Legislative Alert from Gun Owners of Amercia

Thursday, November 12, 2009

He has been called "extreme" by some.  But to others, he's beyond extreme... he's a "Radical's Radical." 

Whatever he is, he could become President Obama's next choice for the federal judiciary.

This radical is Judge David Hamilton, and he's been nominated for a position on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

Hamilton has made many political enemies on the right, seeing that his politics are to the far left of the political spectrum.  Oh yes, judges aren't supposed to be political, but this one has engaged in quite a bit of leftist activism.

His biggest opponent on Capitol Hill is Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.  Based on his analysis of Hamilton, gun owners should be very concerned about a judge who is all to willing to "amend the Constitution."  According to Senator Sessions:

Judge Hamilton stated in a 2003 speech that the role of a judge includes writing footnotes to the Constitution: "Judge S. Hugh Dillin of this c ourt has said that part of our job here as judges is to write a series of footnotes to the Constitution. We all do that every year in cases large and small." In explaining this statement to Senator Hatch,Judge Hamilton wrote that he believes the Framers intended judges to amend the Constitution through evolving case law.
Of course, we have seen this pattern time and time again.  Judges ignore the clear wording of the Constitution -- in essence, amending the Constitution through each new case they decide.

The courts then become the vehicle for rewriting the Second Amendment!

Not surprisingly, Judge Hamilton's politics are to the extreme, far left.  He spent a brief stint as a fundraiser for ACORN, the organization that was an aggressive supporter of Barack Obama in the presidential election.  In addition to all the evils surrounding ACORN is the fact that the organization has lobbied against Second Amendment rights -- as seen by the New Jersey chapter supporting a one-gun-a-month ordinance in Jersey City.

Certainly any judicial nomination put forth by our anti-gun President is suspect, but it's interesting to note who his chief backer is in the U.S. Senate.  It's none other than Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, who holds an "F" rating from Gun Owners of America.

Lugar has never failed to support one of Obama's anti-gun nominations, as evidenced by his votes for Attorney General Eric Holder, State Department lawyer Harold Koh, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and the incredibly wacky Regulatory Czar Cass Sunstein.

On policy questions, Senator Lugar is no better.  To wit, he voted against repealing the gun ban in Washington, DC this year.

Considering Hamilton's extreme track record, it's no wonder that Senator Lugar -- in introducing Hamilton to his colleagues -- begged his fellow Senators to ignore the judge's policy v iews.  Lugar asked them not to base their votes on "partisan considerations, much less on how we hope or predict a given judicial nominee will 'vote' on particular issues of public moment or controversy." 

Instead, Lugar asked his colleagues "to evaluate judicial candidates on whether they have the requisite intellect, experience, character and temperament that Americans deserve from their judges...."

In other words, ignore Judge Hamilton's liberalism and just vote for him because he's so smart and because he's such a nice guy!

Judge Hamilton's rulings have made a lot of enemies on the political right, especially the one in Hinrichs v. Bosma where, according to a November 3 editorial in The Washington Times, he "prohibited prayers in the Indiana House of Representatives that expressly mentioned Jesus Christ... yet he allowed prayers which mentioned Allah."

Gun owners have much to be concerned about, as well.  Anytime a judge who believes in rewriting the Constitution is elevated to sit as an appellate judge, that's a scary thing -- especially given the fact that most cases never reach the U.S. Supreme Court and are, thus, decided at lower levels in the federal judiciary.

ACTION:  Please contact your Senators right away and urge them to vote AGAINST Judge David Hamilton.  You can use the Gun Owners Legislative Action Center at http://www.gunowners.org/activism.htm to send your legislators the pre-written e-mail message (click on link).

This is it -- the House of Representatives will vote on health insurance reform tomorrow. All signs point to it being incredibly close, possibly even coming down to a single vote.

With the clock ticking, insurance company lobbyists are going all out to stop reform. Please call Rep. Betty McCollum at 202-225-6631 now.

President Obama is visiting the House tomorrow to call for reform, and I hope you'll add your voice to his right away. If you haven't called before, now is the time. And if you have recently called, thank you -- now please ask friends, family members, and co-workers in your district to join you.

http://my.barackobama.com/HouseVote

CD 4 REPUBLICANS

Cordially Invites You To Our

29^th Annual Anniversary Celebration

Dinner and Auction

Friday, November 13, 2009

Gulden’s “61” Restaurant

Hwy 61 Just North of Beam Ave

2999 Hwy 61 N – Maplewood, MN

Phone: (651) 482-0384

Advanced Reservations: $30 per person or $55 per couple    

Unreserved: $35 per person – $ 65 per couple  –  Pay at the door

Event Schedule: 6:00-7:00 p.m. Cash Bar  ----  7:00 p.m. Dinner  -----  6:00 – 8:15 p.m. Silent Auction  ----  8:30 p.m. Live Auction

Reservations: Send check to 4^th CD by Monday, November 9^th Or phone reservation to Kathie Roberts (see below)

Mail to: 202 Myrtle Place – South St Paul, MN  55075

Questions & phone reservations: Call Kathie Roberts (612-242-4321 cell)

Please start collecting your auction items!

Invite attachment:  http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AbNP8ymCTPywZHR3bXE1Zl8yY21jczhrY3o&hl=en

Speaker Information: http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AbNP8ymCTPywZHR3bXE1Zl8zZjh6Nm13ZG4&hl=en

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - November 2, 2009

Citizens group(s) launch PHOTO ID petition drive in St. Paul for City elections

Two public interest groups, the Minnesota Voters Alliance and the Citizens for Responsible Taxation, a St. Paul-based organization, have launched a petition drive to amend the St. Paul and Duluth City Charters to require voters to present PHOTO ID when voting in City elections.

The groups plan to submit the necessary signatures by July 10th, 2010, to place a referendum on the November 2010 ballot pursuant to the Minnesota Statute 410.

Voter ID protects the rights of legitimate voters! If undocumented persons, convicted felons and dead people are allowed to vote, or if properly registered voters have their identities stolen by someone casting an illegal ballot, THE VOTES OF ALL LEGITIMATE VOTERS ARE DEVALUED!

The electoral system cannot inspire public confidence if no safeguards exist to deter or detect fraud or to confirm the identity of voters. Photo identification cards currently are needed to board a plane, enter federal buildings, and cash a check or even rent a rug doctor.

According to a recent Rasmussen and Opperman polls, over 77% of citizens think requiring PHOTO ID’s is a good idea. “Many people are surprised to learn that Photo ID isn’t already a requirement. This will undoubtedly help statewide efforts to help guarantee the integrity of our elections”, said Kurt Kastel, President of the Citizens for Responsible Taxation.

“We got over 300 signatures in the first couple days with little effort, I never thought I’d see an issue where nearly everyone supports it!” said Andy Cilek, Executive Director, Minnesota Voters Alliance.

The proposed Charter Amendment reads: In all St. Paul elections for the offices of Mayor and City Council, and special elections held under the City Charter, voters voting in person must present a valid photo ID card prior to casting their ballot. Such Photo ID must be one of the following; a current Minnesota Driver License, State ID, an ID card issued by the U.S. Government, or a Tribal Government. If a citizen cannot afford a photo ID, The City shall provide the means for the voter to obtain a Minnesota ID at no cost.

The U. S. Supreme Court ruled in 2007 in Crawford v Marion County Elections in Indiana, that Voter ID was a constitutional method for citizens to assure the integrity of their elections.

We are having a kick-off event in St. Paul, MN on Thursday, November 5th,

7pm at O’Gara’s Bar and Grill in St. Paul and Snelling and Selby avenues.

We are planning to Kick-off the Duluth event on Saturday November 14th at 10:30AM. Place TBA. Interested citizens and volunteers are encouraged to attend!

IRV Update; Stay tuned for our upcoming IRV lawsuit against the City of Minneapolis.

Media contacts:

Minnesota Voters Alliance; Andy Cilek - 612.990.2533- www.MNVoters.org

Citizens for Responsible Taxation; Kurt Kastel; 651.308.5297

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

By: Kent Kaiser, Bemidji Pioneer

Instituting a photo ID requirement for accessing a ballot in Minnesota is an obviously needed election reform. In poll after poll, the overwhelming majority of people support this measure, including 78 percent of people polled by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press in 2006 and 75 percent of people polled at the Minnesota State Fair by the state Legislature in 2001.

Furthermore, support for this measure is bipartisan: In the Pew poll, 71 percent of Democrats, 77 percent of Independents, and 86 percent of Republicans supported this measure.

I believe election fraud is probably rare in Minnesota. Yet my belief is not enough. Whether fraud is rare or commonplace in our state is, in fact, unknowable. It is highly suspicious that liberals resist injecting this modest measure of integrity into our election system. It is especially suspicious that they are reluctant to alter our state’s system of allowing people to register by showing up at the polls with no proof of identity or residence at all and using only another person to vouch for them.

Most Minnesotans are unaware that the vouching system does not even require that the people doing the vouching actually know the identity of the persons for whom they are vouching; the system requires the people doing the vouching to attest only to the registrant’s residence in the precinct.

In Minnesota, we are lagging behind other states because of our antiquated laws against requiring photo ID for gaining access to a ballot.

Ballot access should have the same degree of integrity and accuracy that ballot counting does. A simple count is not enough to prove that integrity and accuracy exist in the ballot counting system, so we have a recount procedure to prove it. Similarly, there should be safeguards in the system to prove that there is integrity and accuracy in our ballot access procedures. Indeed, the accuracy and integrity of the count and recount procedures are valid only if the first step in the process — distributing ballots — has accuracy and integrity, as well.

Yet photo ID is needed not only for the reason of injecting additional integrity into our election system but also for the purpose of allowing election processes to be streamlined and modernized.

Election technology now exists, and is being used in other states, that allows for swift and accurate election registration, Election Day check-in, and post-election administration. Such technology relies on interface with driver’s license or state-issued photo ID. (Some of this technology is even made by Minnesota-based companies; see, for example, http://www.datacard.com/). It is similar to technology that Minnesotans are accustomed to seeing when they go to purchase fishing and hunting licenses. Just as card readers have eliminated the need for bait shop clerks to write out paper fishing licenses, a card reader installed at a polling place could be employed in voter registration and check-in on Election Day.

A quick swipe of a photo ID through a card reader could fill in the data fields in the state’s voter registration system, thereby eliminating common data-entry mistakes that take place with the current pen-and-paper registration system. A quick swipe of such ID at the sign-in table in the polling place on Election Day would eliminate the need to line up by parts of the alphabet, would conserve thousands of pounds of paper currently used to print voter rosters in every election, and would greatly speed up the lines in the polling places.

It would also eliminate the need for post-Election Day data entry of voter participation history, which after the 2008 election took several months and cost county governments tens of thousands of dollars to complete.

Opponents of election integrity often say that having to produce a photo ID at the polls constitutes an unbearable burden. Certainly Minnesota lawmakers are clever enough to find ways to eliminate potential barriers that an exceedingly small percentage of citizens who want to vote might have in producing a photo ID.

This is just one of 15 election reform recommendations contained in a new report entitled “No Longer a National Model” published by Center of the American Experiment, a Minneapolis-based think tank. The report is available online: www.americanexper-iment.org.

Kent Kaiser is an assistant professor of communication at Northwestern College in Roseville, and a senior fellow at Center of the American Experiment. Kaiser previously served in the administrations of Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer, a Republican, and Mark Ritchie, a DFLer.

Full article: http://www.bemidjipioneer.com/event/article/id/100012954/group/Opinion/

November 3, 2009 - Election Day Schedule

Eva Supporters are invited to join any and all events on Election Day, November 3, 2009.  Media coverage is probable. 

9:00 am                      Eva and Bob Voting at the Salvation Army
                                    401 - 7th St., Saint Paul, MN 55102
 
~10:00 ~ 11:00 am    Freedom House with Rev. Seraph Rodriguez
                                    426 Oxford St. N, Saint Paul, MN 55104
                                    (651)917-2063

                                     Tour of the remodeled rehabilitation, social reintegration
                                     facility for sobriety.  Private prayer session with Reverend
                                     and associate pastors. 
 
12:00 N                      Kowalski’s on Grand at Syndicate
                                    1261 Grand Ave, Saint Paul, MN 55105
                                    (651)698-3366
 
                                    Last minute Get Out the Vote Effort
 
7:30 pm                     Victory Party
                                    Fabulous Fern’s Bar & Grill
                                    400 Selby Ave, Saint Paul, MN 55102
                                    (651)225-9414
 
                                    Appetizers and Cash Bar

More Detailed View can be found here: http://www.politicsinminnesota.com/2009/oct29/3785/dfl-gubernatorial-endorsements-chart

Cartoon sent to us from our friends at CD2!

http://nationaljuggernaut.blogspot.com/2009/09/this-cartoon-seemed-far-fetched-in-1948.html