Recommended Reads
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Legislators Raid CCW Trust Fund - Try to Intimidate Governor
DATE: May 11, 2009
TO: USF & NRA Member and Friends
FROM: Marion P. Hammer
USF Executive Director
NRA Past President
In a last minute sneak attack on gun owners, the Florida Legislature raided the concealed weapons and firearms licensing trust fund. This not only effects resident CCW license holders, but non-resident Florida license holders as well!
They took $6 million from the Division of Licensing Concealed Weapons and Firearm Trust Fund that is intended, by law, to be used solely for administering the concealed weapons and firearms licensing program. (Read background information below)
Please Call, Fax, or Email Governor Charlie Crist IMMEDIATELY, and ask him to veto the $6 Million trust fund sweep from the Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services Division of Licensing authorized under Section 59 of the Conference Report of SB-2600.Please send your email today!!!!!And/or please contact the Governor's office by phone or fax ASAP.
Phone number: (850) 488-4441 or (850) 488-7146
Fax number: (850) 487-0801
Send your email to the Governor at this address: [email protected]
BACKGROUND:
Right now, the concealed weapons and firearms licensing program is backlogged and overloaded, due in part, to the refusal of budget officials and the Legislature to allow the Division of Licensing to use its own trust fund money to hire more employees and expand/upgrade equipment.
Crates of unopened mail containing license and license renewal applications sit in storage. The backlog of mail sitting unopened, at times, has extended beyond 90 days while existing licenses are expiring because renewal applications haven't been opened and processed.
Currently (although the Division of Licensing has been working weekend shifts to clear the backlog), it is taking 13-14 weeks to process a "perfect" application once it has been opened. That is an unequivocal violation of the law that requires issuance or denial of a license by a specific time –– a violation of law that legislative leaders are condoning by their actions.
THE LAW REQUIRES THE DIVISION OF LICENSING TO ISSUE A LICENSE WITHIN 90 DAYS OF RECEIPT OF THE APPLICATION -- or deny the license "for cause", based upon the criteria set forth in the law. Theft of operating funds by the Legislature is not "just cause" for failure to issue licenses or renewals within 90 days.
While applications sit gathering dust, legislative leaders took $6 million of approximately $8 million held in the trust fund. That $6 million is supposed to be used to pay employees, buy upgraded equipment, upgrade or replace computers or software and to otherwise administer the concealed weapons and firearms licensing program.
BUT, feigning a desperate need for funds for education and health care, legislative leaders recklessly and ruthlessly confiscated trust fund money. Why? Because they were building a so-called "working capital" fund for the 2010-12 legislative term, reported now to be in the neighborhood of $1.8 BILLION DOLLARS. This so-called "working capital fund" is for the use of future legislative leaders.
They didn't take that money for education. They didn't take that money for health care. They didn't take that money to save jobs. They didn't take that money to avoid pay cuts, or budget cuts -- they took the money to help build their own fund.
While Senate leadership reportedly fought to stop the ruthless raids on trust funds, in the end, they simply caved and let the House of Representatives prevail.The bad behavior doesn't end there.
Obviously fearing the Governor would use his line-item veto to stop trust fund raids, proviso language was inserted in the bill in a clear attempt to intimidate the Governor.
The proviso language, states that if any portion of the moneys swept from this and other trust funds does not become law (meaning it is vetoed), that portion of the money shall be deducted from the EDUCATION BUDGET. This is clearly designed to keep the Governor from vetoing trust fund sweeps, and prevent trust fund money from being taken back out the House leadership's so-called "working capital" fund.
Money in the concealed weapons trust fund came from gun owners. No money to administer and run the concealed weapons and firearms licensing program has ever come from general revenue, or any other state fund or revenue source. The taking of these gun owner user fees is an unauthorized tax on the exercise of the Second Amendment.
AGAIN, Please call, fax and email Governor Crist IMMEDIATELY, and ask him to veto the $6 Million raid on the Concealed Weapons & Firearms Trust Fund!
Send your email to the Governor at this address: [email protected]Please send your email today!!!!!
You may also call the Executive Office of the Governor at: (850) 488-7146.
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Cal, the idea is to post links here, not copy&paste long e-mails or articles.
Here's an interesting read:
Is the Conservative Movement Losing Steam? by Richard Posner
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The New York Fed is the most powerful financial institution you've never heard of. Look who's running it.
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Well, Al, some will find what I posted interesting. But,
silly me, I forgot you and mz the pussy are the "interesting or not" judges.
And, mz the pussy's fav mod,
you enlighten me how I can link to an email, and I will ever so gladly edit it
quick, like a little bunny rabbit.
And, I am sorry it aggravated your little buddy.
I know just once is way, way too many times
for mz the pussy. I'll try ever so hard not to make him cry with
another cut and paste of an email. k ?
********************************
Cal, the idea is to post links here, not copy&paste long e-mails or articles.
Here's an interesting read:
Is the Conservative Movement Losing Steam? by Richard Posner
*****************************************************
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Well, Al, some will find what I posted interesting. But,
silly me, I forgot you and mz the pussy are the "interesting or not" judges.
And, mz the pussy's fav mod,
you enlighten me how I can link to an email, and I will ever so gladly edit it
quick, like a little bunny rabbit.
And, I am sorry it aggravated your little buddy.
I know just once is way, way too many times
for mz the pussy. I'll try ever so hard not to make him cry with
another cut and paste of an email. k ?
********************************
Cal, the idea is to post links here, not copy&paste long e-mails or articles.
Here's an interesting read:
Is the Conservative Movement Losing Steam? by Richard Posner
*****************************************************
you enlighten me how I can link to an email, and I will ever so gladly edit it
quick, like a little bunny rabbit.
Everything the NRA e-mails also goes up on its website. I wouldn't be surprised if the e-mail you received actually included a link to the online alert, which can be found here.
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1. I hate you, Al.
2. Not really.
3. If you'd find the time to come drive my tractor for a while,
I'd have time to go gallavanting round the net to find an eensy
weensy little link instead.
4. But, I do know what you mean, and my lofty opinion of you hasn't
changed, to be reaffirmed here:
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But, do you not think that all the anti-Palin articles are negative advertising?
Oh, I'm guilty here and there of just posting an NRA ad alarm or something.... true.
But, I desire to counter the constant cherry picked negative advertising.
For once and for all, serious discussions are great, and most of us would like
more of that.
But, like Heck's simple post about Rush, to see what others had to say, I have
also done the same.
It would be pointless to give my opinion, and the personal attacks start.
If we all called off the nonsensical personal attacks, and started simply letting
others differ in their outlook and opinions, we could actually discuss things constructively.
See? I didn't even make a joke about anybody at the end.
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Something worth reading...........
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"You cannot bring prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.
You cannot further brotherhood of men by inciting class hatred.
You cannot establish security on borrowed money.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and independence.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves."
-- Rev. William J. H. Boetcker*
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Trillions in Financial Bailouts: After 2 years, the major Beneficiaries are Banks and Wall Street. What other Proof do you need that we are Focusing on Bailing out the Banking Oligarchy? Foreclosure Filings at All-Time Record High.
Banks, take the blue pill. Public, please take the red pill. If I had to characterize the current economic environment, it would have to consist of two completely different sets of beliefs. On one hand, you have banks and Wall Street receiving massive bailouts from the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve, bailouts of the magnitude that would gear up for a Great Depression and imply that the banking system of our country is insolvent. Then on the other hand, you have Wall Street and the crony banks trying to convince the public that this is a minor recession and all will be well in Q3 and Q4 of 2009. The problem of course is that this is not your typical recession yet the public is being led to believe that all is well while bailouts are being dolled out by the truckload to the wrong locations. The actions we are taking keeps in place the banking oligarchy and sacrifices the public under the guise that this is good medicine for the general economy.
Nothing proves this point better than the current nationwide foreclosure issue:
http://www.doctorhousingbubble.com/trillio...hy-foreclosure/
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Clive Crook on Education:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/636d553e-3d8d-11de...;nclick_check=1
Leszek Balcerowicz, "This has not been a pure failure of markets":
http://blogs.ft.com/capitalismblog/2009/05...ure-of-markets/
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@danamal said:
It was never about the cut and paste,atleast not with me.Creating an internet "bulletin board" to cut and paste without offering any opinion or dialogue isnt the idea behind any forum.
Express an opinion and provide a link if you want but if you feel passionate enough about a particular issue to cut and paste just create a thread about it and state your opinion so we can discuss it rather than free advertising for the heritage foundation,fox news or the nra ,moveon or whoever else you can think of.
Although it is never enough for some on here to discuss an issue rationally because even after the issue is exhausted the cut and paste gang ignore the conversation and continue to pollute the board with their advertisments for their views rather than discussing them which then leads to the personal attacks and all that goes with it.
In some cases, it is much better to get the article without the posters added opinion.
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@danamal said:
It was never about the cut and paste,atleast not with me.Creating an internet "bulletin board" to cut and paste without offering any opinion or dialogue isnt the idea behind any forum.
Express an opinion and provide a link if you want but if you feel passionate enough about a particular issue to cut and paste just create a thread about it and state your opinion so we can discuss it rather than free advertising for the heritage foundation,fox news or the nra ,moveon or whoever else you can think of.
Although it is never enough for some on here to discuss an issue rationally because even after the issue is exhausted the cut and paste gang ignore the conversation and continue to pollute the board with their advertisments for their views rather than discussing them which then leads to the personal attacks and all that goes with it.
In some cases, it is much better to get the article without the posters added opinion.
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Why post old news??
My opinion is if you agree with the article, why expound more?
I can see if you disagree the adding of commentary, but the posting of something without adding more comment usually means you agree with what was written and posted.
JMO
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Dan,
How do you live with the Palin articles then? The millions? of Bush/Cheney/Halliburton/etc threads for eight years.
That was fine until now?
Consider the timing.
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Dan, your political bigotry, as well as Heck's, hurts the board.
You are justifying the continued duplicate threads because you rationalize them
in terms of your partisanship.
Cheney doesn't HAVE to be quiet.
Gore didn't.
Carter never has.
I don't care that Al IS a mod, you shouldn't be so judgemental and critical about
anybody being partisan, when
you can be as partisan, as well as Heck.
But ridiculing somebody because they don't see politics like you do
is childish and uncalled for.
Partisanship is in the eye of the beholder.
But being outraged that Cheney has opinions is
making you look foolish.
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So is your politically expedient outrage.
You won't find fault with other libs no matter what.
But you'll argue and find fault with non-liberals no matter what.
But you want some serious discussion.
Liberal politics is so often an emotional rollercoaster.
Love/hate/love/hate/love/hate........ oi.
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