Protecting Police More Important Than Helping Donors

For Release: July 26, 2007
Contact: David Almasi at (202) 543-4110 x11 or dalmasi@nationalcenter.org


Protecting Police Officers More Important Than Helping Political Donors, Group Says

Washington, D.C. - Congress should not put the lives of law enforcement officials at risk to benefit its trial lawyer contributors, says Deneen Borelli of the national black group Project 21.

Congress is now considering overturning the Tiahrt Amendment, a measure that restricts certain gun data from being shared outside of the law enforcement community. Project 21 members are opposing any action that allows trial lawyers, politicians, criminals and others from accessing federal gun trace information.

"The only possible purpose served by overturning the Tiahrt Amendment is to aid the anti-gun lobby and make it easier for trial lawyers to sue gun manufacturers," said Project 21 fellow Deneen Borelli. "Killing the Tiahrt Amendment would also be a great thing for criminals. Not only could they learn they are the subject of an investigation, but also the identity of special agents and informants."

The Tiahrt Amendment - named after its chief sponsor, Representative Todd Tiahrt (R-KS) - was first enacted in 2003. It amends the appropriations legislation that funds the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) to restrict the sharing of the contents of the Firearms Trace System that is administered by the BATFE's National Trace Center. Under the terms of the amendment, data regarding guns involved in crimes is restricted to domestic and foreign law enforcement and prosecutors as it relates to the investigation and prosecution of specific crimes and for national security, intelligence and counterterrorism purposes. Trace data is also inadmissible in evidence and cannot be subpoenaed.

Project 21's Borelli added: "I am a gun owner. I was appalled when a local newspaper decided to publish my name and the names of other registered gun owners in my area. It was an outrageous violation of my privacy rights. Overturning the Tiahrt Amendment could allow this violation of privacy and safety to occur on a larger and more dangerous scale."

The origin of the Tiahrt Amendment comes from a 2002 court decision that allowed trial lawyers to access the BATFE's trace data to gather information for potential lawsuits against gun manufacturers. Dave Kopel of the Independence Institute has also written about how trace data has been used by special interest groups to overstate gun violence figures.

Amendment supporters also want to protect the confidentiality of the federal database because the release of some information contained in it may compromise investigations and reveal the identities of undercover officers. The Fraternal Order of Police supports the Tiahrt Amendment "because of our concern for the safety of law enforcement officers and the integrity of law enforcement investigations." In 2006, then-BATFE director Carl J. Truscott said the Amendment "protects... sensitive data from indiscriminate disclosure."

Project 21, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization sponsored by the National Center for Public Policy Research, has been a leading voice of the African-American community since 1992. For more information, contact David Almasi at (202) 543-4110 x11 or dalmasi@nationalcenter.org, or visit Project 21's website at www.project21.org/P21Index.html.

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National Center for Public Policy

501 Capitol Court, N.E.
Washington, D.C. 20002
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Gingrich Jabs at GOP Pursuing 2008 White House Nod

Monday, July 23, 2007

FOX NEWS

WASHINGTON — From a safe distance on the sidelines, Newt Gingrich on Monday attacked the lot of 2008 GOP presidential candidates, comparing Republicans to "pygmies" and calling them trained seals.

Speaking at a breakfast sponsored by the conservative magazine The American Spectator and reported by The Examiner, Gingrich said he could be forced into the race if Republicans don't demonstrate leadership and it then becomes "patently obvious, as the morning paper points out, that the Democrats have raised a hundred million more than the Republicans, and at some point people decide we are going to get Hillary (Clinton) unless there's a radical change."

Gingrich said the collected group of reporters will know "by mid-October" which "one of those two futures is real."

Asked whether he could be elected, given his tumultuous turn as House speaker, Gingrich said, "This is like going to (Charles) De Gaulle when he was at Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises during the Fourth Republic and saying, 'Don't you want to rush in and join the pygmies?'"

(Thanks to the rise and fall of the late French president's fortunes, Colombey, De Gaulle's home and grave site, is known metaphorically as the place to where a politician retreats before being asked to serve his country again.)

Gingrich, who Friday told The Associated Press that "I've always said it was unlikely I would run," suggested that if former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson jumps in the race and does well, it would make "it easier for me to not run."

"On the other hand," he said, "just given what you've seen with McCain the last few months, how can you predict?"

While maintaining his blasé attitude toward the 2008 election on Monday, the former Georgia congressman also took another shot at John McCain for the Arizona senator's namesake campaign finance reform law that closed the door to soft money and opened it to 527s and other independent fundraising groups.

"I have no interest in the current political process. I have no interest in trying to figure out how I can go out and raise money under John McCain's insane censorship rules so I can show up to do seven minutes and twenty seconds at some debate."

Speaking of debates, Gingrich also slammed the format and the candidates for becoming pawns to MSNBC commentator Chris Matthews.

"You're watching an utterly irrelevant, shallow television celebrity dominate everybody who claimed they want to lead the most powerful nation in the world," he said, adding that he refused to "shrink to the level of 40-second answers, standing like a trained seal, waiting for someone to throw me a fish."

Analyst: GOP presidential poll shows indecision among primary voters

Jim Brown
OneNewsNow.com
July 23, 2007

If the Republican presidential primary were a multiple-choice quiz, the answer would be "none of the above." That's according to a new Associated Press-Ipsos poll.

The poll states that 23 percent of likely GOP primary voters are not saying whom they will support in 2008. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is polling at 21 percent, which gives him a narrow two-point lead over former Senator Fred Thompson (R-Tennessee), who has yet to officially enter the race. Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) is at 15 percent, while former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is at 11 percent.

Political analyst Genevieve Wood of the Heritage Foundation believes Republican voters are more undecided than dissatisfied. "This is the first time in a long time, certainly since I can remember, that you have this many legitimate first-tier, frontrunner-type of candidates. Primaries are six months away -- why make people pick now?" questions Wood.

Wood contends most voters are still evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the top-tier candidates.

"I think it's difficult for people who haven't really studied them, who haven't lined up early against one candidate, to now say all of a sudden, 'Oh, it's Thompson over McCain' or 'It's Romney over Giuliani,'" says Wood.

Wood acknowledges that there might be some differences between the candidates -- on the hot button issue of abortion, for example. "But each of them has a strong suit that I think make people take a second look," the analyst observes. She says voters who lined up early behind Giuliani and Romney are now contemplating whether to throw their support behind Thompson.

At this point, Wood believes the race is wide open -- and that, she adds, is a good thing for hopefuls like former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kansas), who have enough funding and name recognition to stay in the race. As she puts it: "It is not clear who's going to come away with this."

Cuyahoga County Republican Party's Anti-Gun Platform

This was cross posted from King's Right Site.



I received a letter in the mail today from, Jim Irvine, Chairman of Buckeye Firearms Association, regarding the proposed RPCC Platform

In it he asks fellow Central Committee members for their support in defeating this anti-freedom platform, and inserting strong language in support of your Second Amendment rights

I will be posting more on the proposed RPCC platform in the next day or so, and will include some of the email comments. For varying reasons, many RPCC Central Committee members are voicing their opposition.

In a post on their site, Buckeye Firearms points out how the home rule language in the proposed platform is in direct conflict with strong statement sent by every Republican member of the House in the the overide of Gov. Taft on HB 347.

Click on the links below to read the whole post and the letters sent to all RPCC Central Committee members and RPCC Chairman Rob Frost -







By Jim Irvine

The Cuyahoga County Republican Party is holding a meeting on Wednesday, July 25th to adopt the party platform. A platform is a basic template of ideas the party openly supports. Candidates are encouraged (sometimes pressured) to take positions in agreement with the platform, though they are not required to be 100% in agreement.

The draft which has been sent to Central Committee members for approval contains shocking and disturbing goals for gun owners. They seek to “Oppose the efforts to curtail constitutional home rule in such areas as…gun control…

”Buckeye Firearms Association will work with our friends within the party to defeat this dangerous plank. More....

Want to Pay $10 in Tax on Your Next Cigar?

From Gary Manelski,
Your Guide to Cigars.
Stay up to date!

http://cigars.about.com/b/a/256161.htm

 

No, the headline is not a joke, it is an actual proposal from our U.S. Senate Finance Committee. To fund an expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, the federal excise tax on cigars could be raised from $.05 per cigar to a maximum of $10 per cigar. If the proposal is adopted, the new tax rate on large cigars will be 53.13% of the selling price, which is a monumental increase from the current five cents per cigar. When you do the math, the tax on a cigar costing $18.82 or more would be $10. The tax on a modestly priced $5 cigar would be $2.66.

The full Senate may consider the measure as soon as next week, so the time to act is now! Unless you want to pay a substantial amount more for your next cigar, contact the U.S. Senators for your State today, and voice your opposition to the proposed SCHIP legislation. Or better yet, put it on video.

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Reject RPCC Platform

I am cross posting the link to my post at King's Right Site regarding the "Platform of Defeat" proposed by the RPCC.

http://kingsrightsite.blogspot.com/2007/07/rpcc-platform-should-be-rejected.html

Flynt is tracking 20 congressional sex scandal leads

By Elana Schor, The Hill

July 11, 2007

Larry Flynt, the porn-industry magnate who first linked Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) to the escort service of the "D.C. Madam," said Wednesday that his investigators are tracking more than 20 leads on alleged congressional sex scandals. As Vitter remained missing in action for two Senate votes on defense policy, Flynt insisted that he exposed the conservative lawmaker's sexual indiscretions only because they contradicted Vitter's longtime defense of the "sanctity of marriage." "If someone's living a life contrary to the way they're advocating ... then they become fair game," Flynt told reporters. "I don't want a man like that legislating for me, especially in the area of morality." In addition to the phone records of "D.C. Madam" Deborah Jeane Palfrey, accused of prostitution and racketeering by federal authorities, Flynt is mining responses to an ad he placed last month in The Washington Post. The ad promised a million-dollar reward for anyone providing evidence of illicit encounters with members of Congress. The 20-plus new leads, Flynt said, come from the newspaper ad and not Palfrey. The Hustler publisher, arrested and jailed multiple times during his decades-long career, vowed to provide clear proof and only out lawmakers whom he perceives to be hypocrites. "You guys always know, [from] the past, I deliver," Flynt said. "And if I fail to, the mainstream media will crush me like a bug." The Vitter scandal has touched off new anxiety among Republicans over whether their party will pay the price for members who fail to live up to their moral principles. Flynt, an unabashed Democrat, acknowledged that the GOP provides him with easier targets. "Republicans are more fun because they get caught so easily," Flynt said. "They've been living a repressed life all their life. Democrats are liberal — they wear it on their sleeve. Their sex life is what it is. They don't spend their whole life trying to cover it up." Flynt released the particular wireless phone bill containing Vitter's phone number on Palfrey's calling list, confirming that the Louisianan contacted the escort service while serving in the House. Flynt also claimed to have testimony from five New Orleans prostitutes about their sexual encounters with Vitter, adding that that quintet would likely share the $1 million bounty with Palfrey.

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Tancredo: Donation from Planned Parenthood physician reflects immigration stance

Chad Groening
OneNewsNow.com

Presidential candidate Tom Tancredo says he won't return a campaign donation from a medical doctor who has ties to Planned Parenthood. The Colorado congressman says the donation had nothing to do with abortion, but rather the physician's support of Tancredo's immigration policy.

Recently the Sam Brownback campaign sent out an e-mail saying Tancredo accepted thousands of dollars in donations from Dr. John Tanton, the founder of the Northern Michigan Planned Parenthood Association. But Tancredo says Tanton's donation is related to the doctor's affiliation with the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). In fact, FAIR's website says Tanton is the original founder of the organization.

"John Tanton is on the board of FAIR. His issue is immigration," says Tancredo. "He supports me because of my position on immigration, and he certainly doesn't ever ask me to do anything even remotely connected with the issue of abortion -- because he knows, of course, how I feel." A senior advisor to the Tancredo campaign describes the candidate's pro-life record as "unassailable."

Tancredo says he is disappointed that Senator Brownback (R-Kansas) is trying to imply that accepting the donation means he somehow supports abortion. "[O]f course I have a longer record of pro-life commitment than does Senator Brownback," says the Colorado lawmaker. "My record on abortion is as pure and clean as one could be in opposition to it."

He argues that returning the campaign contribution would suggest that it somehow had sway on his abortion position. "If I were to give this money back, there would be some indication that I believed it had some influence over me," says Tancredo, "but of course, I know why he's supports me, and it's got nothing to do with that."

Tancredo says he wonders how Brownback can possibly know all of the people that support his campaign financially and if they are people with whom he is in total agreement.

All Original Content Copyright 2006-2007 American Family News Network - All Rights Reserved

Holy See says immigrants rights and duties go together

Brussels, Jul 11, 2007 / 10:15 am (CNA).- Speaking at the Global Forum on Migration in Brussels, Belgium, Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples said that the human dignity and freedoms of immigrants must be respected.

The Global Forum is an initiative that is being sponsored by the United Nations to build a more cohesive and uniform approach to policies on migration and development among its member nations.

Addressing those gathered in English, the archbishop recalled how "migrants contribute to their host country's well-being, and also because of this their human dignity must be respected and their freedoms guaranteed: the right to a dignified life, to fair treatment at work, to have access to education, health and other social benefits, to grow in competence and develop humanly, to freely manifest their culture and practice their religion.

At the same time, the archbishop was sure not to neglect the responsibilities of migrants either. "Rights and duties go together." "Migrants have the duty to respect the identity and the laws of the country of residence, strive for proper integration (not assimilation) into the host society and learn its language. They are to foster esteem and respect for their host country, even to the point of loving and defending it.

In a remark that is particularly relevant in the United States, the archbishop addressed the issue of illegal immigrants. "Unfortunately, among them there are immigrants in an irregular situation, who, however, independently of their legal status, have inalienable human dignity. Therefore their rights must be safeguarded and not ignored or violated."

"An irregular migration status, in fact, does not mean criminality. The solution is better international cooperation that discourages irregularity, with increased legal channels for migration."

Archbishop Marchetto concluded his talk by renewing the call made by the Pope in his Message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees for "governments who have not yet done so, to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and the Members of their Families."

Missouri bans Planned Parenthood from school sex ed classes

Jefferson City, July 11 (CNA).-Missouri Governor Matt Blunt signed a bill into law this week that reclassifies abortion clinics as "ambulatory surgical centers" and places them under stricter regulations and the scrutiny of state officials.

The law, promoted by Missouri Right to Life, permits abstinence-only sex-ed classes and makes it illegal for Planned Parenthood or other pro-abortion groups to teach school sex education classes. Currently Planned Parenthood teaches in up to 40 St. Louis-area schools, reported LifeSiteNews.com.

The new law is "one of the strongest pieces of pro-life legislation in Missouri history," said Blunt at the July 9 signing ceremony.

Planned Parenthood of Missouri complained that the new law will require them to spend up to $2 million to refit their abortion centers to meet the new standards.

Paula Gianino, president of Planned Parenthood for the St. Louis Region, said the new law could leave only one abortion facility in the state.

"I say if they can't meet the same basic requirements that other (medical) providers do, then they should shut down," Blunt stated.

Gianino told St. Louis Today that the group is considering legal action to stop the law from taking effect.

Democrats to name new Summit County Executive

Public meeting, panel vote Thursday at North High
By Katie Byard
Beacon Journal staff writer

The Summit County Democratic Central Committee will pick a new county executive
Thursday evening at Akron' s North High School.

So far , Summit County Councilman Tim Crawford and county Democratic Party Chair Russ Pry have expressed interest in the position. ''No one else is campaigning for it, though someone could still run that night,'' Pry said Tuesday. The winner will finish the term of the now-retired James McCarthy, and will have the option of running for election to a full four - year term in November 2008. McCarthy , 67, retired on June 30 after being the county's top official for nearly seven years.

Anyone seeking the job now must be nominated by a member of the central committee at Thursday's gathering. The committee will meet at 7 p.m. at North High , 985 Gorge Blvd . The meeting is
open to the public. Each candidate will be given five minutes to address the gathering . Committee members then will vote by secret ballot.

Th e votes should be tallied by 8 p.m., Pry said. Pry, who lives in A kron , said Tuesday that if he is not elected T hursday , he will not run in 2008. R ejection by committee members would mean ''I need to think about doing something else,'' Pr y said.

Crawford , D - N orton , said that if he does not win T hursday , he will run for the post in 2008 or seek re - election to his County Council seat. ''I'm still enjoying the political arena"

Greater Cleveland Young Republicans named nation's best

I've just received a test message from Ohio Young Republicans Chair, and former Greater Cleveland YR President Lisa Stickan, that the Young Republican National Federation's National Convention in Miami has named the Greater Cleveland Young Republicans "Best Large YR club" in the Nation.

As former President of the Greater Cleveland YR's and former Ohio YR chairman I couldn't be more proud.

Ron Lisy

Official GCYR website- http://www.clevelandyoungrepublicans.com/

GCYR's on MySpace- http://www.myspace.com/clevelandyrs