Democrats want taxpayers to fund LGBT lobbyists

Yesterday we wrote about how Democrat legislators use public committee hearings to raise money from Garden State Equality (GSE), a notoriously political gay-rights lobbying and campaign organization.  We covered Monday's Assembly Budget Committee hearing, at which Democrat Assemblymen John "Porno" Burzichelli, "Hammerless Troy" Singleton, and Gary "The Hand" Schaer behaved like puppies trying to edge each other out in the effort lick the butt of their paymasters from Garden State Equality.

Today we follow that up with a piece of legislation designed to use the power of government itself -- and your tax dollars -- to fund Garden State Equality's lobbying and political efforts.  In effect, the Democrats want to create a program of government -funded lobbying and political campaign activity -- but only for one side. 

And this is being done expressly for Garden State Equality, a group with a history of threatening Democrats when they don't get their way.  Here is what happened when a few Democrats voted their conscience and opposed same-sex marriage in 2010:

Garden State Equality fires new broadside at Dems

By Max Pizarro | February 8th, 2010 - 10:41am

Smarting over the state Senate's refusal to pass marriage equality and disillusioned at the moment with the Democratic Party majority, Garden State Equality’s 85-member Board of Directors unanimously decided against giving financial contributions to political parties and their affiliated committees.  

Under the new policy, Garden State Equality will make financial contributions only to individual candidates and to non-party organizations that further equality for the LGBT community, according to a release issued this morning by the organization.

“No political party has a record good enough on LGBT civil rights that it can rightfully claim to be entitled to our money on a party-wide basis,” said Steven Goldstein, chair of Garden State Equality.  “No longer will we let any political party take our money and volunteers with one hand, and slap us in the face with the other when we seek full equality.

"Our Board of Directors felt so strongly about adopting this new policy," he added, "that it unanimously decided to include it in the organization's bylaws."

Garden State Equality estimates that since 2005 they have given $500,000 to Democratic Party candidates while giving only minimally to Republicans.

"Is this a broadside at the Democratic Party?" asked Goldstein. "Of course, it is."

"With the exception of Speaker (Shelia) Oliver, who has had a long record of being a champion of equality, nobody in the Democratic Party's leadership reached out to us," said Goldstein. "Come on, if you're Steve Sweeney, pick up the phone. If you're John Wisniewski, pick up the phone. We have been the most unstintingly loyal organization to the party. Other than organized labor which is in its own league, no other constituency has been as loyal to the party."

Well it appears that Assemblyman Wisniewski got the message, because he's been subserviently sucking GSE ass ever since.  He sponsored A-4790, the GSE rip-off bill.  Here's what it does:

An Act providing for the issuance of “Equality” license plates and supplementing chapter 3 of Title 39 of the Revised Statutes.

How's that for making government work for you!

So an organization that is involved in lobbying, political campaigns, and funding the Democrat Party is going to get its own government bank account and source of government funding.  WTF!

Oh it has been proposed.  Former Assemblywoman Alison Littell McHose, whose husband served three tours overseas in the war against terrorism, proposed it again and again... but the Democrats stopped it every time.

The Democrats remain so focused on the groin, on genitals, on the sexuality of little children -- that they cannot be bothered with honoring the men and women who preserve their institutions, their freedom, their very being.  Screw veterans, say the Democrats... Ass Uber Alles!

Hopefully the Republican generalissimos responsible for defending and capturing legislative seats are paying attention, because if you can't design direct mail, cable, radio, and Internet advertising using this clear contrast -- then something is very wrong.  This is easy, clear-blue-water stuff that will drive up GOP turnout as it shames blue collar Democrats into taking a pass. 

Assemblyman Wisniewski, a normally thoughtful man, is allowing himself to be corrupted.  A-4790 is a very public shakedown by a lobby group/political action organization because it has the power to name and shame.  GSE is corrupt in the way that the mob is corrupt:  Do what we say or we will withhold money or use it against you or try to destroy your reputation. 

Anyone who cares about democracy and honest government will oppose A-4790.

Legislator "Porno" Burzichelli gets rude while pandering

Assemblyman John "Porno" Burzichelli is one of the shadiest figures in Trenton and a longtime double-dipper who held two elected offices at once.  He's had his fingers in a lot of local deals too.  More on that later.

We normally wouldn't comment on what Mr. Burzichelli gets up to, but through his rudeness, he has attracted our attention.  Whether or not he maintains our attention is up to him. 

Mr. Burzichelli is the Vice Chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee.  That's where the Democrat leadership sent legislation that promotes the Left's latest fashion statement:  Transgenderism.   Yep, to the Budget Committee.  Looks like they expect to spend some of your hard earned tax dollars to promote this bullshit.

The legislation, A-4652, is similar to S-3067, which uses the power of the State to require that the Commissioner of Education stick his nose into the business of local school districts and "develop guidelines regarding transgender students."  Things like the use of "the name and pronoun that corresponds to a student’s gender identity... issuance of school documentation such as student ID’s in the name that corresponds to a student’s gender identity... permitting transgender students to dress in accordance with their gender identity... equal opportunities for participation in physical education... participation in gender-segregated school activities in accordance with a student’s gender identity... the use of restrooms and locker rooms... permitting and supporting the formation of student clubs or programs regarding issues related to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth."  In addition, the guidelines will include "information on organizations or other resources available to students and parents that provide support to transgender individuals." Yes, this is about proselytizing and recruitment.

Now we have no doubt that Mr. Burzichelli has some sort of back ally knowledge concerning how to get ahead in patronage politics, but he really isn't what you would call a learned man.  True, he managed to graduate from high school, but it kind of ended there.  You see this pattern over and over again with the Democrats.  They have these back ally operators who rise up the political patronage ladder and along the way shed any humility they once possessed, to replace it with a brittle arrogance that resists new ideas and intellectual curiosity.

At yesterday's hearing on A-4652, we witnessed the spectacle of Mr. Burzichelli calling people names, like "intolerant", when it was clearly he who failed to extend simple human courtesy and politeness in tolerating the point of view of others.   It was a real dirt bag act, worthy of the back ally.

Was the Assemblyman being rude simply for the benefit of the potential donors present?  We all know how Garden State Equality gets when it doesn't have its ass expressly licked.  We all remember the tantrum that GSE's former executive director had a few years ago, when he threatened to withhold money from Democrat candidates because they had acted independently, following their conscience, instead of doing as his lobby group demanded. 

This crass lack of civility didn't stop with Mr. Burzichelli.  Assemblyman Troy Singleton got in on the act too.  Mr. Singleton, who is the only "carpenter" we know of who doesn't use a hammer, got shitty too, pausing in his shit long enough to look around to see if the GSE crowd was writing any checks.  Then there was the committee chairman, Assemblyman Gary Schaer, a normally civil man who behaved like a handjob throughout the hearing -- allowing the check writing side to pontificate, while cutting off anyone with an alternative opinion.  Real asshole behavior.

These moes can't seem to play it straight.  They are too interested in listening for the rustle of the checkbook, and playing to potential donors, to take the time to open their minds long enough to learn something... anything. 

Maybe we need to have people's hearings on some of these subjects.  Invite in really, really smart thinkers and allow them to talk. We could even critique the official hearings on the subjects, with all their pandering and lack of civility. 

Maybe we could get Camille Paglia?  Now that would be a cut above what Messrs. Burzichelli, Singleton, and Schaer gave us yesterday. 

Asm. Singleton vs. Saint Patrick's Day

Today is Saint Patrick's Day.  So named in honor of the first bishop of Armagh and the patron saint of Ireland, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, the Caribbean island of Montserrat, parts of Spain and Australia, the Archdiocese of New York, of Newark, and of Boston.  There will be revelry tonight to mark the anniversary of the death of this missionary who brought the Christian gospel to the Ireland.

Saint Patrick spent his early adult life as a slave.  When Patrick was about 16, he was taken from his home in Great Britain by Irish pirates and was made an agricultural and household slave in Ireland.  He was a slave for six years until he escaped and returned to his family.  He later entered the clergy, and in an act of Christian charity, returned to Ireland to preach the gospel and minister to those who had once enslaved him.

Last year the murder of innocent Christians at a church in South Carolina was conflated with a long-simmering complaint against the government of that state:  That since the 1960's, and in direct response to the movement to obtain civil rights (particularly voting rights) for all its citizens, the government of South Carolina had flown the old battle flag of the breakaway Confederate States of America as an act of defiance to federal efforts to ensure those rights.  Those who advocated for the flag to be lowered at the State House used the incident to finally win their reasonable request.  But it did not end there. 

The makers of fashion in this country decided that this was an opportunity to pit plebeian against plebeian based on nothing more than their attitude towards this flag, forgetting that it had long been used as a kind of cultural backdrop by everyone from rock bands to Democrat politicians.  Here are just a few examples:

In its rush to make a fashion statement, the political class developed a kind of crude mob psychology.  This mob behavior was particularly developed among those who regularly attended Jefferson-Jackson Day fundraisers, held in honor of those two slave holding Presidents who regularly took by force, for their sexual gratification, the women they considered to be their chattel. 

One such member of the political class, an Assemblyman by the name of Troy Singleton, proposed a resolution that was so broad as to effectively condemn any state flag that acknowledges a heritage deriving from the politically-oppressed, formerly enslaved portions of the British Isles.  One silly, silly fool of a Republican actually signed on as a co-sponsor -- and the misguided piece of theatre passed with just 7 Assembly members refusing to vote for it. 

Assemblyman Singleton's resolution is a kind of ethnic profiling.  It attempts to smear every flag that resembles a flag that didn't exist until 1861 (and that wasn't formally adopted until 1863).  It doesn't appear to matter to the Assemblyman that the Cross of Saint Andrew and the Saltire of Saint Patrick graced the flags of those Celtic nations from 1385 and 1783, respectively.  In 1800, these flags were combined to form the flag of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.  It was warships flying this flag -- after Parliament voted to abolish the slave trade in 1807 -- that blasted the slave traders off the seas, seizing 1,600 of their ships and freeing over 150,000 people bound for slavery.

Assemblyman Singleton's resolution  ignored the Celtic heritage of our early states and forgets the condition of enslavement that brought many of those Celts to America.  Uprisings against the Crown in Ireland and Scotland saw many political prisoners sent to America under a penalty called "transportation."  After the Scottish uprising of 1745, the display of tartans was banned and the Cross of Saint Andrew remained a way to acknowledge a heritage that was officially suppressed.  There were no less than six risings in Ireland that were suppressed during this period -- with prisoners of war often given the choice of "transportation" to America or death.   The Saltire of Saint Patrick was one of the few ways that they could remember. That is why today it features as part of the flag of Jamaica. 

Unfortunately for Assemblyman Singleton and his co-sponsors, the ethnic group his resolution effectively profiled is a very significant one.  The flag under which march the benevolent society called The Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick is the Saltire. 

 We think an apology from the Assemblyman is in order.