New Years Eve and I am consumed with a special tri-millenial primo-centenial triskaidekaphobia — if the Brooklyn Conservative Party’s cyberscribe Ross Brady thinks that 2012 might have been “Anno Horribles” — what will we be calling the plagues and calamities that await us in 2013

No love and lollipops for an old friend, Ross Brady, who seems to be drinking too much Kassar Kool-Aid before he posts on brooklyn conservative party.com. That kind of Conservative Party commentary is just so played-out, it just doesn't mean anything anymore --- making me wonder if it ever did 

One of the most cynical and sadly symbolic things that happened in Brooklyn politics 2012 is that someone who actually considers himself a spokesperson for anything “conservative” could have written this: “On a political note, the Brooklyn Conservative[s] by-and- large had a successful election year in maintaining 2 State Senate seats and Assembly seats and fielding worthwhile candidates. Our candidates, including civil court candidates pulled many more votes, capturing votes from across Party lines, thus evidencing Conservative Party principles and the Party itself matter to those within and without our Party....”  [ I swear that I trust he can’t possibly believe any of what he wrote; the Ross Brady I knew is far too sharp for that.]  In case Ross forgot there was a statewide race for the U.S. Senate involving Wendy Long as the Republican-Conservative candidate.  Ross should remember that her candidacy was almost completely a Conservative Party project. When all was said and done, the best thing that Wendy Long  did in 2012 was to not show up for the Brooklyn Conservative Party Annual Dinner. which had intended to honor her as its principal speaker.

There is nothing in Mr. Brady’s piece, “Anno Horribles? Will 2013 Be Better? Share Your thoughts with Brooklyn Conservatives,”[  http://brooklynconservativeparty.com/?p=688  ] that remotely rises, more accurately “sinks,” to the level of bathos necessary to characterize the year past as an "Anno Horribles" (actually it should be “Annus Horribilis”)  anywhere near the scale suggested in the 24 November 1992 speech given by Queen Elizabeth II at Guildhall to mark the 40th anniversary of her Accession.

Frankly, the Ross Brady take on 2012 was equal parts “Jerry Kassar patronage-based small ball politics –  'we got what we needed in the state senate, so it all was successful' ” mixed with equal parts of mawkish concern for victims of storms and madmen, and routine shibboleths about Democrats from President Obama on down. Or to put it another way, Brady looks like he copied something out of Jerry Kassar's "Common Sense" column in the Home Reporter-Spectator News papers.

No, what Mr. Brady should have called 2012 is  “Annus Horribilis Comicus” just like Jed Babbin did to characterize his month by month analysis in the 12/31/12 American Spectator of the same title.
[ http://spectator.org/archives/2012/12/31/annus-horribilis-comicus/3 ]   As a sub-head bonus, Babbin puts his prospect of 2013 right out front as follows: “If you think 2013 will be any better, John Boehner has a Plan C to sell you.”

Even the platitudinous parts of the Brady post were second rate and I won’t waste any time or space on them. Better he should have lifted a bunch of lines from the Queen of England’s 1992 speech:
“I sometimes wonder how future generations will judge the events of this tumultuous year. I dare say that history will take a slightly more moderate view than that of some contemporary commentators. Distance is well-known to lend enchantment, even to the less attractive views. After all, it has the inestimable advantage of hindsight. ***  But it can also lend an extra dimension to judgement, giving it a leavening of moderation and compassion - even of wisdom - that is sometimes lacking in the reactions of those whose task it is in life to offer instant opinions on all things great and small. ***  No section of the community has all the virtues, neither does any have all the vices. I am quite sure that most people try to do their jobs as best they can, even if the result is not always entirely successful. He who has never failed to reach perfection has a right to be the harshest critic. ***  There can be no doubt, of course, that criticism is good for people and institutions that are part of public life. No institution...should expect to be free from the scrutiny of those who give it their loyalty and support, not to mention those who don't. ***  But we are all part of the same fabric of our national society and that scrutiny, by one part of another, can be just as effective if it is made with a touch of gentleness, good humour and understanding. ***  This sort of questioning can also act, and it should do so, as an effective engine for change....”

Ross, I still love you like the brother I never had. Please don’t think of any of this as my liking you less as a flak for all things Long and Kassar; it’s just that back in 1994 as a Republican working very hard under adverse circumstances, all the while being slammed by the Gaffneys of the Brooklyn Conservative world for your efforts, I really liked you a lot more.

Brooklyn T.E.A. Party held its final meeting of 2012 with a Republican speaker who spoke out against the Republican Party leadership in Brooklyn and a “conservative” Democratic candidate for mayor who spoke out against the liberal Democrats running for mayor

Tea Party President Joseph Hayon repeatedly had to keep a raucous gathering of Tea Party regulars and new comers “on topic” as they peppered the two guest speakers with questions and suggestions

The first speaker, James McCall, was introduced as someone long involved in Brooklyn politics and a Republican candidate for various offices during the last quarter-century. Mr. McCall described his past history in the Brooklyn GOP, emphasizing his involvement in the change of the Kings County Republican Party leadership twenty years ago. He then said that a key job for the Brooklyn Tea Party in the 2013 election cycle would be to shape the Brooklyn GOP organization going forward. After explaining the significance of the GOP posts of state and county committee members and the methods of obtaining those posts, Mr. McCall answered various questions about the current GOP leadership and the plans of independent Republicans in 2013.

For his part, Mr. Hayon repeatedly pointed out that the Tea Party is officially non-partisan and would give no blanket endorsement to any party or sub-group in any party. He also pointed out that The Brooklyn T.E.A. Party did have an active Republican Party Caucus headed by T.E.A. Party Secretary Frank Russo. McCall and Russo stated to the others that they would meet to discuss Tea Party involvement in the 2013 Republican Party selection process for GOP candidates for party leadership and public office.

The second speaker was described as a “conservative” Democrat who was hoping to run in the Democrat Party primary for mayor. [As a condition of my access to the candidate by his PR aide and the organizers of his appearance at the meeting, his name is being withheld at this time. I will “update” this post with his name and other biographical data once his campaign formally announces certain  policy positions and publicizes its connections with various groups, like the Tea Party,  not traditionally associated with the routine raft of Democrats running for mayor.]

The unnamed Democrat spoke at some length and detail to emphasize his complete distinctiveness from the other Democratic Party candidates running for mayor. Basically, he presented himself as a Democrat in the mold of the Reverend Ruben Diaz. His positions centered on traditional family values and he supported a strong anti-crime thrust harkening back to Rudy Giuliani.

He said he was open to various third parties, including the Conservative Party, he also clearly explained why he would not run as a Republican or accept the Republican line. In short he said the Republican brand is permanently damaged in Black, Latino and other minority communities; and in answer to a specific question, the speaker said that it made no sense for the GOP to back Alfonso Carrion, because Carrion had no connection to real Republicans and most Latinos would not vote for any Republicans under any circumstances. He also pointed out that under “Republican” Michael Bloomberg the social fabric of the City of New York has been shredded by his support for gay marriage; and although Bloomberg points out that the murder rate is down, the over-all crime rate is up.

The third speaker of the afternoon was Brooklyn T.E.A. Party Vice President Cartrell Gore. He explained that there had been evidence of widespread voter fraud in certain areas that effected the total vote to re-elect President Barack Obama. However, Mr. Gore also read from a monograph to explain that the RNC was not free to pursue many claims of voter fraud because of a 1980's era “Consent Decree” in a federal voting rights case. Under that agreement, which the courts have consistently refused to vacate,  the national Republican Party cannot police or pursue any claims of voter fraud in about seven or eight circumstances that might significantly impact the total vote of any racial or ethnic group.

Just who are “Jill Kelley” and Natalie Kwaham; what were they doing at the White House; and what other mischief had/have they been up too? The “Honorary Consul” and her equally interesting sister are far more complicated than anything Graham Greene might think up. And POOF! They’ve been swept under a White House rug like they were never there

Don’t buy into the p.r. “legend” that “Jill Kelley” is just some kind of whacked-out amateur diplomat, who’s really some kind of grifter punching way above her weight on Middle Eastern matters and big time Korean gas deals

*** Apparently, the Obama Administration was okay with what it knew about the Patraeus-Broadwell thing —  Okay, that is, UNTIL Broadwell got into Jill Kelley’s grill and tried to warn Patraeus about what Jill Kelley  might be up to  —  oddly, it’s after all that when Jill Kelley and Natalie Kwaham were invited to visit  the White House to see a “National Security” staffer and all hell broke loose ***

AND  BOY, DIDN’T  THAT  ALL  DISAPPEAR  VERY  FAST ! ! !

Maybe one of congressional oversight committees SHOULD look at things a little differently  —  maybe the Benghazi scandal was the lesser scandal (a badly blown operation and coverup) that got into the middle of a bigger scandal ( a high-level “National Security” breach) that involves many of the same high level players and a few more to boot, including Secretary of State Designate John Kerry.

According to Politico’s Donovan Slack [Gee, I wish I thought up that name!], Mike Gottlieb is “[t]he mystery staffer who invited Tampa socialite Jill Kelley to visit the White House [and he] is a special assistant to President Barack Obama and an associate counsel focusing on national security issues.... [He] has been with the administration since Obama took office, twice had breakfast with Kelley and her sister in the White House dining hall.... White House officials confirmed last month that Kelley had visited a "mid-level staffer" but declined to name the staffer. Visitor log records released Friday identify Gottlieb....  It's unclear how Gottlieb met Kelley, one of the women at the center of the scandal that led to the resignation of Gen. David Petraeus.” http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/12/records-identify-staffer-who-invited-jill-kelley-to-152965.html?hp=l2

Memo to the folks on the Congressional Committees: Look into Benghazi as part of a bigger picture. Connect the dots guys and gals, just from what’s generally been reported so far.  Jill Kelley had an easy come –  easy go relationship with lots of access and involvement with high level “National Security” figures. In other words, doors opened for Jill Kelley ... with the CIA Director  (David Patraeus) ... Centcom (Patraeus, General John R. Allen, including the now disclosed, White House “National Security” staffer Mike Gottlieb) ... recent  multiple meetings at the White House with that “National Security” operative across the arc of the Benghazi and then the Patraeus-Broadwell blowups. Now, connect these dots: The White House... the CIA ... the State Department... a Libyan Ambassador murdered in Benghazi after a secret meeting with a “Turkish” operative... Libyan weapons and “freedom fighters” going to Syria... and a hardball, stone wall coverup by all executive agencies to any congressional inquiries. Now, add-in all this extra goo into the mix: Israel, Turkey,  Iran, Iraq, South Korea, an Armenian connection, and  a “Tampa, Florida socialite” “Honorary Consul” who has no money, but tons of high level access.

Btw, Jill Kelley’s sister, Natalie Kwaham, who is herself a lady who lunches with White House “National Security” staffers, also has her own network of high level contacts, including Secretary of State Designate, Sen. John Kerry.

In Battle of Columns in the Home Reporter – Spectator Between the Special Ks, the Fire-Breathing Conservative, Jerry Kassar, is Losing the Battle of Ideas to the Routine Democrat, Brian Kieran

Brian Kieran came away the winner, this week in the weekly “battle of ideas” presented by the Spectator News. Since this was the ultimate contest of commentaries in 2012 between Mr. Kieran, a rather routine Democrat, and Mr. Kassar, State Senator Martin Golden’s proudly self-proclaimed “Chief of Staff” and supposedly a fire-breathing true believing “conservative” in his own right, the year ends on a downer for Conservatives and conservative-minded Republicans, who might be lined-up with Kassar. 

Kassar’s bit entitled "Changing Times" was real “small ball” gotcha stuff about what Kassar calls “a one seat majority” in the state senate; mixed in with some very usual praise for the great work being done by State Senator Martin Golden or some member of the Golden staff, in this case “a true hero” John Quaglione.
http://www.homereporternews.com/opinion/columnists/common-sense-week-of-december/article_7a35bfa0-4fc1-11e2-9c07-0019bb2963f4.html

On the other hand Brian Kieran did address the big issues of the week head on and clearly won the day by doing so.  http://www.homereporternews.com/opinion/we-the-people-week-of-december/article_5c530aaa-4fc2-11e2-ac07-0019bb2963f4.html

Don’t get me wrong, although Brian is a nice fellow and we generally talk the same language on a lot of the nuts and bolts of politics; but when it comes to many issues, like in this instance -- gun control -- we just don’t see eye-to-eye, at all. Nonetheless, he was all over the gun control thing and the NRA lobbying, and all the rest. He not only correctly identified  it all as part of the issue of the day, he gave out the routine Democrat talking points with both moral certainty and a righteous indignation appropriate for the aftermath of the Newtown-Sandy Hook School massacre of innocents by a madman with guns. Unfortunately, there was nobody like Kassar around to slam lobs like this back over the net right at Brian’s ... : “If someone lobbied hard for the right of children to be protected from mentally ill mass murderers, then the Newtown shooter might not have had the Bushmaster AR-15 assault rifle that facilitated the carnage in the school.”  BUT  —  since I’m here to praise Brian and not bury him, I’ll let it go at this: Brian Keiran scored with a bunch of aces because there was nobody there willing and able to return service.

The man who needs burying with very faint praise is Kassar. Instead of calling out Governor Cuomo for wanting to confiscate legally purchased and owned guns, Kassar chose to lambaste John Sampson, who the Democrats voted out as the head of their caucus. Speaking with all the sensibility of an over-used carpet bag, the Kings County Conservative leader largely wrote about the process of electoral sausage making; and how statewide, Conservative Party operators like himself were the butchers necessary for grinding the offal into the winning mix of the "Republican" majority. He detailed things like one-vote majorities, being careful to count Democrat Simcha Felder as part of the "republican" majority, and pointing out that the Conservatives had been necessary for the margin of victory for six of the thirty-one “Republican” seats. Although Jerry K mentioned "the breakaway Independent Democratic Conference (IDC)" in connection with John Sampson, he made no mention of that groups power-sharing deal with the Republicans or how it might function in "leading" the New York State Senate.

In any case, Kassar's pitch for the last week of the year was real small ball, inside pool that hardly lived up to its title, "Changing Times."  And  —  with so many bigger issues to talk about, like so-called fiscal cliffs, threats to Second Amendment rights nationally, statewide and locally, and the aftermath of an election where delusional Democrats are suffering from mandate madness, Kassar’s column about margins of victory in New York State Senate races or the beatification in life of his junior Marty Golden staffer was just unseemly and feckless.

Kassar had better up his game, or simply knock off this futile exercise before he does more damage to the Conservative-Republican brand in Brooklyn long-term.

[COMING SOON: a critical look at the Kings County Conservative Party's blog --- with lot's of love for  GOP-turned-Conservative operative Ross Brady]

In the deconstructed world of the Main Stream Media, “Chris Matthews is ‘a statesman’ ”

According to MSNBC president Phil Griffin, MSNBC “Hardball” host Chris Matthews is “... as good as he’s ever been.[ ] He’s at a place in his life where he’s really comfortable in his own skin. He’s a statesman. He has so much knowledge and I think he understands it better. He’s always been great, but I really think he’s been at the peak of his game.”

As used politically by radicals in American universities and now in the mainstream media, deconstructionism is an anti-humanist and anti-institutionalist  technique that uses radical subjectivism to make words, phrases, texts and long-understood concepts mean whatever a deconstructing person, group or cause wants them to mean.

Anybody calling Chris Matthews a “statesman” has shown himself to be a deconstructionist. Thus, MSNBC president Phil Griffin is a deconstructionist.  And when Chris Matthews’ boss at MSNBC  Phil Griffin extolls Chris Mattews, this is what he has to say about him: “He is sort of the model figure for who we are [ ] He doesn’t stick out ... [ ].  It comes across in everything we do...”  
 [ http://dailycaller.com/2012/12/27/msnbc-president-chris-matthews-is-a-statesman/.... ]Translation: MSNBC president Phil Griffin is saying that Chris Matthews is the model for the perfect  deconstructionist host at MSNBC. 

Secrecy Persists as Posh Dyker Heights Prep School settles lawsuit claiming its football coach had sexually abused hundreds of boys going all the way back to the 1960s

Terms of settlement involving Poly Prep were not disclosed  —  each of the victims had been seeking $20 million in damages  —  Case was “settled” after Federal Court let case go forward after stripping school of statute of limitation defense that local State Senator Martin Golden has long fought to keep in place

According to a December 26th Daily News article entitled “Poly Prep settles lawsuit claiming football coach Phil Foglietta sexually abused hundreds of boys,”  the Poly Prep Country Day School had been accused of turning a deaf ear to charges that the school's longtime football coach, Phil Foglietta, had sexually abused hundreds of boys over a 25-year period, putting the school's reputation and fund-raising efforts ahead of student safety.  [ttp://www.nydailynews.com/sports/i-team/poly-prep-settles-sex-abuse-suit-article- ... ]

The New York Times report on the settlement of the case made these very important observations: “[The plaintiffs’] case was almost blocked from going forward because of the statute of limitations. Indeed, a similar suit against Poly Prep in 2004 over the abuse was dismissed because the statute of limitations had been exceeded. ***  Survivors of sexual abuse that occurred while they were children must file a case by the time they are 23. But a federal judge, Frederic Block, ruled earlier this year that the school had actively covered up the abuse and that those actions had prevented the plaintiffs from bringing the case sooner.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/28/nyregion/sexual-abuse-case-at-poly-prep-in-brooklyn-is-settled.html

Legislative attempts to get around exactly this kind of problem have repeatedly been blocked by the Republican leadership in the New York State Senate. State Senator Martin Golden, in whose district Poly Prep is located, has been one state senator who’s been steadfast in blocking reforms like the Margaret Markey “Child Victims Act” that would assist victims from bringing lawsuits just like this one.

Earlier this year the Daily News reported that, “[The Margaret Markey ‘Child Victims Act’]... has passed the Assembly four times but has yet to clear the State Senate. ***  The bill would extend the statute of limitations by five years, until victims turn 28 years old, in civil and criminal cases. The bill would also suspend the civil statute of limitations for a one-year period to give victims a window to file suit against abusers, no matter how long ago the abuse occurred. State Sen. Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island) has introduced similar legislation in the State Senate.”   http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/i-team/sexual-abuse-victims-voice-support-assembleywoman-margaret-markey-child-victims-act-article-1.1030288#ixzz2GK5S3iE3

State Senator Marty Golden has consistently opposed all of the Markey sex abuse victims' bills.

Will the “Gun Issue” be the ultimate test for New York State Senator Martin Golden? "Marty" will soon have to face a “Long night of the soul” over Bushmaster ARs and other guns in the hands of New Yorkers

Coming off of his toughest test yet to win re-election in 2012, Bay Ridge Republican-Conservative Marty Golden may soon be tested with a great crisis of the soul  —  one where either choice has within it dire consequences for his continuing to be a New York State Senator

There was an interesting article in Newsday a few days ago, “Gun issue to test State Senate coalition” by Yancey Roy, posted on December 23, 2012 [ yancey.roy@newsday.com ].

According to the Roy article, “...The Cuomo administration has rushed to try to make New York the first to pass legislation since the Newtown shootings that left 27 dead, including 20 children. He said he would unveil "a full package" of proposals in his State of the State address on Jan. 9.”

It’s widely believed that Cuomo’s proposals will have no real problems in the Democrat-led Assembly, which has long backed stronger gun laws. For example, speaking of the Newtown, Connecticut tragedy, Brooklyn Assemblyman Karim Camara leader of the Black and Hispanic Caucus said, "If this can't motivate us, what can?"  However, it is also widely believed that those measures might have tougher sledding in the New York State Senate.

Yancy Roy observed that, “...Historically, the GOP-led Senate hasn't taken up the Assembly's assault-weapons legislation, focusing more on illegal guns. Republicans lost outright control of the Senate this fall, and [Republican Majority Leader Dean Skelos ] has forged a coalition of 30 Republicans and six Democrats to run the 63-seat chamber.” In that arrangement, Skelos will be "co-leader" with Bronx Democrat  Jeff Klein, head of a group called the Independent Democratic Conference, who numbers among its members the Brooklyn-Staten Island Democrat, Diane Savino.  So far, there are no agreements on any agenda for the new governing coalition, and that includes on gun matters.

Nonetheless,  Klein has quickly embraced the idea of toughening gun laws, saying the "IDC wholeheartedly supports swift, meaningful action"; and Yancy Roy reported that even a Skelos spokesman has said: "If there is a law that could prevent the tragedy that took place in ... Connecticut from happening here, we have a responsibility to pursue it."  That certainly makes it look like somewhere along the line there will be a meaningful vote on gun legislation in the next session of the NYS Senate.

Given that Cuomo has talked about everything being on the table, including the possibility of large-scale confiscation of a the class of fire arms generally known as “assault weapons” or  "assault rifles" [ARs], matters could get very sticky for many Republican State Senators very quickly. According to Fred Dicker in the 12/24/12  NY Post, “Senate Republicans, who will retain enormous power in January, have made it clear they don’t support confiscation of assault weapons or any new severe restrictions on their ownership.”

That means that State Senator Golden will probably be getting lots of calls on his cell while the State Senate is in session. I just can't seem to forget that “Golden Moment” when “Marty” just had to take a call when the “pro-gun-control, pro-Bloomberg, pro-crime victim and pro-police” micro-stamping bill was up for a vote in the Senate Chamber a couple of years ago?  I also wonder how long Senator Marty will keep talking about how important the manufacture of Bushmaster ARs  in New York State is for “jobs, jobs, jobs. ”  You see Marty Golden gets very shifty very quickly when you look him in the eye and ask him direct questions about real things like gun control. I've been there, I know.

The Brooklyn T.E.A. Party announces its next meeting and congratulates a key member

[ Let's say this posting is made "at the request" of one of my Baker Street Irregulars, who has been an important "fountain" for  all things “Tea Party” appearing in The Brooklyn Independent GOP Fountainhead -- this item is "taken" from the official website of The Brooklyn T.E.A. Party ]

"Congratulations! We heartily congratulate our State Senate candidate (2010) Avi Rosenberg on his marriage to Mindy Sable

May they both be boneh bayis Neman biYisroel lishem uliTiferes

[ The next Brooklyn Tea Party meeting is scheduled for Sunday December 30, 2012. It will be held at the home of Milton Itzkowitz ] 

1534 East 14th street

(Between Avenues O & P)

MEETING TIME: 4:00pm "

A Christmas Eve Look Back at "Atlas Shrugs in Brooklyn" is a Dickens-like visit from a ghost with carols of the past

Please, help me break the chains... break the chains... 

The following is taken directly from ASIB of bygone days, so it's a little out of date, but quite nostalgic  ---  This is really about the only way to unchain the Brooklyn Republican Establishment from its petty greed and short-sighted entanglements, and to improve the Christmases and other wonderful holidays yet to be for the Brooklyn GOP 

                                           --- Marley's Ghost

About Brooklyn Republicans

What is the Brooklyn Republican Party?

The Brooklyn Republican Party, or as it is officially known, the Kings County Republican County Committee, is the duly authorized county party of the New York State Republican Party.  Authorized by NYS Election Law 2-104, each party county committee consists of a minimum of two party members per Election District, which is a district that consists of about 1,000 voters and usually is the size of one city block to several blocks in size.  Groups of Election Districts, as determined by law, make up Assembly Districts, Senate Districts, Council Districts, Congressional Districts, and others.  District Leaders/State Committee Members also serve on its Executive Committee.  It is charged with the general governance, decision-making and organization of the party within Brooklyn.

What does the County Committee look like?

In terms of size, there are 20 Assembly Districts in Brooklyn, each with approximately 100 Election Districts, which results in approximately 2,000 Election Districts.  That means the minimum size of the County Committee, if fully constituted, would be approximately 4,000 grassroots Republican activists and leaders within every community in Brooklyn.

Right now, as of 2007, only 1,567 of those County Committee positions are filled, or approximately 38% of the total permitted by law.  Two entire Assembly Districts, the 58th Assembly District (East New York/Brownsville) and the 50th Assembly District (Clinton Hill/Williamsburg/Greenpoint), have NO representation in the Brooklyn Republican Party whatsoever.  The rest average at about 41% representation.  Only three Assembly Districts have an almost full delegations to the County Committee: the 60th AD (Bay Ridge), the 49th AD (Bensonhurst/Bath Beach) and the 51st AD (Sunset Park).

But honestly, can you imagine if the State Assembly only had 41% of its members elected, and the rest vacant?  How about if two states had no representatives in Congress at all?  Wouldn’t we think that meant the end of  our Republic as we knew it?  Yet we permit it for our party, the only party that is capable of defending sound policies to keep our government operating at its best.

What does it take to become a Member of the County Committee to represent your community in the Republican Party and to help spread the message of Republican principles to your neighbors?

Any registered Republican who resides in Brooklyn may represent an Election District in the County Committee.

• First, you need to follow the provision of Election Law relating to obtaining thenomination for public office or party positions.
• Usually, this means circulating a designating petition among fellow registered Republicans in the Election District you want to represent.  You will need 5% of the registered Republicans in that Election District to sign your petition in order to be eligible to run on the Primary Election ballot as a candidate for County Committee Member.  Usually, that means you need to get anywhere from 1 to 20 signatures.
• Then, you must submit those petitions by the date and time designated by the Board of Elections.  You will have a little over 30 days to collect the requisite number of signatures.
• Once you file your petitions, since there are so few people who desire the position, you probably won’t have your position contested at the Primary Election.  If you do, then start campaigning to your neighbors so you can win that seat!

What would you do as a County Committee Member?

You are an elected party official from your district.  Your job is to represent your constituents’ needs and concerns to the best of your ability in the County Committee, which includes primarily Republicans but also all the other voters in your district because everyone counts in Republican politics.

The role can be many different things.  For instance, you and your co-committee member from your Election District could:

• Put together a monthly/weekly political e-newsletter to keep your neighbors informed of what’s going on in local, state and national politics.  Some people have created blogs for this purpose.
• Listening to your neighbors concerns about government as well as public and party policies, conducting surveys or holding informal discussion-oriented meetups
• Identify the community leaders within your Election District and work together with them to reach out to your immediate neighborhood
• Organize petitioning within your Election District to help get local Republican candidates nominated

What do District Leaders/State Committee Member do and how can I become one?

For each Assembly District, there are two District Leaders/State Committee Members who represent each district.  Because Brooklyn has 20 Assembly Districts, there are 40 District Leaders in Brooklyn.  There must be one male leader and one female leader.

The District Leaders’ role is to organize all activities of the party within their district.  That means coordinating with County Committee Members in the district to recruit volunteers, solicit for donations, spreading the word about campaigns, interviewing candidates for public office, providing local Republicans with the ability to select candidates to nominate, organize clubs, and recommend individuals to serve as Board of Elections personnel during elections.  The position, however, is completely flexible and can be whatever a person wishes it to be, so long as they are getting the job done.

The process for becoming a District Leader/State Committee Member is similar to that of County Committee Member, except that the signature requirement is much higher, between 200 – 500 signatures for the entire Assembly District.  However, working in concert with County Committee Members, who require each an average of 10 signatures to qualify (30 County Committee Members = 300 Signatures) can help expedite the process.

Craig Eaton's "Official" Brooklyn GOP Blogger Gene Berardelli rises from the muck and promises a "New Normal"

It was Storm Sandy that knocked Gene Berardelli and Russell Gallo out of the box  ---  not the horrendous performance of their Brooklyn GOP operation in the 2012 election.

According to a long winded 12/22/12 post on the "Brooklyn GOP Radio -Official- Show Blog" by the "Big Man," himself,  Berardelli and his best friend Gallo are back with something Berardelli calls the "New Normal".

I can hardly wait to see and hear what the "New Normal" will mean for the Brooklyn GOP from these two longtime Eaton hands.

btw, one of the comments to the 12/22 Berardelli posting makes it look like "TJK" has kissed and made up with Gene and Russell. However, a Baker Street Irregular overheard the blog-radio trio at Eaton's "Holiday Party" and TJK's holiday cheer was hardly reciprocated by the dynamic duo of  2012 45th AD fame.

UPDATE: Anti-gun nuts, like Mayor Bloomberg, are screaming like plucked little piggies — “Wee, wee, wee! All the way home.” Some of New York City’s most liberal Democrat candidates joined their uber-liberal out-going billionaire mayor rending their garments and gnashing their teeth

The NRA, in the person of it’s chief spokesman and Executive V.P. Wayne LaPierre, has shown that it’s nobody’s lap dog waiting for somebody like Mike Bloomberg to say "Roll over and play dead" and then rub his belly and say, “He’s such a good boy! Yes, he’s such a good boy!”  —  Instead the leadership of the four million strong national association, whose members generally favor maintaining ALL of our gun rights, perked up, and barked a firm warning about some of the real causes of violence in our society; and with specificity and clarity, how best to deal with the threat of gun violence in our schools --- with properly trained and vetted armed guards

Perhaps there was too  much certainty and hubris in the vast echo-chamber world of America's liberal elites that they really did expect that even the National Rifle Association would finally have to come to heel, and be docile and compliant. Some in their loftiness probably thought that even Wayne LaPierre would have to show proper respect to the week-long eulogies of the vast Greek Chorus of the national media or to the masterful and magisterial maundering  of certain especially sensitive and enlightened leaders about much needed gun-control in this well-managed and much-shared moment of national grief.  The NRA's Friday press conference and the speech by Wayne LaPierre showed how wrong they all were.

According to Colin Campbell, a local Brooklyn pundit, who posts political commentary for a city-wide blog:  “In an announcement surprising many political observers, National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre came out swinging against both the media and a host of other entities in the wake of the recent elementary school massacre in Connecticut. In [Frday’s] extensive address, Mr. LaPierre further proposed immediately putting an armed security guard in every single school in order to guard students against future shootings. Needless to say, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has become one of the nation’s chief  voices against the NRA’s lobbying efforts, was unimpressed.”

As Colin knows from some of my comments here and over beers in various venues, I usually find his commentary to be thoughtful, thought provoking and useful for many of my purposes. His 12/21/12 post, “BACKFIRE  —   Mayor Bloomberg Was Unpersuaded by the NRA’s Press Conference” [http://politicker.com/2012/12/mayor-bloomberg-was-unpersuaded-by-n-r-a-s-press-conference/ ]  was certainly no exception to any of that. However, I’m sure that Mr. Campbell knows equally well that there are lots of things, big, small and in between, upon which I do disagree with him. One such item of disagreement is over the farcical notion that Mayor Michael Bloomberg was “unimpressed” by the NRA response, in general, and Mr. LaPierre’s speech, in particular. The minuscule media mogul and municipal minister of mischief, thought enough about the masterful gunman’s remarks to respond as if the NRA leader's speech had been LaPierre's  gauntlet snapped smartly across the  regal Bloomberg cheek.

Mr Campbell reports that the New York Mayor said this:  “The NRA’s Washington leadership has long been out of step with its members, and never has that been so apparent as this morning... Their press conference was a shameful evasion of the crisis facing our country. Instead of offering solutions to a problem they have helped create, they offered a paranoid, dystopian vision of a more dangerous and violent America where everyone is armed and no place is safe. Leadership is about taking responsibility, especially in times of crisis. Today the NRA’s lobbyists blamed everyone but themselves for the crisis of gun violence. While they promote armed guards, they continue to oppose the most basic and common sense steps we can take to save lives – not only in schools, but in our movie theaters, malls, and streets. Enough. As a country, we must rise above special interest politics.”  Those words were  like the mayor's quickly rubbing his smarting cheek, taking up LaPierre’s glove, and calling for LaPierre’s and Bloomberg’s Seconds to make the appropriate arrangements.

In the same post, Campbell also mentioned the pathetic “me toos...” of three 2013 city-wide Democratic Party aspirants, Comptroller John Liu, Public Advocate Bill deBlasio and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who feigned the routinely lame liberal outrage that one might expect in times like these. What neither Liu, deBlasio, Quinn or Bloomberg even attempted to do was address  Wayne LaPierre’s main rhetorical point   —   “THE ONLY THING THAT STOPS A BAD GUY WITH A GUN IS A GOOD GUY WITH A GUN.”   Until people like Liu, deBlasio, Quinn, Bloomberg, Schumer, Gillibrand and Carolyn McCarthy can rebut that one line, remarks like Bill deBlasio’s, “Only the NRA would have the audacity to claim the solution to horrific school violence is to put more guns in our schools. Through divestment, through tougher laws and through a national movement, we are going to take the gun lobby head-on and win..”  will be seen as the empty rhetoric that it is.

Wayne LaPierre painted a grim picture of an increasing social breakdown in America and made all of the proponents of more restrictive gun laws look like impotent pygmies — With that he proposed and NRA-sponsored “National School Shield” program

With a catchy one-liner, NRA Executive Vice President and  C.E.O., Wayne LaPierre won the most recent  national gun debate against the likes of Mayor Michael Bloomberg and President Barack Obama with common sense, and a very simple and straightforward message, “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”

LaPierre’s push-back against anybody calling for additional gun control measures was absolute and unyielding; and he even named the real culprits for any increase in violence in America. He pointed in the direction of the various parts of a blood-thirsty media who are minimally guilty as “silent enablers” and very likely guilty of actual complicity as co-conspirators in the recent upsurge in violence in the United States.

Not content to merely describe the problem as it effects schools, LaPierre proposed a meaningful solution in the wake of the mass killings in Newtown, Connecticut -- armed guards in all schools. In order to facilitate getting armed guards into America's schools, Mr. LaPierre announced the launching of an NRA-sponsored  “National School Shield” program. The program is to be spearheaded by former congressman Asa Hutchinson; and it will give advice to officials on how to properly secure their schools in their respective jurisdictions. Lapierre emphasized that the proposed program would not be a strain on budgets because it would largely involve volunteer guards.

According to Mr. LaPierre, “This will be a program that does not depend upon massive funding from local authorities or the federal government. Instead, it will make use of local volunteers serving in their own communities.”  He concluded that, “The National Rifle Association is the obvious choice to sponsor this program.”

What follows will be the political battle in the trenches of congress, in the press and in a variety of public forums.  As with the fiscal and budget debates, real conservative-minded Republicans need to be unyielding against all attacks and unremitting when on the counter-attack.

The Brooklyn GOP’s “Holiday Party” is held with minimal rejoicing among the small crowd of almost a hundred of the usual suspects, along with some of the "second string" candidates for mayor

Craig Eaton’s County Organization had its diffidently entitled “Holiday Party” for the winter solstice at a summery sounding  place called “Aqua Blu.”  It’s not accidental that the party took place in that backwater area of Brooklyn, the far end of B’hurst above Kings Highway, because that’s where one of the pitched battles between regular and independent Republicans is expected to be played out in the summer and fall of 2013 

Let’s say this is what a couple of my Baker Street Irregulars had to tell me about the Thursday night event [ yes, a few of you might have thought I was there briefly, but I can neither confirm nor deny that your observations were accurate].

State GOP Chair Ed Cox and a few of the other NYC County Chairs did the obligatory hail and wassail along with Eaton’s few throne folk, as the wee folk and the grown folk wandered to and fro, with ways known to their own folk that the throne folk don't know.  Anyway, Ed Cox was a bit of a hoot trying to do his version of what the simple folk do. Here’s what the State Chairman thought would pass for good cheer, “Even tough the Republican Party lost New York State in the presidential race by a bigger percentage than [fill in almost any item of comparison].... we did hold on to the House of Representatives and control in the New York State Senate. I hope that he didn’t really think that would be a big applause line, because it flopped.

Four of the “current” mayoral candidates did appear: Republicans, John Catsimaditis, Tom Allon and  George McDonald; and Democrat-turned-independent Adolfo Carrion. Those who made brief remarks, to which anybody bothered to listen, have already been forgotten —  not so as to Eaton’s introductory remark that Adolfo Carrion served in the Obama Administration. [Good one, Craig, what part of Republican don’t you get?]

Interestingly, the Lhota/MTA move probably has made the other candidates’ attendance at the Brooklyn GOP winter event anti-climactic, since even Craig Eaton is reported to have said that he might change his support away from Carrion to another candidate if a more appropriate GOP candidate emerges.  Btw, one of  Joe Lhota’s front men, has already given a  heads-up to at least one Brooklyn GOP  “consultant,” seeking info on availability and the likelihood that the rank-and-file would or would not follow their “leadership.”

Also at the “Holiday Party” was a small caucus of Orthodox Jewish and Russian Republicans and guests from the central corridor in Brooklyn that actually did vote overwhelmingly for the Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney. That group included soon-to-be-former State Senator David Storobin, assembly candidate Joseph Hayon and well-known GOP pundit and Orthodox Jewish activist Jacob Kornbluh, who actually arranged for the Kosher food that was served at Aqua Blu. Interestingly, Kornbluh brought along Borough Park Democratic operative Moshe Freidman, who is a key adviser to the  key man behind anything GOP in and around Borough Park, Nachman Caller. One expects that if  Kornbluh and Friedman didn’t talk turkey with Eaton at his Saturnalian Feast, they soon will be “telling” Eaton what he needs to do to get the Orthodox “Romney Vote” into line behind Eaton, his leadership candidates and his initiatives. A clueless Eaton probably thinks that all that is involved in that regard  is a patching up of the rift among the old “Brooklyn GOP Radio” team of Gallo, Berardelli and Kornbluh – dream on Craig like your visions of sugar plums.

Notably absent from the event were Democrats Dov Hikind and Simcha Felder, who had been favored by various factions of the GOP-Conservative Party establishment in 2012. However, their absence could have been expected, since Eaton failed to deliver the Republican line to Hikind after agreeing to deliver it, and Eaton supported David Storobin over Simcha Felder for the 17th SD seat that Felder won handily.

A very interesting pair of unusual suspects turned up at Eaton’s GOP  “Holiday Party,” the young GOP-Conservative  power couple, Peter Cipriano and Karen Fischer, who felt free to waltz in because they remain significant, even key players in the area going forward. Even though there might have been some bad blood there with the GOP Chairman, Peter and Karen have maintained some friendships in high places; and those kinds of friends are making Peter and Karen look like they’ll be the gifts that keep on giving to Craig Eaton. After all, Aqua Blu is in the dynamic duo’s bailiwick and they may have dropped by for a toddy and to serve notice of that fact for all to see. Some of the other guests seemed to be happily surprised that they were there. You see even though it was a GOP County Organization event, there were plenty of independent-thinking  Republicans in attendance.

It's Christmas and Governor Andrew Cuomo should pardon John Kennedy O'Hara for all the right reasons

This is an important VOTING RIGHTS CASE and Governor Andrew Cuomo needs to review the official record of the O'Hara case, as well as all of the information concerning the  prosecution and conviction of O'Hara for ILLEGAL VOTING uncovered by years of journalistic digging

The record will show that Mr. O'Hara was a  Democrat politician in Brooklyn who had repeatedly run for the state Assembly in opposition to the locally powerful Democrats and that he voted from an apartment on 61st Street in Sunset Park for many years. It will also show  that's where he had lived since he was a teenager and resides to this day.

In the early 1990s, when his apartment was Gerrymandered into a different  district, O'Hara filled out a new voter registration form claiming as his residence an apartment on 47th Street that belonged to his girlfriend at the time. That put him back in the same district from which he previously had voted and run for office. He voted from that address on five occasions. A few years later, John O'Hara was  indicted by a Brooklyn grand jury on charges brought by Brooklyn D.A. Charles Hynes. The indictment accused O'Hara of offering a false instrument for filing, false voter registration and multiple counts of illegal voting. Basically, the prosecution claimed  that the 47th Street address was a sham and that Mr. O'Hara was still living on 61st Street. O'Hara never denied having the 61st Street Apartment, his defense was that 47th Street was his principal and permanent address for all of the years in question. 

Mr. O'Hara was convicted after a trial in May 1997, but the conviction was reversed.   A second trial resulted in a mistrial due to a hung jury. After some time and a the third trial -- the most retrials ever by the Brooklyn DA's office --  the top trial attorney in the Brooklyn DA's office finally secured a conviction. Mr. O'Hara was disbarred, fined $20,000, placed on probation and required to perform 1,500 hours of community service.

The case made it to the New York State Court of Appeals where two dissenting judges particularly noted  the "unique" prosecution of Mr. O'Hara and the "politically charged" nature of the underlying dispute. The dissenters also found  the trial court's charge to the jury on what legally constituted "residence" confusing. 

John Kennedy O'Hara has been fighting to restore his reputation ever since. To a large extent he has succeeded, as is demonstrated by the broad and diverse support for O'Hara from both the reportorial and editorial press in New York City and Albany for many years.

Another measure of that success occurred in 2009, when a 25-member Character and Fitness Committee of the Appellate Division, Second Department, voted unanimously that Mr. O'Hara's license to practice law should be restored. That committee of the Brooklyn Bar expressed "grave doubts that Mr. O'Hara did anything that justified his criminal prosecution."  A panel of justices from the Appellate Division Second Department accepted that recommendation. 

Justice has not yet been done. The fact that the O'Hara conviction for illegal voting is still a matter of record constitutes a blot on O'Hara's reputation as a political activist and candidate; more important it is a blot on the history of the State of New York as a hallmark of democracy and democratic participation.

To date, Mr. O'Hara has sought a full pardon from former governors George E. Pataki, Eliot Spitzer or David A. Paterson; and, to date all have FAILED to do the heavy lifting of looking into what really was done by the Brooklyn DA, the DA's office and the Brooklyn trial courts in the three trials of this case.

In particular, Governor Cuomo should look at what his predecessor, Mr. Paterson, had to say about the O'Hara case. In his final interview before leaving office, David Paterson said the decision to deny Mr. O'Hara a pardon was "close," but ultimately he decided he could not grant the pardon without essentially overturning the Court of Appeals opinion that affirmed his conviction. "For me to pardon Mr. O'Hara, I have to overrule the New York State Court of Appeals, which I am unwilling to do," Mr. Paterson said this to Errol Louis on NY1 on Dec. 31, 2010. The outgoing governor added that had Mr. O'Hara not appealed his conviction and if the Court of Appeals had not spoken he might have granted the pardon. "It was close.... It bothered me that so much energy was waged putting this gentleman in the position he was in. I take the Court of Appeals very seriously…and I don't think a governor should be overruling them on a point of law."

O'Hara has stressed that is not what he is asking Governror Cuomo to do with his current pardon request.  According to O'Hara, this is a "One of a Kind Case."  O'Hara's  pardon petition states that he is not asking Mr. Cuomo to overrule the Court of Appeals. Rather, the argument addressed to the governor is one of proportionality. The penalty meted out to John Kennedy O'Hara was by far the  stiffest ever handed out in a disputed address case of any in the history of New York State elections. According to one of O'Hara's lawyers, Aileen Nadelson,  "I only wish to point out that under similar circumstances there continues to be differing results.… Mr. O'Hara paid a high fine, was sentenced to three years probation and went on record as a felon. Others in similar cases, at the very worst, faced losing their right to vote in the current election. Mr. O'Hara on the other hand, was stripped of his voting rights and, more importantly, his legal license."

Ms. Nadelson argues that Mr. O'Hara's conviction is "one of a kind and seeks a one of a kind pardon."   Nadelson has said  that her client, John O"Hara and suffragette Susan B. Anthony, who founded the League of Women Voters, are apparently the only New Yorkers ever convicted of illegal voting. Notably, when Susan B. Anthony had been convicted in 1873, she was fined $100, but the government did not pursue her to force payment.

"[E]nforcement of the residency rule is random, at best, and selective, at worst," Ms. Nadelson wrote in O'Hara's petition. "In the matter of O'Hara, the charges were brought three years (in 1996) after the alleged violations (in 1993). Out of more than a million registered voters in Brooklyn, O'Hara was the only case investigated and then prosecuted for illegal voting. For those people who maintain dual residences [which is in no way illegal], a danger looms that a vote from [any] one of the addresses may lead to criminal allegations from the opposing factions."  In an earlier interview Ms. Nadelson had said,  "John [O'Hara] just wants his dignity and respect back, and I think he deserves it.... It would be the fair thing to do, the judicious thing to do."

[ For the record: Attorney Nadelson's connection to John Kennedy O'Hara dates back to 2000, when she was president of the League of Women Voters, who filed an amicus brief on his behalf with the Court of Appeals. The following year,  Mr. O'Hara encouraged Ms. Nadelson, then a solo practitioner in Manhattan, to run as an opposition candidate for a Civil Court Judgeship in Brooklyn. She prevailed, marking a rare defeat of the Brooklyn political organization in a judicial contest. Concerning her representation of Mr. O'Hara since retiring as Civil Court Judge, Ms Nadelson has been reported to have said, "My petition on his behalf is not made out of indebtedness.... I do this simply because I believe it is judicially important for public policy as much as it is for Mr. O'Hara." In an interview, Ms. Nadelson said she agreed to represent Mr. O'Hara pro bono because his punishment was "really over the top" and disproportionate.]

Mr. Cuomo's approach to pardons and clemency is unknown at this time; and there has been no reaction from Albany to the O'Hara petition. Nonetheless, in a year where attempts to limit voting rights have not found favor among progressives -- in the media, in government and in the courts -- it would seem ODD for someone, like Governor  Andrew Cuomo, seeking to burnish his credentials on such sensitive issues nationally, NOT to come out in favor of a petitioner like John Kennedy O'Hara in his home state. 

State Department Report says that “...the...Video” had nothing to do with the Benghazi attacks — Predictably, POTUS Obama and SecState Clinton escape any blame in report by their underlings

Report by the “Accountability Review Board for Benghazi” will not put out the fires that started in Benghazi on the night of September 11, 2012 and that have been smoldering under the rumps of President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.N. Secretary Susan Rice ever since.  More likely,  this will add much more fuel to that fire

According to a commentary by Neil Munro in the Daily Caller for 12/19/12, “The State Department’s report on the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi describes a series of strategy and management failures, but doesn’t assign responsibility to any individual Americans  —  [most notably, there’s not even a mention of] the secretary of state or the president of the United States.” http://dailycaller.com/2012/12/19/obama-clinton-escape-blame-in-benghazi-report/

In the words contained in The State Department report, which was written by the “Accountability Review Board for Benghazi”:
 “Systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies at senior levels within two bureaus of the State Department resulted in a Special Mission security posture that was inadequate for Benghazi and grossly inadequate to deal with the attack that took place....
However, the Board did not find reasonable cause to determine that any individual U.S. government employee breached his or her duty.”

The authors of this State Department report were all hand-picked by those high in the Obama Administration; and at this stage it is not clear whether the final report was cleared by senior White House staff prior to its release.

It should be noted that the official report prepared by the Accountability Review Board for Benghazi specifically dismissed any claims that the attack emerged from protests over some little-known anti-Muslim video; that  theory had been pushed  strongly by President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton immediately after the attack, was repeated by U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice and continued for more than two weeks during the runup to the 2012 election. Quite simply, the Board concluded that “there was no protest prior to the attacks.”

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had been slated to testify to a committee of Congress this week, but has again “called in sick” for the week. Instead, some deputies will appear in her place before the congressional committee to answer questions about the Secretary of States’s reaction to the report. Commentator’s have speculated that Clinton is avoiding personal questions about her part in the Benghazi fiasco to shield herself from public criticism and other blowback that might damage her possible run for the presidency in 2016.

The Brooklyn Young Republican Club mixes politics and good cheer at its annual Christmas and Chanukah Party

Mayoral and City Council Candidates addressed an assembled crowd of youngish GOP revelers at the Ceol Pub on Smith Street in Carroll Gardens last Sunday afternoon  —  perhaps the biggest news of the afternoon is that Jonathan Judge was in attendance, but did not speak in his official capacity 

Brooklyn YRC President Glenn Nocera wished over two dozen members and guests “Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukah!” Among  seasonal greetings and felicitations the head of the Brooklyn Young Republican Club told those gathered for celebrations and good cheer that there would be a brief formal program to allow a couple of outside speakers, who were prospective GOP candidates in the upcoming elections in 2013 to say a few words.

The relatively newly minted Republican Tom Allon showed up at the holiday gathering accompanied by his Chief of Staff Even Burr. Allon went on to tell the club that he was running for the Office of Mayor of the City of New York, and that he was so interested in getting their formal and actual support for his run for mayor, that he intended to come back to the Brooklyn and address the Young Republican Club at least one more time to urge their support for his campaign. He then said he would be at the club’s regularly scheduled meeting in February 2013.

Allon’s brief presentation hit the following talking points  —  both NYC and NYS are terribly overtaxed and the residents of the City of New York bear the brunt of those taxes; something needs to be done to relieve that burden and still provide necessary city services. He then told the Young Republicans that his proposals for governing the City of New York would stress “innovative thinking,” such as dealing air-rights, one of the areas of his own prior experience.  Tom Allon specifically proposed using the air-rights over public school property to fund education at those and other off-site locations.  Another of his  “innovative thinking” proposals involved a methodology to fund NYCTA operations by selling corporate sponsorships of things like bus shelters and subway stations to fund those and other nearby stations and shelters.

The second speaker was the very controversial Bay Ridge Republican candidate for City Council against Councilman Vincent Gentile, Andy Sullivan.  He was introduced as a longtime friend of the Brooklyn Young Republican Club, best known for his outspoken opposition to the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque.” It was also noted that Mr. Sullivan recently appeared on Hannity’s Fox News program as a “unique voice speaking out against union leadership” who nonetheless didn’t believe that anti-unionist Stephen Crowder was wantonly assaulted by a pro-union thug. According to his remarks to the Young Republicans, another thing that bothers Andy Sullivan is the kind of political corruption that allows the likes of a sexual predator like Vito Lopez to continue to hold public office after being caught red-handed.

In spite of all the above, the biggest news event of the 2012  Brooklyn Young Republican Club Christmas and Chanukah Party is a report, if it is true, that Jonathan Judge was present at the event, but he did not speak as the Club's Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Boehner and the Republicans need to man up and be good patriotic Americans --- gird their loins for a real fight about a real fiscal cliff in 2013

The current GOP members of the House of Representatives need to pass a full extension of the "Bush Tax Cuts" ---  then go home  with the work of the 112th  U.S. Congress done for good!  Of course, House Speaker Boehner's last official act should be to wish Obama, Reid  and Pelosi  "Happy New Year"

The Republicans of the 113th Congress need to come back with a new spring in their step, elect a new Speaker of the House  -- preferably Eric Cantor (R - Va.) --  And then they need do the work of the American people re-enacting all the "Bush Tax Cuts" and re-passing the "Ryan Budget". Then they need to keep the debt ceiling exactly where it is until the nation sees real Obama budget cuts. Not difficult -- simple !

Let the Obama Administration and the Democrats in the Senate respond with their own fiscal plans. Good luck with that!

The only negotiations that should be conducted would be  those held in the context of a House-Senate Conference on any competing bills, which had passed the respective chambers of the Congress in that session.

During this period of mourning for the families of Newtown, Connecticut, some proper reflections amid the empty barrel, agenda-driven clamor of the left-stream media

“Praying for the families and children of Newtown, Conn” is a simple reflection from an American, Conservative, Mom and Wife  --  re-posted from Michelle Malkin’s blog

Praying for the families and children of Newtown, Conn
By Michelle Malkin  •  December 15, 2012 10:06 AM
______________________________________________

“The usual, opportunistic rush to blame, regulate, inveigh, and demonize is in full swing in the wake of the horrible, evil massacre in Newtown, Conn.

I will not be a part of it.

For every parent in America, [last week’s] horror is unfathomable. The grief is unspeakable.
All those who are polluting the public airwaves with the usual talking points about gun control and government solutions dishonor the dead and themselves. This is not a time for political noise. It’s a time for compassion and introspection.

There’s nothing more I can offer than heartfelt prayer for all of the families and the innocent school staff and children who were murdered, injured, and traumatized by a madman devoid of respect for life.

One of the most moving stories of heroism involved the music teacher who hid her students in a closet and prayed with them in whispers to keep them calm.

Faith has come under fire so frequently in the schools.

Yet, under fire, it is faith that sustains eternally.

Psalm 34:18   The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.

***

... The names and birth dates of the victims:
Charlotte Bacon (2/22/06), 6 years old, female
Daniel Barden (9/25/05), 7 years old, male
Rachel Davino (7/17/83), Staff member, 29 years old, female
Olivia Engel (7/18/06), 6 years old, female
Josephine Gay (12/11/05), 7 years old, female
Ana M. Marquez-Greene (4/4/06), 6 years old, female
Dylan Hockley (3/8/06), 6 years old, male
Dawn Hochsprung (6/28/65), Principal, 47 years old, female
Madeleine F. Hsu (7/10/06), 6 years old, female
Catherine V. Hubbard (6/8/06), 6 years old, female
Chase Kowalski (10/31/05), 7 years old, male
Nancy Lanza, 52 years old, female (mother of shooter Adam Lanza)
Jesse Lewis (6/30/06), 6 years old, male
James Mattioli (03/22/06), 6 years old, male
Grace McDonnell (11/4/05), 7 years old, female
Anne Marie Murphy (7/25/60), Staff member, 52 years old, female
Emilie Parker (05/12/06), 6 years old, female
Jack Pinto (05/05/06), 6 years old, male
Noah Pozner (11/20/06), 6 years old, male
Caroline Previdi (9/07/06), 6 years old, female
Jessica Rekos (5/10/06), 6 years old, female
Avielle Richman (11/17/06) 6 years old, female
Lauren Rousseau (June 1982), Staff member, 30 years old, female
Mary Sherlach (2/11/56), Staff member, 56 years old, female
Victoria Soto (11/04/85), Staff member, 27 years old, female
Benjamin Wheeler (09/12/06), 6 years old, male
Allison N. Wyatt (07/03/06), 6 years old, female

***

Craig Eaton’s own choice for mayor, Mike Bloomberg, is now using his version of the radical left tactic of letting no tragedy go to waste in order to push for his MORE comprehensive version of gun-control — and get this — in spite of having billions and billions and billions of dollars, Bloomberg wants YOU to pay for HIS gun-control

Here it is in Bloomberg’s own words  —  "If this moment passes into memory without action from Washington, it will be a stain upon our nation of protecting the innocent, including our children....  I think it is true when you see 6- and 7-years-olds as the victim, somehow or other it goes to your heart a little more.... It's more of a 'My god, what kind of a society do we have?'  But don't think that all of the other assassinations, all of the other tragedies, all of the other massacres, or the individual shootings every day across the country, don't think that those are any less of a tragedy. Those are human beings, too."

Remember this is the very same Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who ceased being a Republican, but was still sold the Republican line upon which he won re-election by a cabal that included Brooklyn GOP Chairman Craig Eaton.

After his call for more gun control, on top of all the very restrictive laws in his super-gun-controlled city,  Bloomberg responded when confronted by a critical member of the media  who had asked him whether the mayor's position being one of the faces of the anti-gun-rights movement could be "counterproductive" because Bloomberg is the mayor from the ultra-liberal New York City , New York.  With his characteristic adenoidal twang in an especially annoying range of the organic human diapason, Bloomberg whined,  "I'm an American. I'm a human being, so I certainly have standing to say what I think."  

What the diminutive media-mogul billionaire meant was  —   I’m used to having my opinion heard above those of all ordinary people and now I have the right megaphone to be heard above everybody else in the country, including the president, who had better listen to me or else! On Friday afternoon Mayor Bloomberg had put out a statement calling on President Obama to take "immediate action" to push for legislation on the issue. However, at today’s press conference Mayor Bloomberg admitted that he had not spoken to Obama since the shootings in Connecticut.

Bloomberg used today's speech to announce a new website, “Demand A Plan”, that among other things will highlight the stories of some of those at Bloomberg’s  press conference in videos calling for gun control action. The mayor said that copies of those videos will be delivered to the members of Congress during the next session, in order to build the pressure to enact new Federal gun-control. Mayor Bloomberg is also the co-chair of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a group of more than 700 mayoral advocates for stricter gun control. 

The N.Y. Daily News, and its editors and reporters, don’t know the facts, don’t know the background and, most important, they don’t know shame when it comes to the Newtown-Sandy Hook School shootings

Daily News writers, Matthew Lysiak , Dennis Slattery and Corky Siemaszko, and their editors have decided that its perfectly alright to kick around some of the corpses in the Newtown Connecticut – Sandy Hook School tragedy  —   those of the alleged shooter and his murdered mom

According to these three ghoulish creeps and their bosses at Mort Zuckerman’s rag,  it’s perfectly fine to put out this kind of reportorial offal based on very little hard evidence and in-depth background investigation: “Newtown, Conn. shooting: Sandy Hook elementary school gunman Adam Lanza learned to shoot from his gun-collecting mom  —  Mother Nancy Lanza often took her kids target shooting, landscaper Dan Holmes said. 'That was a passion,' he said. 'The whole family would go together.' Her 20-year-old son Adam killed her with one of her own guns before using them to murder 20 children at the elementary school where she once worked.” [It's since been reported that Nancy Lanza had no known connection to the Sandy Hook School.]

Less than a day after he was misidentified as his older brother, Ryan Lanza, an ALLEGED shooter Adam Lanza, who is now deceased and unable to speak out about anything, the Daily News has decided to tell the world that Adam was a matricidal mass killer whose “miserable life” was the product of a gun-toting and demanding mother, who apparently is the only victim of this tragedy at the hands of her son not worthy of any respect whatsoever.

This is most of what the “journalists” of the Daily News had to say: “His mother taught him the way of the gun. ***  Adam Lanza, the troubled nerd who turned a Connecticut school into a slaughterhouse, learned how to shoot under the watchful eye of his demanding mom Nancy. ***  ‘They went target shooting as a family,’ landscaper Dan Holmes told The Daily News. ‘That was a passion. The whole family would go together.’ ***   Nancy Lanza wound up being the first of her son’s 27 victims when he used one of her guns to shoot her dead. ***  Holmes, who often mowed the grass at the Lanza’s sprawling Newtown home, said the doomed mom was proud of her arsenal and once showed him a ‘big, beautiful rifle’ she had just purchased. *** ‘She was very proud of it,’ he said. ‘She loved her guns.’ ***     It wasn’t immediately clear whether this was the .223-caliber Bushmaster that was found in the trunk of Nancy Lanza’s car [Since the Daily News piece was published, that rifle has been identified by authorities as one of the weapons found "inside" the Sandy Hook School.]  after her son murdered six staffers and 20 innocent students at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. ***  Lanza, 20, used a Glock 9-mm. handgun and a SIG Sauer handgun to kill all those people — and then end his own miserable life.”

Most of what’s printed above is based on hearsay from “the lawn guy” about two of the dead in the pile of 28 bodies in and around a small town in Connecticut.  This isn’t good reporting, this isn’t responsible commentary, this isn’t even good old-fashioned Hearst- and Pulitzer-style “Yellow Journalism”  —   THIS IS SHIT ON PULP PAPER ! ! !

Will Salvatore Perrone ever get a chance to present his chosen defenses in a Brooklyn Court to the comments, charges and "evidence" already rolled-out against him by the press, the cops and the Brooklyn D.A. ?

According to a report by the New York Post’s Josh Saul posted in the online version of the 12/13/12 New York Post under the title:  “SI man accused of slaying B'klyn shopkeepers says he was a CIA operative ordered to kill” –  Sal Perrone lays out the factual components to a complex defense to the  three charges of murder brought against him by the Brooklyn D.A., including an affirmative defense of duress to his "admitted" part in one of the killings

Josh Saul’s article demonstrates the outlines of clearly articulated defenses to the charges against Salvatore Perrone for the alleged killings of three middle-eastern shopkeepers as follows:  “After his arrest, Salvatore Perrone, 64, told investigators he was working for the ‘Palestinian section of the CIA’ and that he watched while two different Middle Eastern men he met at the Knights of Columbus shot and killed his first two victims [these men are referred to in the Saul article as “Mr. B” and “Mr. C”] . ***   Perrone even claimed that one of the Middle Eastern men  —  identified in court papers as “Mr. C” — insulted his masculinity and forced him at gunpoint to stab the second victim, according to court papers released after Perrone’s arraignment in Brooklyn Supreme Court.” The Josh Saul article gave a great many of the details as to how Perrone met and interacted with the men “Mr. B” and “Mr. C,” and how they had committed the three killings.

Another interesting aspect of the case is that Perrone has been kept from contacting the attorney of his own choosing, who is an attorney who represented Sal Perrone in an earlier DUI proceeding, but who is not a regular in the Brooklyn Courthouse, unlike his Court-appointed attorney. This is how Josh Saul described a flap over that issue, which occurred before the Judge in courtroom: “The former clothes salesman also went crazy in court yesterday, demanding he be represented by his personal attorney. *** ‘Where is my personal attorney?’ Perrone yelled out, asking repeatedly for Frank Masciocchi. ‘Are we in the United States of America?’ ***  Masciocchi, who represented Perrone on a DUI charge years ago, was surprised to hear his former client was asking for him. ***   ‘It’s somewhat of a moot point because I’m not licensed to practice in New York,’ Masciocchi told The Post by phone, adding that he was stunned when he first heard of the accusations against his former client. ***  Perrone’s court-appointed attorney, William Martin, entered a plea of not guilty and requested a mental evaluation to determine whether he is fit to stand trial. ***  ‘I’m going to check off the box that says “disruptive, confused, or bizarre behavior,” ’ said Justice Alan Marrus.”

Here’s how CBS News described Perrone’s brining up his objections to how he was being treated and represented by counsel: “Salvatore Perrone, the Staten Island salesman accused of killing three Brooklyn shopkeepers, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Wednesday, according to CBS New York. *** The accused serial murderer spoke up angrily at his arraignment, demanding to see his attorney rather than the one appointed to him by the courts, CBS New York reported. *** “Excuse me your honor. Can I say something?” Perrone asked the judge. “Everything has been taken away from me my - money, my cell phone and any numbers I have.”

CBS also reported that “Perrone is ordered to undergo a psych evaluation.”

What none of the news agencies or reporters have noted is that Sal Perrone’s defenses and the other explanations of his involvement in events connected to these three killings do not appear to be contradicted by any of his other statements or the volumes of evidence mentioned by law enforcement sources to the press. The releases of all that information began even before Perrone supposedly “voluntarily” went into police custody, was questioned by police for well over 24 hours without a lawyer or other outside contact, was moved between precincts, and after more than a day in custody was arrested on multiple charges of murder.

Quick UPDATE to my post below that mentioned the Mark Mix “Right to Work” Article that appeared in the NY Post on December 12th

There have been many postings in the aftermath of the recent passage of Michigan’s “Right to Work” laws  —  here are just a few of the opinions PRO and CON that have been expressed

This post is PRO:

“Right-To-Work Shifts America” in Forbes on 12/12/12 contributed-to by Gary Shapiro, President and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/garyshapiro/2012/12/12/right-to-work-shifts-america/

“It’s not that Americans don’t want other Americans to do well and be paid well. They do. But they may feel, as I do, that unions are increasingly an anachronism serving mainly to protect workers from market forces, preserve a failing status quo, fund union leaders and support Democratic politicians.” ...
The disconnect between what unions demand and Americans want is clear. Union influence in politics is the Democrats’ Achilles’ heel. ...  Americans want their nation’s businesses to be competitive and their professionals in government to be fairly paid. What they don’t want is bought politicians, incompetence protected and inefficiency mandated in our companies and in government.... Voters do matter and either unions or the Democratic Party must change. Or the American voters will change who is in charge.
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These posts are about the general reaction to the Michigan law:

According to a post on Bloomberg,  “Michigan Right to Work Battle Could Cost Labor Political Clout” by Chris Christoff on December 10th,  Michigan’s passage of “right to work” laws for employees generally and pubic service employees in particular has some New York labor leaders worried. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-10/michigan-right-to-work-battle-could-cost-labor-political-clout.html

Mr. Christoff specifically quoted Stephen Madarasz, a spokesman for the Civil Service Employees Association, New York state’s biggest public-worker union,. “Michigan’s push for right-to-work is a “sad day in America” and cause for concern, given the state’s historic role in the labor movement.... We have a great deal of concern about an extremist agenda to undermine working people in this country.”
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“New York teachers denounces Michigan’s right-to-work law”  (Sic)
NY TEACHERS UNION – DECEMBER 12, 2012  –  BY: GILLIAN BURDETT
http://www.examiner.com/article/new-york-teachers-denounces-michigan-s-right-to-work-law

The New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) issued a December11th  statement showing support for the Michigan unions that lost in their efforts to stop legislation that outlaws “closed shops” in the state.  The NYSUT statement warned that, “If it could happen in Michigan, it could happen anywhere.” In response to the passage of the Michigan “right to work” laws, NYSUT  is promoting an online petition created by the American Federation of Teachers to show their support for Michigan workers.

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The same report at Examiner.com indicated that  supporters of the newly passed Michigan laws say that states with right-to-work laws attract businesses, spurring economic growth. Scott Hagerstrom of Americans for Prosperity, in a December 11, 2012  interview with MSNBC commentator Chris Matthews, has said “right to work” laws are about freedom for workers, allowing employees free choice when it comes to union membership. Americans for Prosperity is a political advocacy organization founded in 2004 by Charles and David Koch of Koch industries.
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The following post is clearly CON:

In a blog, KnickLedger.com, which obviously skews in a Democrat direction was this polemical post by  Stephen Pampinella, “Why right to work would ruin New York”; posted on December 12, 2012; it directly addressed the Mark Mix column in the NY Post.
http://www.knickledger.com/2012/12/why-right-to-work-would-ruin-new-york/

“....Mix is falsely presenting right to work as an issue of individual freedom to obscure the real purpose of unions: to provide collective solidarity in the work place by preventing major corporations from abusing the rights of individual workers. A ‘closed union shop’, one in which all employees pay membership dues, solves something that political scientists call free-rider problem.... To be clear: unions are not businesses seeking to maximize profit off of union dues. A union’s fundamental purpose is to protect its workers. Now, we can have a legitimate discussion about how unions sometimes ignore other pressing social issues because they are too focused on the short-term gains of their members. But right to work doesn’t solve that problem or protect the labor rights of ordinary employees. It functions merely as a cover to dismantle organized labor through false appeals to individualism....  This sub-optimal outcome is precisely the desire of organizations like Mark Mix’s National Right to Work Committee. This isn’t about freedom, it’s about busting unions by creating an incentive for workers to turn against each other. If right to work came to New York, it would result in lower wages and lower quality working conditions for millions of working- and middle-class New Yorkers. Since our state is already the most unequal in the entire nation, bringing right to work to New York would result in catastrophe.”

Chris Matthews does a reprise on the great unreported story of the 2012 Campaign: The Republicans were just a bunch of no good lairs, who told many more and much bigger lies than the Democrats

What are the FACTS about the use of words and phrases like “Fact Check” and “Fact Checkers”  in and by the Left-tipping “Main Stream Media”?  Left-leaners like Chris Matthews and Soledad O’Brien ignored outright lies to the American people by President Obama and Obama surrogates like Susan Rice, but they take their quibbles over Republican talking points to the stratosphere of high indignation and hypocritical moralizing.

Last night on his MSNBC “Hardball...” program, Chris Matthews went on and on about the big unreported story that the Republican Campaign(s) in 2012 were largely based on “lies” and dishonesty, whereas President Obama’s and other Democratic partisans’ speeches, adds and talking points were far more factually based.  Matthews and his guests, Salon’s Joan Walsh and Mother Jones’ David Korn started by doing a paean to Norman Ornstein and his recent book (“It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With The New Politics of Extremism” by Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein); and how Republican’s had once been comfortable with Ornstein, but now treated him like a pariah.

The segment then swung to Joan Walsh’s commentary about one of the arguments being urged by Ornstein in recent blogs and on recent talk shows, notably brought home by Dan Froomkin in his post, "How the Mainstream Press Bungled the Single Biggest Story of the 2012 Campaign" in the Huffington Post.  A particular moment in that segment focused on an August 2012  statement by Romney pollster, Neil Newhouse, “We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by Fact-Checkers...”  Chris Matthews morphed those words and said this meant that Republicans had openly told the world that they were not going to be governed by “the facts”.  Then there was a litany of the supposedly non-factual charges that were made in 2012 by many different Republicans about various Democrats, until David Korn made a subtle shift back to the Romney campaign by specifically mentioning what he thought were oft-repeated Romney “lies” about Obama  ---  Korn saying the worst being that Obama had  taken $500 million out of Medicare to help fund Obamacare, and that the Obama Administration’s had issued new rules that removed the work requirements from the Clinton-Gingrich era welfare reforms.

On tonight’s Fox News “The Five” show, there was a bit of a push back against the cult of the “Fact Checker” when Andrea Tanteros asked these very simple questions, “Just who are these self-appointed fact checkers and who are they to tell us what the facts are?”

An interesting look back into the “Republicans against the Fact Checkers” issue was the “take away” put out there by Colin Campbell in his “Evening Read: ‘I Don’t Care What Factcheck Says!’ ” in the Politicker blog for 9/17/12.    Mr. Campbell was referring to a specific Soledad O’Brien interview with Republican Congressman Peter King back in September shortly after the Benghazi attacks of 9/11. Soledad O’B..., who is an empty suit with a very pretty face and an ethnically pied name, even by early-21st Century American standards, did her best to ambush the Long Island Republican Congressman over his negative comments about Obama’s Middle-eastern foreign policy failures’ having led to the Benghazi fiasco.

King ducked and evaded O’Brien’s each and every verbal missile, in what had turned from an interview into a clearly partisan debate about whether Obama ever had anything like an “Apology Tour.” Then, like a latter day Diana, Soledad the huntress, drew the most potent arrow from her quiver that there never was any Obama “Apology Tour” and let it fly in the direction of the Congressman, “... and if you go to Fact-Check.Org., ... they’ll say the same thing; they’ve fact checked this...”  To which King rightfully and intelligently replied, “I don’t care what ‘Fact-check’ says ... any common sense interpretation of those speeches, the President is apologizing... that is an apology...”

There is no doubt among real Americans that President Obama certainly did do what the Republicans have called an “Apology Tour” to various  Middle-eastern destinations and European venues in 2009.  And Congressman Peter King’s exclamation, “I DON’T CARE WHAT ‘FACT-CHECK’ SAYS...” is an intellectually and rhetorically superior position to the leftists like Soledad O’Brien’s resort to the weak and unreliable authority of un-named fact checkers. The so-called “Fact Checkers” and commentators, such as Soledad O’Brien are not competent or worthy of any credibility whatsoever. So-called fact checkers whose grasp on the use of the English language is so narrow that they can state absolutely that there is no description or interpretation of Obama’s earliest foreign policy foray as an “Apology Tour” is factually flawed and it is itself a falsehood. Thus, they shouldn’t have anything to say about constitutes "facts" whatsoever.

A description of the very same 2009 presidential excursions as Obama’s  “Surrender-Monkey Tour” would be equally valid even though: a)  I doubt that Barack Hussein Obama announced any surrender whatsoever in any of the Islamic lands where he was speaking; and b) the president neither handed over any monkeys to any foreign dignitaries nor did he have any monkeys imbedded in his entire entourage.

A strong “Right to Work” agenda by New York Republicans and Conservatives would be correct on philosophy and principle; and it also would benefit both the businesses, and the working men and women of New York City and State — but it would require dumping false conservative pro-union-voting State Senators like Martin Golden

Mark Mix’ opinion piece, “What right to work would do for NY,” that appeared in the NY Post for December 12th  laid out several advantages that would accrue to an overwhelming majority of New Yorkers if New York State were to join the ranks of “right to work” states

Mr. Mix, readily acknowledges that, “It’s hard to imagine the Empire State adopting a [r]ght to [w]ork law — but it would be [the right thing to do] for businesses, taxpayers and workers.”

“Right to work” laws don’t ban the existence of unions, make union organizing illegal or prohibit collective bargaining, particularly collective bargaining that’s  required by law in certain circumstances . “Right to work” laws don’t place any limit upon anybody’s right to join any labor organization of their own choosing or impinge in any way upon any of the laws protecting that right. Instead, “right to work” laws ensure that workers cannot be forced to join a union or to be forced to pay the equivalent of dues to a union in order to get or keep a job.

The straightforward principle of “right to work” is aimed at protecting workers’ freedom of association. In New York and other states without right to work laws, nonunion employees are routinely forced to financially support unions they have no interest in joining or associating with, unions that often work against the interests of many such employees.

The corrupting influence of mandatory union membership or forced “agency”dues for non-union employees goes far beyond the negative impact on the employees. According to Mark Mix, another evil flows from the mandatory funding of the unions. Typically, union officials use their power to extract dues from union and nonunion workers to funnel large amounts of that fund into a political war chest to fund pro-union and generally liberal Democratic office holders and office seekers. A “right to work” law would end this coercive arrangement in New York by ensuring that no worker is forced to pay union dues or agency fees as a condition of obtaining or continuing their employment. 

The Mix column also cited several statistics showing the competitive advantage of “right to work” states compared to states that allow mandatory union membership or mandatory union agency fees in lieu of membership. Along with that, he showed that the average worker was making more in actual take home pay in the “right to work” states.

According to Mark Mix: “Right to Work states as a whole have long outperformed on job creation, compared to compulsory-unionism states. ***  And those numbers don’t tell the whole story. Not only are more jobs created in Right to Work states, employees’ paychecks go farther in states with protections against compulsory unionism.”  That’s why he concludes, ““From Indiana to Florida and Idaho to Texas, Right to Work laws have a proven track record of protecting employee freedom while encouraging economic growth. If a Big Labor stronghold like Michigan can see the light, New York certainly can too.”

Unfortunately, too many ostensibly conservative Republicans like State Senator Martin Golden are standing in the way. Union lobbyists and activists have generally backed the Democratic majority in the New York Assembly and the Republican majority in the State Senate. However, that may be changing; with that majority having slipped to the Dems in 2012, union support is increasingly likely to follow. 

State Senator Martin Golden (R-C) was hard pressed by his Democratic opponent Andrew Gounardes in 2012, because Gounardes  enjoyed significantly more union support than Golden’s prior Democrat challenger, Michael DiSanto.  As a result, Golden is likely to work even harder to hold onto the union support that he still has.  That support  principally comes from various politically active “associations” among the city’s and state’s uniformed services and other public sector employee unions, including teachers. 

It’s clear, that in order to get a real  conservative Republican 22nd S.D. vote for politically and economically necessary “right to work” laws for New York, it would mean replacing Martin Golden as the Republican candidate. He needs to be taken on by a true fiscal and philosophical conservative Republican. Sadly, such a challenger has not emerged from within the Brooklyn GOP for many years.