All Posts Tagged With: "NRA"
Obama Throws Conniption About NRA Ads.
Obama Lawyers say stations have duty ‘to protect the public from false, misleading or deceptive advertising.’”
Barack Obama is threatening radio and TV stations in Pennsylvania to stop running NRA ads blasting him and running mate Biden for longstanding anti-gun records. Obama is really angry about the NRA’s “Hunter” ad.
There are rumors of a so-called “secondary” boycott where Obama’s supporters are calling advertisers on stations running the ads and threatening not to use their services or products. Obama says his campaign has nothing to do with that.
Obama’s campaign general counsel Bob Bauer wrote stations seeking to censor the ads at stations in Pennsylvania saying, “Unlike federal candidates, independent political organizations do not have a ‘right to command the use of broadcast facilities,’” Bauer writes. “Moreover, you have a duty ‘to protect the public from false, misleading or deceptive advertising.’” NRA lawyers are countering the threats and looking into what some say could be an illegal secondary boycott. The NRA has set up a web site detailing its position on Obama at www.gunbanobama.com.
Obama leads McCain in Pennsylvania by 5% with its 21 electoral votes.
Did NRA Plant Spy In Anti-Gun Groups
This Reads Like A Fanciful Dime Novel
Mary Lou McFate (Saprone), 62-year-old former flight attendant and sex counselor from Sarasota, Florida is accused in a deposition filed as part of a contract dispute involving a security firm of being a National Rifle Association spy while serving on two anti-gun organization boards of directors — according to an Associated Press story filed Tuesday. McFate’s alleged dual identity was first reported in an article published last week in Mother Jones magazine. Neither McFate nor the NRA have responded as of this writing.
McFate is said to have infiltrated an animal-rights group in the late 1980s and befriended an activist, Fran Trutt, who was later arrested for planting a remote controlled pipe bomb in the president of U. S. Surgical parking space. Apparently McFate called authorities before it could be detonated. Trutt plea bargained to a lesser sentence on the attempted murder charge. A search of her home found more bombs and a sawed off shotgun. Trutt accused McFate of coaxing her into the bombing plot. At that time McFate was acting as an undercover agent for a security firm working for Surgical International
McFate spent years as an unpaid board member of CeaseFirePA and an organization called States United to Prevent Gun Violence. She also twice pushed unsuccessfully to join the board of the nation’s largest gun-control group, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence according to the story.
If the allegation are true there are some circumstances that criminal laws could have been broken or maybe it was just sneaky and underhanded. But as for any secrets she might have been privy to, the gun-control groups said they have little to hide, since they put their message and information about their budgets on the Web.
The allegations against McFate stem from a lawsuit brought against officials with Beckett Brown International, a now-defunct security firm based in Maryland. A former beer distributor who bankrolled the firm accused them of defrauding him.
Bryan Miller, executive director of Ceasefire NJ, said he feels betrayed by McFate.” It’s so venal,”he said.
A Mother Jones blog says,”States United to Prevent Gun Violence, where gun lobby spy Mary Lou Sapone served until recently as the director of federal legislation-the organization’s chief federal lobbyist on gun control issues. In a news release the group expressed “shock and outrage at the news.”
ABC National News has ran an in-depth story about Mary “McFate,” also known as Mary Lou Sapone, it says is a paid informant by the NRA to spy on gun violence prevention organizations” according to an article on Stop Gun Deaths.org.
A story by UPI quotes as follows, “This reinforces what we have long known, that the gun lobby will go to any lengths, no matter how unethical, to protect the profits of the gun industry in this country,” said Angus McQuilken, whose organization, Freedom States Alliance, kicked “McFate” off its board after her true identity was learned.
What if anything McFate learned or what her exact mission was - if any remains wild speculation as does who was paying who and for what. At the point the whole thing reads like a shabby dime novel.
Survey of NRA, Supreme Court, Offshore and ANWR Oil Drilling
Over half of Americans (56%) express a favorable view of the National Rifle Association,
although only 17% of voters say they are more likely to vote for John McCain if he is endorsed by the pro-gun lobbying group.
But, 21% of all voters say an NRA endorsement will make them more likely they’ll vote for a non-endorsee.
Six of ten says an NRA endorsements means nothing to their vote.
Sixty-five percents (65%) of men view the NRA favorably, only 47% of women agree, with nearly as many (42%) rating the group unfavorably. Proof men and women are different.
Seventy percent (80%) of Republicans give the group favorable marks as opposed to 39% of Democrats. Both the NRA’s favorable and unfavorably ratings are up since the Virginia Tech shootings.
In an elated matter following the Supreme Court decision decision which upholds the right of citizens to bear arms, 34% of voters say the Supreme Court is doing a good or an excellent job. That’s an eight-point improvement in just a few days.
Fifty-nine percent (59%) support offshore drilling, a figure that is unchanged from a previous Rasmussen survey. By a 60% to 31% margin, voters also support drilling in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
Republicans favor ANWR drilling by an 85% to 10% margin and Alaska’s Republican Governor Sarah Palin has written to the United States Senate demanding that such drilling be allowed.
Democrats are evenly divided on ANWR drilling-46% are opposed while 41% are in favor. Among voters not affiliated with either major party, 61% favor drilling in the Wildlife Refuge while 29% are opposed.