Is the (Tea) Party Over?

 

The recently-passed big-spending budget deal’s failure to generate significant opposition from the “tea party” has led some to pen obituaries for this once-powerful movement. These commentators may have a point. However, few of them understand the true causes of the tea party’s demise.

The movement commonly referred to as the tea party arose in opposition to the 2008 bank bailouts. 

The tea party grew as its focus shifted to opposition to President Obama’s policies, particularly his stimulus spending bill, cap-and-trade legislation, and, of course, the health care plan tea party leaders successfully branded as Obamacare. In its early days, the tea party was equally opposed to big spenders in both parties. In fact, it was often harder on Republicans than on Democrats. Tea party groups even backed primary challengers to Republican incumbents.

More @ Ron Paul Institute

Dems introduce bill banning assault weapons

Via Billy

Reps. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) and Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) formally introduced a bill on Monday to ban assault weapons.

The legislation, called the Assault Weapons Ban of 2018, was introduced less than two weeks after the mass shooting at a Parkland, Fla., high school that left 17 people dead. The gunman used an AR-15 assault weapon during the shooting, one of the many firearms that would be banned under the bill.

More @The Hill

Xuyen and Emily at 141 Tran Quy Cap, Saigon 1970

Sister-in-law and my first daughter

Virginia Ham & An Hindu

 Saigon, Paris Of The Orient

GOP’s Brian Mast: President Trump Must Enact Immediate ‘Temporary Ban’ on AR-15s

 

Breitbart

Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) is asking President Trump to enact an immediate “temporary ban” on AR-15 sales while Congress weighs whether to ban the rifles altogether.

Multiple Democrat Senators and Representatives are pushing an “assault weapons” ban and Rep. Mast used a February 25 Face the Nation appearance to push a specific ban on AR-15s as well.
Mast said,

We’ve seen a lot of shootings out there. We’ve seen what’s happened in Parkland, we’ve seen what happened in Las Vegas, we saw what happened in Orlando. And for me personally, it pains to know that I went out there, willing to defend my country, willing to give everything, with almost the exact same weapon that’s used to go out there and, unfortunately, kill children here in Parkland. And I think there’s very real opportunity here for response and for action.

It needs to be noted that an AR-15 is not “almost the exact same weapon” that Mast used. He used an M-16, which resembles an AR-15, but is fully automatic. M-16s have a selector switch on the left side of the rifle that allows military personnel to select their rate of fire–semi, full-auto, three round bursts–but an AR-15 is strictly semiautomatic. (Even an AR-15 with a bump stock only fires on round per each pull of the trigger.)

Nevertheless, Mast is pushing for a ban on AR-15s and, for now, is asking President Trump to put a “temporary ban” in place to give Congress time to act.

Masts suggests the temporary AR-15 ban be modeled after the terrorist travel ban. Of course, terrorists do not have a constitutional right to travel to our country but Americans posses a constitutional right to keep and bear arms that are in “common use” generation to generation.

Spencer Roane

 

“It has been our happiness to believe, that in the partition of powers between the general and State governments, the former possessed only such as were expressly granted, or passed therewith as necessary incidents, while all the residuary powers were reserved by the latter.”

--Spencer Roane

Had one-time friends John Adams and Thomas Jefferson not had such a high-profile and historic falling out, Spencer Roane would have been Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He was Jefferson’s pick, but Adams tapped his fellow nationalist John Marshall to occupy that powerful position.

As it was, Spencer Roane served on the highest court in his home state of Virginia and became one of Jefferson’s staunchest allies and one of the ablest defenders of federalism and the Constitution, including the concept commonly called “states’ rights.”

Roane was born on April 4, 1762 in Essex County, Virginia. Roane’s father was a member of the House of Burgesses until the War for Independence, at which time he joined the militia of the Old Dominion, rising to the rank of colonel.

More @ The Abbeville Institute

Brother Of Columbine Victim Speaks Out Against Gun Control

Dixieland From Drone

If You’re For Banning Guns To Save Kids But Still Support Abortion, You’re a Liar

Via John

Parkland First Responder: "Everything I was trained on mass casualty events says they did the wrong thing."

  Brian Entin‏Verified account @BrianEntin

I spoke with a seasoned emergency medical responder who was one of the first to the Stoneman shooting. He doesn't want me using his name for fear he will get fired. Here are his exact quotes. 

@wsvn

The Rot in American Law and Justice

Via Billy

The awful paralysis of four armed deputies, who sheltered outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School while inside, an unchallenged lunatic murdered children, should dwell in the national mind.

Whether it resulted from shared cowardice, bad orders, or poor training at the Department, Sheriff Scott Israel must account to his community and the report should inform the nation.

The atrocity in Parkland is the most recent and tragic of high profile failures in American law and justice. But it is not the most representative or troubling sign of rot in once-trusted institutions.

Recent events have revealed a long train of flawed officials with personal and political motives, engaging in conduct severed from Constitutional oaths, from ideals of service, and even from basic lawfulness and decency.

More @ Townhall