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NRA criticizes Obama's reference to 'absolutism'

UPDATED 7:09 AM EST, January 23, 2013 |

RENO, Nev. (AP) — A top National Rifle Association official on Tuesday accused President Barack Obama of seeking to redefine the rights of gun owners, telling a hunting and wildlife conservation group that the president's use of the word "absolutism" in his inauguration speech was an attack on law-abiding citizens who own firearms.

Obama said in his speech Monday that Americans shouldn't "mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate."

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UPDATED 0:18 AM EST, December 19, 2012

Unions plan new offensive after Michigan loss

WASHINGTON (AP) — Blindsided by a new law weakening union rights in Michigan, organized labor is preparing to target Republican governors in politically important states up for re-election in 2014 — part of a renewed offensive against perceived anti-union policies.

While unions fared reasonably well nationally last month at the ballot box, their struggle to survive has forced them to spend staggering sums just trying to hold ground. It is money not spent on recruiting new workers to stem a membership decline that has made unions more vulnerable than ever.

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