Never thought I would see the day

That a politician did not take a pay raise. . . but it is here. This from the Boston Herald:

One Republican lawmaker has already refused a pricey 5.5 percent pay increase for state legislators Gov. Deval Patrick recommended yesterday, saying the raise is a slap in the face to struggling families.

The hike would raise legislators’ base pay from $58,237 to $61,440, even as they consider slashing millions from the state budget.

“I cannot in good conscience accept a raise in legislative pay when there are so many families across the state who cannot afford to meet their household expenses,” said Rep. Karyn Polito (R-Shrewsbury) in a statement.

Why am I not surprised that in this state it was a REPUBLICAN that did the right thing? Yet we still leave the Dems in charge. Any bets on what she just did to her chance to get re-elected or otherwise ground to dust by the Dems in charge for making them look bad?

We are going to go down fast now that the economy is not turning around even with Dear Leader Zero getting ready to take over. We are going to spend our selves out of existence at the State and Federal levels . . . . can't wait. . .

Update from the Boston Globe - More Lawmakers do the right thing:

Representative Viriato deMacedo, the ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, said he would donate the raise of $3,203 to a Plymouth food pantry, which lost $150,000 in funding in the last round of budget cuts.

House Minority Leader Bradley Jones said he would not accept the pay hike. Representatives Karyn Polito, a Republican from Shrewsbury, and Democrat Garrett Bradley of Hingham are also planning to reject the raise, according to State House New Service.

Representative Harriet L. Stanley, a West Newbury Democrat, said she too would donate her raise to charity.

Nanny State goes Federal

In 2007, large toy manufacturers who outsource their production to China violated the public's trust - selling toys with dangerous lead content, toys with unsafe small parts, and toys that made kids sick. Almost every problem toy in 2007 was made in China.

The Congress passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) in 2008, which bans lead and phthalates in toys, mandates third-party testing and certification for all toys and permanent labels on each toy with a date and batch number.

All of these changes will be fairly easy for large, multinational toy manufacturers to comply with. Large manufacturers who make thousands of units of each toy have very little incremental cost to pay for testing and updating their molds to include batch labels.

For small American toymakers the costs of mandatory testing, to the tune of up to $4,000 per toy, will drive them out of business. American-made toys had nothing to do with the toy safety problems of 2007. Toy aren’t the only ones impacted – used toys and clothing will be eliminated from thrift stores – artisans who design children’s clothing will be shut down.

Unless the law is modified handmade toys will no longer be legal in the US.

Thriving small businesses are crucial to the financial health of our nation. Please write or call your Congressperson and ask that this law be revised to ensure the economic well being of small U.S. businesses. Visit www.handmadetoyalliance.org for more details and for how you can help.

Isn't that great? we know the problem came from China but as usual we are going to punnish eveyone for it. Cut off our nose to spite our face as they say. Drop a note - US Consumer Protection Agency is soliciting comments on the new law. Please PLEASE go to their website and implore them to revise the law and help them recognize the significantly negative impact (and unintended consequences) that this law brings to our economy.

Gotta Love Non-Sequitor

I think that about covers it

Open Letter on Eric Holder

Here is a copy of what I am sending into my Senators about Eric Holder for what it is worth. . . feel free to send in a copy yourself. We need to let them know what we think of this guy.

Dear Senator

I am writing you to ask that you vote against the appointment of Eric Holder to the post of Attorney General.

I ask this for a number of reasons:

1 – He has come out as stating that he would consider if a corporation has waved it’s rights to the legally protected attorney-client and work-product privileges...including corporate counsel's discussions with employees. This is disgusting. This is a basic right and should not be held against anyone, man or company. We are not supposed to be forced to incriminate ourselves!
2 – He removed a Federal Prosecutor because he had questions on a Waco Cover Up. This is not the way to rebuild trust in our government by helping to hide a possible cover up. Any such actions that even smell of a cover up need to be investigated and proven either true or false to help rebuild our governments damaged image with the people.
3 – He pushed for harsher penalties for people using pot for medical reasons such as Aids pain relief according to the group ACT-UP. Whether or not you believe pot has medical uses this should be decided at the state level and ultimately by the patient and doctor as to how to treat the pain, not the Federal Government.
4 – Supported risking an international incident with Cuba over the SWAT raid to seize Elian Gonzales after publicly saying he did not think it would come to that. He risked the life of a child and US citizens caring for him for political gain.
5 – He tried to cover up info so the Justice Department would support the Pardon for Marc Rich the Financier – Much of the trouble our economy is in now is due to people like Marc Rich and he is covering for them?
6 - Supported clemency for terrorists (FALN folks) who attacked the USA in 120 bomb attacks from 1974-83. We are fighting for our very existence against terrorists, we don’t need our top cop to be easy on them
7 – He is against the Second Amendment and wrote to the courts against the Heller Case. This passed. The Bill of Rights is what it is and should be SACRED to any American. A Second Amendment fight now would also help to further split this country in a time that we need to be working together on much bigger issues like our ECONOMY. We don’t need this distraction now!

Please vote against his appointment and make sure whomever we do finally put in this position is worth of the job and can do it. This is a critical position and we can’t afford to have someone in there that has questionable morals and does not put the good of the country first.

Thanks You

Update: Keyboard and a .45 was nice enough to post links to all the folks on the committee HERE. Time to drop them a note. . . I did

Pot Hole City (Or state)

Is it just me or is our lovely socialist utopia otherwise known as the state of Massachusetts having a bit of a pot hole problem this year?

I don't know about your ride into work but I feel like I am running a slalom course to get into work. We seem to have a bumper crop of the damn things this year. . . .

I have no fear that they will have a reason that they can't fix them all due to budget cuts unless I want a tax hike or five. They still did come up with the money to hire our good governors friend a week back at over $100k/year to run some new department of tourists or some such BS. . . .

This state is rotten from the core folks.

Obama and no recovery

Obama wants to help recovery by cutting taxes and hiring 600,000 folks onto the government payroll. . . .

How can he do that? You are hiring over half a million people and the government will pay them – That means YOU and ME and our TAXES will pay them. Sure they will pay taxes but that won’t cover their cost.

Then he will give tax cuts, even to folks that don’t pay taxes, so they get a rebate on money they don’t pay into taxes now. . . If they don’t pay into the system, why are they getting anything back?

I am sorry folks but the government can not spend its way out of this one. We need to cut cut cut and that is not what Obama and the Democrats want to do. They will lead us into a depression or worse, just watch.

What we should be doing:
Cut Taxes
Cutting all unnecessary employees of the Federal Government
Combining departments that overlap and laying off excess workers like they do in the real world.
Cutting off all foreign aid. If we can’t find enough money for our own budget we can’t support theirs too. . .
Lock down the borders
Actively go after all illegal’s in this country and make it impossible for them to work or get any government aid here. They don’t pay into the system they don’t get anything out of it.
Cut back on the welfare rolls. There are plenty of folks on there that can work but don’t. No work, no pay. For the ones that stay on the rolls, find a job for them doing something for the pay.
Put folks to work fixing our roads and infrastructure with the money saved from paying foreign aid.
Activly promote the government only buying goods from AMERICAN companies. It is good for us money wise and security wise. . . .
Make the banks and anyone else getting a bail out check put it to use in a way that promotes growth of the economy, support of the home owner/working man, and make sure it is all visible. . . . .
I am sure there is more but that is all I have for now. . .

Blogger Update

OK, I finally got around to adding links to the Bloggers I've Met list for the folks I met at the winter blogger meet. (Thanks again Jay for pulling it together)

Sorry for the delay, but it is the holidays. . . . .

You have got to be KIDDING me. . .

Found this HERE on CNN . . . .

Ready for this? You sure?

Larry Flint and the porn industry want the US government to bail out the porn industry to the toon of $5 billion.

Hustler publisher Larry Flynt and Girls Gone Wild CEO Joe Francis said Wednesday they will request that Congress allocate $5 billion for a bailout of the adult entertainment industry. “The take here is that everyone and their mother want to be bailed out from the banks to the big three,” said Owen Moogan, spokesman for Larry Flynt. “The porn industry has been hurt by the downturn like everyone else and they are going to ask for the $5 billion.

If this goes through I hope Congress is ready to see people calling for their removal from office and a new election yesterday. . . . this is nuts.

Just when you thought you had seen it all . . . . look at what you started Dems, this bail out crap was your idea. Time to stop bailing out businesses and start cutting our taxes so the average guy actually has some money to spend. Guess what? That would be good for business all around. . ..

Top Ten Man Guns. . .

Found at MArooned and SayUncle, a list of the 10 manliest firearms:

#10: SMLE
Yep, got a SMLE III

#9: Mosin-Nagant M44
nope

#8: GLOCK
Some day

#7: Swiss K31 Carbine.
nope

#6: AK47
Yep, fun to shoot and use to be cheap to shoot. . .

#5: Smith & Wesson Model 29
nope - do have a .22 target S&W that looks mean though

#4: AR15
Yep - full stock and 20" barrel. LOTS of fun to shoot

#3: Remington 870
Nope, need a few shot guns for home defense and cowboy shoots though. . .

#2: Colt Model 1911A1 .45 ACP
seriously want one. . .

#1: Barrett M82 .50 caliber rifle
like I could afford the ammo never mind the gun. . .

So many guns, so little money for them. . . .

Since I want to do Cowboy shoots I will be going for the shotgun and a couple of Vaquero pistols when I have the cash, then I want either a Glock for carry or a 1911. . . Probably a 1991 first. . . . some day when I have the cash to support my gun habit again = )

Of course I don't feel too bad since I do have the top three combat rifles according to the Military Channel show Weaponology - the SMLE (have the III), M-16(well AR-15) and the AK-47 (WASR 10).

Not a good start

For those of you that had hoped that we were past the partisan fighting in DC and voted for Obama and his Hope and Change take a look at this:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to re-write House rules today to ensure that the Republican minority is unable to have any influence on legislation. Pelosi’s proposals are so draconian, and will so polarize the Capitol, that any thought President-elect Obama has of bipartisan cooperation will be rendered impossible before he even takes office.

In a nutshell the Dems have taken their own Nuclear Option and in doing so insured that they can ram their stuff through and that the Republicans will fight them every step. Too bad the Main Stream Media will never cover it. They have forgotten their job is to report on what the government is doing, not help them hold power.

This shows how far we have fallen. Our government has forgotten that it is there to work for the people and instead has taken another step to try to rule us. Throw in all the new "bail outs" they are talking about and we and our children and grand-children will be paying for this mess for generations. They seem to think we work for them. . . . just look at the pay raise they gave themselves while most if not all of us look at no raise this year and possibly lay offs. . . . We are in for a very long two years to the next election where I think the Dems will loose Congress if they keep acting like this.

We need to vote all the incumbents out and start with some fresh faces in Congress. We need people in there that remember who they work for. . . . US