Your Dead Children Don’t Matter; ‘Long As I Got My Guns

Has the Republican Party truly gone so far out on a limb, that they are truly advocating the right of the insane to keep guns trumps the right of a child to live?

See for yourself….

I simply have to wonder. Why would anyone ever, ever, ever, ever, ever in this lifetime, after living these past 4 years, ever again vote for a Republican? Perhaps because they really don’t know? Your duty is to tell them.

 

10 Cent Gas Tax IS The Cheapest Option

We’ve already run through the cost analysis.  It is cheaper for you to pay 10 cents a gallon than not (because of the damage done to your car if the money if not forthcoming).

Now, let us look at who is against it and why.  Pete Schwartzkoph, and the Republicans.  Both have a singular characteristic. Both need to justify their positions to voters back home.

If you are a Republican, for example, you have essentially earned a salary for doing nothing except show up.  You are pointless and take up space, simply because in a blue state, solely because of the smallness of your voting bloc, even if you wished, you could not make any legislative difference.

Since you are so impotent, you seize on this distraction, to pretend to show your voters that you will look after their interests, even though you know what you are saying is just plain wrong. Even though you know that if you were in power, that you would be pushing this 10 cents gas tax, instead, by pretending to be against it you hope to pretend you are tough and standing up to the governor, and hopefully some dummy who will only pay attention to this topic, will be enough to push you over the top in your next election….

You are probably going to lose in the next election.  Then as a civilian, your car will hit potholes too.  And you will be paying far more in repairs, than the 10 cents gas would cost you…  Not voting for ht 10 cents will kick you in the end….

Everyone will  first react negatively.  I did. But everyone who looks at the benefits, sees this tax as a very cheap option to save oneself a whole lot of money….. Truth is, if I hadn’t looked at the wonderful benefits, I’d be against it still.

It’s sort of like this:  if someone says, “hey you, buy this car” you say, “aw shucks, can’t. Not interested. I’m happy with what I got here.” But if someone says, “buy this car, it’s worth $40,000 but right now, it is priced at $10,000… Buy it for that?.”  Then buying a car is a whole different ball game.   The 10 cent gas tax is like that….

Ants Kill 30 People In USA Per Year

Thats 30 people more than have died from an overdose of marijuana, EVER.

Do Burning Coals Die When You Cover Them With Dirt For A Year?

“On my southbound morning commute, I often meet a school bus in the northbound lane. It’s a wide feeder street with broad sidewalks and good visibility. I am an impatient commuter and the degree to which I hate sitting in traffic borders on the irrational. So when the flashers go on and I watch the children board the bus from the far left side of the road, my analytical impatient id grouses and knows that I could drive past that bus and that the probability of encountering a child on my side of the road would be vanishingly small. Yet the law tells me I must stop. So I do. And I remind myself that the law is in place out of an abundance of caution and recognition for the precious cargo that the bus is carrying. So I smile and wave at the bus driver when she lets me pass, and I get to work two minutes later than I would have otherwise. We should work towards gun laws that are similarly configured, out of an abundance of caution and recognition of the preciousness of schoolchildren.“

“We should work towards gun laws that are similarly configured, out of an abundance of caution and recongnition of the preciousness of schoolchildren…. “

Metaphorical Questions?

Courtesy of Art Prints For Kids.

If you were to pass a law that would strip physicians of their rights, make all their choices undergo review, and then either approve or deny that option,  without getting the physician’s opinions, you’d have a bill that wouldn’t work….

If you were to pass a law that would strip preachers and priests of their ability to communicate what they wanted to their parishes,  where all their sermons would have to be pre-approved after an initial review, but didn’t get the insight of any religious institutions before hand, we would have a law that would be impossible to enforce.

If you passed a law requiring policemen to follow a rubric when writing tickets, and all tickets had to be within that rubric to be considered fair, and no whining, wiggling, or implicating oneself as a state legislator, could change the outcome and you didn’t even listen to the objections of law enforcement officers themselves, you’d have a bill that created far more problems than it solved…

So what is it with teachers?  Why is HB 165 rushed through  without consulting parents who have objections?  Without consulting teachers who have objections?  without consulting school boards who have objections?

Something is deeply wrong when the top three school boards, Christina, Capital, and Red Clay all pass resolutions saying DON’T PASS HB 165,  and yet one still does?  Well, we can expect gigantic problems in the future….  Just as we would in all of the above….

However, with doctors and medical staff, you’d have an uproar!  However with pastors and priests, you’d have every congregation in an uproar!  However with law enforcement officers you’d have an uproar from every arresting official!

Where is Frederica Jenner, former champion of Red Clay?  Now head of the DSEA, The Delaware State Educational Association?

I think we know.

Greasing The Wheels For The Private Takeover of Public Schools

The following was found by going to this website, searching for HB 165, then following up all leads…

What is going on behind the scenes of HB 165?  (One of the side effects of transparency is that there is so much hay covering up the damn needles)

The Delaware State Education Association DSEA has 9 lobbyists assigned to this bill.  So far zero dollars have changed hands.

The Rodel Foundation has two lobbyists assigned to this bill.  Again zero dollars have been reported…

Rhett Ruggerio Government Relations LLC has 6 lobbyists registered to this bill. Donald C. Mell III , James Nutter, Esq., Jordan Seemans, Kim Willson, and Rhett Ruggerio (Democratic National Convention 2008) ..  It appears (whether true or not) that zero dollars in 2013 have been spent on this bill.  (*Editors Note: The common perception is that lobbyists are all bad. Please check the above links to remove that perception permanently)

Cherry picking the Educational organizations, ….  Delaware Charter School Network (featuring James Taylor,Jr /News Journal) , Houghton Mifflin International Inc.(school testing corporation), Prestige Academy, Communities in Schools of Delaware (led by Jim Purcell who ran the Democratic Party in 2000 campaign);  Building Excellent Schools; Rodel, US English, Inc.  All have reported zero spending in 2013, Rodel has spent through the lobbying efforts of Melissa Hopkins, back in 2012,  a paltry $1434,45 on food and refreshments…

This is their side… Now… how much investment did YOU make towards saving Public Schools after having them around 100+ years of successfully creating adults?

Bitching and moaning is pointless.

Irony, Thy Name Is Delaware

The officers shot in the New Castle County Courthouse shooting speak out, for the first time since the tragic event, in support of the federal Bulletproof Vest Partnership.  Their vests were purchased at half the cost to Capitol Police through the federal Bulletproof Vest Partnership, which expired last summer. Senator Coons is fighting to bring the grant program back.Coons doesn’t believe law enforcement should have to stand on street corners with a tip cup to get funding.

“I think the federal government owes this to local and state law enforcement,”

So we will make them beg for dollars in a tin cup, but we are too cowardly to ban high capacity clips and assault weapons?

Do you know who the biggest pushers of these two bans are?  Not parents but our first responders…. They were during the 1990’s and are now the ones asking our legislators to do the right thing and step up to ban high capacity clips, and ban automatic weapons….

(Delaware Law will only regulate new purchases and will not impose any hardship whatsoever on current owners )….

But isn’t it the height of hypocrisy that we can’t muscle the stamina to help out a first responder with passing two trite pieces of legislation,  but we can certainly fan the flames to get press coverage of them begging for money so they can please, please have 14 times a better chance of living through a firefight?  Think about it.

Just ban the sale of high capacity clips and assault rifles…  Help a first responder out……

We’re All Gonna Die!

Tampering With Evidence IS A Crime In DC….. Republicans Broke The Law

It is a crime when individuals are found tamping with evidence. Tampering may include a manipulation or movement of the evidence during or after the crime. Individuals can in fact be charged with being an accessory after the fact, if they manipulated evidence in any way.

Did a crime occur in the Republican caucus surrounding Darrell Issa.

ABSOLUTELY.  Evidence was tampered…..

CBS News reported that at least two of the Benghazi e-mails that were leaked by Republicans last Friday were altered.

One of the altered e-mails was from Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes. The other altered e-mail was from U.S. State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.

Here’s the Republican version of the Rhodes e-mail:  We must make sure that the talking points reflect all agency equities, including those of the State Department, and we don’t want to undermine the FBI investigation.

Here’s the White House version of the Rhodes e-mail:   We need to resolve this in a way that respects all of the relevant equities, particularly the investigation.

Here’s the Republican version of the Nuland e-mail:  The penultimate point is a paragraph talking about all the previous warnings provided by the Agency (CIA) about al-Qaeda’s presence and activities of al-Qaeda.

Here’s the White House version of the Nuland e-mail:  The penultimate point could be abused by members to beat the State Department for not paying attention to Agency warnings.

BUSTED!!! 

Evidence was tampered to imply a crime.  Under all state codes this can be either a misdemeanor or a felony.  We need these investigated…  The law was broken.  Congressional Hearings are in place to get to the bottom of the truth.  They are not intended to be kangeroo courts to make up evidence that doesn’t naturally exist….

The law was broken.  Arrests need to be made… This is not about Democrats or Republicans… This is about the trust and truthfulness of the United States of America.

If Congress were run as were DC’s Schools?   Darrell Issa would be thrown out of Congress…. From the DC school manual…….

Tier IV behaviors result in off-site Suspension.
(a) The following behaviors shall be considered Tier IV behaviors:

(1) Acts of vandalism, destruction of property, or graffiti (tagging);
(2) Documented theft of school or personal property without force;
(3) Interfering with school authorities or participating in a major
disruption of the school’s operation.
(4) Tampering with, changing, or altering an official record or
document of a school;

Here is the Texas’s definition of tampering.   Darrell Issa would be in jail if this took place in Texas….

A person commits an offense if, knowing that an investigation or official proceeding is pending or in progress, he:

(1) alters, destroys, or conceals any record, document, or thing with intent to impair its verity, legibility, or availability as evidence in the investigation or official proceeding;

(2) makes, presents, or uses any record, document, or thing with knowledge of its falsity and with intent to affect the course or outcome of the investigation or official proceeding;

(3) knowing that an offense has been committed, alters, destroys, or conceals any record, document, or thing with intent to impair its verity, legibility, or availability as evidence in any subsequent investigation of or official proceeding related to the offense; or

(4) observes a human corpse under circumstances in which a reasonable person would believe that an offense had been committed, knows or reasonably should know that a law enforcement agency is not aware of the existence of or location of the corpse, and fails to report the existence of and location of the corpse to a law enforcement agency.

In Texas, this is a felony in the third degree.

The evidence brought forth a week ago that inflamed the nation, was a fabrication. “Directly it was an attempt to make, present and use a record, document, or thing with knowledge of its falsity and with intent to affect the course or outcome of the investigation or official proceeding….”

18 USC § 1001 – Statements or entries generally

(a) Except as otherwise provided in this section, whoever, in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the Government of the United States, knowingly and willfully—
(1) falsifies, conceals, or covers up by any trick, scheme, or device a material fact;
(2) makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation; or
(3) makes or uses any false writing or document knowing the same to contain any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry;

shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 5 years or, if the offense involves international or domestic terrorism (as defined in section 2331), imprisoned not more than 8 years, or both. If the matter relates to an offense under chapter 109A, 109B, 110, or 117, or section 1591, then the term of imprisonment imposed under this section shall be not more than 8 years.

In their quest to call it terrorism –and it is– the republicans just opened themselves up to a crime.

I demand an immediate arrest of Darrell Issa for breaking the law…. Full Censure by the House of Representative of this common criminal is called for immediately…..

NRA Gets Its Wish: Guns In Schools

Although it was not as they envisioned.  The gun was brought inside a backpack of a middle school aged child.  Relax, no one died.  He was a good kid and never had any intention of using it.   Just thought it was super cool and wanted to show it off  along with the ammo to his friends… (He didn’t even know it was a real gun.)

The 13 year old as of Friday was being held in the New Castle County Juvenile Detention Center on $39,000 secured bail. And the courts will determine the severity of his penalty.

Of course parents are concerned.  In typical parental fashion they said…. “we need metal detectors at every school.  .

So, let us work through that premise.   Start with how can that be done?   Electronic metal detectors are expensive, and we have a lot of schools.   Currently the Department of Educations website is listing 213 schools... Now for economic reasons, we would at first need only one security site or pass-through site per building, through which everyone enters, and everyone leaves… Once the initial investment is paid for, then incremental units at other entrances and exits can be later added.

So the number is 213 security machines… Here at  Detectronix we have an assortment of walk through metal detectors.  Since most of our state’s students are familiar with jails from visiting family members, perhaps the one that is most secure for our schools would the same brand use for jails, sensitive enough to detect a loaded revolve inserted up the anus or vagina.  That costs  $4199.  However, recognizing a future need after the December 14th Newtown shootings, Detectronix has made a commitment to mass produce a cheaper version which will pick up a hand gun and pinpoint it to a general area of the body.  That reduced rate is $2499.  This cheaper version is more than adequate to isolate incoming weapons, in all but the most sophisticated ploys.   Considering the savings, it is the one I would recommend, the  Detectronix 6-Zone Walk Through Metal Detector  …

Total state cost for walk-through metal detectors? Pretty cheap, just a half a million or exactly $532,500… ($894387 would be the more expensive choice)  This does not include the fee charged for the entity that places the phone call, at 10% that would be another $53,250 dollars….

A electroinic security system needs to be manned to be effective. Otherwise it could beep on every student passing through with no accountability.  One must assume the station should be manned all day.  Even though nothing much happens at any schools entrance after the opening bell, still, if one were intent on bringing a gun to school for say, the purpose of revenge. he would obviously time his arrival at some point after he knew the metal detector was shut down.  So personnel must be stationed until close.

The average school day is 7 hours…  Multiplied by 5 days per week and it is a thirty five hour job,  add half an hour  every day to set up and tear down, and it becomes a full time position.  At salary it averages $39,000 per year. Add the FICA and supplementary benefits costs, the total package runs to: $40,677 per school….  If contracted out to a guard service, the average rate if including fees and contract costs, averages close to $50 per hour used. The contracts per year would range around $78,000 per school… but at the benefit that all liability falls upon the service and not the educational department of the state of Delaware.

So for manning these position, Delaware has two options, government versus private, and as it always works out in everything in life,  government is the cheaper.  $8,664,201  versus $16,614,000

So for a minimum of $8,664,201 a year in personnel costs plus the $532,500 in buying and installing the metal detectors, the first year estimate for that should be close to $9.200,000 dollars with $8,664,201 being spent every year thereafter.

If this is levied to property owners, the average property owner will be charged, of course assuming that Senior Citizens don’t get out of the fee for policies they support,  the fee is $0.0001 per square foot or one/hundredith of a penny per square foot. {$8,664,201/(2490 X 27,878,400)}  If one exempts state land, or makes other exemptions, that cost will rise per private property owner as is to be expected. …

Or if one wishes to allocate that cost per resident, then the assessment rounds up to {$8,664,201 / 917,000} = $9.44 per inhabitant.   That is the price of security. A family of 4 should be willing to ante up $37.79 dollars for keeping children safe…

But, the argument gets quickly raised, as it does with money, … shouldn’t those responsible for creating the problem be the ones to pay for its solution?  Those would be owner of guns. We can’t publish the amounts for confidentiality reasons.  But the gross sales of Miller’s Gunshop alone as reported this quarter  to the Delaware Dept of Revenue, argues that a fair assessment on all gun and ammunition sales at at sales tax rate of 10% would be more than adequate to cover implementing the security of all of Delaware’s schools.

The $8 million a year should not out of a child’s education.  It should come from those those actions are the direct creation of the problem in the first place.

So lets securitize our schools, and make the NRA and all gun owners pay for it… Fair is simply fair.  If we had a registry of all weapons in this country, we wouldn’t be having this problem.  As history will one day determine, the fault lies with no one but the NRA that this common sense legislation was never implemented …..