Aunt Janice and Gun-Grabbing Grand Theft Auto Cicilline

So, Rhode Islanders. How are you?

Awful? Or Awful Awful?

(Sorry, I couldn’t resist)

The Dancing Cop from Providence turned into the Rhode Island Dancing Cop.

And now he’s the retiring cop. Who says there’s no justice in the world?

I have been busy fighting the forces of evil here in California.

Rhode Island and California, still two states in a very bad state.

Locally, we are enjoying some real victories, though.

Good, solid conservatives won some key local races here in Torrance, California. My assemblyman got a school choice bill passed in deep blue, union-dominated one Golden State.

At least Congressional Democrats have been relegated to the minority for three election cycles in a row.

Their chances in 2016 hinge on their Presidential candidate, and how unmotivated the party faithful will be.

Even so, I doubt that they will win the majority.We still have our crazies. Governor Moonbeam here, and Gina Raimondo over there.

And now meet Congresswoman Janice Hahn (D-San Pedro). She plays nice with small businesses, but she really likes to do what the labor unions order her to do.

See Janice Run. She runs to the cameras. She likes to be liked.

See Janice fundraise. Fundraise, Janice, fundraise!

And she is running for her Daddy’s old job, as a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

She needs free publicity, so she sat down with her lazy Democratic colleagues on the floor of the House of Representatives for twenty-five hours. Most of her California colleagues rushed to the floor, too especially the ones in swing districts where they still have to fight off challengers cycle after cycle.

Now, what does this have to do with you, Rhode Islanders?

Who has been a faithful crony in illiberal lunacy?

Who was there sitting on the floor of the House of Representatives, agitating to take away more people’s firearms? Getting all the good poses?

The one and only "Grand Theft Auto" David Cicilline.

Ugh. Someone please make him an offer he can’t refuse.

When will people get a clue?

Their temper tantrum violates rules of decorum. They ignore the rule of law, the Bill of Rights, and due process. They also broke out every social media tool to play up their #PoliticalLivesMatter activism. Of course, the vain-scream media, subservient to the statist cause, reported every tweet, Facebook post, and text message from Congressional representatives to the world at large.

Did we forget to mention that the Democrats, hiding behind Civil Rights icon John Lewis, were violating the due process of every citizen in the country? If the Democrats want more votes on their bills, then they need to win more seats. But as long as the left-flank has taken over their party, and the ideological twin Nancy Pelosi serves as minority leader for a diminished house caucus, their numbers won’t be growing anytime soon.

I had to look at this guy (with his best friend Janice Hahn) on TV taking up space, playing for the camera, showing everyone that he cares so much about us little people, that they want to take our guns away.
OK, fine, the Democratic caucus simply wanted an up-or-down vote on two bills:

1. If you are on the no-fly terrorist list, you should not be able to purchase a firearm.

2. Universal background checks, even at gun-shows.

Aunt Janice with David Cicilline

Let’s analyze these proposals. The first one is so gravely flawed, that even the American Civil Liberties Union opposes it. Remember, they’re the wacky left-win outfit which will fight for a criminal’s right to be free rather than the rights for everyone else to be safe. Innocent civilians have ended up on this list. Even Northern California’s conservative Congressman Tom McClintock could not board a flight because he shared the same name as a black-listed Irish domestic terrorist. One woman waited eight years to clear her name from the No-Fly List.

As for background checks: every major gun massacre was perpetrated by a licenses firearms owner. Good luck finding a gun-show where they run a gun under the table. Check out this video for proof positive in one of the reddest, most gun-friendly states in the union.

These Democrats will never stop until every firearm is confiscated and the state stands alone with the power to fight back.

This culture war is real, serious, and relentless.

The Orlando, Florida shootings offered another crisis for the Democrats not to put to waste. Instead, they wasted their time. I told Rep. Janice Hahn that much at her mock gun-control sit-in at a local high school. Lots of tears, lots of wailing mothers who will never see their dead relatives again.
(I feel for them. That’s why I support expansion of concealed carry permits.)

Hahn replayed the Rep. Lewis’ wavering, Gospel-like speech at the dais. Viewers can see Hahn and Cicilline pushing aside their colleagues so they can figure in the front row. During public comment, I mentioned that when civil rights activists held sit-ins in the past, they were fighting for people’s rights not to take them away.

Martin Luther King Jr. owned a firearms. The first members of the National Rifle Association were African-Americans, to protect themselves from the Ku Klux Klan.

Another question I neglected to ask: why would Lewis want to sit next to Janice Hahn? David Cicilline?
As mayor of Providence, the city was less safe, crime rates went up, and corruption was just as crappy as before. When he’s not pushing LGBT “rights” down other people’s throats, he loves to talk up gun control.

Why would John Lewis tarnish his Civil Rights credentials with gun-control?

What is it with these “progressives”?

I wish that more people would understood what was at stake with this “sit-in”. Gun control cannot, will not stop gun crimes, or the haphazard gun violence in our society.

More guns for law-abiding residents, with proper discretion to stop Islamic terrorism and the mentally ill. And if anyone has a problem with that, they can SIT ON IT!

House Democrats, Sit ON It!

Democrats love representative democracy, especially for minorities, except when they hold the minority of seats.

So, instead of respecting the rules of decorum, the House minority Democrats throw a temper tantrum. They just staged another sit-in this week. They want gun control, and they want it right now. They demand a vote from the Speaker of the House, and they don’t have a lot of power over themselves to demand the vote.

So, they decided to … sit.

With Civil Rights Movement icon John Lewis of Georgia leading the way, the illiberal, regressive Democratic minority, willing to use every tool in their arsenal, now want to agitate for rights. Not for those rights to be represented, mind you, but rather to take them away.

Republicans need to admire, then admonish what Democrats do, from the local offices to the federal legislature.

If they don’t have the numbers in elected office, they use other means to make their point, to bully and shame their majority opposition into doing what they want. How many voters, though, will find this adult-child pity-party worth responding to? My first reaction to the Democratic sit-in in the House of Representatives?

“Get off your ass, and get back to work!”

The previous House Speaker, John Boehner, exhorted his Democratic colleagues to do that. Unfortunately, the Orange One (and I am not talking about Donald Trump) was K-Street destined to do the bidding of Big Business.

Bang. Bang.

The dwindling number of out-of-touch Democrats believe that they are representing the best interests of their constituents. Check out this whopper by email from Karen Bass of Culver City:

“At this moment, I am on the House Floor protesting to demand a House vote to curb gun violence once and for all. We cannot give up on this until House Republicans are forced to represent the interests of the American people, not the gun lobby.”

Wow! Up to the moment! They must be working really hard for me!

Actually, every time a Democrat takes up their arms (legs and hands) to push some form of gun control, they are actually fighting against the best interests of this country. Karen Bass is a slothful liberal who held the reins of power in Sacramento for two years. In those days, California lawmakers could not pass a budget without one or two votes from the Republican minority. At least then Republicans relied on the statutory checks and balances, recently removed by statewide initiative a few years ago. The tax-and-spending spree which followed has chased out Middle-Class California. The lingering homeowners, and the rising number of illegal aliens, are clashing for what’s left of this one-Golden State.

Instead of a sit-in over gun control, how about every taxpayer in the county sit on their hands, with their wallets in their pockets, and declare to the federal government: not a dollar more!

Those California Democrats are cute, though, pouting like the spoiled, unhappy kindergartners they really are. Political opportunism rears its hoary head, too, since Janice Hahn of San Pedro is leaving Congress anyway, running back to the comforts of Los Angeles to take seat on the Board of Supervisors, where her Daddy once sat. Her shot at this gun control insanity? “The American people are sick of silence. They are demanding that Congress take action and protect their families. This nation has just witnessed the deadliest mass shooting in history and more people are dying every day. If we do not take action now, when will we?”

More Americans, especially in California, would take action—if they could acquire a firearm more readily! Jared Huffman of Ukiah had to beg for mercy from the Big Green activists because he favored Hillary well in advance. Now he slams the Republicans for refusing to Big Gun Grab. Ha! Then you have weak freshman Democrat Peter Aguilar of Redlands. He is already tied with his strong conservative, patriotic, anti-terrorist challenger Paul Chabot—and this is an election year!

California Democrats, from Sacramento to DC, are shooting back at the “gun lobby.” They are actually taking aim at the Framers of the Constitution and the entire blessed legacy of Common Law, which enshrined the right to self-protection and self-preservation. Imagine if those care workers in San Bernardino had concealed-carry permits. Those Islamic militants would have met a just and fatal end without wiping out so many innocents. What about Orlando?

Of course, Democrats are not interested in working for the American People. The bidding of the gun control lobby, the environmental activists, and the Big Labor radicals dictate what the remaining Democrats are allowed to do. Those backroom backstabbers never consider the best interests of this country.

If they tell them to run around the floor of the House and scream, they will find any time to get away with such childish antics. I still remember during the 2013 government shut-down (which was former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s fault), that Congressman George Miller of the Bay Area (who thankfully retired the next year) shamed his Republican colleagues for their “jihad.”

What was the Republicans’ holy war? To stop  Obamacare, and keep the government running for the basic necessities. Not sure how such piecemeal reforms count as “terrorism”, but we will never know. Miller is gone with the wind.

What else can we conservatives learn from this abortive, insipid, and just plain silly sit-in stunt?

Democrats fight for what they believe in, even when the numbers are not lined up in their favor. Republicans see their minority status at the state or local level, and just give up. That’s wrong. Not only should they fight for what they believe in, but they should recognize that their policies and values pay off. Democrats should do a sit-in. How about far away in their homes, no longer in power!

 Gun control does not work. Control of Muslim migration and relaxing the application process for a firearm will help law-abiding citizens and deter the lawless criminals. 

Grand Theft Auto Cicilline

Last night my car broken into Christmas gifts, my briefcase, I-pad and my wallet. Really sucks! Family very understanding about gifts. Rep. David Cicilline, via Twitter

From East Side of Providence representative to Mayor to Congress, Rep. David Cicilline is unremarkably “ The Prince of Providence”. GoLocal MINDSETTER™ Don Roach uncharitably depicted the former mayor as an absentee landlord type, who blamed unions, the economy, or anyone else rather than taking charge and enlarging Providence’s fortunes. Roach then repeated the $110 million shortfall reproach of Legacy Cicilline, which outgoing (or rather fleeing) Mayor Taveras had announced (not so much addressed) on his first year in office.

Despite his royal status, Christmas 2013 was not so merry for Cicilline, who tweeted that someone had broken into his car, a symbol of sorts for the city’s crime rates, which continued upwards after his tenure as mayor. City-data.org reported a sharp increase in murders from 2008-2009, along with robberies, assaults, and rapes. Violent crime was roaring, even as property were crimes were going down. Then again, even auto thefts rose toward the end of Cicilline’s mayoral tenure.

The former mayor’s holiday tragedy represents another fallout: Providence’s dire financial problems, which came to light after Cicilline’s 2010 Congressional win. Of course, one could blame such bleak statistics (crime and money) on the 2008 Housing Crisis, followed by the Great Recession, but the larger car-jacking remains in the drivers’ seat: the fiscal state of the city of Providence, which Cicilline was responsible for from 2003-2011.

Still mayor of Providence when he got elected to Congress with a bare 51% of the vote in 2010, Cicilline had assured votes that his city would see a surplus. Despite Republican National Committee efforts in 2012 blasting the Providence pol as one of the ten most corrupt representatives in Washington, he won again.

What role did Prince David play in leaving Providence a negative legacy, a city which lawmakers claim needs a massive dose of its namesake to stay fiscal solvent?

Shortly after the disturbing revelations that Providence financial straits had increased from a Category 3 Hurricane to a Category 5 (per fellow Dem Angel Taveras), Congressman-elected Cicilline refused to see reporters or discuss anything about the matter. The hollow talking points followed: recession, state aid cuts, end of Obama stimulus, and failure to adequately fund the city’s pension funds.

Right from Cicilline’s lips, that last part was de jure Prince David’s responsibility, yet he duffed it off as just another item justifying his silence on Providence’s improvident fortunes. About the pension issues, however, and even more interesting, Politifact reported that Cicilline adequately funded the city’s pension, even though the early years never passed 90%.

What’s going on, then? The pensions were adequately funded, but not really? And how does that exonerate Cicilline?

Even during his 2010 campaign against John Loughlin, Cicilline turfed blame to state aid cuts:

“With Governor Carcieri trying to balance Rhode Island’s budget on the backs of our cities and towns, the City of Providence faced deep cuts in state aid.”

GTA Cicilline

Leadership includes responding to crises, not lamenting the lack of leadership higher up.

Confirming this tenet of executive authority, The Providence, Rhode Island Internal Auditor’s Report from April 2011issued a damning summation leveled at Cicilline, not Carcieri’s administration:

[T]he prior Administration did not recommend the necessary decisions to avert a fiscal crisis. . .

The report blasted Cicilline for not having any long-term plan in place to preserve the city from the incoming fiscal problems facing the city. Indicting the dysfunctional relationship between the city council and the Administration, the report outlined some disturbing and perhaps illegal trends which took place from 2009-2011, including the following:

1. The Cicilline Administration transferred funds from the Undesignated Surplus without City Council approval. Was David robbing Roger to keep the city books balanced?

2. Cicilline and company frequently missed deadlines to provide information or respond to requests from the Independent auditor about the city’s financial status. Was Cicilline too busy running for Congress to make sure that his city was still afloat?

3. The city council did not receive outlined, scheduled monthly updates regarding whether the city was headed toward surpluses or deficits the following year. Every working family assesses current income to determine future sending on a weekly basis, but the prior Cicilline Administration didn’t even bother?

4. While the former mayor could blame the state government for cutting off funding in response to the Housing Crisis, his administration insisted on projecting unrealistic revenue streams, like $2.8 million from Interests-Investments, which in fact brought in barely a tenth of the anticipated amount.

Then this statement stood out in the preliminary report:

Financial reports submitted to the State were inaccurate.

So, loose accounting led to lost accountability, with scrubbed balanced sheets. The whole debacle sounds like a fiscal Benghazi in New England. Later Bloomberg News reported in 2012 that Providence may seek bankruptcy protection, i.e. no resting under the wings of the Most High (not Buddy Cianci!)

Providence’s fiscal mismanagement falls squarely on Cicilline, who for all his royal pretensions and self-defense pleas, more likely played his city like a video game from hell.