The Lobotomozing of America

 

Finally, someone who understands what's going on.  Brilliant analyst Alicia Colon, writing in the Irish Examiner:

The egregious governmental excess and corruption during the Clinton administration failed to provoke voter outrage but since 2006 and the Democrat takeover of Congress, the lobotomizing of much of America is fairly obvious.

There really is no other viable explanation.

I do not understand why any practicing Catholic would vote for the party of death or why any Jew would vote for a party that refuses to support Israel, our strongest ally in the Middle East.

But what I find most puzzling is the incongruity of the poor black supporters of President Obama who still identify with him because he's black. He has absolutely nothing in common with their black experience because he has never had one. He was raised by leftwing whites as a child of privilege and had the best education possible.

Bold added.  When you read the whole thing, you'll probably want to grab a drink, while its still legal.

Vietnam Vets Support Kerry

Top Dems protest high gas prices

2006, when high gas prices were Bush's fault.

Re-posted from the South of 5 and 20 archives - more relevant every day.

Saratoga Deputies: Cuomo turning law-abiding citizens into criminals

Via Bob Owens, a remarkable letter to the Cuomo Gang from the Saratoga County Deputy Sheriff’s Police Benevolent Association.  The Deputies address Cuomo's gun-grab on both fronts: the unconstitutional  law itself, and the corrupt process used to pass the abhorrent act.  Albany Republican co-conspirators are also called out.

Dear Governor Cuomo, Senators Klein, Marchíone, Skelos, Stewart-­Cousins, and Chairman Cox:

By this correspondence, the Saratoga County Deputy Sheriffs’ Police Benevolent Association (SCDSPBA) would like to announce our strong opposition to the passage of the SAFE Act and the manner in which is was negotiated and subsequently voted upon. The SCDSPBA represents the sworn men and women police officers of the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office.

Our objections to the legislation are numerous and begin with the process under which the bill was voted on in the Senate. It is deeply disturbing to our membership, as public servants and Citizens of the state of New York, the manner in which this legislation was brought to the Senate for vote. It is our understanding that many Senators had approximately 20 minutes to read the legislation before being forced to vote on it and note that the bill was brought before the Senate and voted on so quickly that its authors failed to make provisions for the exemption of police officers or the National Guard with respect to the new magazine-capacity requirements. Having reviewed the legislation and given the time constraints, it is our conclusion that there is no possible way any normal person could have read the entire bill and understood its implications prior to voting on it. They most certainly could not have requested and received the input of their constituency and considered their opinions in the matter which is the most basic tenet of a representative government. The entire process was one of secrecy and of intentional withholding of information from the public. We condemn this in the harshest terms. Had there been an opportunity for the public to exercise their right to be involved in the legislative process prior to the bill being voted upon, We would have offered a letter of opposition. Instead, we find ourselves in the rather unique position of opposing legislation after it has been passed. Our membership believes we were denied one of the most basic rights of a democracy by this process and we cannot and will not accept this type of behavior from our elected officials.

In our opinion, there was absolutely no reason for the Governor to use a message of necessity to bring this bill to vote. We note that the Governor has used the message of necessity 35 times since taking office and for nearly every major piece of legislation he has sought to pass. This particular bill has 56 sections; 53 take effect in 60 days, 2 take effect in 1 year and 1 section, which requires owners of certain firearms to register them within 1 year, takes effect immediately. In other words, given the language of the bill itself, there is no emergency. As the message of necessity is to be used solely in the case of a true emergency that warrants the waiver of the 3 day maturing process for all legislation, the Governor’s actions were questionable at best and a deliberate attempt to bypass the Constitutional process and thus opposition to the bill at worst. The evidence strongly suggests the latter.

The Senate Leadership also had a responsibility to negotiate this legislation publicly and to call the Governor out on his excessive use of the message of necessity. Unfortunately, they chose not to do either, thus depriving approximately 19.5 million citizens the opportunity to offer meaningful comments and criticisms of the bill, and to exercise their rights under our system of government. In short, the Senate Leadership allowed the Governor to force legislation upon the citizens of our state. Instead of offering a check-and­-balance against the Executive Branch, the Senate Leadership condoned and authorized what may fairly be described as ruling by fiat. Whether one is for or against the new legislation, all citizens should be truly concerned by the manner in which our allegedly representative government behaved and we condemn this in the harshest terms.

As a predominantly rural county in upstate New York, the lawful ownership of firearms is and has been a valued tradition enjoyed by many of our citizens.

Sadly, the legislation effectively turns countless law­-abiding gun owners into criminals for absolutely no reason. Many of our membership are gun-owners and have gone through the same licensing process as non-police officers and it is our belief that this process has served our citizens well. Mandating law­-abiding gun owners to now have to register certain types of firearms on a yearly basis, in addition to registering them on their permits (which now must be renewed every 5 years), accomplishes nothing in the area of public safety and is unnecessarily burdensome to a citizen who has done nothing but abide by the laws of our state.

The SCSDPBA reminds the addressees that “assault weapons,” which are banned under the new legislation if they have 1 military­-type feature, were responsible for 5 out of 769 homicides in New York last year or .007% – hardly a public safety crisis for our state. The Albany County District Attorney’s Office prosecuted 4 cases involving assault weapons last year none of which involved their use in the commission of a crime and a recent FBI report showed that hammers and clubs were responsible for more deaths than rifles and shotguns. Given the foregoing, our membership questions why there was a need to ban the lawful use, possession, and sale of these firearms at all. Again, many citizens of our county previously enjoyed the use of these rifles for activities such as hunting and target shooting, and are now being forced to register these firearms, on a yearly basis, when they have done nothing wrong. In addition, any semi-automatic pistol that has 1 “military-type” feature will, under the new law, be considered an assault weapon. While it may come as a surprise to the authors of the legislation, most semi-automatic pistols do in fact come with a pistol grip, making nearly every semi-automatic pistol an assault weapon and thus subject to registration on a yearly basis. This registration is in addition to registering the pistol on one’s pistol license every 5 years. The SCDSPBA believes this is absurd, serves no public safety interest in the slightest, and crosses the proverbial line from reasonable restrictions on gun ownership to outright harassment of law-abiding gun owners.

As police officers who encounter criminal activity on a daily basis, our membership finds the notion that a criminal might somehow wait in line to turn in his or her high-capacity magazines or sell them to someone out-of-state to be so ridiculous as to be not based in reality. It is beyond shocking that a member of a body entrusted to legislate the very laws that govern our society could, with a straight face, argue this point. Our membership believes, as do most people of sound mind, that the only persons who will abide by the new high-capacity magazine ban are the law-abiding, leaving the same high-capacity magazines in the hands of those who choose not to obey the law. Additionally, from an ethical and moral standpoint, we question why, if high-capacity magazines are as destructive and deadly as the legislature contends, they would be allowed to be sold to someone out-of­-state. Certainly, they would be as dangerous in New Jersey as they would be in New York. Since 85 to 90% of guns used in crimes in New York originate from out-of­-state, it is nothing short of incredible to us that the authors of this legislation could not have foreseen the possibility of these magazines finding their way back into New York. However this is the proposed solution offered by our elected officials, for which we can find no discernible logic.

Whíle there are some areas of the legislation that the union finds encouraging, such as addressing glaring shortcomings in the mental health system, by-and-large, our membership finds the legislation to be little more than a thinly-veiled attempt at regulating lawful gun ownership out of existence. From the manner in which the legislation was negotiated in secret, to the fashion in which it was brought to the Senate floor for vote, there was nothing about the process that was transparent or that took into consideration what cannot be disputed that law-abiding gun owners are not and have not been the source of criminal activity.The legislation fails miserably to offer any meaningful solutions to the epidemic of gun violence and places the blame squarely where it does not belong on the shoulders of law­-abiding citizens. One need look no further than the embarrassment of New York’s Combined Ballistic Identification System that devoured $44 million in taxpayer money over ll years to regulate lawful gun ownership and which resulted in no convictions of anyone for anything to illustrate the non-complicity of lawful gun-owners in recent events.

In recent days, we have also become aware of published reports describing a large and growing movement within our state of citizens who have apparently announced their intention of non-compliance with the new statutes as they relate to assault weapons and registration. With an estimated 1 million assault rifles in existence throughout New York, it is beyond comprehension that the legislature and the Governor would needlessly place police officers in a position where they might be called upon to confiscate the previously lawfully owned property of an American citizen. There can be no denying the potential danger this prospect places law enforcement in and once again strongly suggests a bill that was rushed to passage without aforethought or any regard for its potential implications. We cannot excuse this and do not appreciate our very safety being sacrificed for political gain.

In conclusion, we would be remiss were We to not mention our outrage at the conduct of the Senate Republican Coalition. Many of our membership contacted Senator Skelos’ office on a regular basis to voice opposition to additional regulations of firearms and were assured that the senator’s office was being flooded with similar calls. We have, in the past, always looked to the Republican party to protect the rights of law-abiding citizens much in the same way we place our lives on the line every day to protect the rights of all citizens. To have them negotiated away in secret and to be stripped of them in a clandestine vote is both appalling and unforgivable. It will most certainly give pause to many of our individual members when considering their voting choices in the future and we condemn this in the strongest possible way. For the foregoing reasons, we cannot offer our support for this legislation. We encourage members of the legislature to hold hearings where the public is afforded the right to participate in the legislative process, to address the issue of gun violence in a way that might actually produce meaningful results, and to stop holding law-abiding citizens who choose to exercise their rights under the Second Amendment hostage for the criminal behavior of another, and the political aspirations of the Governor.

Sincerely,

Charles E. Fuller
President – SCDSPBA

He Beat Me To It!

Cuomo Pledges His ‘Full Support’ for Obama’s Gun Proposals

Obama appoints John Kerry to State

Kerry to replace Clinton at State Department.  Perfect - John F. Kerry: traitor, billionaire tax evader, gigolo.  Let's sing along!

Idiots

The former Empire State's Schumer, Gillibrand

One Piece At A Time:

Our morally and intellectually superior two-headed monster, Chuck and Kirsten, should have known that voting on Marxist ideological grounds for bills that you haven't actually read has consequences.

Idiots, indeed.

Why did we fire Dan Maffei?

George McGovern making final landing

George McGovern (rear, second from left) and crew with Dakota Queen

Former Senator and 1972 Democrat presidential candidate George McGovern, 90, is reported to be under hospice care and not responsive, according to family members.

McGovern, one of the most liberal presidential candidates in US history, was also a patriot and hero of WWII.  As an Army Air Force pilot, he flew 35 combat missions over Europe in B24 Liberator bombers, always named the "Dakota Queen."  Most Americans today cannot imagine the danger the bomber crews faced.

McGovern, 1972's anti-war candidate, had no qualms about taking on evil when it presented itself.

Update 10/21/12: George McGovern, RIP

Eleanor McGovern pins pilot wings on her husband, 1944

 

Gillibrand stands with Obama

New York's junior senator may be backing a loser. Her official position:

Kirsten Gillibrand is doing everything she can to support New York's working families and help President Barack Obama achieve his vision for lasting change.

Gillibrand and Sharpton: "No Justice, No Peace!"

Why did Cuomo delay fracking decision again?

What's that look about?

Why has Andy Cuomo suddenly decided to delay hydrofracking for another twenty-eleven years?  Today, Assembly candidate Bill Nojay theorized why Cuomo the Younger would write off the Southern Tier's 20 percent unemployed workers, and we think Bill has hit the nail on the head.

Bill blames Cuomo's decision to study the "health effects" of hydrofracking on the Lybian terrorists who raped, murdered, and mutilated our ambassador.  According to Nojay, the breaking story that our diplomats in Benghazi had requested increased security before the embassy was attacked, but were denied by Hillary Clinton's State Department, will mean the end of our former junior senator's political career.  And no mo' Hillary means Andy has an open shot the 2016 Democratic Party presidential nomination.   So, Nojay hypothesizes,  our most recent Governor Cuomo needs to keep the Democrats' environmental wacko majority on his side.

We think Mr. Nojay is on to something. 

Whose side are you on?

Red State:

In his speech to the United Nations General Assembly today the President of the United States declared that the future does not belong to practicing Christians.

Agri-bureaucrats confer, you pay

Instapundit:

$57K TO SEND ONE BUREAUCRAT TO A CONFERENCE ACROSS TOWN?

Shinagawa supports Obamacare tax increases

Voters in the Southern Tier's 29th Congressional District will soon choose between incumbent Republican Tom Reed and SEIU-endorsed former Cornell University student/current Tompkins County Legislator Nathan Shinagawa.  Reed is opposed to Obamacare, and particularly the federal takeover of healthcare's massive tax increases.  Shinagawa, on the other hand, wants more of the same.

As representatives headed back to Washington, D.C. this week, U.S. Rep. Tom Reed, R-Corning, said for the sake of small businesses, the need for overall repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) remains.

On the other hand, Nate Shinagawa of Ithaca, his Democratic opponent in the Congressional race said the act will help small businesses. The tax credit small businesses in New York state get under the act will increase in 2014, he said...

Shinagawa noted the Affordable Care Act doesn’t require small businesses with under 50 employees to get health insurance for their employees. He said he would like more businesses provide healthcare insurance to their employees.

Tom Reed grew up in Corning and is a graduate of Horseheads Central School.  Nathan Shinagwa, son of a tenured professor, touted his urban Los Angeles upbringing when he last ran for office in leftist-dominated Tompkins County.

Top Democrat apparently not struggling to pay her bills

In addition to owning a secret vacation home in New Hampshire, we've learned that Florida congresswoman and DNC honcho Debbie Wassserman Schultz drives a gas guzzling Corvette (seen here parked next to her hubby's gas guzzling luxury SUV).

Protesters pressure administration on gas prices

Protester in "New York" t-shirt with effigy of politician - Andy Cuomo?

While Andy Cuomo was at the DNC in Florida, fighting to secure his opportunity to run against President Romney in 2016 by calling for higher taxes,  Finger Lakes gasoline prices crossed the four dollar/gallon threshold.  

Not allowing the administration to ignore the economy-crushing energy costs, student protestors took to the streets.

Student and youth groups affiliated to various political parties continued their protest against the recent price hike in petroleum products on Thursday by enforcing one-hour long chakka jam (road blockade) in front of different colleges and academic institutions across the country.

Fortunately for New York's second generation Democrat governor, the chakka jam was held in Nepal, not Watkins Glen.  It appears Upstate New Yorkers, blinded by Andy's media induced celebrity, would rather not talk about record high fuel prices under Cuomo II, not to mention ever-increasing taxes and years of 8 percent unemployment.

When Democrats run everything

100 abandoned Detroit houses.

Obama policies causing gas prices to skyrocket, again

You wouldn't know it from following our local media, but gas prices in our neck of the Finger Lakes have been skyrocketing.  Once again, we don't see reporters repeating their Bush-era routine of of harassing motorists at the Valero pump, asking them if they've had to give up food to afford fuel.  However, way downstate, word has been leaking out.

Pete Richardson of Wappingers Falls said he spends roughly $94 a week filling up his 2010 GMC Terrain.

“I’m obviously not happy about (gas prices) because it constrains my family and what we can do together,” he said.

Richardson, 32, said it’s frustrating with the economic situation that employees aren’t making more but are being asked to pay more.

One can only hope Mr. Richardson will remember his frustration when he enters the voting booth this November.  Perhaps the crushing increase in energy prices my not bode well for the incumbent regime's reelection prospects.

Kirsten Kukowski, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, said pump prices will be part of their political messaging, alongside other staples like jobs data. “We are going to be talking about every economic factor,” she said.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee, meanwhile, vows to hit vulnerable Senate Democrats – such as Claire McCaskill (Mo.) – and Obama over the prices.

“The NRSC fully intends to highlight the disastrous effects President Obama’s EPA has had on our nation’s energy prices including their rejection of the Keystone Pipeline,” said spokesman Lance Trover.

Unlike corruption at the Export-Import Bank, gas prices are an issue that most voters can instantly understand.  Let's see if the Republicans can can make the easy shots.

Channel 15 misses the point

Long line at Phoenix Chick-fil-A today

Phoenix, AZ's Channel 15 explains that today's nationwide Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day is about opposition to gay marriage.

The row over same-sex marriage could see thousands of Christians flocking to Chick-fil-A on Wednesday, while same-sex couples will turn up at the fast-food chain Friday for public displays of affection.

Both events are intended as mass shows of support by people on both sides of the marriage issue and mark the latest round in a long-standing beef that gay and lesbian rights groups have with Chick-fil-A's leadership, which has openly espoused biblical values, not only in its operating principles, but in its conservative definition of family as well.

Sure, some of the folks standing on line in the desert sun for hours, just to buy a chicken sandwich, may be opposed same sex marriage, just as Barry Obama was, up until a couple of weeks ago.  But we believe most of the sweltering customers are there today to protest government officials unconstitutionally using state power to punish a guy whose personal beliefs differ from those of the politicians' core supporters.  And, of course, to score a tasty and affordable lunch.

Update:  Readers of Ithaca' own  Legal Insurrection are flooding the blog with photos  of Chic-fil-As around the country.  Here's an amazing video.

Nancy Pelosi, antisemite

Pelosi chats with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, Damascus, 2007

In an interview with Bloomberg's Al Hunt Friday, millionaire Democrat house minority leader Nancy Pelsoi attacked Jewish Republicans with a classic antisemitic smear.

Pelosi told Hunt that she believes the President will win the Jewish vote in November.

“I think that he will, because the fact is when the facts get out,” Pelosi said. “You know, as many of the Republicans are using Israel as an excuse, what they really want are tax cuts for the wealthy. So Israel, that can be one reason they put forth.”

The elderly, insider trading statist has gotten away with crap like this for what seems to have been hundreds of years.  What the hell was she doing in that murderous Iranian puppet al-Assad's living room, anyway?  

Perhaps there are a few American Jews who will learn of this vicious libel from the web.  Most, however, have long ago forgotten how damn lucky they are that their grandparents risked everything to come here, and have no idea what the Democrats have in store for them in Obama's second term. 

Fortunately, at least one member of the tribe has caught on.  Where are the others?

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said in a statement Sunday that Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) suggestion Jewish voters were "being exploited" was "deeply insulting" and "patronizing."

Cantor, who is Jewish, was responding to comments Pelosi made during an interview with Bloomberg TV during which the Democratic leader suggested Republicans were trying to unfairly depict President Obama as having a strained relationship with Israel to further their domestic agenda.

"It is both patronizing and deeply insulting for Nancy Pelosi to suggest any Jew is 'exploited' for their political beliefs or that support for Israel is somehow an 'excuse' for anything," Cantor said. "Such thinking diminishes the importance of issues affecting Jews everywhere."