IS THIS THE AMERICA WE WANT?

Matt Nager for The New York Times

Toxic Chemicals Were Injected Into Wells

By IAN URBINA 7:41 PM ET 

Oil and gas companies put hundreds of millions on gallons of hazardous or carcinogenic chemicals into wells during a drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing or hydrofracking, according to a Congressional study.

In the past month, the nation’s focus has been on the budget battle in Washington, where Republicans in Congress aligned with the Tea Party have fought hard for rollbacks to the Environmental Protection Agency, clean air and water regulations, renewable energy and other conservation programs.

At State Level, G.O.P. Seeks Big Environmental Cutbacks - NYTimes.com

When Republicans wrested control across the country last November, they made clear that reducing all government was important, but that cutting environmental regulations was a particular priority.

What is wrong with these people? Don't they breath the same air and drink the same water as the rest of us? What kind of people put the interests of business and the pursuit of profit over the health of our environment and people?

In the Republican version of America toxic waste sites would be a much more common occurrence than they are today. In the Republican version of America, not only would such sites be created in wider areas and much more frequently, there would be no money to clean them up. In the Republican version of America many areas of the country would be poisoned and unlivable for decade upon decade in the misguided pursuit of profit.

The Republicans say their quest to eviscerate the EPA is all about freeing business so that they can create jobs. So, poisoning our air and water, this is the big Republican jobs program? This is the only way they know how to create jobs by allowing industry to dump who knows what into our rivers and lakes and to spew toxins into our air? 

This is America, the land of innovation and technical prowess. I am confident there is a better way. Toxic air and fouled water should not and can not be the price of prosperity. It is much too high a price and one that we can not afford.

Under the Republican version of America, the long term health of our environment is to be sacrificed for short term profit. It is clear that profit and not jobs are the real reason Republicans want to eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency. If it was jobs they were after they would have produced them long ago.

Recently, I was in a meeting where many members of a nearby community learned that their community was among the newest federal super fund sites, the result of years of unregulated discharge of toxic chemicals into the ground by private industry, into their ground. Clearly, the people there were not happy, concerned both for their health and the health of their children as well as their property values.

The obvious concern of the community could be measured in the number of questions asked of the local water commissioner and the seriousness of those questions.

On my way out, I asked the person I was with if they thought that this community generally voted Democratic or Republican.  We both agreed that the answer was generally Republican. I wonder what they would say if they knew that the people they were voting for all these years were in favor of doing away with protecting their ground, air and water. After all, who in their right mind would vote for people who want to poison them?

It is time for these people and the people of the United States to wake up. Republicans are not ever on the side of the people. Pick a subject, given the choice, they choose the interests of business and profit over people every time!

Is this the kind of America we want to live in?

DO WE REALLY WANT TO GIVE GUYS LIKE THIS ANOTHER TAX CUT? REPUBLICANS DO!

News Item: Morgan Stanley CEO Gets Pay Worth $15.2 Million.

Didn't we just bail these guys out?

Click here: In Financial Crisis, No Prosecutions of Top Figures - NYTimes.com

“The proposed Republican budget contains a trillion dollars of tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, while asking for sacrifice from those who can least afford it and don’t have any clout on Capitol Hill.”

Actually the Ryan plan calls for $2.9 trillion in tax cuts, but who's counting?

Working and middle class Americans need to wake up to the fact that the Republican right wing is not on your side. They never have been and they never will be. You don't make enough money for them to care.

How the Republicans ever get any of you to vote for them is a marvel. They give the ultra wealthy tax cut upon tax cut while they get you to pay the taxes, if you can find a job somewhere in this mess they created, and they get you to vote for them as well so that they can continue their assault upon you. It is an amazing phenomenon. Its enough to leave every one of you who voted Republican shaking your head wondering what just happened to me?

Wake up and pay attention, you were sleeping.

NOT WHILE I'M PRESIDENT

"Not while I'm President"

Has he finally grown a pair? 

I liked The President's speech yesterday on the debt very much. He has drawn a stark distinction between two vastly different visions for America and a line in the sand when it comes to Medicare, Social Security and the Bush Tax cuts for the very wealthiest Americans. Now, for the sake of our country, for what it can and should be, he needs to show some backbone and call their bluff.

If Republicans and tea partiers want to shut down the government or have the United States of America default on its debt (unthinkable) in blind pursuit of their radical agenda it is not something that the American people will soon forget in the many Novembers to come. It is not something the world will forget. It would be a catastrophic event that would make Fukushima look simple.

I am convinced that theirs is a house of cards and as such will all come tumbling down around them. My concern is that all of us are not injured by the debris.

HOW TO FIX CONGRESS

Congressional Reform Act of 2011

1. Term Limits.

  12 years only, one of the possible options below:

  A. Two Six-year Senate terms

  B. Six Two-year House terms

  C. One Six-year Senate term and three Two-Year House terms

2.  No Tenure / No Pension.

A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.

3.  Congress (past, present & future) participates in  Social Security.

All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately.  All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people.

4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.

5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise.  Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

7. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.

8. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/12.

The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen.  Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves. 

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career.  The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work. 

It is time to fix congress and this is how you do it.

If you agree, tell your friends and make your voice heard by leaving a comment to this post saying so. Write your Congressmen and Senators and tell them how you feel.

It is time.

THE BIGGEST CON SINCE "THE STING"

Representative Mick Mulvaney, a first-term Republican from South Carolina who, laughably, recently said this about the debt, the Democrats and Republican willingness to vote to raise the national debt ceiling; “It’s their debt,” he said. “Make them do it. That’s my attitude.”

He is delusional or seriously uninformed.

Currently the US National Debt is nearly $14.2 trillion.


* The growth of the gross public debt closely matched the rate of inflation where it tripled in size from $260 billion in 1950 to around $909 billion in 1980. That's 30 years.


* From 1980 - 1988, under two terms of Ronald Reagan's leadership, the total federal debt nearly tripled.


* Gross debt in nominal dollars quadrupled during the Reagan and Bush presidencies from 1980 to 1992. The net public debt quintupled in nominal terms.

* During the past decade when Republicans controlled the White House and Congress, unfunded tax cuts for the ultra wealthy, an unfunded Medicare prescription-drug benefit and unfunded wars in Iraq and Afghanistan accounted for more than $3.2 trillion in new debt.


* The recession, brought on by Republican economic policies, cost more than $800 billion in lost revenues from businesses and individuals and in automatic spending for safety-net programs like unemployment compensation.

* In order to pull the nation's economy out of the nearly catastrophic state left by his predecessor, President Obama had to provide economic stimulus spending and tax cuts aimed at the middle class but included the wealthy (the Republican pound of flesh), which added about $600 billion through the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. Money that went to keep Police on the streets, firehouses open, teachers in their classrooms, hospitals from closing. Money went toward keeping people employed and paying taxes and supporting local businesses.


All of this is in direct contrast to the (borrowed) money spent by Republicans when they were in power, who spent a great deal of it on tax cuts for the very wealthiest people and corporations in this country. All backed by the big Republican lie that such tax cuts will create jobs for the little people. Problem is, that has not and has never worked, anywhere, ever.

Either Republicans are delusional or they are smart as foxes. Either they really believe the crap that they spew (and on social issues they probably do) and are in fact delusional or they are lying and they are attempting to pull off the biggest con since The Sting.


Hold on to your wallets!

TAXES? WE DON'T HAVE TO PAY NO STINKIN' TAXES

"We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes...", 

Leona Helmsley

Ponder these facts:

General Electric, the nation’s largest corporation reported worldwide profits of $14.2 billion, and said $5.1 billion of the total came from its operations in the United States.

General Electric paid zero U.S. corporate taxes in 2010. In fact, G.E. claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion.

While the financial crisis led G.E. to post a loss in the United States in 2009, regulatory filings show that in the last five years, G.E. has accumulated $26 billion in American profits, and received a net tax benefit from the I.R.S. of $4.1 billion.


While General Electric is the largest example of corporate tax skating, it certainly is not the only one. How can Republicans ask the working men and women of the country to pay their fair share when the big boys don't?

And still its not enough. In the face of massive budget deficits, states will bankrupt themselves in order to heap tax break upon tax break on big business in the hope that they will create a few jobs in the process. Businesses, who could well afford to pay their fair share of taxes, instead pay no taxes. In fact, US business has never had a better year in terms of corporate profits. This year has seen record profits for Americans businesses which means they are world records. Which means profits have never been higher in the history of mankind. These are the same corporations who will cut or outsource jobs in a heartbeat, the jobs of American working people who actually do pay taxes. Taxes that support the infrastructure that allows these corporations to function.  These corporations can afford to pay their fair share of taxes.

You see Republicans like to spend money just as much as Democrats. The difference is, Democrats want to spend it on teachers and education for our children, roads & infrastructure and investments in advancing cutting edge science and technology and support for our seniors and veterans and hospitals and health care, things that matter most to everyday Americans. Republicans on the other hand want to spend it on tax cuts for the wealthiest individuals and businesses the world has ever known. It's the same billions of dollars its just how you want to spend it. That much is clear.

To the working men and women of this country I say, how's that working for you?

How the Republicans ever get any of you to vote for them is a marvel to me. It just leaves me shaking my head. They get you to pay the taxes, if you can find a job somewhere in this mess they created, and they get you to vote for them as well so that they can continue their assault upon you. It is an amazing phenomenon.

What is it, do the Republicans have pictures of you with animals?

Lets hope that Americans wise up before its too late. The Canadians, who apparently know bullshit when they step in it, have.

THE RIGHT WING AT WAR WITH AMERICA

So its tax breaks for millionaires and austerity and budget cuts for programs that support the working and middle class. That my friends is the republican vision of America.

The right wing had no problem bailing out Wall Street millionaires and America's wealthiest bankers. Republicans had no problem holding unemployment benefits hostage until they obtained a ransom in the form of a tax breaks for the wealthiest 2% of Americans but when it comes to the rights of average American working folks, the hard working, real everyday people who built this country, who are the very backbone of it...well the right wing's answer is let them eat cake. To be sure, these people, America's working & middle class, go to work everyday and are in no way asking for a bailout or handout. They simply want to maintain their right to collectively bargain. It's as American as apple pie.

In the face of all of this, how these right wingers ever get anyone who works for a living to vote for them, especially if they wear a blue collar is baffling. Perhaps what is happening in Wisconsin will finally wake up working and middle class Americans everywhere to the fact that the republican right wing is not on your side. They never have been and they never will be. You don't make enough money for them to care.

Take a look at the video and tell me after watching it if you think that the right wing can win a war waged on television against the heart of America? I don't think the visuals favor the right wingers.



Make no mistake the right wing is at war with America and America needs to fight back.

Should this bill stripping public employees of the right to collectively bargain pass, in the short term these workers should shut it down. Just shut the state down for a week to remind the governor and those who support him how important these people and the work that they do are. In the longer term and more importantly they should look to organize politically and change the legislature and the governor to those who would value and support the working and middle class and not look to balance the budget on their backs.

Failing that, the large whooshing sound you should hear, if they had any sense and dignity at all, would be the sound of thousands of Wisconsin's professional public employees, firefighters, police, teachers, nurses, sanitation Workers, transit workers, prison workers among them leaving the state to find employment where their talents and their rights are more fully respected.

TITANIC WASTE A FRAUD PERPETUATED

"A Pentagon study in January found that it had paid $285 billion in three years to more than 120 contractors accused of fraud or wrongdoing." (NY Times 02/18/11)

This is but one story and just the tip of the iceberg. We must cut the fraud, waste and abuse of taxpayer money before we cut vital services to the American people.

The Republican led house is making a big deal these days about its desire to cut $60 billion from the upcoming budget. These cuts (some legitimate, many not and some, as with the proposed defunding of Planned Parenthood, solely ideologically and politically motivated) would not need to be so draconian were we able to stop the fraud, waste and abuse.

In budget debates around the country we are told over and over again that we have no money for the things that we really need. Its a bitter pill to swallow when the evidence shows that seemingly, we have plenty of money for things that we really don't need, don't work, or worse, don't exist. Government Tries to Keep Secret What Many Consider a Fraud - NYTimes.com

Perhaps Congress and the various State Legislatures around the nation who are crying poverty and swimming in debt should become serious about cutting the unconscionable fraud, waste and abuse of taxpayer money before they look to cut the legs out from under hard working every day Americans by cutting or eliminating legitimate and much needed programs, services and protections that governments provide. The people responsible need to be held to account and those guilty of defrauding the taxpayers need to make restitution and go to jail.

Only then, will lawmakers be able to look the people in the eye with a straight face and say we have no money for those things which are really needed. To do otherwise is simply a fraud and perpetuates the abuse of the American taxpayer.

THIS IS NOT A GAME! WHAT YOU SAY AND DO MEANS SOMETHING

Today, Representative Gabrielle Giffords, an Arizona Democrat, and 17 others, were shot, including a 9 year old child who was killed, when a gunman opened fire outside a supermarket in Tucson, where Ms. Giffords was meeting with constituents for a “Congress on Your Corner” event.

“I saw the congresswoman talking to two people, and then this man suddenly came up and shot her in the head and then shot other people,” said Dr. Steven Rayle, a witness.

During the fall campaign, Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice-presidential candidate, posted a map on her Facebook page depicting spots where Democrats were running for re-election; those Democrats were targeted with crosshairs like those seen through the scope of a gun. Supporters were told "it's time to reload". Ms. Giffords was among those on Ms. Palin’s map. At the time, Democrats and people with a conscience who warned that such actions would invite violence were dismissed as hand wringers.

What a surprise, the level of rhetoric and the fomenting of anger for cynical political purposes from the right and the far right through right wing media in the form of Beck & Rush & Hannity and well the list goes on, actually has consequences. What people do and say actually means something. People, often the most unstable among us, are actually listening and being influenced.

Those people who would seek to garner power by manipulating the public through the fomentation of anger and violence are irresponsible and have no place in the leadership of our nation or in our society. Rather, all decent people should come out and say that this is wrong and it is something they will never support.

While I am sure Beck, Rush, Sarah Palin & Co. will come out with statements repudiating the violence, it is beyond dispute that their ongoing rhetoric set the stage for this kind of violence against those elected officials who do not believe in their brand of America. It is as unamerican as they are.

All decent people should come out and say so!

DIVIDED GOVERNMENT AND ACID COMPROMISE

If the pending tax deal is any indication of things to come and there is every reason to think that it is, the good old but battered USA is in for some more battering. Mind you, this is self inflicted damage. No foreign agents at work here. No, what we have here is a group of the very wealthiest people and corporations, Americans all, fronted by the republican party and fixed news, some of whom are American, who will do or say anything to make themselves even wealthier very wealthy people, the country, it's working men and women, real people with real families all, it's great middle class which is after all what made America the powerhouse that it is, as well as a beacon to all, be damned!

In the words of Representative Thaddeus G. McCotter, Republican of Michigan, spoken on the House floor today, “This bill will not end the suffering of the unemployed and economically anxious Americans, it will prolong it.” We know nothing of Rep. McCotter but in this instance at least you have to admire his honesty and his patriotism. He knows this is bad policy for the country and he is not afraid to say it and seemingly buck his own party.

We agree and as we have been known to in various venues, cite Winston Churchill's wisdom;

"Never give in! Never give in! Never, never, never. Never -- in anything great or small, large or petty -- never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense."

We submit that this tax bill meets neither of those tests. And as such, as Representative James P. McGovern, Democrat of Massachusetts, said on the floor of the House today “We must do better than this.”

We can, and as patriots, we must. Our country needs us.

Over the next two years there will be many opportunities for acid compromise that will present themselves. We can only hope that President Obama has studied the wisdom in Mr. Churchill words.

People are depending on it.

At every turn over the next two years, when it comes to convictions of honor and good sense, the President should refuse to compromise. He should force the republicans to vote against the interests of working and middle class Americans in favor of the wealthiest among us and he should point it out loudly on television every night and day. Let's see how long that plays in Peoria?

Wake up Mr President, people are depending upon you.

A CONFIDENCE GAME

Has anyone noticed that the last time Nassau County faced a financial crises of the magnitude that is currently staring us all in the face it was under Republican leadership?

Let's review. Nassau’s last fiscal meltdown came in 1999, after decades of unchecked spending and out of control patronage at the hands of a series of Republican county executives and supervisors, paid for with mounting debt and one-time revenues like desperation sales of county land at fire sale prices.

This led to a $200 million deficit and a credit rating barely above junk. It triggered a Democratic takeover of what had long been a Republican bastion. And it ended with a $100 million state bailout in 2000 and the creation of a watchdog agency, the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, to oversee the county’s fiscal practices.

Under pressure from that authority, Mr. Mangano’s Democratic predecessor, Thomas R. Suozzi, raised property taxes, shrank the county work force and reduced the county’s reliance on borrowing to pay for operating costs.

In an attempt to stabilize the county's revenue stream by establishing a recurring revenue source Mr. Suozzi instituted a 2.5 percent tax on home heating bills. As effective as it was unpopular, the tax was a necessary component of maintaining the county's fiscal health.
 
In the election for county executive that followed, Mr. Mangano and the Nassau Republican machine pounded away at the unpopular tax vowing to repeal it and restore confidence in county government.

As most of us know, there is no free lunch. If you campaign against a tax you either have to find a way to replace the revenue it generated or you need to cut spending to align with the reality of reduced resources.

Mr. Mangano and the Republicans in the county legislature got rid of the energy tax all right but never came up with the spending cuts or a way to replace the lost revenue. It is a pattern straight out of the Republican playbook of the last 40 years. The truth, as we have all witnessed first hand, is that when it comes to fiscal responsibility, Republicans talk a good game but the only time during the past 40 years that Nassau's finances have been under sound footing is the 8 year period of time when the county was under Democratic leadership.

Once again, reckless Republican fiscal policies have put Nassau County on the Brink of financial disaster and a take over of its finances by state watchdogs.

Is this what Mr. Mangano and the Republicans meant by restoring confidence in county government? Sounds more like a confidence game to me.

To the voters of Nassau County, how is voting Republican working out for you so far?

Oh c'mon, that's an easy one for anyone who is paying attention.

EAT UP AMERICA

* Republicans Block U.S. Health Aid for 9/11 Workers
* Republicans Block Repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell
* Republicans Block Extension of Benefits For The Unemployed
* Republicans Block Tax Cuts for 98% of Americans
* Republicans Block Food Safety Bill

As a matter of fact the only thing that Republicans will not block are tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% of Americans. Everything, they say, must wait for that, everything. Nothing is more important to them.

And this is only since November 2nd and they are not even in power yet, though you would not know it.

These are despicable people who leave a putrid taste in your mouth.

Eat up America because this is what you ordered a heaping helping of in November.

The question is how long until America gets sick to its stomach.

THE PARTY OF THE DARK AGES

We are a society that depends 100% upon science. We need to constantly strive to understand and harness science by investing in scientific research for the betterment of all mankind.

Even that left wing loony, the Pope, has finally recognized the validity of scientific wisdom in altering his stance on condom use.

With this in mind it is interesting to note that the republicans and the tea partiers pride themselves in the denial of science, preferring to be the party of the dark ages. They are either fools or snake oil salesmen.
 
No matter, it seems the American people have a soft spot for both.

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

Americans wanted heaping portion of divided government and come January that is what they shall have.

The republican victory was fueled by the voter anger that has engulfed this country and made possible by white, male, non college educated, blue collar, everyday working class Americans. If I was among those who were not highly educated and saw the only kinds of jobs that I was suited for vanish, I would be angry too.

I suppose just that fact, that this group is not highly educated and therefore unable to filter out the distortions and outright lies told to them by the republicans and tea partiers and decipher the facts on the important issues that face them and the nation is what causes this group of hard working Americans to consistently vote against their own interests.

Seemingly, they vote based upon their emotions rather than with their heads and the republicans know just how to manipulate those emotions for their cynical purposes. When the republicans scream tax cuts, tax cuts these working class people believe that they are talking about tax cuts for them. The reality is that these people will never even sniff the tax cuts that the republicans have in mind for the wealthiest among us. The reality is that Barack Obama is the one who provided 98% of Americans with the tax cut he promised for middle and working class Americans and withheld one from only the top 2% among us as he also promised.

Just today I spoke with a self employed individual, who lives in California who over the course of the past 15 years has had two battles with cancer. I asked her what she thought of Health Care Reform. She complained about the rising cost of her health insurance which now costs her $1,500. a month and thought the President was to blame. When I explained to her that health insurance premiums have been rising at the rate of about 20% per year for at least the past 15 years she was still not sure what to make of it.

When I went on to explain to her that the new health care law was actually good for her in that it untethers her from her current carrier who she would never be able to leave under the old law because any new carrier would have excluded her preexisting conditions she did not quite get that either. To this minute I am not sure she understands what a benefit health care reform will be to her. The sad part is there are millions like her.

To be sure, these are complex issues that require some level of education to understand. I suppose that is why you hear so many republicans advocating for the abolishment of the department of education, or for the teaching of creationism in our schools, or why the public education systems in the southern states where the republican party is the strongest are so lacking. It is to their advantage to keep people from being educated. It grows their base of mostly uneducated white working class males. It is the reason they have been able to convince these very people to continuously vote against their own interests.

This in turn allows people like republican senate minority leader Mitch McConnell to vote against the interests of America. When asked today, the day after the mid term elections what his priorities for the country were, he said to ensure that Barack Obama was a one term president. The reporter was stunned and asked him but what about the problems facing the country, how would you address those? McConnell did not offer a position on those.

You see, the party of NO has no real solutions to the issues that face us. They are primarily concerned with maintaining or regaining power and not the common good. For two years, in the face of the worst economic crisis this country has faced since the great depression, the republicans have focused solely on how to regain power and not on the many pressing issues facing the country, the American people be damned.

The ignorant and the uneducated and the educated who care only for themselves and their own pockets eat it up.

To those who gorged themselves at the republican trough yesterday, be careful what you wish for because you are now going to get it.

bon appetit!

THIS SPEAKS FOR ITSELF

News12 Long Island aired the debate it sponsored between Francesca Carlow and Kemp Hannon today. Shortly after it was aired Ms. Carlow received the following unsolicited email which she was kind enough to forward to us:

"Ms. Francesca Carlow,

I watched you today on Channel 12 debating Senator Hannon. Although you were nervous, you made more sense and held him accountable for inaction in Albany. You're right, he has been in Albany all this time when the State suffered a meltdown and he did nothing. He listed all the things that needed to be done and yet he didn't address them when he could and now he wants to go back. Time for him to get a job.

Good luck on election day.

You have my vote (as a life long Conservative/Republican) and anyone else I can convince.
JG"
N. Massapequa, New York

Editor's note: In the interest of protecting the privacy of the person who wrote the email we have only posted the writer's initials.

KEMP HANNON ONE OF THE 11%

A recent poll indicated that only 11% of the people of the state of New York have a favorable view of Carl Paladino the republican candidate for governor. We applaud the good sense and basic decency of New Yorkers.

Apparently Mr. Hannon does not possess the same good sense. Judging from his failure to repudiate Mr. Paladino when given the opportunity in several public forums, and his agreement with Mr. Paladino on certain issues involving basic civil rights, we put Kemp Hannon squarely in the middle of that rather small minority who would bring our state back to the 19 century.

We find Mr Paladino's positions and Mr. Hannon's failure to publicly disavow them repugnant. Shame on you Mr. Hannon.

We ask that the 89% of you who abhor and are disgusted by Mr. Paladino and the positions he espouses vote for Francesca Carlow for State Senate on November 2nd.

After all, it only makes good sense.

ASK KEMP HANNON WHY HE IS SUPPORTING A CONVICTED FELON?

Kemp Hannon recently wrote a letter to a New York State Supreme Court Judge in support of a convicted fellon, who has strong ties to the republican party in the Town of Hempstead, that helped lead to a questionable plea bargain that exchanged a potential sentence of 9 to 20 years for a more managable one of 6 months.

You won't believe what this guy did. To read more about the story click here -> Career Criminal Brought To Justice

It must be nice to have friends in high places.

I would suggest that anyone interested in learning more about why Mr. Hannon would support a politically connected, convicted felon who committed despicable crimes, to call his office at 516-739-1700 or his Albany office at 518-455-2200 and ask him for an explanation.

It is time, at long last, for Mr. Hannon to go!

HANNON VOTED IN FAVOR OF GUN VIOLENCE

In the face of ever rising gun violence across Long Island particularly in the communities of Hempstead and Uniondale which comprise the heart of his district, Mr Hannon, as he has done for years, once again turned his back on his constituents when he voted NO on a law aimed directly at reducing gun violence.

The law would have enabled law enforcement to track ammunition by requiring gun makers to to equip semiautomatics sold in New York with firing pins that leave serial numbers on shells. The bill was favored by law enforcement throughout New York State.

Rather than vote to protect the children of his district and of New York, Mr Hannon instead chose to toe the republican party line and vote with the gun manufacturers. This because gunmakers said the law would make their instruments of death  more expensive by, oh, maybe, a few dollars. Well worth the price to catch a murderer. And the bill contained a provision that would drop the mandate if costs rose above $12 per weapon. Mr. Hannon how much is a life worth?

Mr. Hannon's vote was disgusting but is anyone really surprised?
 
Time after time over the course of his 34 years in office Mr. Hannon has voted with big business and against the interests of the people he allegedly represents.
 
Read the papers. Watch News 12. Every day there are more shootings here on Long Island.
 
It is time for someone who will vote for the people. It is time for someone who will actually take an interest in the issues that affect us here on the ground.
 
After 34 years, it is time for someone who cares, someone who actually gives a damn.
 
Year after year Mr. Hannon has shown that he is not that person.

Francesca Carlow is.

DOES KEMP HANNON THINK WE ARE STUPID?

In the face of yet another MTA fare hike, Kemp Hannon feigns outrage over the wasteful spending in Albany.

Does he think we are stupid?

After 34 years in Albany, the waste that Mr. Hannon decries did not just happen all of a sudden. It has been going on for years and years. While in Albany he has presided over unprecedented waste that has left us taxed to death and unable to provide for the basic needs of our state.

And what has he done about it?

Zippo...Nada...Zilch...Not a thing.

Can we afford Mr. Hannon any longer? Can we afford to send back the same guy year after year who created the problem in the first place and only talks a good game at election time?

The answer is no we can't. I know I am being taxed to death...how about you?

Francesca Carlow, on the other hand wants to bring a fresh approach to Albany. Rather than the same old politics of tax and spend and waste as practiced by Mr. Hannon for all these years, Ms. Carlow recognizes that we have a big problem and has been very vocal about it. She has called for a forensic audit of every state agency and authority to identify and cut the waste and fat that drains our resources and swells our tax bills.

On November 2nd, vote for Francesca Carlow and tell Mr. Hannon enough is enough. We can not afford any more of his wasteful spending and his never ending tax increases.

It is indeed time for a fresh new voice!

WE WANT TO BE CLEAR

While we have been keeping an eye on the events surrounding the race for NY SD 6 and of Francesca Carlow's candidacy, IF I Ruled The World is independent of any other point of view but our own. The thoughts and views that appear here are 100% our own and are not subject to any outside control.

We appreciate your continued support and interest.