kind of political jockeying has been with us since the beginnings of this nation, but political leaders in the past have been able to work out compromises.  Our ‘leaders’ of today, however, have tossed aside the wisdom of the Founders.”  To most of us, it would appear that they have completely abandoned the clear thinking approach to government for the more trendy partisan fanaticism of left and right.

What they have really abandoned is the American public in favor of Tea Party wackos and a Grover Norquist stand on absolutely no tax increases.  Some Democrats are at fault as well for not realizing there will have to be some painful, perhaps deep, cuts to domestic entitlement programs.



Gergen, who has worked with a number of presidents and has been a political analyst for several years, says the GOP wants federal spending cuts without raising any taxes.  On the other hand, Dems claim the rich have increased their wealth on the backs of the “99%” and should be taxed as a beginning to righting the ship. 

And yes, the White House has been severely lacking in its leadership on this issue by remaining seemingly either resigned to defeat, or not able to come up with the aggressive strategy to prevail.  White House Secretary Jay Carney’s reply to this is that the responsibility for doing a deal belongs to Congress, not the White House.

But a CNN/ORC poll asserts there is an explanation to the Super Committee’s failure.  Although most Americans agree on increasing taxes on the rich and major cuts in domestic spending programs, there is definitely a partisan divide that stands in the way of the committee’s decision.  Two-thirds of the public wants increased taxes on high-income Americans and businesses, 32 percent don’t.  However, Republicans oppose tax increases by 59 percent to 39 percent, and Democrats are against spending cuts by 57 percent to 42 percent.

Grover Norquist fantasy
 When it comes to Independents who are critical to the 2012 elections, a whopping 70 percent are for taxing the wealthy and corporations, but also want major cuts to domestic spending.  It would seem most everyone is against raising taxes on the middle class, 60 percent don’t want major cuts in military spending, and 57 percent oppose any major changes to entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

And there are yet other important issues that must be dealt with.  There are pressing deadlines on extending the payroll tax at a cost of over $110 billion.  A temporary extension of jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed costing $55 billion with an added $130 billion for the minimum tax cost.  Canceling doctors’ Medicare fees cuts will cost another $30 billion.

Members of Super Committee
Put the blame on…who?  Neither side wins a popularity contest but the GOP leadership in Congress approval ratings have fallen even further to 21 percent.  The Democratic leadership approval also dropped but remains at a higher 29 percent.  The general consensus is that a plurality of the American public will blame Republicans more than Democrats for the failure of the Super Committee.

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