Gary Johnson: Less freedom doesn’t make anyone safer

Friends,

Why is it that Government almost always responds to a crisis or tragedy by attacking the rights and privacy of law-abiding citizens? 

After 9/11, we got the Patriot Act, which put into motion one of the most unpatriotic attacks on the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and individual liberty in our lifetimes.  Everything from our phones to our emails to even our library cards and bank accounts became the government’s “business”.  Under this continuing attack, the NDAA and other laws have taken us to a point where citizens can be detained indefinitely and, in fact, assassinated in the name of protecting us.

Now, in the aftermath of Newtown and other recent tragic and senseless crimes, Obama and his friends in Congress are reacting by -- you guessed it -- doing two basic things:  First, they are rolling out Executive Orders and legislation to further chip away at a Second Amendment that even the Supreme Court has ruled grants us individual rights to keep and bear arms to protect ourselves.  And second, they are clamoring for deeper and broader background checks and looking for ways to get more information about our “mental health”. 

In short, their solution is more government, less freedom for us, and more of our information going into massive government databases.  Somebody has to say: STOP.

Somebody has to speak the truth and stand up for the fact that, even in the wake of despicable criminal acts, less freedom for us and more power for government does NOT MAKE ANYONE IN AMERICA SAFER. 

Speaking these truths -- and mobilizing Americans who don’t want to let an ever-growing government take away more of their freedoms -- is the entire idea behind the Our America Initiative, of which I am the Honorary Chairman.

Today, it is the Second Amendment and our privacy.  Tomorrow, it will be greater government control of the Internet.  And in the weeks ahead, it will be critical decisions about the debt ceiling and whether Washington will finally have the guts to cut spending and face the reality of an unsustainable $16 Trillion debt. 

My intent as the Honorary Chairman is to help the Our America Initiative defend our liberty and our economic freedom from the nonstop attacks by the government.  But we need your help as well.  Our planned campus tours, advertising, media appearances and events all require the financial support of friends and activists such as you.

We have worked very hard to put an organization in place that can have a very real impact on the public and policy debates of the day -- but not without your help. 

I am more convinced than ever that America is ready to reject Big Government as the solution to all our problems, and return to the idea that a strong and prosperous America is one where freedom and liberty are valued and protected -- not taken away by the politicians.

I hope you will take a moment to go to www.OurAmericaInitative.com today and make a contribution that will help us give liberty a voice in the conversation as the politicians make decisions that will shape our futures for decades to come.  You have my personal assurance that your contribution will be used wisely and carefully to give voice to the principles and concerns we share.

Since the Our America Initiative is a non-partisan advocacy organization, contributions are not limited and can be accepted from not only individuals, but also corporations and other organizations.  Every dollar counts! Please contribute today at www.OurAmericaInitative.com, or send your check to the address below.

Our America Initiative

PO Box 1985

Salt Lake City, UT 84110-1985

I hope to hear from you soon.  We have a lot of work to do!

Thanks,

Governor Gary Johnson

Honorary Chairman

Our America Initiative

P.S.  Check out CafePress.com/OurAmerciaInitiative for some great gear, posters, etc. from Our America!

The Atheist Response to Sandy Hook

By Dennis Prager

Last week the New York Times published an opinion piece that offered atheism's response to the evil/tragedy in which 20 children and six adults were murdered at the Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut.

What prompted Susan Jacoby to write her piece was a colleague telling her that atheism "has nothing to offer when people are suffering."

She wrote the piece, "The Blessings of Atheism" ("It is Here and It is Now!" screams the subhead) to prove her colleague wrong by offering a consoling atheist alternative to religion's consoling belief in an afterlife. Atheists cannot believe that there is any existence other than this life. But, Jacoby insists, atheists can still offer consolation to people who lose loved ones, such as the parents whose children were murdered at Sandy Hook.

It is meant as no disrespect to this well regarded writer that her piece provides one of the finest illustrations of the intellectual and emotional emptiness at the heart of atheism. Jacoby's piece actually confirms her colleague's assessment.

Jacoby offers a quote from Robert Green Ingersoll, who died in 1899. He "was one of the most famous orators of his generation, [and] personified this combination of passion and rationality. Called 'The Great Agnostic '... he also frequently delivered secular eulogies at funerals and offered consolation that he clearly considered an important part of…

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Source: Town Hall

Pat Buchanan: America’s Coming Gun War

Eight days after the massacre of 20 first-graders at Sandy Hook Elementary, where each child was shot with a Bushmaster .223, The Nation's Gun Show, the biggest east of the Mississippi, opened.

"A line already snaked around the building shortly after the three-day event began at 3 p.m., and the parking lot was jammed" at the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly, Va., wrote Justin Jouvenal of The Washington Post:

"With an AK-47 slung over one shoulder, Marco Hernandez offered one word when asked why he was in the overflow crowd at the gun show."

"Obama," he said. "I wouldn't be here if it weren't for the possible gun ban."

And this is the story across America since Sandy Hook.

The weapon most in demand at Chantilly?

The AR-15 black rifle, a version of which was used to slaughter the innocents in Newtown. At Chantilly, their price doubled in hours to $1,800. Gun stores have sold out their inventory.

Yet for weeks after Sandy Hook, journalists and politicians from the president to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who were making the case for a new assault weapons ban, dominated the airwaves. Those calling for reinstatement of the ban that was in effect from 1994 to 2004 had the national audience almost entirely to themselves.

The National Rifle Association was largely silent. Not until nine…

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Source: Town Hall

Reward Offers in USAID Murders Case

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The U.S. Department of State’s Rewards for Justice program is offering rewards for information on two individuals involved in the January 1, 2008 murders of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) diplomat John Granville and USAID employee Abdelrahman Abbas Rahama.

The Department has authorized rewards of up to $5 million each for information leading to the capture of Abdelbasit Alhaj Alhasan Haj Hamad and Mohamed Makawi Ibrahim Mohamed, two of five individuals convicted in Sudan for the murders.

Granville, a U.S. citizen, and Abbas, a Sudanese national, were leaving a New Year’s Eve celebration in Khartoum, Sudan, when gunmen opened fire on their car, killing both of them. Granville worked on democracy and governance programs for USAID. He was credited with being the driving force behind the distribution of over 200,000 solar-powered radios used to inform citizens in remote areas of Sudan of their rights and responsibilities under the historic 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement and subsequent 2010 national elecions. Abbas was born in Juba, now the capital of South Sudan, and began his USAID career in 2004 as one of the original members of the USAID Disaster Assistance Response Team for Darfur.

Five men were tried and convicted in 2009 by a Sudanese court for their involvement in the murders. Four of those men – including Abdelbasit and Makawi -- were convicted of murder and sentenced to death but escaped from prison on June 10, 2010, before their sentences could be carried out. Of the four escapees, one was recaptured. A second was reportedly killed in Somalia in May 2011. Abdelbasit and Makawi remain at large and are believed to be in Somalia.

Makawi had ties to the Sudan-based terrorist organization al-Qaida in the Land of the Two Niles, which conspired to attack other U.S., Western, and Sudanese targets. He was the leader of the attack that killed Granville and Abbas and was identified as one of the gunmen. Makawi was born in 1984 in Sudan and speaks English and Arabic.

Abdelbasit was the second shooter in the attack. He was born in Sudan and has used birthdates in 1979 and 1983. He also speaks English and Arabic.

More information about these individuals is located on the Rewards for Justice web site at www.rewardsforjustice.net. We encourage anyone with information on these individuals to contact the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate, or the Rewards for Justice office via the website (www.rewardsforjustice.net), e-mail (RFJ@state.gov), or mail (Rewards for Justice, Washington, DC 20520-0303, USA). All information will be kept strictly confidential.

The Rewards for Justice program is administered by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security. Since its inception in 1984, the program has paid more than $125 million to more than 80 persons who provided actionable information that put terrorists behind bars or prevented acts of international terrorism worldwide.

Good Guys With Guns

By Ashley Herzog

The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.

That statement, from NRA president Wayne LaPierre, was immediately turned into a laugh line by the press, deemed everything from “deadly spin” to “delusional” to “paranoid.” The New York Daily News proclaimed that anti-gun cranks—oops, I mean “mental health experts”—who had never met LaPierre had diagnosed him as crazy.

As someone who went to journalism school and has worked in media for years, I’m used to this. Left-leaning editors and reporters declare what “everyone” knows and “everyone” thinks, while pretending to be objective. Their preferred method of slanting the news is covering stories that bolster their worldview while completely ignoring others. Because whether the “good guy” is a police officer or a private citizen, LaPierre’s statement is absolutely true—and several incidents ignored by the media prove it.

Two days after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, a San Antonio man burst into the Mayan 14 movie theater and began shooting, “sending panicked moviegoers rushing to exits and ducking for cover,” according to MySanAntonio.com. But instead of becoming the next James Holmes, the suspect was shot by an off-duty cop. Unlike the Aurora theater shooting, the incident ended with only two wounded—thanks to a good guy with a gun.

How many of you have…

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Source: Town Hall

Of Murder, Gun Rights, and the Cry for Morality

By Elissa Roberson

Last Wednesday, President Obama announced the creation of a new gun violence “task force” that would immediately suggest policy changes concerning gun control in America after careful review of current laws and recent events. This new effort by the White House is to be lead by Vice President Joe Biden and comes soon after the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting, of which President Obama noted as a “wake-up call for all of us” in America. While this doesn’t necessarily come as a surprise to most Americans (particularly gun owners who have long been suspicious of where Obama stands concerning the NRA), many liberals are considering this a victory after a massive debate on run rights sparked heated conversations that even spread into the Twittersphere within hours of the Newtown shooting. There is even a discussion of mental health issues as people question how someone could do such a horrible thing at an elementary school.

Through these heated debates and often petty insults being thrown from both conservatives and liberals, it seems as though Americans are trying to lay blame in seeking justice for the innocent children and women whose lives were so horrifically and suddenly ended. Obviously both sides agree this tragedy shouldn’t have happened, however, both sides have failed to come up with a viable solution and failing to see what is truly at the heart of this matter. Many liberals believe it is a matter of needing stricter gun control laws with the idea that if fewer, “less responsible” people have guns the majority will be safer or more easily protected by law enforcement while many conservatives say that by removing guns the society at large will not have the ability to protect themselves and that this is a mental health issue in that parents or responsible adults shouldn’t keep guns and weaponry accessible to those who may not be mentally stable. I disagree on both counts.

Let me be clear: the…

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Source: The College Conservative