Articles tagged as

Demagoguery

Assault Weapons: A Serious Problem in America?

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“The Nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools.” – Thucydides

 HR 6257 Assault Weapons Ban Reauthorization Act of 2008 was introduced by Republican Mark Kirk of Illinois, and co-sponsored by Republicans, (defeated)Mike Castle of Delaware, Mike Ferguson of New Jersey, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida and Chris Shays of Connecticut. The Bill was introduced on June 12, 2008 and never became law, having been stalled in subcommittee.  In January, Republican Senator Dick Lugar said he supports a ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines.

These Republicans suck. Mark Kirk is a liberal, not to mention a demagogue and panderer. But coming from Illinois not much else is to be expected. Mike Castle of Delaware, also a liberal, was defeated by Christine O’Donnell in the primary. The bearded Marxist Chris Coons went on to beat O’Donnell which is not surprising, given Delaware “Kool-Aid-drinking” constituency. Mike Ferguson was a typical New Jersey anti-gunner who chose not to run for office again in 2008. Thank goodness. The dependable, but squishy Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, notorious for her associations with the “arts and croissants” crowd. and finally, RINO Chris Shays of Connecticut who got crushed in 2008. Two out of five left standing…

 According to Kool-Aid drinking Senator Diane Feinstein’s brochure, an Assault Weapon is, All semi-automatic assault pistols and rifles with detachable magazines and 2 or more “assault” characteristics, (my emphasis added) as well as semiautomatic shotguns with 2 or more such ‘characteristics‘…” “Characteristics…”

char·ac·ter·is·tic  /?kær?kt??r?st?k/ [kar-ik-tuh-ris-tik]

–adjective

 1. Also, char·ac·ter·is·ti·cal. pertaining to, constituting, or indicating the character  or peculiar quality of a person or thing; typical; distinctive: Red and gold are the characteristic colors of autumn.

–noun

2. a distinguishing feature or quality: Generosity is his chief characteristic.

Who makes this stuff up? Rarely is there ever a name attached to such a falsehood. But, if I have to lay odds it came out of Bloomberg’s camp or from the Brady Bunch. In that vein, the contemporary liars, shrills and demagogues are more dependable than a quarterly IRS Tax bill.

 What is an Assault Weapon? The rational and logical answer is nothing. There is no such thing. The term is a concoction of charlatans, the brainless colloquy bantered about by liberals and gun-banners as a pejorative mischaracterization on those firearms of a compact, utilitarian nature, originally derived from Military use. These so-called “assault weapons” available for sale in gun shops around the nation, generally do not differ in functionality from traditional hunting rifles. What sets these rifles apart are their mere appearance…or their characteristics.

 The definition for Assault Rifle, however, is a, “Light and compact selective-fire automatic rifle firing a cartridge of such power that it can deliver effective fire to a range of about 500 metres, but at the same time will permit the weapon to be fired in the automatic mode from the shoulder,” according to the Greenhill Military Small Arms Databook.  

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ATF’s Project Gun Runner: An Object Lesson In Corruption, Lies And Cover-ups

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“I don’t believe gun owners have rights…”–Sarah Brady, Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, October, 1997; “Handguns in America“

What is Project Gun Runner? Project Gun Runner is a program implemented by the ATF for the express purpose of interdicting weapons used by the Mexican drug cartels into Mexico. Mexican drug cartels have emerged as the leading illegal gun traffickers in the U.S. First implemented in 2005 as a pilot project in Laredo Texas, the ATF went national with the program in 2006 with the objective of reducing or eliminating cross-border firearms and drug trafficking, as well as the high level of associative violence occurring on both sides of the border.

Project Gun Runner segued an expansion of the ATF’s eTrace firearm tracing software system to Thirty-two nations, a number of which have a demonstrative track record of police corruption anti-gun biases and overt fraud.  eTrace results provides these nations complete and unfettered access to American gun owner’s identities, names, addresses and personal information. Now, why would some government hack in Guyana have some need to access Rick Olson’s ATF purchase trace data? Most likely, none. But having such infrastructure in place would certainly interface well with the machinations of the future U.N. Treaty on Small Arms.

It has also been found that Project Gun Runner has netted an inverse result to its’ original stated purpose.  Senator Charles Grassley, (R) Iowa, initiated an investigation after he received credible evidence that the ATF had facilitated and allowed for the  sale of over 2,500 firearms, consisting of AK-47 rifles, FN 5.7mm pistols, AK-47 pistols, and .50 caliber rifles in ‘straw purchases. Also determined was the destiny of these guns were Mexico. The Phoenix Field Division of the ATF now only allowed but facilitated the sales, despite objections and discomfort of law-abiding Federally Licensed Firearms dealers enlisted to participate following their reports of suspicious purchases.

On December 14, 2010, Customs and Border Protection Agent Brian Terry was on patrol along a smuggling route in Arizona when a firefight erupted and Agent Terry was killed. In the immediate aftermath, assault rifles were recovered at the scene, one of which was traced back to a gun Shop in Arizona. on February 23rd of this year, Insiders told CBS’s Scott Pelley, “(This incident) surpasses the shoot-out at Ruby Ridge and the deadly siege at Waco.”

Special Agent John Dodson accuses the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allegedly let gun runners walk off with weapons – thousands of them – to see if they’d end up in the hands of the cartels, in an ABC News interview. The Justice Department and ATF have denied it ever happened and Senator Grassley went on to further investigate allegations of Retribution against Dodson as a “whistle-blower.”

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Manchester City Politics and Swimming Pools

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“You can swim all day in the Sea of Knowledge and still come out completely dry.  Most people do…”  –Author Unknown

City pools…the latest whipping boy for the Alderman. Corriveau and Lopez want to charge out-of-towners, not make them go away.  Osborne dismissed it as minutia. Greazo wants to double-dip. Alderman Garth Corriveau said pools are a “luxury.” I would agree, Garth….let’s make this all about the “Haves and  Have nots!” Swimming Pool politics has it all! Apathy, Class warfare, taxing and spending, empire building, and demagoguing. Same old corrupt thinking.

Alderman Phil Greazo proposes to charge all users of city pools. Just one minor problem, Greazo…”WE ALREADY PAY FOR THE STINKING POOLS THROUGH THE TAX BASE!”

The UL reports in the June 1st story, “About 96,800 people who live in Manchester used the city pools in 2010…” That is 88% of this city’s just under 110,000 population. And, according to the data provided by Parks and Recreation only, 1,500 non-residents use the pools. But here is the real problem: these numbers are absolute bunk!

Anecdotally, here is where I think the numbers more accurately live: I think city pool use is more accurately +/- 12-16% of the total city population. With a staff of lifeguards on hand, the conditions prevail where public pools become babysitters by proxy. Here is my math…

(96,800 +/-16% = 15,488)  (15,488 / 2 = 7,744)  (7,744 +/-6 uses = 46,464) (7,744 +/-3 uses  = 23,232) (46,464 + 23,232 = 69,696)

I think non-resident use is DOUBLE despite Manchester Parks and Recreation assertions. Non-resident use most likely accounts for upwards of 25% of use. Heck, Why not? ITS FREE!!!( not Manchester residents)  Based on my own experiences at Livingston Pool, waiting there sometimes 40 minutes or more, the non-resident use is out of hand and isn’t tracked as well as it should be.  Here is what I think…More math…

(3,900 +/-$6 uses = 23,400)

I don’t think three non-residents or 3,000 non residents using the pools matters…until it is you, a city taxpayer, quietly watching and waiting at the fence…outside of the pool… roasting in the hot sun, while non-resident interlopers frolic about in the pool because it is, “free for them.” Under that circumstance, one non-resident swimmer is one-too-many.

Manchester’s Livingston pool is highly attractive. The net result, however has been a constant overflow of guests using that pool, while other pools in the city rarely see capacity use.  The pool clearly exceeds its bathing load because of high demand and the young staff is not equipped to properly manage the demand.

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The Sweet Stench Of Left Wing Hypocrisy

The Union Leader wastes no time, exposing Hawkins connection to money she received May 11th from America Votes (out of state left wing donation), which Granite State Progress then used to support the Democrat in the special election she is squawking about, specifically to elect that democrat, in that election.

HOUSE BILL 474: THE “NAY’S” AND THE “NO-SHOWS”

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“Man is the only animal that laughs and has a state legislature.” -Samuel Butler

“The absent are never without fault. Nor the present without excuse.”-Michael Caine

HOUSE BILL 474, “An act relative to freedom of choice on whether to join a labor union,” passed out of the house and obtained Senate Concurrence with Amendments. In laymen’s terms, both houses passed the bill.  However, it is important to note that in the House, the bill did not pass with a veto-proof majority. According to the House Bill 474 Roll Call, the Bill passed  225 Yeas and 140 Nays.

How It Breaks down:

DEMOCRATIC

 

  

Yea Vote

 

0

Nay Vote

 

93

Not Voting

 

9
 

 

  

REPUBLICAN

 

  

Yea Vote

 

225

Nay Vote

 

47

Not Voting

 

21

 

 

 

INDEPENDENT

 

 

Yea Vote

 

1

Nay Vote

 

0

Not Voting

 

0

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THE VETO OF HB 474: “RIGHT TO WORK? NOT SO MUCH…

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“Labor unions would have us believe that they transfer income from rich capitalists to poor workers. In fact, they mostly transfer income from the large number of non-union workers to a small number of relatively well-off union workers…”   –ROBERT E. ANDERSON, Just Get Out of the Way

 

 CONCORD – Governor Lynch, true to his word vetoed HB 474, the right to work Bill recently passed out of the house and Senate.  Passed out of both the house and Senate, the bill has drawn the ire of the Union Hackarama far and wide. All of the pro-unionists came out in force to pontificate about being against the working men and women of this country; About people who will starve and go hungry; and when the rhetoric and false logic had no effect, They crowded hearing rooms and were disruptive with verbal outbursts. Despite all this bad behavior, rank demagoguery and cursing at lawmakers, the bill passed anyway.

Tom Fahey, Statehouse Bureau Chief for the Union Leader  writes, “Unions see the bill as a move funded by out of state interests to undercut their role in the workplace. (Unions) argue that the measure intrudes in labor-management relations,” in this morning’s UL article,GOP goes after right-to-work opponents.

Juxtapose that against Unions bussing in “volunteers” for Carol Shea-Porter’s campaign from, Lord-knows where; And, the Union interests from all around the country pumping big dollars into local campaigns, those hardly qualify as out-of-state interests? Leave it to Union mouthpieces to complain about the very thing that is not only pro forma for them, but done with absolute shameless impunity.

Governor Lynch and his union cronies, with their Machiavellian Template,  redefine the plain and ordinary meaning of words in the furtherance of their subterfuge. In his press release Governor Lynch chastises, “States should not interfere with the rights of businesses and their employees to freely negotiate contracts. That is unless there is a compelling public interest, and there is no compelling public interest in passing this legislation…” They would have us believe that somehow the veto of this bill is was advocacy for freedom.” Lynch would have us believe job seekers have this “freedom” already in place enabling them to be free from the yoke of the Unions. That is untrue, when an employee has to pay an agency fee to the coffers of the Union. That is essentially joining the Union by proxy.

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The Shrill Kathy Spins the Polls

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“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” – British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, (1804-1881)

 In yet another boring and putrid diatribe about the “out of touch” Republicans, Kathy Sullivan is predicting a widespread  ousting of Republicans in Concord in 2012.  In the Union Leader’s Another View Opposite Editorial, the Shrill Kathy declares, “Granite Staters already regret voting Republican last November”.  Relying on a  May 3 UNH Survey Center Poll, the Shrill Kathy asserts, “The results show New Hampshire residents, or at least those providing this snapshot, rejecting the hard-right turn taken by Republicans since the 2010 election…” Wow! that’s pretty grim. Or is it really?

 But unlike the Shrill Kathy, I provided a link above that enables the reader to actually look at the actual data. And what Andrew Smith of the UNH Survey Center says about the data is, “Lynch remains popular in the state, growing concern about the direction of the state.”  That is significantly different from what the Shill Kathy’s interpretation tells us. Factually, the narrative states that 54% of New Hampshire adults feel the state is heading in the right direction, 39% think the state is seriously off on the wrong track, and 7% don’t know.  This Legislature and Senate is four and a half months into the term. Granite-Staters, nearly always express concern about legislative initiatives, but they are also fair-minded people and a lot less partisan that the Shrill Kathy would have us believe.

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Hillary Clinton Edited Out Of ‘Iconic’ Photo

Cats!

(First a Note: This is not the picture in question. It’s better)

That’s the Yahoo! News headline. Hillary Edited Out of Iconic Photo.   Though I’m not particularly concerned about that.  I’m more interested in the media narrative about a staged photo.  The word iconic keeps popping up as an adjective to describe this "piece of…history." 

Well, Iconic is defined by dictionary dot com as…

-Adj,

1.  relating to, resembling, or having the character of an icon.

2.  (of memorial sculptures, esp those depicting athletes of ancient Greece) having a fixed conventional style.

OK. Not much to work with there. How about Icon then?

— n
1. Also: ikon  a representation of Christ, the Virgin Mary, or a saint, esp one painted in oil on a wooden panel, depicted in a traditional Byzantine style and venerated in the Eastern Church
2. an image, picture, representation, etc
3. a person or thing regarded as a symbol of a belief, nation, community, or cultural movement
4. a person regarded as a sex symbol or as a symbol of the latest fashion trends
5. a pictorial representation of a facility available on a computer system, that enables the facility to be activated by means of a screen cursor rather than by a textual instruction

Which of these five do you think the media is shooting for?

Given the direction of public education, I think we will have to amalgamate these into a common perception.  Something that fits the modern, western, collective unconscious, or in this case the media narrative about the current administration.  Iconic implies a historical moment of great importance destined to define our nation and it’s leaders (so -depicted) for generations to come.  Think- Sputnik moment!

Well lets work with that.

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THE LIBERAL CHARITABLE TEMPLATE

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“If I ever get real rich, I hope I’m not real mean to poor people, like I am now”– Deep Thoughts with Jack Handey

In the context of budget debates, we can always count on liberals to wage class warfare. When austerity draws its uncomfortable bead on health and human services line items, school budgets, public sector unions, and the arts, liberals form up the fight line to speak of epic meanness. They caterwaul and accuse Republicans of starving the children, or killing the old people or taking away food stamps from the poor.

Those evil, heartless rich Republicans! they just keep getting richer and the poor just keep getting poorer! Republicans Are People Too — Mean, Selfish, Greedy People! How many times have we grown tired of hearing that? The sad fact is that all too many people buy into these sham assertions.

“Republicans.”  They are the straw man in public debate that liberals love to point their prune-picking, pablum-puking, American-hating, boney little fingers at, as the source of all thing miserable.

Class warfare Liberals gloss over the fact that uber-wealthy liberals vastly outnumber wealthy conservatives. Andrew Gelman, Professor of statistics and political science at Columbia University asserts that, “The average income of the 100 million or so Republicans is LOWER than that of the 150 million or so Democrats,” in Rich state, poor state, red state, blue state. American Conservative households statistically earn 6% less than Liberal American households.

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LIBERALS AND FISCAL DENIABILITY

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Since the beginning of the year, countless editorials and opposite editorial pages across the Granite State have been one large veritable whine-fest…A seemingly never-ending weeping and gnashing of teeth over cuts in various line items of the state budget. Hand-in-hand with all the pissing and moaning, is the rank demagoguing of New Hampshire House Republicans for the choices they are making. If Liberals are good at nothing else, they are certainly adept at blaming everything bad on Republicans, even after it was they who made the mess.

 Noticeably absent from all of this cacophony, noise, caterwauling and fit-pitching is any reasonable alternative or meaningful way to fund all these sacred cash cows that each their loyal patrons willingly advocate for keeping and maintaining. It is as if there is no budget shortfall or structural deficits realized. Call it fiscal deniability.

 “Those evil Republicans! They are cutting (“insert esteemed cash cow here”).

And, in predictable fashion, the noisy screeching of the liberal magpies checker the ambience with demagoguery and finger-wagging, replete with the requisite vitriol of class warfare.  Like sculptured nails on a chalk board, the tax-and spend liberals still offer no reasonable suggestions even when they run out of steam.  We would be remiss to overlook the much-heard faux straw man charges like, “Republicans hate children,” or, “Republicans are stealing from the working class.”

 A week ago Friday the esteemed fishwrapper, The Concord Monitor weighed in with an editorial admonishing its’ readers that, Killing ‘car tax’ will make things worse. When House Republicans sought to repeal the motor vehicle registration surcharge, The editorial

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A Road Trip for Kristin Ruggiero

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Convicted Shrew Kristin Ruggiero received a change of scenery recently. She went on a road trip, but hardly an, “excellent adventure.” She is currently on holiday from New Hampshire Graybar U as a guest at MCI Framingham, noshing on bag lunches and partaking the requisite exercise program called, “cellblock shakedown.”  She is down yonder in the commonwealth to answer charges of a similar nature filed by the Barre Police.

Nobody sets the bar higher than Kristin. Not when it comes to false allegations, lying and conniving. Kristin is like the Energizer Bunny: She keeps going and going and Going.

Every individual life she has touched has been negatively affected. Shrew Kristin has duped New England Cable News with her faux victim story; she has convinced family members to lie and fabricate evidence for her. He own Mother, Elizabeth “Kim” McDonald is now facing felony charges of her own. Her boyfriend and former Barre Massachusetts Police Officer Brendan Bisbee now faces charges relating to his part in her case. Finally, her ex-bother-in-law Daniel Ruggiero has been indicted as well.

Kristin is all locked up. In Jail…facing another trial because of lies and fabrications she committed in the first trial. It does not end there. Kristin is on a road trip. She is currently a guest of the State of Massachusetts where she is being held to answer charges Barre police filed in 2009 accusing her of intimidation of a witness and criminal harassment. Housed at MCI Framingham, she will stand trial at Western Worcester District Court in Brookfield MA.

In February and March 2008, while working in Barre Massachusetts, Kristin filed a report with Barre Police alleging to have witnessed crimes. In the course of the reporting, officers ran routine checks of Kristin’s driver’s license for background information. Officers were not able to ascertain whether Kristin has a valid operator’s license, having driven

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Clarity and Collective Bargaining?

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Mr. Sapienza asks in the Union Leader, “Do legislators even know what state workers do?”
Perhaps some don’t. I know for a fact that some do…many have been state workers themselves. With so many flawed or misquided assumptions, the demagoguery lives on. 

Edward Sapienza of Manchester, through the Union Leader opposite editorial pages seeks to “offer some clarity and ask our state representatives and state senators, specifically what conservative values do [sic] you bring to the table?” Mr. Sapienza asserts this legislature is taking from the rank and file working class. “Getting state and county spending under control is, “taking from the working class?” pointing to the measure to remove collective bargaining.

Mr. Sapienza is a correctional officer at the Hillsborough County Jail.  As a Hillsborough County taxpayer, I am grateful and thankful for his service because being a correctional officer is a tough job. The care, custody, and control of our societal miscreants is a significant task, requiring patience, an even temperament and intelligence. Correctional Officers must follow a clearly defined set of rules, procedures and standards in dealing with our county prisoners and detainees, who, on the other hand, adhere to no such rules or standards, other than those imposed by the facility that keeps them. Few truly know what a day in the life of a correctional officer is truly like and often times, the only public mention of the men and women who do this job is when we see acts of wrong-doing by them in newspapers. It’s unfair.

Moreover, very few understand that in Mr. Sapienza’s workplace; even the most seemingly innocuous question or request by an inmate or detainee can tax a Correctional Officer. A Correctional Officer must be able to think quickly, evaluate, and understand that his response may have an unintended consequence. The CO must ask, “Did the inmate or detainee already ask another staff member? Did that staff member say, ‘no'”? If I say, ‘yes’, am I causing an inconsistency with my other staff members, enabling an inmate manipulation?” Being a correctional officer is a challenging career and is not a job for stupid people.

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Parental Notification: It’s Not Really About ‘Choice,’ Is it?

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House Bill 329. A law that will require the notification of parents for unemancipated minors prior to the performance of an abortion procedure, will get it’s public hearing tomorrow before the Senate Judiciary committee. Most certainly, that public hearing will segue the militant hit-parade decrying this often-called, “anti-choice” legislation.

Planned Parenthood, making quick use of our tax dollars to lobby against this piece of legislation, gives us indicia that should the bill pass the Judiciary and Senate, Planned Parenthood might sue to block its implementation as they did in Alaska. In fact, Planned Parenthood has made concerted efforts all over the Country to block such legislation with various court challenges. Planned Parenthood shows their resolve and that they will not be deterred. In 2005, for example, A Minnesota court ruled that St. Paul Planned Parenthood violated a parental notification law when an abortion was performed on a 17-year-old girl without prior notice to her parents. History instructs us that Planned Parenthood not only actively opposes these laws, but that they are willing to simply disregard them.

In today’s Union Leader story, Gary Rayno reports that opponents of the bill say, “(This bill) will needlessly put the lives and health of young women at risk…” Seriously? opponents all say this, but they never tell you exactly how. Or if opponents tell how, they give anecdotal examples of extreme abuse, rape or incest.  If one accepts that logic, one also has to first admit that all of the other systems and precious safety nets they so ardently champion and advocate for have failed. In cases of abuse, where was DCYF? and why did they not intervene?

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The Shrill Kathy and the Business Finance Authority

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The “Shrill Kathy” Sullivan has a bee in her bonnet over Executive Councilor’s St. Hillaire, Sununu and Wheeler’s “vote to table” the April 13 agenda items two, three and four regarding the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority request for a public guarantee for small business loans.

An in her normal, usual and customary fashion of pandering, demagoguery and straw politics, the Shrill Kathy pens her diatribe in the Union Leader Op-Ed section, grossly mischaracterizing the meeting vote as being anti-small business and anti-job creation.

The Shrill Kathy’s first shot is at District 5 Executive Councilor Dave Wheeler and she quips, “Wheeler’s votes often lack thoughtfulness…” Really? How thoughtless? Councilor Wheeler posited the following question, “What does the thirty-five million look like to the bonding companies regarding state debt? and Wheeler adds, “We increased state debt tremendously in the last four years…how does this fit into that picture?”  To which the response was given, “This is reflected as a ‘contingent liability.'”

In that context, we should define, “contingent liability“. A contingent liability is The possibility existent of an obligation to pay certain sums dependent on future events. Liability which is difficult to quantify, or which may or may not come to pass, such as an outstanding lawsuit or a guarantee such as this.

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The Myopic Lament Of Cut Budgets

?Contemporarily, governments all over America, be they national, state, local or municipal, have come to recognize that spending is outpacing revenue. The 2010 elections were a message that we as a nation need to become more fiscally responsible and stop spending ourselves into bankruptcy. Consequently, budgets are being slashed, expenses trimmed and austere measures are … Read more

Republicans Now Use ‘The Template’

Marty Harty of Barrington resigned his house seat after making remarks that were both insensitive and inappropriate. The resignation was appropriate because to be a lawmaker in Concord, one must represent ones’ constituency with fairness and judiciousness. Comments made by Representative Harty fell short of that.  But it’s not enough that Jim Splaine, writing on … Read more

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