Oregon Initiative Seeks Assault Weapons Ban

In this Aug. 15, 2012 file photo, three variations of the AR-15 assault rifle are displayed at the California Department of  Justice in Sacramento, Calif. Rich Pedroncelli/AP Photo

UPDATE (9:10 a.m PT) — A proposal to ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines in Oregon has been submitted as a ballot initiative petition intended to prevent mass shootings.  Filed by an interfaith religious group in Portland, Initiative Petition 42 would also require legal gun owners to surrender or register their assault weapons or face felony charges, according to language released Tuesday.

The group said it aims to get enough signatures to put the measure before voters in the November general election. They would need 88,000 signatures by July 6 to get the measure on the ballot. The proposal defines an assault weapon as any semiautomatic rifle that has the capacity to accept a detachable magazine, and any feature like folding or telescoping stock, or that can accept more than 10 rounds of ammunition. Read the full article at the Statesman Journal. Read More......

Venezuela: This Is What Happens to A Disarmed Populace

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This picture hails from a recent article in the the atlantic.com. The fact the Venezuela has become another socialist dystopian nightmare is obvious to any who care to look. Even a far-left writer from The Washington Post interviewed for the article can see it. It’s no surprise that WaPo columnist Francisco Toro maintains that Venezuela now has a “right-wing” look to it:

It’s really difficult to get across how badly governed the country is. If you just describe what happens, [you sound] like a shrill, far-right-wing lunatic who’s describing some kind of Fox News dystopia. But, it’s like that. [The government has] taken over virtually all of the large companies. [It has] taken over most of the mid-size manufacturing companies—everything that makes something you might want to consume.

Read mpre at The Truth About Guns

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Hillary's Speech in India

Among the things she said:

If you look at the map of the United States, there is all that red in the middle, places where Trump won. What that map doesn’t show you is that I won the places that own two thirds of America’s Gross Domestic product. I won the places that are optimistic, diverse, dynamic, moving forward. And his whole campaign, Make America Great Again, was looking backwards. You don’t like black people getting rights, you don’t like women getting jobs, you don’t want to see that Indian American succeeding more than you are, whatever that problem is, I am going to solve it.

We do not do well with white men and we don’t do well with married, white women. And part of that is an identification with the Republican Party, and a sort of ongoing pressure to vote the way that your husband, your boss, your son, whoever, believes you should.

Read more at National Review

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Letter from John Detweiler re: School Bond and upcoming levy

As I read the documentation on the Corvallis School District website, the District wants to sell $200M in bonds to finance $192M in improvements specified in a list contained in the Long Range Facilities Plan Costs -- 1/11/18 as reduced by the School Board on 1/17/18. Selling $200M in bonds will result in a tax rate of $1.98/$1000 of assessed value. The improvements range from replacing whole buildings to creating or improving family support spaces. This fall Corvallis intends to ask the voter to fund an $8M local option levy that will result in a tax rate of $1.70/$1000. Both measures are designed to replace older measures and if approved will raise our taxes. If they are voted down, our property taxes will actually be reduced.

The voter should remember that Benton County is studying the criminal justice system. Next year we may be asked to fund a criminal justice center, and other facilities, replacing both the courthouse and jail. The voter needs to balance the value of school system improvements and city programs, with possible new criminal justice improvements, set priorities and make choices keeping in mind that they will pay for their choices either in property taxes or in rent.

I encourage the voter to vote down both the school bond and the upcoming levy, which can be scheduled for next year after the County completes its study. That way the voters can make choices according to their own priorities.

Read more at John H. Detweiler web page

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Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 Explained

The Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965, also known as the Hart-Celler Act, abolished an earlier quota system based on national origin and established a new immigration policy based on reuniting immigrant families and attracting skilled labor to the United States. Over the next four decades, the policies put into effect in 1965 would greatly change the demographic makeup of the American population, as immigrants entering the United States under the new legislation came increasingly from countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, as opposed to Europe.

Read more at History.com

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New ballot bids on taxes and PERS (Measures 31 & 32)

Ballot Measures 31 and 32 were unveiled in the Bend Bulletin Wednesday by John Davis, a former Republican House member from suburban Portland and a Portland-based partner of Lynch Conger McLane, which has its main office in Bend. Other partners include current House Republican leader Mike McLane and former Republican state House member Jason Conger.

Learn more at Bend Bulletin

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The Hill: With vote against Brownback, Democrats abandon religious freedom

While religious freedom has become a hot issue in the United States in recent years, it’s been an issue overseas for much longer — and has historically been a bipartisan issue. --Traditionally, Republicans and Democrats have been able to come together in protection of this human right, whether concerning Yezidis and Christians in the Middle East, Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, or Jews in France. Just over a year ago, President Obama signed into law the Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act, which among other things elevated the role of the United States’ ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom. --Yet with the confirmation vote on former Kansas Governor Sam Brownback to fill that very role, this consensus appears to have broken. Not one of 49 Senate Democrats voted for the man who was a former colleague to some, and Vice President Pence had to be called in to break the tie.

Read more at THE HILL

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'Impeach!' Preserves Dems' Midterm Goals

Barely a day goes by that Democrats don't demand President Trump's resignation -- or, if they're feeling particularly feisty, impeachment. It's such a routine cry of the Left that some Americans are probably tempted to yawn their way through the threats. But, as Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) tried to warn conservatives yesterday, there's nothing empty about them. --Gillibrand, who prided herself on taking down fellow Democrat Al Franken, thinks it's time to do the same to Donald Trump. Asked about the 10-year-old sexual allegations about the president, Gillibrand insisted, "I think he should resign, and if he's unwilling to do that – which is what I assume – then Congress should hold him accountable. We're obligated," she pressed, "to have hearings."

Read more at Family Research Council
h/t: Carolyn

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BOMBSHELL: New evidence suggests Charlottesville was a complete SET-UP

COMMENT: This may be called 'conspiracy theory' but I was struck when Fox News reporter Doug McKelway initially reported that "... police stood idly by." Why were they not breaking up the melae? --bc

At least one law enforcement officer in Charlottesville, VA has come forward to clear his conscience and reveal the truth — or at least his version of it — that what went down in the city was not only condoned by city governance but was intentional, orchestrated and may have been planned as long ago as May.

Read more & watch videos at Allen B. West

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President Signs Executive Order on Infrastructure

PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP WORKS TO REBUILD AMERICA'S INFRASTRUCTURE - "Crumbling infrastructure will be replaced with new roads, bridges, tunnels, airports, and railways gleaming across our very, very beautiful land." - President Donald J. Trump, August 15, 2017. --The following is the Executive Order signed by President Trump on August 15, 2017:


Executive Order Establishing Discipline and Accountability in the Environmental Review and Permitting Process for Infrastructure Projects

Summary:
The Executive Order (EO) establishes the policy of the Administration to facilitate the efficiency and effectiveness of federal infrastructure decisions by establishing greater accountability in the environmental review and permitting process.

The policy goals of this will be as follows:

• To safeguard our communities and maintain a healthy environment.
• To ensure the Federal decision makers make informed decisions concerning the environmental impacts of infrastructure projects.
• To develop infrastructure in an environmentally sensitive manner.
• To provide transparency and accountability to the public on environmental review and authorization decisions.
• To be good stewards of public funds used to develop infrastructure projects and avoid duplicative and wasteful processes.
• To conduct environmental reviews and authorization processes in a manner that is sufficiently coordinated, consistent, predictable, and timely to give public and private investors the confidence necessary to make funding decisions for new infrastructure projects.
• To speak with a coordinated voice when conducting environmental reviews and providing authorization decisions.
• To make well-informed and timely decisions with the goal that the process for the completion of all Federal environmental reviews and authorization decisions for major infrastructure projects take no longer than 2 years. This EO will require agencies to process environmental reviews and permitting decisions for major projects under a "One Federal Decision" plan, meaning a lead agency is identified and works will all relevant agencies to develop a unified schedule for completion. Additionally, this EO will establish a 2-year goal for the Federal Government to process all of the actions required by Federal law for the environmental reviews and permits of major infrastructure projects.
This EO also directs the implementation of the following process enhancements:

• Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) Action Plan: The EO directs CEQ to develop and implement a list of actions that will help facilitate Federal environmental reviews. The EO also empowers CEQ to mediate interagency disputes between Federal agencies to ensure that the environmental review and permitting process for an infrastructure project does not indefinitely stall due to the lack of a decision.
  
• Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council (FPISC): The FPISC is a Federal interagency council established by statute that is comprised of all Federal agencies responsible for environmental reviews and permits of infrastructure, and is statutorily charged to facilitate the review and permitting of certain infrastructure projects with costs in excess of $200 million. The EO authorizes the FPISC Executive Director to facilitate the environmental review and permitting process of any infrastructure project in the Federal Government upon request of a Federal agency or project sponsor.
Finally, this EO will repeal EO 13690, which was signed by President Obama, which established a climate-based approach to defining actions that arise in a floodplain.

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Ok folks, here’s what REALLY happened in Charlottesville – and what everyone is missing

By Allen West --Let me begin by saying, I deplore any form of supremacist view — white, black, Hispanic, Islamic. I will be the first to openly state and embrace, a sense of American exceptionalism and supremacy that is rooted in our founding principles and values. Any and all else that is contradictory is to be condemned. What I have witnessed post the events of Saturday 12 August is the typical Rahm Emanuel mentality and political posturing: “never let a good crisis go to waste.” --Therefore, I seek to assess what really happened in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Read more at Allen B. West

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The Logical End of Democrats' Vision for America is Venezuela

Venezuela wasn’t always this chaotic, and although absolutely none of the politicians in Washington, D.C. deserve to be put in the same camp as a tyrant like Maduro, it’s worth remembering that the very same political philosophies serving as the foundation of the Democratic Party are the philosophies that have utterly destroyed Venezuela: price fixing, centralized economic controls, a nationalized economy, and an emphasis on expanding the role of government in nearly every aspect of life. ---The promises of charismatic Venezuelan leaders of both today and the past vary little from the promises now offered by Democrats. They, too, demanded the “rich” pay “their fair share,” that the government provide health care for all, that through various economic controls and manipulations, the economy could work for everyone. The result? Economic calamity.

Read more at American Thinker

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New FEC Report Shows DNC Finished June $3.3 Million in Debt

Under the leadership of former Obama official Tom Perez, a new FEC report reveals the DNC finished the month of June $3.3 million in debt. --They’re broke. Just like their policies. --According to The Observer, DNC Chair Tom Perez recently sent out a fundraising email to supporters claiming, “I know garbage when I see it,” citing that he once worked on a dump truck. It’s ironic that he referred to the GOP health care bill as a “flaming dumpster fire” because he has been presiding over the disaster that is the Democratic National Committee. --According to The Hill, The Republican National Committee (RNC) raised a record $13.4 million in June, bringing its total 2017 fundraising to $75.3 million.

Read more at Gateway Pundit

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Another Loss For Governor Kate Brown as Manufacturer Moves Oregon Jobs To China

Wilsonville, OR – Thanks to Democrat governor Kate Brown’s job-killing policies, manufacturers are leaving Oregon for China, and taking their high-paying jobs with them. Last week Microsoft announced it will be closing its factory in Wilsonville and laying off over one hundred employees so it can move more production activities to China. --Under Kate Brown, Oregon continues to fall further behind, receiving (link is external) a bottom ten ranking for business this year as the state hemorrhages the very high-paying jobs she has claimed her policies would attract.

Read more at Oregon Republican Party

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Campaign Finance Complaint Filed Against SEIU by Oregon GOP Over $11M+ in Disclosure Violations

Wilsonville, OR - Today, Bill Currier, Chairman of the Oregon Republican Party, filed a formal complaint with Oregon’s Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum and Secretary of State Dennis Richardson, urging both leaders for an investigation into the campaign finance practices of the Oregon Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Oregon Council and its local 503 and 49 affiliates, involving more than $11 million in unreported individual union member contributions.

Read more at Oregon Republican Party

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President Donald J. Trump's Six Months of America First

"Together, we are working every day for the citizens of this country: protecting their safety, bringing back their jobs and, in all things, putting AMERICA FIRST.” – President Donald J. Trump

BRINGING ACCOUNTABILITY BACK TO GOVERNMENT: In six months in office, President Trump has followed through on his promise to the American people to bring accountability back to government.

Read more at WhiteHouse.gov

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‘The best story in the world today’ is about free enterprise, not antipoverty programs

This week, the World Bank announced the historic news that extreme global poverty will drop below 10 percent this year for the first time in recorded history.

Self-congratulatory enthusiasm, typical among global elites, has ensued. In a press release about the news, the Bank’s president Jim Yong Kim called it “the best story in the world today,” and said, “These projections show us that we are the first generation in human history that can end extreme poverty.” By “we,” Mr. Kim is of course referring to elites in the “international community.”

Is Kim right? Was it the elites or was it something else?

Read more at AEI.org

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Who Killed the Left?

David Gerlenter writing in the Wall Street Journal says something self-evidently true. The Left seems to have won every single culture battle fought.

Although the right reads the left, the left rarely reads the right. Why should it, when the left owns American culture? Nearly every university, newspaper, TV network, Hollywood studio, publisher, education school and museum in the nation. The left wrapped up the culture war two generations ago. Throughout my own adult lifetime, the right has never made one significant move against the liberal culture machine.

Read more By Richard Fernandez at Belmont Club

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Trump’s defense of Western civilization is not alt-right

By Marc A. Theisson, Washington Post
The left likes to paint President Trump as a threat to democracy. But the real threat to democracy is when the leader of the free world can no longer defend the ideals of the West without being accused of bigotry.

Read more at AEI.org

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Attorney General Jeff Sessions calls the action the 'largest medical fraud takedown in American history'

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Thursday that federal prosecutors have charged more than 400 people in taking part in medical fraud and opioid scams that totaled $1.3 billion in fraudulent billing.

Read more at DailyMail

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