Media Matters reported Tuesday that Wayne told Glenn Beck on his Internet "show" that unlike union dues, the NRA's funds come from grassroots support. "We raise it all through 5, 10, 15, 20 dollar contributions that Americans are willing to preserve freedom," he said. "And they're willing to support it. But, you know, that's what NRA is about. I mean, I always say we're about our membership and we're about giving voice to our membership."
If by "all" he means "some," then yes. In actuality, Bloomberg News reported last month, less than half of the NRA's $228 million in 2010 income is from membership dues; most is from fundraising, sales, advertising, and royalties. Bloomberg found that Strum, Rugar, and Smith & Wesson, and Remington all contributed in 2011. The lobby's "Ring of Freedom" program started in 2005 honors donors who have contributed $1 million. The NRA received $71 million in donations in 2010, up 54% from 2004. In fact, Missouri-based firearms-related retailer MidwayUSA alone has donated $6.7 million to the NRA since 1992.
Although the NRA says it has "corporate sponsors," it also says, "It is not affiliated with any firearm or ammunition manufacturers or with any businesses that deal in guns and ammunition."
Actually, Wayne may be getting a call from the IRS soon. The NRA Foundation created an online store where NRA grant recipients were required to purchase many common products. The former director of tax-exempt organizations for the IRS told Bloomberg that this could jeopardize the foundation's tax-exempt status.
Tom Jackman of The Washington Post's "The State of NoVa" blog reported Wednesday that Wolf Trap is suing The Barns of Rose Hill in Berryville for trademark infringement over the use of "The Barns" because of the Barns at Wolf Trap name. After 50 years of toil, The Barns of Rose Hill nonprofit opened a community center in September out of donated pieces of land. A month later, Wolf Trap trademarked "The Barns."
In its suit, Wolf Trap is calling for The Barns of Rose Hill to cease using its name and website domain name, destroy all merchandise with the name, and pay Wolf Trap its profits, compensation for injuries, legal fees, and triple the total reward. Never mind that The Barnes of Rose Hill nonprofit was founded in 2004 – and Wolf Trap didn't sue or trademark then – and has an annual budget of $150,000, compared to Wolf Trap's $28 million. The nonprofit says it can't afford to litigate. Jackman followed up Thursday, reporting that neither side is backing down yet.
As Jackman asked aloud in his blog, would customers really confuse a nonprofit community center and an amphitheater with the third-largest ticket sales in the world 50 miles apart?
Wolf Trap critics can bring their comments, pitchforks, and torches to the Facebook page "Big BAD Wolf Trap Bully" and donate to The Barns of Rose Hill on its website.
SOPA (and the Senate's PIPA) is meant to combat Internet piracy and copyright infringement but critics charge it could censor free speech, burden websites to police user-generated content, stifle innovation, and shut down legitimate sites. Goodlatte told The Roanoke Times this week, "This is all about violations of criminal laws and giving law enforcement new tools to enforce those laws."
Not since possibly the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 has an act of Congress rankled so many Americans. The White House announced last week that it opposes SOPA and PIPA, saying, "We will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet." Websites like Wikipedia, Reddit, Mozilla, and WordPress protested the bills with blackouts on Wednesday. Google said 4.5 million people signed its anti-SOPA/PIPA petition on Wednesday.
The backlash is being felt in Washington. The Hill reported Wednesday that two Republican SOPA cosponsors withdrew their support Tuesday. PIPA lost four Republican sponsors on Wednesday. One senator even withdrew his support from PIPA in June four days after he joined as a cosponsor.
Yet, to Goodlatte's credit, he's done the impossible by uniting contentious Virginia factions in an otherwise bitter election year – uniting them against him, anyway. For the Democrats, Sen. Mark Warner, a technology entrepreneur turned politician, wrote on Facebook that SOPA and PIPA "go too far." He said, "Online piracy is a real and serious problem, but there has to be a better way to go after rogue sites without fundamentally changing the way the Internet works." Rep. Jim Moran tweeted that he opposed SOPA and said, "Keep the internet open." Rep. Gerry Connolly wrote on Facebook, "We need a free and open Internet. SOPA will have unintended consequences against the high tech industry in our district, and place undue burdens on our small internet businesses."
On the Republican side, Goodlatte's primary rival, Karen Kwiatkowski, slammed him as a puppet of Hollywood and big pharma and big ag. "Bob Goodlatte – in our name – has told the world he doesn't support due process and the traditional American concept of innocent until proven guilty," she wrote. State tea party leader and GOP Senate candidate Jamie Radtke said SOPA is an assault on free speech: "My position is that I don't want to give [Attorney General] Eric Holder complete determination of whether or not certain Internet web sites should be pulled down." Goodlatte's Virginia colleagues aren't fans either. Rep. Frank Wolf wrote on Facebook (seriously, who needs press secretaries anymore?), "I oppose SOPA in its current form." Rep. Robert Hurt was even harsher in a radio interview, calling SOPA "unprecedented and really frightening." "I have a real problem with it and I don’t think at this point it's something that I could consider supporting," he said. "I would want to see some changes made to it before I could consider it but overall, I have significant problems with it."
Politico reported Wednesday that House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith called on Goodlatte to negotiate a compromise since bipartisan alternative bills have been proposed in both chambers. Goodlatte hasn't issued an official statement this week in response to the SOPA criticism yet, but he played the jobs card in what sounded like the last shriek on the retreat: "Literally hundred of thousands, if not millions of jobs, are depending on fighting this, and many hundreds of thousands more could be created if we stop this piracy," he told WHSV in Harrisonburg on Wednesday.
Although SOPA may be as dead as Goodlatte's balanced budget amendment, one commentator in China – where the Internet is censored – might've said it best about the debate: "We should learn something from the way these American Internet companies protested against SOPA and PIPA. A free and democratic society depends on every one of us caring about politics and fighting for our rights. We will not achieve it by avoiding talk about politics."
Congress' 13% approval rating won't climb much higher, thanks in large part to Bob Goodlatte, today's Worst Virginian in the World!
