NC: Winston-Salem CONSIDERS ILLEGAL GUN BAN

As you recall, when GRNC successfully fought to pass concealed carry in state and municipal parks in 2011, some city governments opposed to the changes adopted ordinances with over-broad interpretations of what constitutes a "recreational facility" where they could still ban guns. Given that HB 937, which becomes law on Oct. 1, expands concealed carry into restaurants, campuses and into more areas of parks, you can expect more local government resistance.

The most egregious offender has been Winston-Salem, which effectively continues to ban guns on greenways, lakes and entire parks. In response, GRNC has taken two actions: First, our non-profit arm, Rights Watch International, filed a lawsuit against the city. Second, we went back to the legislature and successfully narrowed the definition of "recreational facility" such that local governments could no longer ban guns on athletic fields (except during organized events), or on playgrounds, greenways and walking trails, or open fields.

Winston-Salem stonewalls on lawsuit & continues to flout the law

In the Rights Watch lawsuit against Winston-Salem over its illegal parks ordinance, city lawyers are trying to stonewall on the discovery stage, refusing to provide the plaintiffs with:

• The identity of each person involved in drafting the illegal Ordinance.
• Documents written by the City and its employees relating to the City’s definition of: “playground, athletic facility, athletic field, and swimming pool” in the Ordinance.
• Documents related to the research, development, drafting, and debate on the Ordinance.
• Police reports for crimes occurring at the parks, greenways, lakes, picnic shelters, and recreational facilities in the past three years.
  

For a legal update on Winston-Salem's efforts to subvert your will, CLICK HERE or go to: http://grnc.org/documents/PT-Writeup-on-Winston-Salem-lawsuit.pdf.

In its most recent and attempt to defy the will of voters, the Winston-Salem City Council is once again plotting to undermine our newly improved parks carry law. At the bottom of the alert is a hand-wringing letter from council member Molly Leight to her constituents, and then GRNC President Paul Valone's response.

Action, Please

Extraordinary: Seasick Steve and Tom Jones - You Gotta Move

Via Chuck

Government

Via San Jacinto County Outlaw

ENLARGED

Al-Qaeda pivots to the economy: This is what I'd feared for some time now.

Via The Feral Irishman

...He [Zawahiri] goes on to emphasize the importance of so-called "lone-wolf", or small-scale attacks as part of al-Qaeda's strategy. 

Such attacks, he argues, will have an economic impact above all.

"We must bleed America economically by provoking it, so that it continues its massive expenditures on security. America's weak spot is its economy, which began to totter from the drain of its military and security expenditure," he says...

We all know how effective the Mohamed/Malvo shooting spree was at inducing regional paralysis, and those turds were amateurs, practically begging to get caught. Had they taken their show on the road, moved around a bit more, stretched the hit interval somewhat, they could still be doing it today.

More @ Ace Of Spades

Feds: FBI tailed top terror recruiter to Pentagon

The federal government has released documents that show Anwar al-Awlaki, the former Denver resident and onetime al-Qaida leader who died in 2011 in a U.S. missile strike in Yemen ordered by Barack Obama, was followed by the FBI to the doors of the Pentagon, where he was an invited guest.

WND reported earlier this year that officials with Judicial Watch, the government watchdog agency that investigates and reports on government corruption, found  FBI authorities knew Awlaki was linked to several 9/11 hijackers weeks before he was invited to lunch at the Pentagon during an “outreach” to Muslims.

At the time, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said, “The more we learn about Anwar al-Awlaki, the more questions arise not only about his activities before and after 9/11, but also about the al-Qaida operational and support network still active in the United States. It is now even more concerning that al-Awlaki was invited to the Pentagon after 9/11 and then let go by the FBI despite warrants for his arrest.”

More @ WND

NC: Fraud Stealing $100 Million Shows Flaws in U.S. Crop Insurance

Via Cousin John

Harry Dean Canady will learn next month whether he’ll spend the rest of his life in prison for cheating taxpayers of more than $1 million and threatening to kill the U.S. agents who brought him to justice.

A convicted felon with an alcohol-fueled temper, Canady, 64, pleaded guilty in December to defrauding the federal crop insurance system and is behind bars pending sentencing.

His thieving was just a sliver of the largest fraud in the program’s 75-year history, a case that so far has ensnared 41 North Carolina tobacco farmers, insurance agents and claims adjusters whose law breaking cost taxpayers close to $100 million, federal prosecutors say.

“The system has checks and balances in place,” says Banu Rangarajan, 45, the assistant U.S. attorney who led the prosecution. “The problem is all the checks and balances here were involved in the fraud. The adjusters were paid off. The agents were paid off. Everybody was paid off.”

More @ Bloomberg

NBC/WSJ Poll: By a 44-22% margin, Americans oppose raising the debt ceiling

 

Americans overwhelmingly do not think Congress should raise the nation’s debt limit as President Barack Obama and Congress prepare once again to wage battle over the issue, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

Republican House Speaker John Boehner comments on the upcoming deadline to avoid a government shutdown

By a 44-22 percent margin, Americans oppose raising the debt ceiling, which again puts the president in the difficult position of needing to make the case for an unpopular policy with a deadline quickly approaching.

The poll results come as the U.S. Treasury Department says the country will reach its debt limit by mid-October. The Bipartisan Policy Center estimates the limit will be reached by Oct. 18, and the U.S. could default by Nov. 5.

More @ NBC

HSLDA's Generation Joshua requests comments on Syria

 

 

Russian President to the U.S.: “Stand Down in Syria”

This week, the New York Times published an op-ed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. In his article, Mr. Putin expressed his concern over proposals of U.S. military action in Syria. He cited international law and said that any use of American force would “constitute an act of aggression” unless approved by the UN Security Council. He also sought to cast doubt on allegations that the Syrian government was behind the recent chemical weapons attacks, suggesting that it was more likely that the attacks were committed by Syrian rebels looking to undermine the Syrian government. 

Mr. Putin’s article was met with a wide variety of response from American leaders, citizens, and press. Some suggested that he raised valid and clear-headed arguments, while others pointed to Russia’s support and vested interests in Syria (as well as the Russian government’s dubious record on the topic of human rights) as reason to question the motives and true intentions of the communication. 

We want to know what you all think! Do you think that Mr. Putin was right in his assessment and advice? Is there a conflict of Russian interest? Do you think that the U.S. should take action in Syria? How do you think our government should respond to this situation--if at all?

You can weigh in on the discussion by commenting on this Facebook post. We look forward to hearing your thoughts!

US equipped Saddam with chemical arms in Iran war

Via Billy

 

A retired US military officer says Washington provided chemical and biological weapons to executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during the eight-year war against Iran.

In an interview with Voice of Russia published on Thursday, Karen Kwiantowski elaborated on America’s use of chemical weapons, saying that Washington gave Saddam Hussein chemical weapons to to be used against Iran during the eight-year Iraqi imposed war on the Islamic Republic of Iran in the 1980s.

“So, yeah, we've done it. It's old news how we took sides in the Iraq-Iran war ...we did provide chemical weapons and biological weapons to Saddam Hussein as he was fighting in that long war with Iran. And we did this, it's been well publicized,” she said.

More @ Alalam

Three Felonies A Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent

Horace recommends this book 

 

 

The average professional in this country wakes up in the morning, goes to work, comes home, eats dinner, and then goes to sleep, unaware that he or she has likely committed several federal crimes that day. Why? The answer lies in the very nature of modern federal criminal laws, which have exploded in number but also become impossibly broad and vague. 

 

In Three Felonies a Day, Harvey A. Silverglate reveals how federal criminal laws have become dangerously disconnected from the English common law tradition and how prosecutors can pin arguable federal crimes on any one of us, for even the most seemingly innocuous behavior. The volume of federal crimes in recent decades has increased well beyond the statute books and into the morass of the Code of Federal Regulations, handing federal prosecutors an additional trove of vague and exceedingly complex and technical prohibitions to stick on their hapless targets. 

 

The dangers spelled out in Three Felonies a Day do not apply solely to “white collar criminals,” state and local politicians, and professionals. No social class or profession is safe from this troubling form of social control by the executive branch, and nothing less than the integrity of our constitutional democracy hangs in the balance.

 

@ Amazon

NC: Invasion of lionfish could impact local anglers

Chuck Winne had a great day of spear fishing, taking 27 lionfish off an Atlantic reef in a single dive. He dives often with the Lionfish Safari Club, an informal dive group taking up the cause of lionfish eradication.

I sure miss Spearfishing.

TARBORO — Are lionfish quickly becoming a nuisance and threatening our native North Carolina reef fish populations?  Those experts in the marine sciences give an emphatic yes.  The nagging question begging an answer is what to do about it.

Known in the scientific community as Pterois volitans, lionfish are typically one-pound, foot-long, reef bottom feeders with venomous spines that have no natural predators, and are starting to overpopulate, damaging the ecological balance of the reefs off our North Carolina coast.

Could this be an ecological disaster that will resonate in due time in the commercial and sport fishing community?  Absolutely.  Experts theorize lionfish will continue to multiply greatly and impact reef life negatively.

More @ The Daily Southerner

The many astounding coincidences of Obama........?

Via avordvet

 Any one of these 'coincidences' when taken singularly appear to not mean much, but when taken as a whole, a computer would blow a main circuit if you asked it to calculate the odds that they have occurred by chance alone. Sit back, get a favorite beverage, and then read and ponder the Obama-related 'coincidences' ... then super-impose the bigger picture of most recent events i.e. Fast and furious, Benghazi, the IRS scandal and the NSA revelations ... then pray for our country.

Obama just happened to know 60's far-left radical revolutionary William Ayers, whose father just happened to be Thomas Ayers, who just happened to be a close friend of Obama’s communist mentor Frank Marshall Davis, who just happened to work at the communist-sympathizing Chicago Defender with Vernon Jarrett, who just happened to later become the father-in-law of Iranian-born leftist Valerie Jarrett, who Obama just happened to choose as his closest White House advisor, and who just happened to have been CEO of Habitat Company, which just happened to manage public housing in Chicago, which just happened to get millions of dollars from the Illinois state legislature, and which just happened not to properly maintain the housing—which eventually just happened to require demolition.

Valerie Jarrett also just happened to work for the city of Chicago, and just happened to hire Michelle LaVaughan Robinson (later Mrs.Obama), who just happened to have worked at the Sidley Austin law firm, where former fugitive from the FBI Bernardine Dohrn also just happened to work, and where Barack Obama just happened to get a summer job.

More @ Birther Report

Man shoots, kills would-be robber after returning Redbox movie

Via Equal Force

 

A man was attacked on Tuesday evening in north Houston after stopping to return a movie at the Redbox outside of McDonald's.

According to investigators, he got back in his car and was approached by at least two suspects who attempted to steal his car.

He was forced out of the vehicle and pushed down. The victim had a gun on him and he fired at the suspects. He killed one of the robbers and wounded one of the other suspects who got away.
Police did not release any other information regarding the case.

More @ KVUE

AZ School District Pulls Sexually Explicit Book Recommended by Common Core Standards

An Arizona school district has pulled from its reading list a sexually explicit novel that is recommended as an "exemplar text" in the Common Core Standards. Parents and community members at Buena High School in Sierra Vista, Arizona expressed concern about the novel Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia.

According to the Sierra Vista Herald, school district curriculum director Terri Romo informed the school board Tuesday that she contacted the Arizona Department of Education to find out how the book came to be placed on the list of Common Core recommendations. Romo said she was told the "exemplar texts" are intended to show the correct reading level and are not recommendations for purchase.

Conservative grass-roots consultants Voices Empower, founded by Alice Linahan, reported that one Buena High School mother sent the following email:

    Below is a picture and an excerpt out of the book Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia.

    This is a 10th grade literature book that was used in my son’s class at Buena High School in Sierra Vista, Arizona. The whole class read this book out loud during class. Everyone in the class had a copy of this book.

On the Voices Empower website, the parent provides screen shots of the book, showing the Buena High School bar code on the cover and page 80 of the book that contains the following excerpt [Note: Caution advised - graphic text follows]:

More @ Breitbart

Student Protesters Rip 2,977 American Flags Out of Ground at 9/11 Memorial

More than 200 colleges and high schools across the nation participated in Young America's Foundation's 9/11: Never Forget Project. Students came together to establish an American flag memorial on campus consisting of 2,977 flags representing each person murdered in the terrorist attacks. Unfortunately, five student protesters at Middlebury College ripped the flags out of the ground before 3:00 pm.

The 9/11: Never Forget Project has been an annual nonpartisan event at Middlebury College for the past ten years. By participating in the 9/11: Never Forget Project, students honor the victims of the attacks, as well as honor the American principles for which they died.

Middlebury student groups spent nearly two hours setting up the flag display yesterday morning. The protesters told Ben Kinney, president of the conservative club on campus, they were "confiscating" the flags in protest of "America's imperialism."

More @ Breitbart

Assad: Will finalize deal if US stops suppling rebels with weapons.

Via avordvet

 

 Syrian President Bashar Assad said Thursday that his government would put its chemical weapons under international supervision within a month after it signs the UN Chemical Weapons Convention, but only if the United States stops its “policy of threats.”

“Syria will send an appeal to the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in a few days. [The appeal] will have the technical documents necessary to sign the agreement,” Assad said in an interview with Rossiya-24 television.

“These are standard procedures, and we will follow them,” he added, speaking in Arabic with a Russian translation.

Assad emphasized, however, that Syria would not follow such procedures unilaterally while facing US threats and international support of rebel forces.

“When we see that the US genuinely stands for stability in our region, stops threatening us with military intervention and stops supplying terrorists with weapons, then we will consider it possible to finalize all necessary procedures and they will become legitimate and acceptable for Syria,” he said.

More @ Rianovosti

Video from Afghanistan consulate attack

Via avordvet

Militants carried out a brazen attack on the U.S. Consulate in the western Afghan city of Herat early Friday, killing two policemen and injuring dozens of other people, including civilians, according to local officials.

No Americans were believed to be among those hurt. The attackers were all reported to have been killed.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which started just before sunrise with a suicide car bombing approximately 60 yards from the consulate entrance, followed by gunfire from militants attempting to enter the compound.

More @ LA Times

Is War Now "Inevitable"

Via avordvet


In a moment of surprising clarity, Deutsche Bank's Jim Reid pointed out what is largely taboo in the financial industry - the truth. "Looking back, real GDP growth in the US through the latter half of the 2000s and the 2010s has been at the lowest levels since the cyclically scarred decades of the Great Depression and the First World War."

What is amusing, is the constant state of shock of supposedly serious people who are stunned that despite the Fed being constantly in the markets, and buying up trillions in securities, the US economy has not responded in a favorable manner. Of course, nobody has pointed out that if all it took to generate growth out of thin air without consequences was for the Fed to print, i.e., monetize debt, this would have started 100 years ago in 1913, and by now the US economy would be so advanced it would be colonizing Uranus. Logic, however, is not a Keynesian economist's best friend.

That said, the reasons surrounding the lack of US growth are secondary for the time being. A bigger question is what happens from here, now that even respected banks, and even ivory tower economists have admitted that QE has been a complete failure for the broader economy, and the common American, benefiting only the uber-wealthy. Which leads us to a different topic. Syria.

More @ Zero Hedge

We're about done asking nicely with our words...

 

There is an interesting article linked at Drudge that talks about a group of counties in Western Maryland in which a Citizen group is seeking to split from Maryland and form their own state.  What is interesting is that this concept is cropping up across America.  There are several places across the country working to separate, peacefully, from their current state and form a new political entity at the state level that allows them to govern themselves according to their ideals.

Maryland is truly four different states.  The western mountain area is "Red".  The Eastern Shore is Red (farmland and watermen).  "Southern Maryland" is made up of Calvert County (Where I grew up on the waters of the Chesapeake with watermen and farmers), Charles and St. Maries counties.  That area is Red.  Then you have the center of the state from Montgomery County out to Baltimore, which is as Blue as it gets in America.  The Blue folks in Maryland are AT LEAST as Blue as New York and California Marxists.

Now, read this one quote from the author of the Maryland article:  I don't know about anyone else around here, but I'd have a hard time giving up Western Maryland. It's too nice for a bunch of grumps.

It is important to note that the author does not live in any of the counties that would be breaking away.  Yet, he'd "...have a hard time giving up Western Maryland..."

He believes it is his to give or not.

More @ III Percent Patriots

John Kerry vs. Sergei Lavrov: Round 1

 

Our Secretary of State and famous traitor, John Kerry, is in Europe now negotiating the future of the Middle East with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

The Diplomad, who has had personal dealings with Lavrov, describes him as follows:

 "Kerry will find Lavrov a humorless, extremely intelligent, worldly, intensely patriotic Russian nationalist with a deep envy of and resentment for the United States and the West. He holds the classic Russian view that the world, lead by the insufferably arrogant Americans, conspires against Russia to deny it the respect and status it deserves. Lavrov, a professional who speaks several languages, and works non-stop, sees his life's mission as restoring Russia's rightful place in the upper echelons of the world's hierarchy."

Meanwhile, our "hero," John Kerry is reporting for duty.  Again, The Diplomad puts his two cents worth in:

More @ The Daily Timewaster

Putin Makes Obama Pay a High Price for Syria Escape

 

 Kerry begins his negotiations with his Russian counterpart today, and any idea that the US was going to strike has evaporated. Obama is inert, rendering Kerry’s threats empty. As Putin’s op-ed shows, the old game can still be quite effective.

****************************

John Kerry can finally say he knows how Richard Nixon felt.

Kerry rose to power because of his leading role in the American antiwar movement of the 1970s. His testimony accusing, sometimes 99% wrongly, American soldiers of atrocities in Vietnam launched a political career that took him to the Senate, the Democratic nomination for the presidency and, now, to the top post in President Obama’s cabinet.

Vladimir Putin rose to power because of his service in the KGB, which in the 1970s was trying to exploit and manipulate the American antiwar movement. We know that while Kerry and others on the left were comparing American troops to Genghis Kahn and throwing their medals away, the KGB was working overtime to infiltrate antiwar groups and overtly propagandizing with the same messages embraced by American liberals.

Kerry has certainly changed his tune. It would appear that Putin has not.

More @ Fox

Matt Drudge eviscerates 'fascist' Dianne Feinstein

'Declaring who qualifies for freedom of press is ridiculous!' New-media pioneer Matt Drudge called Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a “fascist” after she suggested only “real reporters” deserved protection under a new media-shield law.

“Comments from Sen. Feinstein yesterday on who’s a reporter were disgusting,” Drudge tweeted, adding that a “17-year old ‘blogger’ is as important as Wolf Blitzer.”

“Fascist!” he declared.

Drudge, the owner and operator of the most successful news site on the Internet, took to Twitter to defend bloggers and to hammer the senator. 

More @ WND

Saudi Arabia sends 1300 prisoners sentenced to death to fight in Syria

Via Arctic Pilgrim

Pravo Slavie

VERBATIM

 

Riyadh, September 10, 2013

 

Saudi Arabia sent about 1300 prisoners sentenced to death to fight in Syria against the troops of the president of the republic Bashar Al-Assad. 

 

According to the website of the American newspaper USA Today, as early as in April this year the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Saudi Arabia offered 1239 prisoners, sentenced to death penalty, pardon and monthly payment of money to their families in exchange for participation in combat operations in Syria. 

The newspaper notes that among prisoners sent to struggle with the regime of Assad there were citizens of Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Pakistan, Somali, Sudan, Syria, Kuwait and Yemen. All of them had been sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia for murders, sexual assaults, and spreading of drugs. 

Sedmitza.ru