FROM: GOAL [goalwa@cox.net]
TO: undisclosed-recipients
SENT: Fri 6/7/2013 4:42 PM
SUBJECT: GOAL Post
2013-SPECIAL 4
Legislative Update from Olympia 7 June 2013
- · FOUR DAYS LEFT IN SPECIAL SESSION
- · REP. STEVE O'BAN REPLACES SENATOR MIKE CARRELL
- · SNOCOUNTY SHERIFF JOHN LOVICK APPOINTED COUNTY EXECUTIVE
- · NJ SENATOR FRANK LAUTENBERG PASSES
- · BIDEN, REID, MANCHIN MEET ON S. 649
- · UN ATT -- 71 COUNTRIES SIGNED SO FAR
- · SCANDAL(S) OF THE WEEK
There are four days left in the 30-day special legislative
session. At this point the focus remains
on closing the gap between the House and Senate budget offerings. The House passed a few bills this week,
mostly affecting education budgets.
Freshman Representative Steve O'Ban (R-28-Lakewood) was
selected by the Pierce County Council to replace Senator Mike Carrel, also of
Lakewood. That restores the 25-24
balance for the Majority Coalition in the state Senate. The County Council will now choose a House
replacement for O'Ban, but that appointment is less critical as it has no
impact on the Democrat majority in the House (55D-43R).
Former State Representative and later Snohomish County
Sheriff John Lovick was sworn in on Monday to replace disgraced SnoCounty
Executive Aaron Reardon. Both are
Democrats. Representative/Sheriff Lovick
was no particular friend of gun owners, but his office door was always open and
he would rationally discuss gun-related issues.
John is a gentleman. For the
record, he is also a 30+ year Washington State Trooper, now retired.
Undersheriff Tom Davis will fill in until the County Council
appoints a replacement, who must stand for election in 2014. While the sheriff's position is non-partisan,
the incumbents attitude on guns could influence the County Council, among
others.
Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ,) author of the 1996
"domestic violence misdemeanor" gun ban and most recently of the
failed magazine ban amendment to S.649, passed away earlier this week of viral
pneumonia. He was 89. NJ Republican Governor Chris Christie has set
a date for a special election, and in the interim has appointed NJ Attorney
General (and Republican) Jeffrey Chiesa as Lautenberg's temporary
replacement. Reportedly Chiesa is
equally anti-gun.
Vice President Biden and Senators Harry Reid and Joe Manchin
reportedly met behind closed doors this week to strategize about passage of S.
649, the omnibus Senate gun control bill.
No further information as to what was discussed is available at this
time.
71 nations have now signed the United Nations Arms Trade
Treaty (UN ATT). Earlier this week the
White House announced President Obama will sign the treaty in August during the
summer Congressional recess, usually a slow season from a political
perspective. It appears he is trying to
stretch out his controversies! A
complete list of the countries that have signed the treaty can be found at http://www.un.org/disarmament/ATT/
Two new scandals have erupted this week. A British newspaper revealed the existence of
a FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) court order directing Verizon
Wireless to turn over to the National Security Agency all "metadata"
(externals of wireless communications: telephone numbers, subscribers' names,
duration and location of call, etc). If
they're getting it from Verizon, they're getting it from all the other
providers as well. That was followed by
a report from another British newspaper about the existence of an alleged top
secret program called "PRISM," where NSA is supposed to have back
door access to Google, Facebook and a host of other internet media
programs.
The initial Obama administration response was something to
the effect that "it started in the Bush years" as a response to
9/11. Apparently true. But all of these programs have been continued
by the Obama administration, as the President himself acknowledged at a
presentation in California today. He
called it an acceptable balance between security and personal privacy. I believe Benjamin Franklin had the proper
response to that one more than 200 years ago.
"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
I'm not going to get into this in any detailed way. ANY time you post something, or search for
something, on the internet, it crosses many lines. Internet privacy is nonexistent. And cellphones are RADIOS. If it goes out over the air, it can be
intercepted.
But I do see one major difference between what went on in
the Bush years and what has been happening here since Obama took office. There is no record that the Bush
administration used non-partisan government agencies for partisan political
purposes. It's clear now that Obama
& Co used the IRS to target political opponents. Congress is still attempting to determine the
degree -- and source -- of that abuse.
The question is, what else has the current administration used/abused in
the name of partisan politics?, what else have they used/abused?
BILL STATUS:
All bills filed in during the regular session are available
and may be acted upon. At this time
there are no new gun bills, nor has there been any action on bills previously
filed.
GOAL POSITION ON BILLS:
No active gun bills at this time
HEARING(S) SCHEDULED:
None
LEGISLATIVE HOT LINE:
You may reach your Representatives and Senator by calling the
Legislative Hotline at 1-800-562-6000.
Toll free!!! The hearing impaired
may obtain TDD access at 1-800-635-9993.
Also toll free!!!
1-800-562-6000 TDD
1-800-635-9993
OTHER DATA: Copies of
pending legislation (bills), legislative schedules and other information are
available on the legislature's web site at "www.leg.wa.gov". Bills are available in Acrobat (.pdf)
format. You may download a free version
of Adobe Acrobat Reader from Adobe's web site (http://www.adobe.com). You may also obtain hard copy bills,
initiatives, etc, in the mail from the Legislative Bill Room FREE OF CHARGE by
calling 1-360-786-7573. Copies of bills
may also be ordered toll free by calling the Legislative Hotline at (800)
562-6000. You may also hear floor and
committee hearing action live at http://www.tvw.org/
(you need "RealAudio" to do this, available free at the TVW web
site).
By reading the House and Senate "bill reports"
(hbr, sbr) for each bill, you can see how individual committee members
voted. By reading the "roll
call" for each bill, you can see how the entire House or Senate voted on
any bill. The beauty of the web site is
that ALL this information is available, on line, to any citizen.
GET THE WORD OUT: If
you want to subscribe to the GOAL Post by e-mail, send a message to "jwaldron@halcyon.com". Please pass GOAL Post on to anyone you
believe may have an interest in protecting our rights. Better yet, make a couple of copies of this
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Unfortunately, I am unable to mail hard copy GOAL Post to
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If you believe you have received this e-mail in error,
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Upcoming WAC gun show(s):
- · Monroe 8-9 June
- · Puyallup 22-23 June
"The right of the individual citizen to bear arms in
defense of himself, or the state, shall not be impaired, but nothing in this
section shall be construed as authorizing individuals or corporations to
organize, maintain or employ an armed body of men."
Article 1, Section 24
Constitution of the State of Washington
Copyright 2013 Gun Owners Action League of WA
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