Fear Mongers: Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Laconia Fire Chief Kenneth Erickson, & PFoNH Prez David Lang - Granite Grok

Fear Mongers: Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Laconia Fire Chief Kenneth Erickson, & PFoNH Prez David Lang

Jeanne Shaheen Wicked WitchFrom the UL (reformatted, emphasis mine) comes this news from the Federal Govenrment’s Ambassador to NH Shaheen in dragooning two other Government employees into saying “ONLY GOVERNMENT CAN SAVE US ALL!”.  Translation: All hail the Sacred Government!

The showdown over Homeland Security funding could affect first responders, right down to local firefighters, U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., said Thursday. Shaheen held a conference call with David Lang, president of the Professional Firefighters of New Hampshire, and Laconia Fire Chief Kenneth Erickson, to highlight what she says is at stake.
Funding for the federal Department of Homeland Security runs out by month’s end. The debate in Congress is complicated as Republicans consider amendments to nullify President Barack Obama’s executive orders on immigration reform.  Democrats accused Republicans of putting politics above security.

Could? Politics?  Methinks the second is driving the first.  Politics – in Government? I’m SHOCKED, I tell you, SHOCKED! Especially coming from one that can dole out other peoples’

money (re: Shaheen overriding the NH Executive Council and stuffing millions into the PPNE abortion mill) seemingly at whim and with those that are often sucking at the Federal teat instead of getting the common sense (and more local control) and being honest with their local officials as to local need (er, see a pattern there, instead of begging down to DC – or is that the whole point of this scharade – they have a jones for more and don’t like being limited by local control?).    Oh, oops:

Republicans accused Democrats of blocking funding by not allowing a bill to be brought to the floor for debate.

Lang said he hopes common sense will prevail, and politics takes a back seat to good government. The terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, showed the importance of first responders being prepared to handle a wide range of emergencies, he said.   “This is something that’s very personal for firefighters,” Lang said. “If we’re truly going to be our nation’s fire line of defense, then the federal government needs to continue to step up and assist us.”

Spoken like a true Centralist – no, not from the political center but one in good stead of Central Government.  Whatever happened to real sustainability – local people taking care of local problems with local resources?  Instead of saying “those local people won’t buy me more stuff”?

 Shaheen said shutting down the Homeland Security funding spigot would also affect local, state and federal emergency managers in response to storms and natural disasters.  “We should put ideological differences aside,” Shaheen said.

And of course, our USFG Ambassador is on the same track – after all, there’s no fun without making oneself look good with other peoples’ money.  Or, to be honest, raw power.  But back to the money – it is NICE to know that our $18.4 TRILLION national debt, whose interest service will start dwarfing pretty much everything in the Fed Budget, is not a disaster – a completely man made one as a result of profligate politicians polishing their personal burnishments at our expense (after all, money’s no object to Progressives – there’s always more to take from the rich and we can ALWAYS redefine “rich” downward just like they have with deviancy (with apologies to former Senator Daniel Moynihan).  But I rant on.

But it’s all about the politics – always – but then Reality treads in onto the Progressive parade; from Conservative Review as to the WHY Shaheen is trying to drum up local support:

In his farewell address, President George Washington warned about the danger of political parties.  Today we are witnessing Washington’s premonition play out in spectacular fashion. So strong is the desire of rank-and-file Democrats to rally behind their party leader, they will even support the president’s patently unlawful acts– simply because he is their man.  Just how unconstitutional is Obama’s unilateral action to create an entire immigration program for 5 million illegal aliens?  Even Obama himself, a president who has a zealous penchant for ruling by administrative fiat, said explicitly on 22 occasions that it is unlawful.  He even compared his unilateral action to the acts of a king or emperor.  Yet, he insidiously waited until after the last election of his presidency to issue an executive amnesty.

Obama’s amnesty action is nothing short of nullification of our most bedrock laws…No president has the authority to blackmail Congress into passing his immigration priorities.  This president is engaging in a one-man nullification process of foundational laws passed by multiple Congresses – all out in the open.

And there’s Jeanne Shaheen once more – she stood with him on Obamacare and now she’s standing by his side in handing Congress’s power over to him once again.  Worthy of a Slitheran, that Shaheen.  Yes, her name will be in the history books – but not necessarily for the reasons she’d actually want.  And she’s full in on the whole façade:

How unprecedented is this imperial order?  The administration and its allies have propagated a defense of prosecutorial discretion using the law to rationalize Obama’s acts.  They assert that with limited resources they need to focus on illegal alien felons.  But what he is doing is far more than prioritizing criminal aliens over peaceful aliens, he is issuing a prima facie legal status, and nullifying the underlying laws with the stroke of a pen.

And there’s Shaheen, the Progressive Magician all too willing to draw attention from Obama’s Left hand to…..anything else.

This is tantamount to a president legalizing tax fraud instead of merely prioritizing those cases that represent the biggest threat to our tax system. Moreover, the claim that he is doing this to focus on criminals instead of cynically importing a new voting constituency doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.

Ah yup – not an original thought in his head – go ahead, ask the Brits how that’s workin’ out for them, eh?  And she seemingly has no problem in working with him in shredding the Constitutional boundaries and powers.  But that’s not the issue – let’s go back to the post title:

Fear Mongers: Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Laconia Fire Chief Kenneth Erickson, & PFoNH Prez David Lang

And that is the nub of the entire episode – create a faux crisis, get some locals to sing with her choir (and give her cover).  For what she says is there is….smoke (no mirrors).  The Blaze:

What Would Really Happen If Homeland Security Department Was Shut Down? Turns Out Conservatives Are Right About It

WASHINGTON (TheBlaze/AP) — Spending for the Department of Homeland Security hangs in the balance as Congress fights over immigration matters in the agency’s annual funding bill.  Republicans are trying to defund President Barack Obama’s immigration executive orders with the funding bill, and Democrats have repeatedly blocked the bill, despite majority support for it.  Without action by Feb. 27, the department’s budget will shut off — and that won’t be the end of the world.  To hear Democrats and many Republicans tell it, the result would be unacceptable risks to U.S. security at a time of grave threats worldwide.

In reality, though, most people will see little change if the department’s money flow is halted, and some of the warnings of doom are as exaggerated as they are striking…Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., put it, because many agency employees would stay at work through a shutdown…a department shutdown would have a very limited impact on national security.

Alinky’s Rules – create a rub, rub it some more – and cause a manipulated panic attack.  Anyone remember what happened during the last “shutdown”?  Pretty much, it was just the National Parks service kicking WW II vets out of their own Memorial – different place but the same Washington Monument schtick (e.g., make it HURT the general public while doing not much at all for effect; I guess they hated children on school breaks, too.  But, that’s Government fer ya!).

That’s because most department employees fall into exempted categories of workers who stay on the job in a shutdown because they perform work considered necessary to protect human life and property. Even in a shutdown, most workers across agencies, including the Secret Service, Transportation Security Administration, Federal Emergency Management Agency and Customs and Border Protection, would continue to report to work.

Airport security checkpoints would remain staffed, the Secret Service would continue to protect the president and other dignitaries, the Coast Guard would stay on patrol, immigration agents would still be on the job.

Indeed, of the agency’s approximately 230,000 employees, some 200,000 of them would keep working even if Congress fails to fund their agency. It’s a reality that was on display during the 16-day government-wide shutdown in the fall of 2013, when national parks and monuments closed but essential government functions kept running, albeit sometimes on reduced staff.

So what of the sometimes overheated rhetoric, often from Democrats trying to prove a political point?  “If this goes to shutdown,” Mikulski said, “this could close down ports up and down the East Coast, because if you don’t have a Coast Guard, you don’t have the ports. You don’t have the ports, you don’t have an economy.”  But if the department loses its money, the Coast Guard will stay in operation and so will the ports.

So our first line of defense would still be there – on the job as always.  Now, Shaheen has a small point but there’s this little niggardly point she (and the other two) wishes us to ignore:

…In addition, all personnel involved in administering grants would be furloughed, including Federal Emergency Management Agency workers who make grants to state and local governments, fire departments, and others to help them prepare for or respond to various threats and emergencies. That has led to pleas to Congress from the mayors, among others, to keep Homeland Security Department funding going.

Again – $18 Trillion IS a disaster.  Not an emergency because it’s been building for decades (and with Shaheen’s help, on steroids the last 6 years).  But it has also been 14 years since 9/11 – have not our local folks, Lang and Erickson, trained and learned ANYTHING in that time?  Or do they need continual handholding?  Have they NOT prepared a whit for this kind of thing?  And if not, where did all that previous money go?  Or was it wasted?

Look, I’m not really wanting to make light of this (even as it may seem that way).  But the politicking is being used to obfuscate the real problem, touched on by the Conservative Review post – if we go post-Constitutional as the Obama / Shaheen twinlets want, game over.  Sure, local officials constantly on their knees begging from on High because the locals said “no” is a problem, but not the existential one of throwing away our limiting principles of Government.

Sidenote: And the pushing of gay rights is not an existential threat National Security Advisor Susan Rice .

 We lose our Constitution (and the last 8-10 years has been awful in this regard) and national security will be of little regard because we will have lost our foundation.  The US no longer guided by the Constitution will no longer be the US regardless of what anyone wants to fantasize it would be.

No, Shaheen is playing community organizer – make up a faux dilemma and put herself up as ONLY she (or her Government) is the solution.

Which flies in the face what it used to mean to be Americans – are we now the FORMER “Can DO!” people?  Have we finally been transformed into the “someone else must lead – and that must be the Government”?

Our predecessors must be shaking their heads in shame…

 

 

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