click for full size version

People post the dumbest things. Somehow, a liberal friend of a friend became a friend of mine on Facebook. That wouldn’t be so bad since I do have a few liberal friends.  In this case, I finally couldn’t stand it.

Byron Gates, Jr, posted a complaint on his wall about the billboard in Iowa from the North Iowa Tea Party. It put Hitler, Obama, and Lenin on the same level, and contained the “outrageous” phrase Live Free or Die at the bottom. This has caused an uproar in many liberal, progressive, and socialist circles.

To think that such imagery would be used! How could such a violent phrase – live free or die – be used! Here’s the funny thing.

Live Free or Die is the state motto of New Hampshire. It’s even on their license plates.

Classic failure on the part of liberals. They forget the vile rhetoric aimed at Bush/Cheney, Clinton/Gore, Bush/Quayle, and Reagan/Bush. Of course Carter deserves everything that was said about him – then and now.

So what does this have to do with Facebook and Byron Gates, Jr? Well, he put up his wall post with the statement: “Can you believe the assholes. Even if you love the Tea Party, even if you are a conservative at any level, this is just downright offensive.”

Then he later stated, “Too much money, too little brains. They are a joke.” Of course, he was referring to conservatives and Tea Party people. Therein lies the problem for Byron. He tries, like most liberals, to put himself on a pedestal above others. That simply doesn’t hold water with his weak debate skills and zero command of the facts.

You can click the image on the right to read it full size.

He simply feels good preaching to the choir of his friends where they can pat each other on the back and feel good. Naturally, I posted a reply and was promptly “blocked” from his wall.

Perfect ending.

This story originally ran on KTBS 3 in Shreveport as “Gun Grabbing Mayor” and was posted in streaming video on their website. Apparently, they have taken it down. Now, they could remove videos and stories after a certain period of time (which is stupid and not necessary), but it sure is close to the mayoral elections.

I requested a copy from KTBS 3 last year after it ran. Ron Thoma sent me a copy pulled from KPXJ 21 (sister station). I’ve posted it to Youtube – and if I get a take-down notice there, I will just post it directly on my site.

As a side note, KTBS did NOT try to contact Baillio nor me – even though they showcased my site. Robert would have certainly spoken to the news about the situation.

One thing most people overlook is that this whole story is not really about the weapon seizure. It’s about HOW the weapon was taken. The officer searched the vehicle with no probable cause and no warrant. The weapon itself is irrelevant. Then you add Mayor Cedric Glover’s comments: Your rights are suspended – and you have a complete breakdown in common sense, law, and rights.

While I am normally very conservative on government spending, there is one area that I believe should always be funded – taking care of our soldiers and specifically our War Veterans.

A good friend and technology client of mine alerted me to the $2 million budget cuts slashed from the 5 War Veterans Homes this year, and another $1.08 million set to be slashed next year.

We need to contact our state congressmen and Governor Jindal and raise a voice of opposition to the cuts.

Our veterans have offered their lives to sacrifice for the freedoms we all enjoy. The least we can do is use our tax dollars to take of them. There is coverage by KSLA here and by NOLA here. Jim Wells has it covered on the My Bossier Blog also. We are posting this on Facebook too – so spread the message.

You can download and print a form letter by clicking here for PDF and here for a Word version.

Contact Information:

Governor Bobby Jindal
PO Box 94004
Baton Rouge, LA 70804-9004
225-342-0991 or 225-342-7015 or 866-366-1121

Decline in Medical Services and Patient Care

As a Result of State Budget Cuts at Louisiana’s Five War Veteran Homes

Budget reductions:

• There have been two significant removals of state funds from the state War Veteran Homes since the FY10 Appropriated Budget.
• The initial cut, effective in January 2010, removed $2 million dollars from the state five War Veteran Homes. The net savings was projected to be 51.5 million dollars to the state; however, the savings to the state have proven to be considerably less. Additionally, reduced facility spending results in reduced federal reimbursement; therefore, the cuts are even greater than on paper.
• The second cut, effective in March-April 201 0-, came as a result of Executive Order BJ 2009-11.
• The Louisiana Way Forward, FY 10-11 Budget Moves to a More Sustainable. Cost-Effective Government. p.8, includes the following statement:
  “As it is done in most other states, partnering with private physicians at Louisiana’s Veterans homes will bring $51,089,749 in savings.”

Changes in Medical Services:

• Pharmacy:
  • Prior to the budget cut:
    • All five War Veterans Homes were staffed with a pharmacist and on-site pharmacy. Medications were provided at no cost to the state and with the lowest cost to the veteran. Under Option I, pharmacists dispensed medications in blister packaging which provided for optimum patient safety, ease of accountability, and expedient delivery of medications.
    • After the budget reductions:
      • Four of the pharmacies were closed, and their pharmacists’ positions were vacated. As a consequence, receipt of medication is delayed, costs are considerably higher for the veterans and nurses are now pulled away from patient care to count and monitor medications.
• Physician and nurse practitioner:
  • Prior to the budget cut
    • Four of the five homes had a full-time physician and nurse practitioner on staff. In most instances, patient treatments and follow-up occurred on-site with minimal disruption to the patient. Early diagnosis prevented patient complications.
    • After the budget reductions:
      • One of the five homes retains an on-staff Medical Director. In other homes, contract doctors see the patients less frequently. Patients are often transported to Emergency Rooms for treatment and follow-up care.

Budget Appropriations Funding required to restore services:

• The five state War Veterans Homes would need to have the appropriation for the 51.5 million taken from them returned to be able to reinstate programs lost by budget reductions.
• The proposed 51,089,749 reduction in the FY 10-11 state general funds must not be removed.
• At Northwest Louisiana War Veterans Home, an appropriation of approximately $325,000 would be needed to restore the pharmacy program. Additionally, the approximately $200,000 projected loss from state general funds must be prevented to maintain current status.

In case you didn’t know (because you were hiding in a cave), there has been an ongoing “hypocritical righteous war” waged against Arizona’s SB1040. But what about those that are screaming the most?

Let’s look at San Francisco first. If you didn’t know, SF is a “sanctuary city”. No, that is not a label from right wing nuts. They actually have declared it for themselves. San Francisco has actually passed ordinances causing their law enforcement officers to violate federal law and the laws of the state of California.

So what makes them a hypocrite? San Francisco’s own ordinances, even as a sanctuary city, allows reporting to the INS after arrest anyway.

Nothing in this Chapter shall prohibit, or be construed as prohibiting, a law enforcement officer…(b) cooperating with an INS request for information regarding an individual who has been convicted of a felony committed in violation of the laws of the State of California…

click for larger version

So what about California itself? Is there any hypocrisy there after Arnold’s jokes about Arizona’s law? Yep. 834b of the California Penal Code sure does look like it would allow racial profiling.

You mean the boycotts from these cities and states might be from hypocritical morons who can’t read?

Nope. I’m not saying they “might” be.

I’m saying they are hypocritical morons who can’t read.

hint: obama and holder

My good friend and former classmate, Lance A. Ward, forwarded me a copy of Elena Kagan’s thesis on socialism. Granted I have only skimmed though it so far, but I did find the following paragraph at the opening of her conclusion.

In our own times, a coherent socialist movement is nowhere to be found in the United States. Americans are more likely to speak of a golden past than of a golden future, of capitalism’s glories than of socialism’s greatness. Conformity overrides dissent; the desire to conserve has overwhelmed the urge to alter. Such a state of affairs cries out for explanation.

Now, in fairness I have not seen where Elena Kagan explicitly advocates socialism. However, the overtone of her thesis is very positive about the history of socialism in the United States, and of course discusses the decline of socialism after the 1930′s, specifically in reference to the state of New York.

Well, here is my brief explanation.

Maybe, just maybe, it’s because socialism doesn’t work long-term. Maybe, just maybe, it’s because most American’s don’t believe in being forced to spread their wealth. There, that wasn’t so hard was it?

edit: Apparently Princeton is asserting their copyright over the thesis. Too late Princeton, the genie is out of the bottle. If you know how to download and forward a PDF, then send it around. If you don’t then contact me. Let everyone have a chance to review the thesis before she is approved so you can make an informed decision on whether you agree with her appointment.

click for larger version

Let me make this clear from the outset. I fully support police officers and law enforcement in the their lawful duties. However, I do not “trust” them just because they are cops. As a matter of fact, that is exactly why I trust them less.

I am big into self-responsibility. In the event of trouble (break-in, etc), my first reaction is not to call 911. That takes too long. My responsibility is to take care of my family, self, and property – in that order.

Does that mean that I won’t call 911? Of course, I might call 911 in a medical emergency or a situation which does not warrant an immediate threat to my or my family’s safety.  As an example, if my neighbor’s music is too loud after a reasonable hour, or if people are speeding down our street.

All too often cops become immersed in a mentality that everyone is guilty until proven innocent. As a direct example, it is none of a cop’s business where I’ve been or where I’m going if I’m stopped for a traffic violation. His or her business (and job) is to check license, registration, insurance, and write me a ticket if needed. My tax dollars are not spent for the fishing expeditions of law enforcement – I do not fall for the “if you are innocent you have nothing to worry about” mentality.

Since I’m not a concealed carry permit holder, it is also NONE of a cop’s business whether I have a weapon in the vehicle – at least not in the state of Louisiana. I am not obligated to inform the officer of that. If a cop starts fishing, then I will simply fish right along with him or her – no answers – just questions such as “why did you stop me officer?”

I don’t want to sound too harsh since I know that cops have to deal with all sorts of human nature, and I know that they typically deal with the bad side. However, there is also the bad side of law enforcement too – and that is why I don’t trust them just because they have a badge. The only “powers” they have above the average citizen are certain arrest powers – and they can go armed anywhere.

Let’s look at some examples.

(1) The New Orleans Gun Grab – New Orleans is under a permanent injunction from Judge Carl J. Barbier of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana – to “cease and desist” from seizing lawful weapons, and they must aggressively attempt to return all illegally seized weapons. The city admitted the firearm confiscations carried out by Nagin and Riley were unconstitutional and illegal.

(2) Shreveport Mayor Cedric “Your Rights are Suspended” Glover – No mayor, those are God-given rights and neither you nor your cops can suspend them. Learn the law. Learn the US Constitution and the Louisiana Constitution.

(3) Don’t think cops are abusive? Ask Angela Garbarino if you want to know about Shreveport. New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu is requesting Federal help to straighten out their corruption – heightened during the Katrina shootings of civilians. Ask Robbie Tolan if they are abusive – a typo cause the cops to attempt to arrest him for theft of his own car. After shoving his mother against the garage, Tolan told the cop not to it again – and was shot.

(4) Don’t just start rattling off answers to police questions. As a matter of fact, be polite and say as little as possible. What you say can and likely may be distorted against you. The courts are supposed to presume innocence first – but the cops can and do presume guilt.

A spokesman for the D.C. police, who had not seen the film, said the rules are good rules to follow. “However,” he said, “if you have nothing to hide and police are doing some kind of investigation, you should tell them whatever they need to know. Police are there to protect the society and the community in which we work.”

Still think the cops are out to help you? Well, watch these interviews from an attorney and a cop. Order the full DVD – and no I don’t have any financial gain if you do.

mike mcconnell radio host

Mike McConnell’s show is great. He doesn’t tend to be left or right – he just makes sense. Listen to at least the first few minutes of his radio show from 5/1/2010 2nd hour. He absolutely exposes the hypocrisy and comedy of the whole Arizona situation.

Apparently Cedric “Your Rights are Suspended” Glover thinks Google is going to vote in the Shreveport Mayor’s Race this fall. Rather than doing something innovative for Google’s Community Fiber project, he simply did a campaign speech. How lame.

Oh yeah, the next time you are trying to bring fiber into the area – you might not want to focus on existing fiber networks such as LONI.

In case you didn’t know, Google had a competition for Google Fiber. You may not be aware that Google owns vast amounts of “dark fiber” – unused fiber optic cable run preceding the .com Bust of the late 1990′s. Google also sees a huge benefit in pushing telcos and cable companies to spend money on better infrastructure and give us real connectivity. The more content we can consume and search for – the better Google does.

Prediction (quoting the Soup Nazi): No fiber for Shreveport – 1 year!

edit: Ok – I will at least give Mayor Cedric Glover credit for trying something. It was still a lame attempt though.

Of course, this took place in 2005; however, I think a lot of people go around thinking that the government wouldn’t actually “come get your guns.” This is a reminder of what can happen when you have a very stupid governor, such as Kathleen Blanco, a absolute whining moron for a city mayor (Ray Nagin), and a police chief just as dumb (Eddie Compass).

Remember, Blanco made the following statement on national news: “These troops know how to shoot and kill and they are more than willing to do so if necessary and I expect they will.” Yet, they confiscated law abiding citizens’ guns.

Even local tourists were shot at – by the police.

Barack Obama

Q: Is the D.C. law prohibiting ownership of handguns consistent with an individual’s right to bear arms?

A: As a general principle, I believe that the Constitution confers an individual right to bear arms. But just because you have an individual right does not mean that the state or local government can’t constrain the exercise of that right, in the same way that we have a right to private property but local governments can establish zoning ordinances that determine how you can use it.

Source: 2008 Philadelphia primary debate, on eve of PA primary Apr 16, 2008

“And we should — then every community in the country could then start doing major weapon sweeps and then destroying the weapons, not selling them.” Bill Clinton, President

“When we got organized as a country and we wrote a fairly radical Constitution with a radical Bill of Rights, giving a radical amount of individual freedom to Americans …And so a lot of people say there’s too much personal freedom. When personal freedom’s being abused, you have to move to limit it. That’s what we did in the announcement I made last weekend on the public housing projects, about how we’re going to have weapon sweeps and more things like that to try to make people safer in their communities.” President Bill Clinton, 3-22-94, MTV’s “Enough is Enough”

“Waiting periods are only a step. Registration is only a step. The prohibition of private firearms is the goal.” Attorney General Janet Reno

Want my stance? If some breaks into my home with guns drawn, they had better hope I don’t get to mine. There will be shots fired. Period. Principles are everything.

EDIT: The Vitter Admendment to the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act of 2006, expressly prohibits the seizure of lawful weapons during a crisis.

Well, much has been made of the “racist Republicans” over the Arizona Senate Bill 1070 aka “The Immigration Bill”. Of course, most of the chatter is from people who have not read the bill whatsoever. Much of the discussion is just based on a quick-rising urban myth phenomenon.

As a matter of fact, we had quite a thread going on Facebook concerning the issue. Several posters to a thread by Calvin Lester played the race card and of course the profiling mantra. For this post, I want to point out the obvious hypocrisy though.

Well it appears that the Reid-Schumer-Menendez Immigration Draft Document actually has some great points. Even the Daily KOS supports most it – well sort of. The funny thing is that you don’t hear the liberal morons kicking and screaming over this one. Let me give you a few select points that are directly from the draft:

“increased number of personnel to conduct inspections for drugs, contraband, and illegal immigrants at America’s ports of entry;”

Now wait a minute. That would mean if you are a Hispanic American then you might be checked? Hey – could that be racial profiling?

increased immigration court resources to expedite the removal of unlawfully present individuals.

Hey – that is picking on Hispanics only. Since they are primarily the race coming over the border (I haven’t heard of many Irish folks doing it), this means that Hispanics will be unfairly targeted. That’s not fair!

use of Department of Defense equipment at the border;

Now that’s just not fair. Those poor illegal undocumented aliens will be outgunned!

who attempt to illegally enter or smuggle people, including terrorists, or contraband, including weapons of mass destruction or narcotics

Did they just call the illegal undocumented workers terrorists and drug dealers in the same sentence. WOW!

accomplish border enforcement without engaging in racial profiling;

Oh – that’s kind of like the “lawful contact” portion of the Arizona bill. Great – the feds sure are on top of everything!

They will also be equipped with weapons, including non-lethal intermediate force weapons,

Now can’t that be considered a potential for torture? After those poor downtrodden illegal undocumented Mexicans Hispanics have walked such a long distance in all that heat, I’m sure the stun guns will feel great – if they don’t go into a writhing cardiac arrest. OMG!

It will also create a Commission on Wartime Treatment of European Americas to review the United States Government’s wartime treatment of European Americans and European Latin Americans during World War II…

Hey – that’s distracting from the issue at hand! I bet they are going to offer financial reparations to people from WWII while letting the Mexicans get harrassed! THATS NOT FAIR!

You see, I could go on and on with this garbage.  Instead, let me just give you my actual experience on the border. Back in the early ’9os, I hunted less than 30 miles from the Texas-Mexico border between Bracketville and Del Rio Texas. Every single time I was in a deer stand I saw an illegal Mexican making his or her way through the brush. Obviously, they were literally risking their lives in front of white rednecks with guns just to get in this country.

In my isolated experience I probably saw 100 or so. That was back in the 1990′s. In one little spot. It certainly hasn’t gotten any better.