Brady Campaign more about killing the 2nd Amendment than protecting school children?

Sue Hannon of Sparta is the front person for Sussex County’s Brady Campaign, and a more committed spin doctor for the corrupt administration of Phil Murphy and the Democrats you couldn’t find.  She serves Murphy much in the same way a Border Collie serves a sheep herder… if you can imagine a somewhat corpulent collie nipping at the heals of a rural legislative caucus. 

While helping Governor Murphy to pass a raft of meaningless, feel-good anti-Second Amendment legislation that has not saved one life – but will endanger many – Hannon and the Brady campaign have had little to say about Governor Murphy’s hiring of criminals to high positions in his administration – including education – or the accusation by a female staffer that she was raped by a high appointee in the Murphy administration.  Then there’s Murphy and the Democrats’ push to end truth in sentencing laws, mandatory minimum sentencing for violent crimes, to give convicted felons the right to vote and to have lobbyists influencing lawmakers, and to open polling places in prisons to give the worst offender sociopaths power over government.

One Democrat – in honor of her two sons who had trouble finding a job after they were convicted and jailed for holding up a toy store at gunpoint – actually succeeded in changing the law to favor them and wanted to go much further, making it illegal for employers to even ask potential employees about their criminal records.  What happened to the right to know?  Isn’t a criminal record something an employer should know about – before endangering other employees and customers?  Why is doing the crime less of a big deal than asking about it?  Sounds nuts, but this is what Democrats are about these days.  Did Sue Hannon and the Brady campaign take to Newton Green to rally about any of this? 

The problem with the Brady Campaign’s prescriptions is that they assume the government is responsible for protecting us.  It is not.  Try suing the government or a police department for a response time that gets them there too late to stop a rape or a murder.  The judge will confirm that it is not the responsibility of the government to protect you.  In a Republic, you are responsible for your own protection and that of your family.  Many of the laws Hannon and the Brady campaign push would make it materially more difficult for law-abiding people to protect themselves from criminals – at a time when Hannon’s allies are reducing penalties, releasing criminals, and providing them with political power.

In the aftermath of this brutal assault, caught on video, Republicans pushed to strengthen the penalties for violent home invasion – especially when a child is present.  Where was Hannon and the rally on Newton Green?  Why didn’t we see it?  Is it out of fashion to consider the woman and child who suffered?  Why do we only hear from the Brady Campaign when it’s about pushing for legislation that will ultimately make this woman less safe? 

Hannon and her crew even attacked legislators who proposed hardening school security.  There is now money budgeted for this – to provide New Jersey schools with bullet-proof classrooms, doors, and locks.  It has long been determined by anti-terrorism professionals that schools are “soft” targets for terrorists and psychopaths and that hardening school security is the ONLY way to prevent the deaths of school children.  Putting up a “No Guns Zone” sign and disarming school security guards doesn’t do a thing besides advertising just how “soft” a target a school is.  American children experience hardened security when they go on vacation, when they travel by rail or by air.  Why have we left out schools?  Why do some cheer the fact that schools are less secure than county courthouses and shopping malls.

Finally, Sue Hannon – on behalf of the Brady Campaign – attacked Republican Mayor Josh Hertzberg of Sparta and the Sparta Township Council for daring to question the wisdom of decriminalizing marijuana in the midst of an opioid epidemic that is killing children every week.  According to the Centers for Disease Control, there were 63,632 deaths from overdose last year – 42,249 from opioids.  Now the Democrats – led by former Governor Jim Florio – are trying to legalize marijuana based products, including cannabis chocolate bars and peanut butter cups.  Why has the Brady Campaign adopted the position that giving children more entry ways to addiction via family access to drug-laced candy is a good idea?  Why are they ignoring the overdose epidemic which is taking ten times as many lives as does gun crime?

Is this the Brady Campaign’s position or is it Sue Hannon’s?  Is Hannon the genuine face of the Brady Campaign or a political operator who has assumed control of the campaign and who uses it on behalf of the Democrat Party?  These questions are raised by her aggressively partisan approach.  It is something for the people who run the Brady Campaign to think about.

On gun-control, McCann tries to have it both ways.

When phonies want to appear as though they support the Second Amendment, they have a nice photograph taken of themselves with a firearm of some kind. So following in the footsteps of John Kerry and Barack Obama, candidate John McCann posted a photo of himself playing with a gun.

 (FYI:  Gilson works for McCann.  One lies, the other swears by it.)

All this play-acting aside, when John McCann was asked to fill out a questionnaire that would put in writing where he stood on the issues affecting the Second Amendment, hunting, school safety, and such -- McCann refused.  He will show up and spew some b.s. (so long as he isn't video-recorded) and take a picture, but he won't put in writing where he stands. 

McCann dissed the NRA when they asked him to step up and tell them where he stood on the issues of importance to their members. McCann wants it both ways.  He wants NRA votes and Brady Campaign votes. That's dishonest. 

Typical lawyer?  Well, there are good, pro-Second Amendment attorneys out there, so we think it is more a case of typical urban political machine lawyer. 

Candidate John McCann served as the right-hand-man to the Democrat Sheriff of Bergen County (according to the Bergen Record).  He's the guy who switched Bergen County from GOP red to Democrat blue.  In 2016, the Sheriff ran on a ticket headed by Democrats Hillary Clinton for President and Josh Gottheimer for Congress.  John McCann worked for the Democrat then, celebrated that victory with his boss, and continued to work for the Democrat until late last year, when he departed to run for Congress as a Republican.  

Why would McCann do such a thing?  He had 167,000 reasons a year plus benefits.  That was reason enough for McCann. 

John McCann has been in bed with Democrats for years.  A case in point is John McCann's sneaky little way of getting contributions to Democrat candidates.  Take this example from Passaic County.

McCann's wife used her maiden name and her office address in New York City to slip $1,000.00 to a Democrat running in Wayne Township.  Here is a copy of the report, filed with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (NJELEC):

SINGLE CONTRIBUTOR VIEW

John McCann is a phony -- a b.s. artist.  He is supported by corrupt convicts and thug life. Politics is worse for his presence on a ballot.

Message from the Kids Rally: Tomorrow belongs to me

"We are the voices of the new generation... We want change, and those who try to stop us cannot stand in our way. We will outnumber you, we will outvote you, and we will outlive you." (High School student, March 24, 2018, Newton, NJ)

This has all happened before.  The same words were used by another generation of students who demanded security over freedom.  They ended up with neither.

What began as a modernist dream ended in retching sadness.  

"I have a message for all of those politicians... Your thoughts and prayers are not going to stop this from happening over and over again, like it has for the past 20 years." (Ibid)

Yes.  We are going to need to address our rotting culture.  A culture, by the way, that many of those young marchers have totally bought into. 

Twenty years ago... In the aftermath of the Columbine shootings, President Bill Clinton first highlighted the problem of violence in our culture and how it was being marketed for profit.  Psychologists had long noted how violent media content acts like a drug on childhood development, chemically altering a child's brain. 

It was President Clinton who pointed out that study after study, and the marketing documents of the entertainment industry itself, all pointed to the entertainment industry's premeditated marketing of violence to children and their undeveloped brains.  All the evidence was there.  Then he went further and ordered a study by the Federal Trade Commission.  The study, released on September 11, 2000, can be accessed below:

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2000/09/ftc-releases-report-marketing-violent-entertainment-children 

In response, the entertainment industry increased its campaign contributions by 1,000 percent and spent hundreds of millions on lobbying and soft money to convince Congress to forget every study it had ever read.  Then September 11, 2001, occurred and concerns over media violence were ignored in the run-up to war.  Some in the entertainment industry never forgot, and when another Clinton ran for President, they derailed her by supporting a first-term senator named Barack Obama.  

Does our young high school student really believe that government will be able to eliminate the illegal possession of firearms any better than it has eliminated the illegal possession of narcotics?  Is there any high school in America free from illegal drug use?

President Richard Nixon declared war on drugs in 1971.  That's before most parents of today's high schoolers were born.  Are we any closer to winning that war -- or have we started to surrender, making up reasoning for decriminalization of those things long warned against?

Gun-free school zones have been disastrous failures.  Will trying to make all of America "gun-free" fare any better?  Instead of carrying the agenda of pre-existing movements, like the anti-NRA Brady bunch, shouldn't students be separating themselves from the failed paradigms of the past?

Of course, that would take thinking in place of emotion and a "be-in" is always cooler than a think-in.  Rallies, like dance parties, stir the emotions.  And the emotions of the young have always been a target for hijacking and abuse by political authoritarians.

If you want to protect children in schools make that the priority.  In other nations, including those on the front line in the battle with terrorism, school shootings are rare.  Despite schools being a prime target for terror attacks, in Israel there have been just six attacks on schools since 1974.  

America doesn't have Hamas or the Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades or Palestinian Islamic Jihad operating on its borders -- so why does America do such a poor job protecting our schools when other nations, in active battle with terrorist groups, manage it so much better?  Is it simply the case that other nations face facts, while we prefer to bask in emotion and the idea that "it shouldn't happen here" in exceptionalist America? 

We are going to be looking very hard at this and passing along ideas for solutions.  We invite commentary and participation from all.

Freeholder Graham is a paid political consultant

As a Sussex County Freeholder, George Graham is required to file a personal financial disclosure statement with the State of New Jersey's Department of Community Affairs, Division of Local Government Services.  The statement must be filed each year in order to comply with the Local Government Ethics Law.  There are penalties for not filing or for filing a statement that contains a "willful misstatement of fact or omission of material fact."

As Freeholder Director, Graham is the boss of the Sussex County Freeholder Board.  In the past, the Board's director position has rotated each year between the five members of the Freeholder Board.  This was done to prevent any one member from becoming a county machine boss, as happens in some Democrat-controlled urban counties, such as Hudson County. 

It is understood that Graham has brow-beat a majority of the other Board members into allowing him to remain Freeholder Director next year, and even the year after.  It appears that Graham has obtained their acquiescence to allow him to remain the boss of the Board indefinitely.  This is an unprecedented usurpation of power for a rural community like Sussex County.

But Sussex County has never had a Freeholder Director like George Graham.  He is a political consultant and politics is his business. 

According to Graham's financial disclosure statements filed in 2015 (Freeholder and  County Planning Board) George Graham's sole source of income came from his political consulting firm:  York Strategies.  According to Graham's financial disclosure statements filed in 2016 (Freeholder and  County Planning Board) he added the salary he receives as a Freeholder as a second source of income along with York Strategies. 

York Strategies is associated with the campaigns of a number of Democrat candidates in Hudson County.  Remember Assembly Speaker Joe Doria?  The Hudson County Democrat was Governor Jim Florio's legislative point man in the passage of the most restrictive weapons ban in our nation's history.

George Graham and his political consulting business, York Strategies, worked for Joe Doria in Hudson County.  Graham was a registered Democrat when he worked for Doria. 

George Graham was a lifelong Democrat until switching to Republican to vote against conservatives Alison McHose and Gary Chiusano.  In the General Election that year, Graham donated to their liberal Democrat opponents and switched back from Republican to Democrat in order to vote in the 2008 Democrat presidential primary between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. 

Afraid of losing his seat on Stanhope council, a desperate Graham switched again to Republican, his current party today.  In a matter of a few years time, George Graham flipped from Democrat to Republican, back to Democrat, and then to Republican again. Graham has been a Democrat for most of his adult life and affiliated with liberals for much of that time.

Graham's political consulting business, York Strategies, which included partner James Barracato, came up with slogans like "Joe Doria is full time Bayonne" and "I'm with Joe," according to the Hudson Reporter newspaper.  Although no longer a member of the Legislature, Joe Doria is still on the campaign trail with Jim Florio, only now they campaign for gun control and against the NRA (National Rifle Association). 

At a recent gathering the two called for new constraints on the Second Amendment, with Joe Doria calling the NRA "dirty".  Not to be outdone, Florio added that the manufacturers and sellers of guns were, in his words, "Merchants of Death." 

The presence of a growing number of ex-Hudson County Democrats in the Sussex County GOP should be cause for concern as they establish an urban machine-like presence in Sussex County.

For earlier copies of Freeholder Graham's personal financial disclosure please contact this website.

2016

George Graham worked for Mr. Gun Grabber

Remember Assembly Speaker Joe Doria?  The Hudson County Democrat was Governor Jim Florio's legislative point man in the passage of the most restrictive weapons ban in our nation's history.

 

So it is surprising to learn that Republican Freeholder George Graham, who owns a political consulting business, worked for Joe Doria in Hudson County. In fairness to Graham, who is now the boss of the Sussex County Freeholder Board, he was a registered Democrat when he worked for Doria. 

Back when Graham was a local elected official in Stanhope, he switched from Republican to Democrat in order to vote in the 2008 Democrat presidential primary between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.  Graham had been a Democrat before switching to Republican but later switched back to Republican, his current party today.  Just so everyone is straight, Graham went from D to R to D to R.

Graham's political consulting business, York Strategies, which included partner James Barracato, came up with slogans like "Joe Doria is full time Bayonne" and "I'm with Joe," according to the Hudson Reporter newspaper.  Although no longer a member of the Legislature, Joe Doria is still on the campaign trail with Jim Florio, only now they campaign for gun control and against the NRA (National Rifle Association). 

At a recent gathering the two called for new constraints on the Second Amendment, with Joe Doria calling the NRA "dirty".  Not to be outdone, Florio added that the manufacturers and sellers of guns were, in his words, "Merchants of Death." 

The presence of a growing number of ex-Hudson County Democrats in the Sussex County GOP could be cause for concern as they achieve more and more power.  Remember the warning in this old Nixon ad from 1972: