There can be absolutely no doubt in the New York voters’ minds that the state government is truly dysfunctional. This is not a new revelation because it has been a tragic part of the state since the Rockefeller administration.

Nelson Rockefeller started it with his grandiose programs to make the Empire State the Welfare State. He was the one who decided to take the poor from other states and support them. Those in their senior years can remember when bus loads of people from other states came to drop off their passengers at the social services offices. There was no residency requirement and people could have a better standard of living here than they could have working with the low wages paid in their own states.

Of course, the influx of those coming in to get on the dole, required more state employees to handle the work load of providing money and services. This served the Rockefeller agenda to have more government and more state building to house the bureaucracies and bureaucrats. That guaranteed that the citizens must pay higher taxes to support the increases in governmental spending.

Then, to disguise the spending, Rocky created the authorities that were entities unto themselves. They were the ultimate bureaucracy that could borrow and spend money without much oversight. We have asked very embarrassing questions to legislators about how much they have cost the state and it is amazing how little our elected assemblymen and senators know about this huge drain on resources.

Some didn’t know how many there are and what they really do, much less how they benefit the taxpayers. Some authorities are just marvelous places to distribute patronage. The ironic part is that nobody seems to know how to control or get rid of them. When an incumbent is coming door to door campaigning, this is a good subject to discuss.

The bureaucracies grew with each administration and the battle cry was “tax and spend.” When there was any resistance from the legislators (especially during election years) to raising taxes, the governors resorted to “borrow and spend.”

If by any chance there was a surplus in the budget, instead of paying down debt, they initiated new programs. So the debt grew to the unmanageable sum it is today.

When Medicaid became a federal program, it offered a base and many options the states could add. Naturally, our legislators included most of these options to make the NY Medicaid the most generous and the most expensive. This is one of the largest expenditures in the state budget.

Then, the government unions realized how much power they had with the money and votes they could deliver to those politicians who depended on their support. Compare the wages and benefits of employees who get a government check with those who work in other states and you will find another reason taxes are so burdensome.

While the taxes were supporting a very extravagant government, businesses found a much more desirable environment in other states. The business taxes, property taxes and the personal income taxes caused an exodus to these states leaving a huge revenue loss to the state. Many left to go to “right to work” states.

Instead of compensating for the revenue losses and solving the problem by cutting back on expenses and programs, the politicians charged forward with more spending. Now the vultures (not chickens) have come home to roost and the state is in a huge financial crisis. The budget is now more than two months late and the legislators are frantically trying to tap deeper into the taxpayers’ pockets instead of making tough decisions.

Now is the time for voters to separate the wheat from the chaff and vote for candidates and incumbents who are problem solvers rather than those who have been a party to creating the disasters. It is time to vote on issues and not on personalities and charm. The future of New York depends on it.

Can someone tell Pres BO that Arizona is part of the US? Arizona is well known for beautiful parks, wonderful terrain and lots of people who love to spend time outdoors. Now, the Obama administration has officially announced that US sovereignty does not include portions of Arizona. Annie Jacobsen posted this:

“Eighty-five miles northwest of Tucson lies the Sonoran Desert National Monument, a lovely area designated as a national park by one of the last acts of Bill Clinton’s presidency. Today, the road to get there is closed.”

Yes, it is now officially unsafe for Arizona’s families to enjoy their own state. Yes, Arizona’s taxpayers can no longer enjoy the parks that their taxes support. Why is this happening? The simple answer is that the US-Mexico border is a war zone:

“An American national monument has become a drug-smuggling corridor between Mexico and the southwest. Wars between Mexican drug cartels have grown so severe in the park that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), who manages it, says it’s too dangerous to enter.”

Why is Obama not fulfilling his presidential duty to defend our nation against foreign invasion? Because our “I desperately need Mexican-Americans to turn out in November” Pres BO does not want to defend the homeland. This is a disgrace and Arizona has every right to feel outraged! Do you understand now why Arizona’s Democrats are desperately calling on Pres BO to stop lawsuits against their state?

Dick Morris has a great post about Pres BO courting the Hispano vote:

“Why is President Obama suing to invalidate the Arizona law on illegal immigration? Why is he incurring the enmity of even his own Democratic Congressmen from the Phoenix and Tucson areas by trying to kill a law that two-thirds of Arizona and a similar proportion of America as a whole supports?

The answer: It is a desperate, last ditch attempt to rebuild his sagging popularity with America’s Hispanic voters.

Furious at Obama for failing to keep his election year promise to promote comprehensive immigration reform when he had a super-majority at his disposal, they are deserting the president and his party in droves. Unemployment, a sagging economy, and their sharp disagreement with Obama over social issues don’t help the president’s cause any.

So Obama has seized on the Arizona immigration law as a symbolic target, hoping to accomplish in a lawsuit the political task of rebuilding his base.”

“Hispanos” are also coming to terms with the reality that they voted for change but got a Dem majority that won’t fulfill a campaign promise: Key Dem Rep says immigration reform doesn’t have the votes this year!

The Arizona situation is insane but this is Obama, the man who sat in Rev Wright’s church for 20 years but never heard a racist or anti-Jewish sermon. Frankly, I never thought that I would see our federal government tell its citizens that a park is unsafe for families to go camping, picnics or hiking. Again, this is BO’s world!

Thankfully, more and more Americans, including the millions of “hispanos” who came here legally and love “the rule of law” are checking out of “the hope and change” express.

P.S. We love Gov Brewer. It’s nice to see that someone has “pantalones” in this debate.

Watch this video:

A noted writer recently wrote that the U.S. is on the slippery slope to tyranny while a pollster claims that Hillary “stand by my man” Clinton is better qualified to be President than Obama (no surprise there). According to the same poll, Hillary was preferred ahead of a list of Republicans including Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney and others. There is no doubt that handwriting is on the wall for Obama although he likely does not know how to read it, nor does he care.

Obama’s Foreign Policy is a “reset” disaster. With the “Overseas Contingency Operation” in Afghanistan on the chaotic political center stage orchestrated by “bite me” Biden, any sane observer knows that “bite me” should be locked out of anything to do with policy. Hillary is so busy self-promoting and self-protecting that Foreign Policy is one of the least of her real concerns; she wants to fulfill the poll results. To date, Obama’s Foreign Policy consists of anti-American apologies, pandering to Muslims abroad and at home, stabbing Israel in the back with the help of his Chief of Staff, Rahm Emmanuel (one hopes the anti-Semites and self-loathing Jews are happy), embracing communists and other leftist dictators and sucking up to China. One has to ask, who is this person for? Minorities? Unions? Social and Socialist activists? Yes. But it is abundantly clear that he is not for mainstream Americans!

Central to the problem is that while General Stanley McChrystal was figuratively on the carpet for the untoward attitude of his staff (which undoubtedly reflected his own attitude) toward Obama’s team, if not Obama, too many if not most Americans were busy texting, tweeting, “face booking,” attending some shrieking “entertainer’s” ear splitting concert, watching the World Cup, NBA, Super Bowl, World Series, NASCAR or trying to sneak a peek to see whether or not Miley Cyrus or Brittany Spears had on underclothes to have a clue about what is happening to their country. Such “useful idiots” voted for Obama despite the fact that he told them in eloquent terms that he planned to destroy their way of life. In his world, after all, in the process of satisfying just the above past-times, Americans consume about twenty percent of the world’s resources and Obama is on a mission to totally change that to Kenyan levels.

To that end he has managed to spend or obligate more money than all previous U.S. administrations in history combined, effectively reducing future generations of Americans to virtual slaves of and to the government (Obama’s vision of spreading the wealth around); he and Democrats in Congress imposed (shades of the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea) an overwhelmingly unwanted system of health care on the nation that in the process is destroying the best health care in the world while adding trillions to the national debt; he has reduced the U.S. economy nearly to rubble (Oh, sorry, “it’s Bush’s fault.”); is demonstrably America’s first dictator given his unilateral actions with respect to his refusal, despite the Presidential oath to fulfill required Constitutional duties, to secure the borders; his tacit encouragement of illegal immigration; his adversarial attitude toward the State of Arizona’s actions to protect itself; his intention to grant illegal immigrants amnesty by Executive Order, attempting to “rahm” through “Cap and Trade” legislation that would triple energy costs and further wreck the economy; put huge amounts of taxpayers’ dollars in the pockets of the likes of George Soros, Al Gore, and other rich elitists; complicit and intentional failure to act in protecting Gulf waters from further damage by the BP oil spill despite technology that is available and has been offered, that could ameliorate the problem; imposition of a drilling moratorium in the Gulf that will result in thousands of jobs lost; irresponsibly delaying Gulf berm construction; and, “fiddling” on the golf course while the nation “burns,” to name a few.

Is Obama incompetent or are his actions intentional? When one states, “the economy is on track,” which both he and “bite me” Biden have asserted, given the evident direction that it is moving, his actions to destroy the economy are intentional! Does this constitute being domestic enemy #1?

A number of years ago Alex Haley wrote an epic book titled Roots, the moving story of his African heritage. Haley performed years of research and was rewarded with an understanding from whence he came, and then to his credit, shared it with the rest of us. Similarly, too many, if not most Americans know little or nothing about how this country came to be and have scant knowledge of its founding principles. A number of years ago I yearned to deepen my understanding of our nation and was fortunate to find Dr. Chuck Baldwin’s comprehensive assemblage of important founding documents titled The Freedom Documents. I keep a copy on the coffee table for easy reference.

Like Haley’s Roots, The Freedom Documents underpin all Americans’ roots and I enthusiastically commend a copy to readers wherever they may be; the folks in Washington would be well advised to peruse them. An understanding of how the United States came to be puts Obama’s efforts to destroy it in clear perspective. Buy The Freedom Documents and then read/study them. You will be glad you did. Here is the link– Chuck Baldwin Live.

Semper Fidelis

© Robert L. Pappas, all rights reserved.

Few knowledgeable people would dispute the fact that New York has some of the strictest and draconian gun laws in America. They also must acknowledge that the Empire State also has some of the dumbest and useless gun laws on the books.

Around 1911 a crooked and corrupt politician named Timothy Sullivan wrote a law requiring the licensing of handgun owners and the registration of all handguns. This is known as the Sullivan Law. Many historians claim the purpose of this law was to make sure his goons were permitted to carry concealed weapons and those who opposed him would not.

The law is different for residents of New York City than the rest of the state. In fact, although the pistol permit is issued as a state permit, those who live outside the five Burroughs and get the permit, find that it is not recognized in the Big Apple. A person must be investigated by the local police, state police and the FBI to be cleared to ensure that they are not prohibited from owning a handgun. A criminal record or other condition such as mental or emotional disorders or even to be considered a person of poor character, will disqualify them from being granted a permit.

A person who lives upstate or on Long Island may pass all these requirements, but if he carries his gun for protection within the NY City limits, he can be arrested for the illegal possession of a handgun. The license is absolutely worthless. However, the City license is good anywhere in the state. Whatever happened to “equal protection under the law?”

In upstate New York the one who issues pistol permits is a judge in a court of record and is issued under the judge’s discretionary power. The power is awesome and often abused. Issuing judges in each county seem to make their own rules. Some will limit the number of guns the permit holder may have, and many will place restrictions on the carrying of the handgun such as “limited to target and hunting.” This is done by judicial whim.

Many states require a permit to carry a concealed weapon, but it is strange that New York and a few others require a permit to own a handgun. Since the Second Amendment guarantees the right to keep and bear arms and a permit is a privilege, how can a state deny a Constitutional right and make it a privilege?

Strangely, the New York Constitution does not have a right to keep and bear arms. Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor said in one of her decisions when she was a Federal Judge in New York, “The Second Amendment does not apply in New York.” There is a Supreme Court case to be decided that may change that problem. It may declare that New York must honor the Second Amendment as our Founding Fathers intended.

One of the dumbest gun laws states that a teen age student may learn to safely handle and fire a handgun for training purposes. Once a person reaches the age of 21, that exemption is void and if he holds a handgun, the law says he is “illegally in possession of a handgun.” How this has a positive effect to curb gun violence is a mystery to most people with an IQ higher than 70.

Sections 265 and 400 of the NY Penal Law contain the laws regarding the possession and licensing of firearms. Some are very confusing. For example if a person has a magazine that holds more than ten rounds of ammunition he can be charged with a felony if the magazine was manufactured after 1994. If it was made before that date the person may own it legally. Again, this is a very confusing provision of a confusing law.

Many legislators, especially those from New York City, keep introducing bills to restrict the ownership of firearms that would make Adolph Hitler proud. In fact the 1968 Gun Control Bill was based on the Third Reich law that disarmed the German people. This led to Hitler’s takeover of a disarmed citizenry and created the Holocaust.

As a late Second Amendment activist was fond of saying: “Any politician who thinks gun control will reduce violent crime is too dumb to represent me on other issues.” It is tough to argue against that logic.

“Whoops” all over, specially among those who bought into it!

Did anyone see this one coming? We’ve gone from the guy walks on water to he can’t swim! The past weekend saw another round of critical columns about the Obama presidency.

Let’s start with Charles Blow, the very liberal NY Times columnist:

It is becoming increasingly apparent that the magic has drained away. Even among his most ardent supporters, there now exists a certain frustration and disillusionment — not necessarily in the execution of his duties, but in his inability to seize moments, chart a course and navigate the choppy waters of public opinion.

Let’s check with Professor VD Hanson:

But what exactly does Barack Obama wish to accomplish abroad?

In interviews and speeches, Obama emphasizes his nontraditional background and his father’s Islamic heritage. Apparently, he hopes that by reminding the world that he is not George W. Bush, America will be better liked.

As we pointed out during the peak of Obama-mania, be careful about a foreign policy based on love and an obsession to be liked. Peggy Noonan, one of those conservatives who bought into “hope and change” is now worried that BO is Carter:

The president is starting to look snakebit. He’s starting to look unlucky, like Jimmy Carter.

Did Carter have bad luck or did he project such a weak foreign policy that the bad guys decided to challenge the US all over? The Carter analogies are all over Europe, a continent that can not defend itself and relies on a strong US president.

Check out Der Spiegel — Will Obama Be the ‘Jimmy Carter of the 21st Century’?

Weren’t these people in Europe jumping up and down two summer ago?

Mort Zucherman delivers the final punch — World Sees Obama as Incompetent and Amateur

So what’s going on? BO’s candidacy was based on two first class mistakes: First, “everything is Bush’s fault”! In other words, replace Bush and everybody is happy again! By the way, the blaming Bush stuff is losing its political value — 47% Blame Bush for Nation’s Economic Problems, 45% Blame Obama

BO owns this economy, as every Dem seeking reelection knows quite well. This is 2010 and not 2008! Read this:

Earth to House Democrats: It’s time to push the panic button. But don’t take my word for it; consider the evidence.

Second, and more damaging than the first, BO’s voters did not take seriously the fact that their candidate had no executive experience. How can you vote for someone who has never run anything? From Washington to Bush, all of our presidents had experience as governors, mayors, CEOs, small business owners or distinguished military service.

As we’ve said before, this is not going to end well for all of those who got caught up in “the personality” and did not look into the man’s lack of qualifications to serve as president. As your parents warned you, irrational decisions bring bad results, no matter how often the speaker tells us what you want to hear!