Sen. Grassley and Republicans Plan to Work With Democrats On Legislatgion Attacking 2nd Amendment

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
March 31, 2013


Despite a plan by Republican senators Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Mike Lee to derail and defeat S. 649, the Safe Communities, Safe Schools Act of 2013, Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley is preparing work with Democrats in their war on the Second Amendment next month.

Sen. Grassley proposes legislation while stating the Constitution is about small government and the rights of the individual.

According to pro-Second Amendment websites, Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has indicated he may support “gun control lite” legislation. “You would think ALL Republicans are lining up behind Senators Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Mike Lee to support the filibuster of Harry Reid’s gun control bill — S. 649,” writes AmmoLand today. “But that’s just not happening.”

Senate Democrats, led by Majority Leader Harry Reid, are looking to find Republicans they can deal with after Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn refused to collude with them on anti-Second Amendment legislation.

“If Reid manages to pick up the support of enough Senate Republicans, Obama will get what he wants — fictitious ‘gun trafficking’ legislation, so-called ‘mental health screenings’ and ‘expanded background checks,’” AmmoLand reports. “Possibly even more gun control like Feinstein’s so-called ‘assault weapons ban’ and a federal magazine ban will also be on the table.”

Grassley is the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. If he supports “gun control lite” many junior senators will find it more difficult to oppose legislation aimed at the heart of the Second Amendment.

In 2009, Grassley cut a deal with Democrats on Obama’s socialist healthcare takeover. He was the top Republican negotiator in the “Gang of Six,” a group of Senate Finance Committee members negotiating with Democrats on Obamacare.

“Senator Chuck Grassley and Mitch McConnell’s history of ‘deal-cutting’ should be so worrisome to gun owners,” AmmoLand explains. “I don’t have to go back far to remind you that Mitch McConnell has a history of caving in to the demands of Obama and Harry Reid.”

McConnell has worked closely with Senate Democrats in the past, most recently on the so-called “fiscal cliff” deal that gave Obama and Reid $41 in tax increases in exchange for $1 in spending cuts.

“Our political insiders are telling us that Grassley is hoping to draft a proposal that would drastically expand the scope of the mental health laws – leaving thousands of Iowans vulnerable to losing their gun rights on the whim on any ‘mental health professional,’” Iowa Gun Owners warned on Friday.

As we noted in February, the federal government has stepped up its effort to strip veterans of their firearms by issuing determinations of mental incompetency.

“S. 649 already contains the Veterans Gun Ban, which could send you to prison for 15 years for selling, raffling or gifting a firearm in America, while not realizing that the recipient was disqualified in some way – say, for being a military veteran with PTSD or for being a habitual user of marijuana (for medical purposes),” Gun Owners of America warned in a recent Action Alert.

The Paul-Cruz-Lee filibuster of a motion to proceed with legislation on the Senate floor is currently the only viable opposition to the effort by Obama and Democrats in Congress to deny Americans their rights under the Constitution.

“By filibustering — opposing the motion to proceed on S. 649 –- Paul, Cruz and Lee can hold the line against gun control for the moment,” explains AmmoLand. “And if they hold the filibuster and prevent Reid from getting the 60 votes he needs to break it, gun owners win the first battle in the Obama administration’s war on gun owners.”

Tell Grassley and McDonnell to oppose S. 649 and support Paul, Cruz and Lee:

Senator Chuck Grassley: 202-224-3744

Senator Mitch McConnell: 202-224-2541

You can also email the senators:

Click here to email Senator Chuck Grassley

Click here to email Senator Mitch McConnell

Department of Homeland Security Can Seize Gold, Silver, Guns in Safety Deposit Boxes

Investment Watch
March 31, 2013

Memo states DHS to make “periodic and unannounced” visits to banks and inspect contents of “selected safe deposit boxes.” Photo: EG Focus.

Just found this… very interesting. I am trying to verify the post from a govt source.

http://dinarvets.com/forums/index.php?/topic/52464-do-not-use-safety-deposit-boxes/

According to in-house memos now circulating, the DHS has issued orders to banks across America which announce to them that “under the Patriot Act” the DHS has the absolute right to seize, without any warrant whatsoever, any and all customer bank accounts, to make “periodic and unannounced” visits to any bank to open and inspect the contents of “selected safe deposit boxes.”

Further, the DHS “shall, at the discretion of the agent supervising the search, remove, photograph or seize as evidence” any of the following items “bar gold, gold coins, firearms of any kind unless manufactured prior to 1878, documents such as passports or foreign bank account records, pornography or any material that, in the opinion of the agent, shall be deemed of to be of a contraband nature.”

DHS memos also state that banks are informed that any bank employee, on any level, that releases “improper” “classified DHS Security information” to any member of the public, to include the customers whose boxes have been clandestinely opened and inspected and “any other party, to include members of the media” and further “that the posting of any such information on the internet will be grounds for the immediate termination of the said employee or employees and their prosecution under the Patriot Act.” Safety deposit box holders and depositors are not given advanced notice when failed banks shut their doors.


If people have their emergency money in a safe deposit box or an account in a bank that closes, they will not be allowed into the bank to get it out. They can knock on the door and beg to get in but the sheriff’s department or whoever is handling the closure will simply say “no” because they are just following orders.


http://dinarvets.com/forums/index.php?/topic/52464-do-not-use-safety-deposit-boxes/

BANK OF AMERICA & COMPASS BANK MANAGERS WERE TOLD HOMELAND SECURITY WILL CONFISCATE SAFE DEPOSIT BOXES

While all the other points I mentioned in a previous post are fairly well documented and discussed elsewhere on the Internet, the bank information I reported is not. This information is from my own experience and research. I discovered the disturbing news quite by accident – and by virtue of its importance, I decided to post my findings here and on a few other forums.

http://www.bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=10012

The truth about Safe Deposit Boxes

WARNING: “Final” Psy-Op Vs. Syria Begins

Tony Cartalucci
Infowars.com
March 30, 2013

Out of time, out of legitimacy, and out of options, the West is attempting once again to prop up its faltering terrorist proxies with another psychological operation aimed at breaking the will of the Syrian people, despite the West’s multiplying tactical and political shortcomings. It began with a suspicious CBS News/AP report titled, “AP: “Master plan” underway to help Syria rebels take Damascus with U.S.-approved airlifts of heavy weapons,” which claims to divulge a “covert” plan by the West to flood Syria’s northern and southern borders with increased weapons and fighters for a “final” push to take the capital. The article would claim:

Mideast powers opposed to President Bashar Assad have dramatically stepped up weapons supplies to Syrian rebels in coordination with the U.S. in preparation for a push on the capital of Damascus, officials and Western military experts said Wednesday.
A carefully prepared covert operation is arming rebels, involving Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar, with the United States and other Western governments consulting, and all parties hold veto power over where the shipments are directed, according to a senior Arab official whose government is participating. His account was corroborated by a diplomat and two military experts.

One must question why the Western media would boldly declare to the world what is supposed to be a “covert” operation, if such an operation had any tactical chance of succeeding – unless of course, the announcement was designed to either cover for wide-scale Western special operations inside Syria, or to help achieve a psychological victory (or both) – to induce panic and terror across the Syrian population in tandem with recent, and increasingly barbaric terrorist attacks on Syria’s civilians.


One such attack included the recent mortar bombardment of Damascus University which left at least 15 dead. The New York Times seemed to take special pleasure in describing in great detail the disruptive effect the attack had on people attempting to live normal lives during the ongoing conflict in their article, “Syria’s War Invades a Campus That Acted as a Sanctuary.”

Now, echos of NATO’s spectacularly failed July 2012 “Operation Damascus Volcano” – where the Western media coordinated a propaganda blitzkrieg designed to portray Syria as on the verge of collapsing with Aleppo and Damascus’ fall “imminent,” are appearing once again in the headlines. Just a day after CBS/AP’s announcement of the so-called “covert Master Plan,” the Western media is reporting “rebel gains” including the alleged cutting off of Daara in Syria’s south – meant to foreshadow the once again “inevitable fall” of Damascus. AFP cited the discredited “Syrian Observatory for Human Rights” in their article, “Syria rebels seize town on key highway to south: NGO,” that:

“Rebels seized control of Dael after destroying the three army checkpoints at the entrances to the town,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. “The town is located on a main road linking Daraa to Damascus.”
The Britain-based watchdog said that a child was among 10 civilians killed in the fighting for the town over the past 24 hours.
At least 15 rebels and a media activist working with them were also killed, as were 12 loyalist troops, it added.
“Large swathes of Daraa (province) are now under rebel control. Their advance in the south is escalating,” Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

In actuality, the so-called “Syrian Observatory for Human Rights” is a single opposition propagandists, Rami Abdel Rahman, based in a comfortable countryside home in the UK, disingenuously masquerading as a human rights organization. When not feeding the biased-hungry Western media, Rami Abdel Rahman can be found scurrying in and out of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London to meet with Britain’s Foreign Secretary, William Hague.

….

Reuters had even admitted in their December 2011 article, “Coventry – an unlikely home to prominent Syria activist,” that ”Rami Abdulrahman,” is openly part of the Syrian opposition who seeks the end of the Syrian government. Abdulrahman admits that he had left Syria over 10 years ago, has lived in Britain ever since, and will not return until “al-Assad goes.”

This facade is fully sanctioned by the Western media which despite acknowledging him as a biased, compromised source, consistently misrepresents him to their audience as a credible “human rights organization,” while almost exclusively deferring to him to lend credibility to their otherwise baseless narratives.

When entire articles hinge on Rami Abdel Rahman’s verified propaganda, perception management, not journalism, is dictating headlines and overarching narratives.

The Syrian people have resisted the collective efforts of the US, UK, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and their regional partners for 2 years, and have defeated at least two previous psychological operations aimed at toppling the government and destroying the country. The tides have shifted across public opinion, and evidence that the West has intentionally sought to arm and direct sectarian extremists against the Syrian nation since at least 2007, are reaching a crescendo.

While the West now openly admits it is working directly with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and NATO-member Turkey to supply thousands of tons of weapons to militants in Syria, it cannot explain how else Al Qaeda’s Al Nusra front has become the best armed and most well equipped front in the conflict – unless these thousands of tons of weaponry were sent directly to them, as was intended to begin with, according to Seymour Hersh’s 2007 article, “The Redirection: Is the Administration’s new policy benefiting our enemies in the war on terrorism?” which reported:

To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has coöperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.

A window is closing, and the West is resorting to dangerous desperation. Syria and its allies, as well as concerned interests around the world, must be more vigilant and resilient than ever. The tell-tale signs of a psychological operation are there – but for a psychological operation to succeed, a nation’s people must not be prepared or aware that it is coming. By raising awareness of this most recent, insidious attempt at snatching a psychological victory from the jaws of a tactical defeat, we can help quicken the day when the West’s war machine finally stumbles and falls, giving the people of Syria their lives back.

Tony Cartalucci is the writer and editor at Land Destroyer

How Obama Is Sidestepping Congress On Gun Control

constitutionschool.com
March 30, 2013

Photo: Emily Stanchfield.

With a looming gun control vote in the Democratic controlled Senate, scheduled for next month, the Obama Administration is realizing its dream of greater gun control legislation may have been just that – a dream.

The reason being is that whatever bill the Senate puts together, the odds are that Republicans in the House, most of whom have been undeterred by Obama’s Twitter bots harassing their accounts daily, will likely mark the legislation dead on arrival.

Even the Democrats’ top man in the Senate, Harry Reid, recently admitted that even among Democrats in his chamber, the bill probably won’t have enough support to pass.

Still yet, a defiant President Obama is pressing forward with his gun control agenda with or without their help – via executive order.

According to a recent report published by The Hill, “The president has used his executive powers to bolster the national background check system, jump start government research on the causes of gun violence and create a million-dollar ad campaign…”

These steps have enabled federal law enforcement officials to have unprecedented access to many state records, previously locked away from their eyes due to the nation’s longstanding tradition of separation of powers – giving federal agents access to many state records that detail just who in our nation owns a firearm and how many.

Other steps have included eliminating many of the road blocks that presently prevent state governments from notifying the federal government of individuals suspected or deemed to be mentally unstable. This again gives the federal government more power to investigate, restrict and even detain such individuals.

Earlier this month, the DOJ announced a $20 million grant program aimed at incentivizing many of the red states who have previously refused to surrender their records to the NICS database.

“The economy is bad and all governments, state and local, are strapped for cash. Unlike the federal government, states can’t print their own money, so they need revenue badly. The Obama Administration knows this and is dangling a pretty lucrative carrot in front of some of the states hardest hit,” notes one political commentator.

Republicans argue that the President is not interested in merely preventing mass gun violence, as he is maintaining, but rather that he has his eyes set on restricting legal gun owners from fully enjoying their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

They point to studies the Obama administration has ordered the Consumer Product Safety Commission to conduct, studying whether new trigger lock laws should be implemented.

Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday the expected upcoming Senate votes on gun control are only the beginning of the White House’s fight.

Presently, the fate of gun control legislation is unclear. A vote on a Senate bill, including expanded background checks and harsher penalties for gun trafficking, is expected next month.

The White House also has been pushing for limits on military style assault weapons and high capacity magazines, but those provisions won’t be part of the Senate bill. Instead they are to be offered as amendments. Admendments that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid believes do not enjoy enough support to pass.

“That doesn’t mean this is the end of the process. This is the beginning of the process,” Biden said during a conference call organized by Mayors Against Illegal Guns pushing for the gun control measures.

Homeland Security buying pricey ammo as department-wide cuts take hold

Perry Chiaramonte
foxnews.com
March 30, 201

The Department of Homeland Security is spending more and more on pricey hollow-point bullets for law-enforcement officers — even as it plans to enforce furloughs and other cuts on Customs and Border Protection employees due to sequestration.

The Department of Homeland Security plans to buy more than 1.6 billion rounds over the next five years for training and on-duty purposes. They cite the numerous law enforcement agencies contained within the department with employees who carry weapons. But the purchases have led to criticism that the agency is spending money on bullets that can cost twice as much as regular ammo — and questions over whether those bullets are really needed for training purposes.

“Obviously you want to know how a hollow point is going to cycle through your weapon,” Scott McCurley, manager for Maryland-based Horst and McCann firing range and a former soldier for the U.S. Army, told FoxNews.com. “But I don’t think there’s much of a difference when training. One box of rounds per gun is enough. The cost outweighs the purpose.”

Read more

SWAT Standoff Ends in Flames, Cops Shoot, Kill Man As He Comes Out

Adan Salazar
Infowars.com
March 29, 2013

Another armed standoff was quickly brought to an end when the house the gunman holed up in went up in flames, sending him fleeing out the front door into police gunfire.

49-year old Rick Marlowe was identified as the armed man at the center of the standoff that took place Wednesday night in Hoquiam, Wa. The standoff had waged on for 20 hours after the man reportedly fired at officers coming to serve arrest warrants for a 2004 Sacramento, Ca. real estate fraud case.



According to KOMO News, police say they are still trying to figure out what caused the fire, but as reported, “Throughout the night, police fired tear gas into the house and used some loud distraction devices.”

KOMO News continues:

Around 6 a.m., flames were reported at the back of the house and the man came out the front.
“He was confronted by the tactical team,” [Sgt. Brian] Dayton said. “He failed to obey commands – show me your hands, put the gun down. Some more gunfire was exchanged, and the suspect went down.”
Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Chief Criminal Deputy Steve Shumate said at a news conference later Thursday that officers opened fire after the man appeared at the front door with a firearm, KBKW reported.

As we witnessed during the Christopher Dorner standoff situation, certain tear gas canisters are often used in these types of situations that possess a high propensity to start fires.

In the recent Dorner case, police employed a round of CS tear gas that was “pyrotechnic” after “traditional” tear gas had no effect.

Following the Dorner standoff, police also ludicrously claimed they had no idea what started the cabin fire that some believe burned Dorner alive, despite evidence from police scanner recordings where officers are heard discussing, “the plan with the burners,” and other recordings where officers are heard saying, “Fucking burn this motherfucker,” and “burn that fucking house down.”

As witnessed in Waco, Texas during the raid on the Davidian compound in 1993, which killed 76 people including more than 20 children and two pregnant women, police will employ such nefarious tactics to forgo a firefight and end a standoff.

Although reports claimed “pyrotechnic” CS canisters were never used in Waco, numerous eyewitness reports along with photographic and video evidence show BATF helicopters firebombing the Waco church during the siege, and many people still believe pyrotechnic CS grenades were used as they were found in the rubble after the fire.

Additionally, police ended a standoff in Philadelphia in 1985 against a black liberation group known as the MOVE organization by dropping a bomb on the group’s row house, killing 11 of its members, including five children, and decimating an entire neighborhood; at least 65 houses were leveled.

Is it possible Hoquiam police purposely lobbed incendiary tear gas canisters into the 2-story house in efforts to convince Rick Marlowe to come out? If this is the case, they should own up to their actions.

** Watch this great documentary covering the outrageous military assault on residents of Ruby Ridge, Idaho in 1992.