Mechanicville ~ Stillwater NY Views

New York State Lieutenant Governor, Mary O. Donohue paid a visit to our small Saratoga County City of Mechanicville to announce State financing of a small cities grant in 2004.  While there she also paid a short visit to George Bush supporters and local Gun Shop owners Cathy and David Petronis who also own Hudson River Trading Company and NEACA, Inc. located next to City Hall at 38 North Main Street.

THE POLITICAL BEAST

Commentary by David Petronis  October 25, 2008

             The media has taken polls suggesting less than two weeks prior to this most important of elections, that Obama has due cause to begin measuring for new drapes in the White House.  Not only the Presidency has already been decided but the new Congress will have a huge majority in the House and at least 60 uncontestable Democrats in the Senate.  Nancy Pelosi will have you “sending in your guns” for destruction as Harry Reid collects checks for the Treasury Department for your new “government sponsored Health Care System.”

            Now it’s reported that the vast majority of white Catholics are also voting for Barrack Hussein Obama, noteworthy to the point that they have always picked the next president with their block vote.  I am one of the descenting white Catholics who will be voting for John McCain and voting out the New York State Democrats.  I hope I have a majority of friends who follow me to keep our nation a Christian Country.

            Consider this, Ye Christians; Revelation 13:5, the Beast.  Revelations tells us the Beast (anti-Christ) will rule for 42 months and then destroy everything.  During the six month honey moon and reorganization after the inauguration, 42 months are left in this next Presidential term.  Obama has stated that this will no longer be a Christian nation -- it will be one of Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists ….. I, for one, don’t agree with this new design for America, how about you?

            According to the Book of Revelations the anti-Christ is:  The anti-Christ will be a man in his 40’s, of Muslim descent, who will deceive the nations with persuasive language and have a massive Christ-like appeal.  The prophecy says that people will flock to him and he will promise false hope and world peace.   And when he is in power will destroy everything………..

            Do I see a similarity between the prophecies in Revelations to the pernicious candidate of the Democrats, you decide.  It is hard for me to believe that the likes of today’s Democrat leaders can flaunt the efforts of George Washington and the Patriots in war and John Adams, Paul Revere or Thomas Jefferson in their cause of liberty and Halls of Congress.  They flaunt our heritage, all the blood spilled to make America the finest nation on earth, they decry God from our Constitution and they coerce the Forth Estate, the media, to promote their aims and their ascent to power.  Can we allow this to continue?  I think not.

            The culmination of Obama’s four years in office, besides following the dire prophesy of Revelations also coincides with the Mayan Culture date of world destruction currently figured out to be 2012.  Is this coincidence that these two far removed prophecies converge upon the same future date in history of mankind’s ruin and destruction? And there are other similar cultural predictions.

            It may be that the worst to come is not immediately from Obama himself but rather from the jubilance of the Democrats to their resurgence of power, the overwhelming controlling votes of the House and Senate along with the veto-proof, though unnecessary, Presidency.  Not since 1978 when Jimmy Carter was President did the Dems hold this much anticipated power. That is the time they fooled with the “Houses for Everyone Theory” the culmination of which thirty years later is the need to bail-out Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae leading to the housing crises leading to the banking crisis and another $700 million dollars balanced on the backs of our grandkids.  Look it up if you have any doubt that this is not the root of the problems we have today.

            Can you try to imagine what the Democrats will do first: Voter registration on the same day as the election; Voting for felons, in or out of jail; Union Boss looking over your Voting Shoulder Act; Sweeping reforms to curtail any future buying of the election as is being tried now (known as the Comprehensive Incumbent Re-Election Reform Act); Turn in your guns, the days of Hunting and Shooting Are Over Act; a car in every garage and pot for people mandate payed for by Redistribution of Wealth Act; anything they wish to retrieve from the garbage heap of liberal discards will again be in play plus all those wonderful new ideas of how the Dems can help us all with more dependency on those in government … the true and real meaning of the progressive cause … scary indeed!

            On their ascension into power, the Day of Inauguration 2009 the Political Beast will begin to be unleashed upon the unsuspecting hoards who allowed them to deceive you.  Fortunately there will still be gun shops and gun shows still open in January where protection can be obtained for thwarting the impending doom … though the powers within the bureaucracy will now have all your personal information and what you own … that is a good thing, right?  Think about your vote this time.   See us at NEACA.com.

McCain is in Trouble

Commentary by David Petronis,

October 8, 2008

              If you watched the second Presidential debate last night without falling asleep give yourself an “A” for absolute attentiveness but give John McCain an “F” for what should have been fighting spirit with innovative attacks on Obama’s character and sleazy friends.  The whole hype leading to this as to what McCain “had to do” in the pundit’s eyes reminded me of the “shock and awe” I was disappointed with during the bombing of Baghdad.  I waited and waited, and waited but no “awe” was to be seen; too many war movies, I guess and no doubt my expectations this time were a bit too high for McCain to sweep in on the low road.  There is less than four weeks before our country drowns in toilet water so us real Americans are going to have to push our friends and neighbors to take a good look at what kind of changes are soon to come.  My intent here is not to be pretty with prose but alarmist with reality.

              This McCain fellow just can’t seem to call a spade a spade!  Does he view himself as a gentleman from the Senate who can’t speak ill of another Senator to his face?  Get over it, John, or you are going to lose!  While Obama and the rest of the ideological democrats stick in a knife with a friendly smile, good ‘ol John is going to be hugging the floor with moans rivaling “Et tu, Brute’?”  Being swept under the rug of oblivion by media hyping of liberal sound bites over and over again and not coming up kicking, biting and scratching is not a good plan, John.  Thank God for Sarah!  But you, my friend, have got to start kicking some ass.

              It amazes me that anyone with a name that has the sound and syllables of our number one terrorist, Osama, a middle name of the tyrant we needed a war to depose, Hussein and a common first name Barack with an Arabic origin has gotten this far in the electoral process.  Don’t you people know that names actually suggest a meaning?  If I step in sh- and it stinks, the name of that fits.  We are still a nation full of Anglo-Saxon Christians and our customs, laws and Constitution were founded on their beliefs.  Well, at least for now we are.  Since when did we invite the Anti-Christ in?  The old belief was that if you wanted to come to America you could come but when you got here you became an American and celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas.  When did that requirement change?  Nobody asked me if it was OK.  I don’t see hyphenated Americans and I don’t think they belong here.  I only see Americans that can conform, if you don’t like it, leave.  How then can one who calls himself an African-American have the gall to run for President of our America?  It boggles my mind!  And this guy is more Muslim in name and nature than African.  Even in his book on life he says if push comes to shove he will stand with the Muslims.  And 50% of the idiots who we have given the right to register and vote think he’s just swell.  Boggle, boggle!  Where did we go wrong?  GW, I am sorry, I know you are turning in the grave.

              Guilt by association should have been a game stopper long ago for this Afro from Chicago.  The affirmative action programs aside where did the money and influence come from that put this poor boy, born in the usual out of wedlock style of a salt and pepper affair, into the best of Universities?  I don’t think it was his grades.  Dig into it and Muslims seem to have had a hand.  Look into what he did during his formative and college years besides drugs and learn about associations with radicals and ACORN, the “community organizer” portion of his portfolio.  When Obama was eight, Bill Ayers of the Weatherman terrorist group bombed US Government buildings, a technicality got him off from spending his life in prison.  When Obama started his political career it was around a coffee table with Bill Ayers, the terrorist.  I rest my case!

              When Jeremiah Wright says it’s time for a black woman to legally sleep in the White House I envision the next step is to re-paint it black.  When Father Flagher flails his arms like a chicken and wishes he was black I envision him roosting on the Capital dome and crapping over the deserved Senate below.  When Farrakhan raises his arm to black power and points toward his coming space ship I envision a return to goose stepping ideologue’s of yesterday’s idiocy.  Simply watch and listen to the friends of Obama and if you are not yet scared of the consequences of his Presidency, take your pulse!

              Fellow Americans if you do not want to wake up to socialistic doctrines, guaranteeing of negro reparations from the Civil War, religious zealots whose religion is to kill the white man and strip his body flesh, to associations with terrorists in the White House, to police bashing, crime laden rappers shrieking “niggers kill whities” then you had best try your damnedest to turn this trend around and vote in the next best President, John McCain.  And don’t look for God’s help if he loses, we brought Sodom on ourselves.

Obama takes flight in a hot air balloon looking for solace from Hillary Clinton, promising to meet her in a remote mountain cabin but realizes he is lost. He lowers his altitude and spots a man fishing from a boat in a lake below.
 
He shouts to him, “Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet her an hour ago, but I don't know where I am.”

The man consults his portable GPS and replies, “You're in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above a ground elevation of 2346 feet above sea level.  You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09
 minutes west longitude.

He rolls his eyes and says, “You must be a Republican!”

“I am,” replies the man. “How did you know?”
 
“Well,” answers Obama, “Everything you tell me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to do with your information and I'm still lost. Frankly, you're not much help to me.”
 
The man smiles and responds, “You must be a Democrat, right?”
 
“I surly am,” replies Obama, “how did you know?"

“Well,” says the man, “You don't know where you are or where you're going. You've risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise that you have no idea how to keep and now you expect me to solve your problem. Being a Democrat, you're in exactly the same position you were in before we met but now, somehow, it's all my Republican fault.”

I'm telling you ... I heard it from a reliable source.

Sarah Palin’s Foreign Policy Experience

Commentary by David Petronis, September 1, 2008

Hooray for McCain

Commentary by David Petronis,

August 29, 2008

               Funny thing happened on the way to the caribou hunt … my husband told me I got a call from John about being chosen for the Vice President of these United States … told my hubby to wait a second, got to take this shot…… and I am one proud Mama today!!!

              So goes today’s saga of Sara Barracuda, also known as Sarah Palin, present Governor of the largest State in our Union, Alaska.  From long shot on the long list of Veep choices for Republican Presidential contender John McCain, Sarah Palin is a welcome choice to my small family of Conservatives and to our massive party of disgruntled Republicans.  Thank you John, you will now get my vote and some of my money.

              Sarah is a Life Member of the National Rifle Association, ran a fishing boat for a business, likes to hunt and fish, married twenty years to the same guy who also likes to hunt and fish plus is a world class snow mobile champion, was a beauty pageant winner, been in politics for about eighteen years nowhere near Washington, DC, been a Mayor of a small City in Alaska, been Governor for the last two years, lowered property taxes and started a savings account with the money saved, handles and shoots assault weapons, wants to drill for more oil and gas in ANWR, is a mother with five children, one of them in the US Army about to be shipped to Iraq, thinks of herself as a hockey-mom but also coached basketball, had time to join the PTA, her husband is a Union Member, she is white but, what can I say, she is not a part of the good-ol-boy network, shook up the Republican Party in Alaska when they were found to be doing the wrong things, has an approval rating from her constituents of over 80%, is the first woman to be nominated for the second highest office in the land by the Republican Party, and did I mention she likes to hunt and her favorite food is Moose Stew?  And she looks damn good in a suit with a skirt!

              But, alas, the democrats and liberals have already asked how many houses she brings to the McCain campaign while also noting that just like their Presidential Candidate, BHO; she has no foreign policy experience.  Can’t have everything, I guess but she sure will make a nice Vice President alongside the next President of the United States, John McCain, who has plenty of experience dealing with slime balls, Washingtonites,  and terrorists in general.  I wonder where she got that nickname of Barracuda. Joe Biden won’t bloody her nose in the playground!  You better see your mama, Joe.

              Some folks thought her crack about the 18 million cracks put in the glass ceiling by Hillary Clinton was a wisecrack when Sarah concluded with her chance to break it as a Republican.  I believe it was a sincere thank you to Hillary and to Geraldine Ferraro before her.  History was made these past few days in Denver and I was privileged to have been able to see it happen.  Today more history was made and I feel that through John’s choice my own granddaughters have just as much chance as anyone to grow up to be President.  Only in America, only in these United States of America can we be witness to such historical days such as these.  God bless us all and God Bless America for all time.

              PS:  Please Vote and Vote for the Republican ticket in November.  It will take your children’s lifetime to undo the damage the alternative party will envelop upon us in four short years of their ideology.  To those of you who think George Bush is or was the problem, remember who kept us safe these past eight years.  To those who think the Republicans are or were the problem, remember who controls Congress today and who went on vacation from the gasoline price problem.  When democrat Nancy Pelosi gavels dead the drilling for new oil and Barak Hussein Obama claims he is going to wean us off oil in 10 years with natural gas, do you think perhaps there may be something wrong with policy and rhetoric?  Do you know that natural gas is simply a by-product of oil drilling?  Before you pull that lever for, who knows who, Barak (one the most familiar of Arabic names) (Hussein?)(Obama – the only difference with Osama is the BS), you had better know who is behind the lever.

The Supreme’s Spoke, Now What?

Commentary by David Petronis, June 27, 2008

              There were quite the mixed reactions about yesterday’s Supreme Court decision recognizing the fact that our Second Amendment to the Constitution meant what it read, that the right of the individual to own firearms shall not be infringed.  That it was indeed a right to have a firearm at home to protect one’s self and family.  But also that some common sense restrictions of ownership may be applied, so now what?

            "If there is an individual right, then bureaucratic discretion in permitting and registering guns is going to be minimized," a lawyer who financed the case currently before the Supreme Court, Robert Levy, said, adding that, "you cannot allow bureaucrats the option of denying people constitutional rights."  That from the New York Sun while reporting on possible problems with the New York City strict gun laws.  

              What that lawyer jargon means is that Mayor Bloomberg ain’t happy!  There could well be some changes coming in New York and Chicago and San Francisco and any other city or state restricting access or ownership of handguns by competent law abiding individuals.  A final end to fuzzy Militia requirements is at hand.

              New York’s Daily News reported that, John McCain seized on the Supreme Court ruling Thursday as a wedge issue against Barack Obama, who said, he was for tossing the District of Columbia's handgun ban but also favors regulation.  Obama agreed with the court that owning a gun was an individual right but also said local governments should be able to put restrictions on gun ownership.

              McCain called the ruling a "landmark victory for Second Amendment freedom" and ripped Obama for refusing to join him in backing the plaintiffs who brought the case to the Supreme Court.  Gun ownership was a "sacred" right akin to free speech and assembly, McCain said, as opposed to Obama's "elitist view that believes Americans cling to guns out of bitterness," reported the Daily News.

              So, John McCain is for the ruling and favors the right of the individual to own guns for self protection and Barack Hussein Obama sits on the fence and says he was for it but that there should be government restrictions.  When does BHO’s “change” come, when he falls off the fence or when the wind blows the right way?  I’m sorry my friends, Obama’s wind will never blow right he will always be facing left and liberal.

              The Gazette in Schenectady, NY had typical reactions from the anti-gun groups that were predictable to say the least.  These were from the “Keep America Safe from Gun Violence” type of groups; you know “the more guns out there the more gun violence there will be”, groups.  And I do believe they are accurate in their assumption. 

              The more law abiding citizens feel comfortable with their right of gun ownership then more of them will own them and keep them in their homes for self protection.  With more guns in homes then more burglars will probably be shot, hence more “gun violence,” as I see it, a good thing.

              I can hear the boys from the hood now after one of their own assumes room temperature.  “Mon, dat hoodie never did nuttin nobody.  Alls ‘e want waz a little doe fo’ som blo!  Den’s dis whitey goes’n blasts ‘em. Mon, dem guns is BAD.  Brak ‘il get ‘em.  Da hood gotta vote.”  And don’t think that I believe the hood is all black but the scenario sure scares me.  Especially all those potential hood voters!  Just remember New Orleans when even the Police were out grabbin’ the free floatin’ goodies and wanting to take the guns away from the whiteys protecting their homes.  As an aside, with all the news and reporting of the floods in Iowa and vicinities did you see any pictures of farmers saving big screen plasma TV’s for food trading later?  Any rioting over FEMA not saving them or their farms? Don’t think so.  Any busses parked in water?  Could it be a difference in culture?  I know, it’s all tougher down river.

              When someone comes into my gun shop and asks what to buy for home protection, I don’t steer them to the handguns, I show them the slide action shotguns.  One sales pitch I use is to have the customer close their eyes and listen.  Then I jerk back the slide and pull it forward as if loading a round in the chamber of this pump 12 gauge monster.  I ask, “What would you do on hearing this in the black of night?”  “If the intruder doesn’t turn white and run just from the sound, you have a much better chance of blowing his head off with this,” I say.  Then, “Cash or charge?”  But handguns do have a profound purpose while walking your dog thru the jungle; they are very concealable and available readily.  Now the court needs to take this right of self protection a step further than only in your home to where it could really matter, on the street as in concealed carry.  Here in New York that is supposed to be what a handgun permit was for, concealed on your person, out of sight, for protection.  When and where the first Judge got it into the brain that it would be a much better idea  to put “Hunting and Target Shooting” on the permit as a restriction of when and why one could carry a firearm, I don’t know.  But it is Legislation from the Bench and should be illegal or unconstitutional and be struck down as such.  NRA, sic ‘em!

               Yesterday a little sanity came down from on high, finally the good guys won for a change.  Perhaps a few more perps will receive their final blessings with accolades of how rising gun violence is a direct response from this Justice ruling, but you and I know the truth.  Bad guys are going to have bad days ahead.

Gun Rights Stand Test of Time

Commentary by David Petronis,

June 26, 2008

              Well, it’s swell!  Five out of nine Justices of the Supreme Court of the USA agreed that our Founding Fathers had it right all along these past two hundred and some years since they penned the Second Amendment.  The Right of the People to own guns shall not be infringed.  But what does that say about the other four in robes?  Probably none of them have been mugged yet.

              In seriousness, with that small margin this historic vote along party lines could well have been cast in a different manner.  What should have been Nine to Zero, this vote made Justice Kennedy the most powerful man in the US, the swing man.  As are the “Independents” who will swing this November 4^th election one way or the other because they can’t seem to take a stand until they see how the wind is blowing.  Whether Justice Kennedy is one of the great men who weighs all options or simply votes his convictions on an issue or just throws a dart, I don’t know.   Regardless, this time he targeted the right spot in our Constitution and saved our day in court.  This ruling could have very far reaching effects on all our besieged rights.

              I would imagine the National Rifle Association is partying down in DC about now. And probably getting ready to assault a few more gun banning laws and cities in the near future.  I heard Chief James Tuffey of the Albany Police Department comment on the radio today that it wasn’t the legal guns that he was worried about but rather the illegal “straw man” purchases made in other, less regulated States than New York, then filtered here onto his streets.  He said that he favored a Federal Law that would be applied to all gun purchasers equally in all the States.  Well, States Rights issues aside, as a gun dealer and as a firearms carrier I would even go along with something like that if all gun carry permits were then recognized as Federal Carry Permits, good anywhere in the USA.  I think even the good old NRA would find that compromise interesting.

              The news today was full with reporting of this court decision.  Most call-in folks to radio talk shows were pro-gun and liked the ruling.  But the news spots had to find the guy who thought this was disastrous and how it was so important now to vote for democrats this November.  I’m sure his life on earth will forever now be terrorized by gun-totin’ Republicans!

              So what about the New York State pistol permits that are labeled for “Hunting and Target” shooting only, in some counties?  Is it legal for a local Judge to apply his “feelings” to your Constitutional Right to gun ownership?  Probably not, though never been challenged.

              Today’s ruling explicitly stated that Citizens have a right to have a gun in their home for self protection.  Does that mean the “Castle Doctrine” laws that forty or so other States have adopted must be legally available in all States?  Like here in New York?  NY says we citizens have to run out the back door if someone is trying to break in your front door, the “escape route” option.  I am going to have the idiot running in the front door hitting the floor from a blast of .44, no option here.  Will I now be legally protected?  Unfortunately, this ruling by the Supreme’s doesn’t address any of these issues.

              It was still a great day for gun owners and sane people throughout this great Country.  At last a little sanity has come down from on high and, at least today, all is right with the world.

Want to Save the Pine Bush?

Commentary by David Petronis; June 21, 2008

              There’s a very simple solution to saving the Pine Bush and the endangered species scientists say live on because of it.  Saving the Karner Blue butterfly would be among this amazing plan.  People from all over the country could be sporting Blue Butterfly t-shirts before you know it.  How could this be done, you ask?

              Let me tell you a buffalo story, like in Buffalo Bill.  Not much more than a long lifetime ago millions of bison roamed the western plains and not many folks cared, except maybe the Indians who used them for everything from food to shelter to clothing.  A combination of trying to rid the land of Indians and a new affinity for cheap buffalo robes back east nearly wiped the herds out.

              A small industry actually started up as train travelers could shoot as many of these wandering beasts as they could while riding the rails west.  Quite the sport in those days while ridding the country of a food source for those indigenous folks Americans didn’t really need on “their” land.  Shootin’ all those wild things was the way to go.  Now what does all that have to do with butterflies?

              Imagine if a company bought all those wild bison from the government for two bucks a head.  In about ten minutes those free shooters would have been paying for the privilege, no doubt beseeched by Pinkertons.  And if the herds started running low a way to boost them up for continual slaughter would be found.  What good is a capital venture if you run out of merchandise to capitalize?  If Buffalo Bill wanted to make a name for himself he would have needed to fork over some cash.  The moral is, if someone owned those buffalos surly as the day is long you wouldn’t be shooting them -- at least not for free!  You don’t see train riders today taking pot shots at range cattle from their scenic view rail cars do you? 

              Enter the butterfly amongst the Pine Bush.  Simple solution is to sell the whole sandy pile to a capitalist and put a high quality restaurant with expensive gift shop on the property.  Blue Butterfly shirts and Pine Bush tour walks will be streaming in and out the gate while those cute little caterpillars dine on Lupine in no time.  Instead of needing to SAVE the Karner,  customers will be bringing surplus ones home mounted under glass in a nice picture frame for the den. 

              Scoff at this, you say.  If you owned an attraction that could make you money -- lots of money -- and with some taxpayer dollars and plenty of volunteer help, wouldn’t you want to raise as many of these bugs as you could?  For as long as you could?  With a few common sense restrictions in place, I believe my plan would easily work.  Capitalism is synonymous with problem solving and is always the best way to go.  Maybe even butterfly soup?

Just to Prove a Point about Capitalist Americans …

A recent study conducted by Harvard University found that the average American walks about 900 miles a year.  Another study by the American Medical Association found that Americans, on average, drink 22 gallons of alcohol each year.  It all kind of makes you proud to be an American these days because that means, on average, you and me the real Americans, get about 41 miles to the gallon.  And Remember, if you drink and celebrate this Fourth of July,  walk an extra mile.

Unnecessary High Price of Crude

By David Petronis, June 5, 2008

            China and Cuba are drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico just 60 miles off the coast of Florida but US companies can’t.  There are 86 BILLION barrels of crude estimated to be in deposits under the waves.  Enough for the entire country to use for ten years plus twenty times our use of natural gas, but we can’t tap it.  The Chinese can.

            In a remote part of Alaska that mimics the size of most of the northeast states combined we can be pumping over one million barrels of oil a day into our own economy and for our own use.  The area known as ANWR or the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is huge and remote.  The drilling location would be confined to an area about the size of a large airport but we can’t drill there.  As our New York State Senator Charles Schumer says, “… enough to lower gasoline prices by fifty cents a gallon.”  But, according to him, only if we import that much more from increased production of Saudi Arabian crude.

            He among all the other democrat Senators and more than half of the liberal republican ones all voted against drilling in ANWR.  This, my fellow sheep, is now costing you and I a lot of money and perhaps the entire economic health of our United States.  They and all of the current Presidential Candidates, Hillary Clinton, Barack Hussein Obama and John McCain, have blocked new drilling for the past decade or more from ANWR and over 85% of the offshore areas of our own coasts.  Yet have allowed our adversaries in commerce and ideology to do just that.  As we grow older and dumber each day the Russians are exploring the Bearing Sea for oil and drills are reaching for our crude in the Gulf of Mexico.  The question is why them, not us?

            Seventy-one Senators voted to oppose drilling in the Arctic while most of the rest voted to stop filling the Strategic Oil Reserve so that crude went into the mainstream supply.  What they should have done if they really want to shake up the speculators is to sell our Reserve supply at these high prices and buy on the back-drop. Did you know that speculation in the futures oil market has already surpassed $5.00 a barrel? Hard ball players are betting that the US Congress and the current green policy madness will help them reach that figure in no time.  What can we do?  Stay home and pout?

            While the US auto industry is laying off workers and closing manufacturing plants, the airline industry is grounding planes and mailing pink slips and the housing industry is all but in retreat from doubling of material prices while our Senators and Congressmen are fiddling around like Nero as the economy and our way of life goes up in oil fumes.  This has got to stop!

            In 1995 the then hero of the democrat party, President Bill Clinton, vetoed the bill to drill in ANWR.  It passed the republican Congress.  Since then Al Gore with his own industry of carbon footprint sales and trade-offs has managed to scare the world into believing that the sky is falling, overloaded with carbon from your SUV.  The problem is that most of you believed his idiocy.  See the Scientific Report on the subject.  When local folks start taking notice that we have no control over the weather or the next ice age perhaps they will wake to the fact that democrats would not be good as rulers of the earth.  That is unless you wish to be or are already a hermit, herbalist, green peace supporter, tree hugger, cool-aid drinker, vegetarian, communist, socialist or fur hater; for you there is no hope of redemption and you will find and drive a bicycle or three-wheeled Euro-car. GM really doesn’t matter to them and they only fly on the wings of Angels or wisps of pot puffs.  Wasn’t it Hitler who promoted the Volkswagen?

            There is a moral to this story.  When you think of the change Barack Hussein Obama is going to bring to your driveway are you going to be better off?  When his administration drives gas prices to $7.00 a gallon you won’t be able to afford that bike.  All that saving of stuff and money will be valueless because our buck won’t be worth the wheel barrow you need to carry it in.  And you might as well become a veggie eater now because cardboard and old shoe soup really sucks!  You think taxes on your house are high today?  Don’t worry about it because the schools will be used for community shelters anyway.  The high cost of teacher’s union salaries won’t much matter anymore; most will be out of a job.  Before that lever gets pulled for any democrat OR liberal republican you had better know what the future really holds.  You kids who know everything and that everything has to change better wake to the reality that you have seen nothing yet in your short inexperienced lives.  We haven’t even started with the gas lines yet and food is still plentiful on the market shelves.  Keep dreaming of change and one day you might actually be living with your nightmare.  How can hope be the lesser of the evils?

            My God, where has life’s journey taken us?  Why have you forsaken us?  Look to your own inequities and failings He might respond, ‘You are the chosen ones who chased My words from homes and schools.  You people alone are responsible for your own path to destiny.’  And as always truth will be told, we are the ones who enabled the Representatives of our society to walk the path we laid.  Our votes, our complacency and our inaction to adversity have brought us to this time of reckoning. If we don’t change the course we’ve let swerve then truly the Piper will be paid both in capital and in pain.

            The Conservative cause is the only way to our Salvation.  Can I get a Halleluiah? Better yet, can we get some gumption to get out there and vote some good people into office?  Both local and national candidates need our deepest thoughts before the lever is pulled or the last chad chafed to the earth.  George Bush has kept this Country safe from any terrorist attack while from within Al Gore has terrorized the world.  Someday even facts have to be recognized, not changed.

The One, the Only, He has Come!

Commentary by David Petronis, June 2, 2008

      Barak Hussein Obama has now resigned from his church because he doesn’t want his Pastor or his mentors or his other church member brothers and sisters to have to endure any more controversy in the news simply because he is running for the democrat candidacy for President of these United States.  Isn’t that special?  Isn’t that the most unselfish act you have ever heard?  BHO is giving up his church of twenty years so no more controversy and threats will be aimed at his Trinity United Church members by the media.  Wow, what a guy!  Sounds more like BULL.

It seems the Powers to Be in Mechanicville now have a pet peeve about the sidewalks.  Home owners and businesses who don't remove the snow are in for fines and possible jail time! 

Being next to City Hall I'd best be on my BEST behavior.  When it snows we always try to shovel and salt as soon as possible.  After all, I wouldn't want the cliff dwellers in the apartment next to me have to walk through the drifts on their way to their cuddly little caves.  We especially like to have them park in front of my shop before the snow storm so the city plow goes around them and leaves a mess at my doorstep.

City Fathers ... clean up your own act while we're about this snow removal business!  Make these people park off-street when snow is pending!  Or at least tow the suckers away when they interfere with the plow.  And while we're at it, why can't the small city plow remove the snow off the sidewalks on the immediate Main Street area next to City Hall?  

My Opinion ... October 25, 2007

After having this red Ford parked in front of my 38 North Main St. Gun Shop for three days I figured it was time to take action, the parking problem is acute enough without someone trying to be cute on my expense.  A love note from me was affixed to the underside of the wiper blade reflecting my appreciation to the culprit.

Now I have always been a staunch supporter of the Republican way in our party system but I take no favorites when actions by someone affects my livelihood.  I guess the old adage about Politics being close to home is still true.  Listen guys and girls, if you want a sign in my window stop in and ask but don't park them where my customers need to find space. Incidentally, now you irritated me, so don't ask.

One may notice the strategic location of this red herring, being just above the handicapped sign and in front of City Hall.  I suppose the point is to have visitors going in and out to view this courageous effort of dumbness by stunning them with meaningful signage. All without the clincher like "Change City Politics" or "Vote for Us .. the Who?"  The truck means nothing but it takes up my important parking space!

To compound the problem a "cliff dweller" has parked as usual in a spot where one cannot park between the cars ... not enough space left.  A cliff dweller is one who lives in the apartments above the stores adjoining my building and pays no real estate taxes nor cares about anything but their own convenience.  A suggestion to owner John Serbolic is to provide off street parking for his tenants as is supposed to be the law of the land.  Which, of course, I have mentioned.

To help alleviate the parking problem on Main Street of course I have made some suggestions to City Hall in the past, see letter or suggestion number 758, I believe ... but who's counting?  How about, at very least, getting a few gallons of white paint from Home Depot while on sale and painting parking spaces along the curb?  At least it will provide a target to hit or miss for the idle idiot who may not know where to place his or her Toyota, that Great American Dream Car.  No matter that Toyota and Mitsubishi powered the planes that will go down in Infamy ... but I digress and that's another story.

Back to paint!  When someone is out of the lines do you think that our local Police might then issue an illegal parking summons and some of the paint money will find its' way back to City coffers thus rendering the cost of the overall initial job, uh ... like free?  I travel all over this Country and I have found very few large or small towns that don't have indicated curbside parking.  Except Mechanicville.

My time is up, enough free advice for this hour, I have to answer my e-mails and try to make City Tax money so I can afford to keep my building on the FOR SALE market.  Getting about six million hits a month off my website at NEACA.com does require a little effort and allows me to look for that Rich Dummy from New Jersey with money for brains who may wish to build more dwellings for the multitudes in the space I now occupy ~ $550,000. could buy him all my little Mechanicville problems.

Sincerely, David Petronis

Real Estate & Vehicles For Sale

Number Forty-Two for Who?

 Should We Settle in Andorra to Live Longer?

  Commentary by David Petronis  (August 15, 2007)

I wonder how many Mexican, Ecuadorian, Sudanese, Haitian or Guyana immigrants cross the borders of Andorra and settle in that small country in the Pyrenees Mountains to offset their position of first place for longest life expectancy?  Nestled between Spain and France, this remote small country expects its’ populace to survive 83
years if born in 2004, that is according to the recent study by the Institute for Health, Metrics and Evaluation based at the University of Washington.  I’ll bet very few immigrants, if any? 

Now include all those new millions that have crossed our US borders over the past few years and one might expect that the life expectancy of a United States citizen born in 2004 has dropped to 77

 Dang ‘em, Hang ‘em!

 May 22 ~ In my opinion ~ David Petronis

School budgets were the topics last week and most of the unions won the outcome. About our hamlets the sheep in Mechanicville went two to one with the teachers board of enablers but the Stillwater folks stood up to try the throw the buggeries out.  Almost worked, Stillwater kinsfolk, but you have to get up a lot earlier than James Farnan if you know what’s good for you.  As for “Mickeyville,” you people make me ill.  Don the wool for another year for business as usual.

Even the pseudo-liberal column from Carl Strock of the Gazette was devoted several times to the plight of the pigeons who were about to be couped again by the respective school boards of our adjoining districts.  I found his column quite insightful or perhaps … incite-full?  Love him or hate him, he usually makes a point.  At least before the elections he pointed his finger in the eye of the problems.  He noted the local issues and school boards that were blatantly out of control of the people while most coverage of the elections were simply union ads telling us all to save the children with “yes” votes on budgets.

I’m all for educating our young people, even an ignorant like me learned to write a letter.  I think I remember being taught in fairly orderly classes of 25 to 30 kids during the 1950’s in the Mechanicville school system.  I’ve yet to be psychoanalyzed about the effects of hiding under my desk when atom bomb drills were the norm between algorithm exercises, but there is still time for some lasting effect to surface.  Maybe something like “the reality of daily life in the old days” will eventually emerge from my inner psyche and a new TV show will be founded.  One that shows the complete difference of classrooms with today’s perception that one teacher and a helper should manage about 15 kids … while talking about how the war is Bush’s fault and he is also killing all the polar bears.  And kids, don’t forget to tell your parents that it is their responsibility to do your homework and get those special assignments in on time!  No, I can’t chaperone the dance.  Your parents wouldn’t let us put “extra curricular activities” in the budget.  But they’ll learn the next time around we mean business.

And that folks, is just what this whole school learn’n thing is all about today, school business … and it is big business.  And the teachers and their unions and generally the Democratic Party are striving to make it bigger and self-perpetuating.  But it is all for the kids and taxes may only go up this year between 4.1% and possibly 2-point gazillion forever.  Don’t you folks realize that every single year the union contracts for teachers and staff mandate that our taxes will go up at least 3.5% even if we didn’t vote on a budget?  There will never be tax relief on homeowners unless there is a drastic change in direction of philosophy, taxing structure or teachers unions.  The only say that we the voters have is thru our school board members or our local and state legislators.  If the status quo is to continue then you the voters are the enablers so be prepared to pay.  Complain about the high price of gas when it is $3.25 a gallon but Evian water is over $21.00 a gallon and printer ink, if sold by the gallon would top $5000.00 per and some perspective comes into view.

  At least the oil companies are there as a business to try to make a profit but the taxes we pay to support the local school system is supposed to be for the social welfare of the people not to support the “big business” of education or the welfare of the teachers and their unions.  Taxes may be inevitable and educating our children is absolutely essential but I believe the whole system needs to be revised and one way to accomplish that review is to vote down the budgets and vote out the budgeters until they get it right.  This year Mechanicville voters were scared into passing theirs “with a lesson learned” from last year and Stillwater tried to do the right thing about throwing them out but eventually were side-whacked.  At least the voters there had gumption.   There’s always hanging them from a tree … now that’s reality!

There’s Something Smelly in Mickyville !

 May 17 ~ Opinion by David Petronis

           I own a very interesting shop on Main Street in Mechanicville.  My building sits close to the Hudson River and low and behold, I called it Hudson River Trading Company.  My name is David Petronis, President of my 13,000 square feet of wondrous things.  I am there from 10 to 5 almost every day but people constantly come by and tell me they never find me open.  I do gun shows on most weekends, that’s the main business.  Buying and selling collector firearms and related vintage outdoor sports memorabilia.  Business traffic in downtown Mechanicville is, in a word, nil.  Thousands of cars go by but with no place to park nobody stops.  A few years ago I had an idea and I just revived it a few weeks ago.  I had a “Going Out for Business” sale.  I put a big sign in the window, made up some fliers, ran a few ads and had 150 people stop in for the weekend.  Most of them coming in because they thought I was going out of business and wanted to see what I had before I left.

            Now, that’s some way to run a business.  This past Mother’s Day weekend I put my sign back up, ran a few ads and had another 100 people in.  If I wasn’t going out for business I probably would have had 10.  The reason I started our unusual sale, with another sign affixed to the window, “Need to Pay the Sewer Tax,” was to pay the sewer tax!  What’s a sewer tax you ask?  Well, supposedly that’s what all the other towns and villages in Saratoga County pay after some sort of computation of some ridiculous schedule that somebody dreamed up that insists I should pay for “4 Units” of sewer usage with my one lowly toilet and sink in the entire four story building.  So, instead of paying a minimum $160. sewer bill based on water usage, the city of Mechanicville in their great wisdom and need for whatever additional moneys they try to raise they’ve computed that my one toilet is now worth, to them anyways, $217. times four units, which total about quadruples my original bill.  Now I have to try to raise money by having a sale.  Being creative I then tied the sewer tax in with my sale sign and seeing that every other business owner in town was thoroughly irritated that this new formula was put on the business man’s shoulders and not distributed to any home owners, where the votes are, I had many comments from the business folks about how thoroughly they enjoyed my sign.

       Now, it so happens that adjoining my store is the office of the Gazette Newspaper.  There were articles from the local reporter about the sewer tax situation in which he raised questions but never fully delved into follow up answers.  Such as, if my four-story building was computed as four units, why when only several hundred feet away, there was a commercial enterprise that used to be the Mechanicville Middle School but now was completely overlooked by City Hall for any computation of sewer taxes what so ever. Their answer when asked the question, “How did you miss the school?” in this new formula, was that they simply overlooked it.  Pretty hard to miss when you look out any window of City Hall, there’s the school!  Then up Main Street they only computed half the Kennedy Apartment complex in their formula, duh?  And I could go on and on about the errors and complete unjustness of this whole new sewer tax.  And of how the other Towns don’t really fully adhere to this so-called “formula.”

            But the City Fathers will tell you that all of the districts in Saratoga County are on this same formula, that is with the exception of Saratoga Springs where it would literally ruin the businesses if they had to come up with this same schedule to pay their sewer tax.  And speaking of all the sewer pipes that run within the Mechanicville city boundary linking up with the, “no it never smells”, sewage treatment plant just south of Mechanicville, why isn’t there some sort of “right of way” fee charged to the county?

            So, I ordered in a bunch of Pachislo gaming machines that are like one armed bandits only they are legal in New York state as games of skill.  I get these from Japanese cruise ships, refurbished and ready to entertain any home gaming enthusiast.  I had these lined up on the sidewalk after delivery by truck and again, being creative, walked next door to my friendly Gazette office, mentioned to the reporter, “Why not have a photographer come down, take a photo and do a story on what I have to do just to pay the sewer tax?”  I then explained that his picture of my sale sign and my intention to line up the machines inside and have folks come down and put their hard earned money in without any payouts.  Because I needed all the cash I could drum up to pay the sewer tax, would be a great human interest story and a lead for delving into a more in-depth follow up of this whole new taxing business.  Unfortunately he said he was off Friday and Saturday but that maybe he could get into it next week.  Oh, well.

         No, in actuality one can’t really put real money into these machines.  They’re operated with a special token and are for entertainment purposes only so if someone from the State Tax Department is reading this, don’t come and visit me unless you want to buy one on sale, they’re only $288. This is tongue in cheek reporting.  But this is only part of a continuing saga of the trials and real tribulations of trying to do business in Mechanicville.  Several years ago I tried to buy that same Mechanicville Middle School for the price I wanted to pay, but through the wisdom of the School Board it was sold with the glitz and glamour of news reporting and much political hype to what I call a Cult, but what was supposed to be Mechanicville’s big salvation.

            It now stands about a dead an issue as this sewer tax should be on a prime piece of land of 5 acres in the middle of a tiny city on a great thoroughfare, the Hudson River, and it sits there wasting away.  In my opinion I think this whole sewer tax fiasco was thought up by the powers in the city to suddenly find that “Oh, we forgot to compute the school.”  And now we’re going to charge them for a hundred and skaty-eight units at $200 plus dollars per unit and we will make it very uncomfortable for the owners of this school to keep it sitting there doing nothing.  And they probably have some sweetheart deal worked out with some, as yet unnamed, developer who will come in, bulldoze everything flat and put in low income housing so the Democrats will have more votes. The restaurant and marina will be the reward with no taxes for twenty years, except homeowners’ taxes going up of course. That’s my opinion because I think that’s how these people work.  They certainly do not work for the betterment of any businessman or woman in this land locked city.  Besides like me, most of the business people live outside the city and can’t vote here.  I think there’s something smelly in Mickyville.

            But I digress.  This was a story about my sale.  Well, actually I’m trying to tell a story about how really hard it is to be in business.   We all know a businessman is some rich devil who takes advantage of all the little people and in a small town a lot of these people foster resentment at success.  It’s like the guy who says, “I had that idea a long time ago” but also never got off his butt to follow through.  Or that invention, “I thought of it, I should be the millionaire.”  But again no follow through and now he resents the guy who did.  When the tornado struck here in Mechanicville back in 1998, my building was hit, my new awning frame was broken, several of my chimneys were damaged, part of the upper-most faade was damaged and one of a large group of glass panels that faced the front of my building was loosened and eventually fell off.  I, as a damaged Mechanicville businessman, building owner, was not eligible for any distribution of funds that was available to the rest of the city.  Now why was that?  Only homeowners got compensation.  And when it came to low interest loans by SBA, that was a joke.  If you didn’t want $680,000 or more, they didn’t even want to talk to you. 

            Now in Governor Pataki’s wisdom at the time, his people sent out $5000. to affected business owners as a free, and I say hallelujah, grant!  I applied for it and low and behold I got it.  What did I do with the money?  Gave it to the city of Mechanicville for taxes on the building.  At the time our business on Main Street was not as good as it was now with our Going Out for Business Sale, so that money came in pretty handy.  Now I’m going to insert a “we” into this business instead of just I, because my wife Cathy is a big part of this operation, some say the whole brains of the outfit but I’m only agreeing because it’s close to Mother’s Day.  The 90’s were supposed to be the “boom times” and for a while for us they were but one big business deal went a little sour and there was a downward trend and then at the end of that trend on May 31^st at 4:20 in the afternoon in 1998 there was a dramatic uplift but unfortunately it consisted of the roof of our house.  And then the rain came.  Then three months later our insurance company made a settlement, and then we had to find someone to rebuild it and rebuild our lives.  Our Hudson River Trading Company was nearly at an end because all of our concentration went in to trying to make a settlement and a salvage of 36 years of married memories.

            But we take the good with the bad and a lot of good things came out of that tornado.  We certainly appreciated life and living and realized that things are only things.  Life is too precious to waste by dwelling on the past.  We rebuilt the house, bigger and better, still not finished, taking life in stride day by day and also revamped our Main Street store to what is now a vigorous warehouse.  I say warehouse because we found that if we’re open every day of the week, we get just as many people walking into our store as if we’re only open one or two days of the week, so occasionally we close.  Now people say we’re never open but with our Going Out for Business Sale, they want to come in so they can see what we have before we go out of business, which we’re not.

            I think it’s all to do with communication, these tribulations that we go through.  As I said the Gazette office is next door to us and basically they have a full time reporter here in Mechanicville.  So why don’t they have a whole page of Mechanicville’s news in their local Gazette section?  There certainly is enough news if you look for it.  Occasionally there is even good news.  There are people like me right next door who draw out of town customers from hundreds of miles away but can’t draw ten people from Mechanicville a mile away.  Why is that?  Is it like the fellow who lives by a national monument who’s never visited it?  And when a friend from far away comes and visits him and says, “Let’s go visit the national monument,” he probably asks, “Where is it?” 

            Most of us really don’t see trees for the forest and usually never stop to smell the roses.  So when one would drive by my store and read “Going Out FOR Business,” naturally they see what they want to see and make that decision that they must get into that store before they go out of business.  So is communication simply perception?  Now if the Gazette did have a page devoted to Mechanicville I’m sure there would be more Mechanicville business advertising, if there was a better rate naturally.  And perhaps if the auctioneer who auctioned the contents of the Masonic Lodge three blocks away from Main Street had communicated through an ad that there was to be an auction on May 12, same day as my sale, I still probably would have went.  But I knew nothing of it and everyone I asked knew nothing of it and only found out through a customer who dropped by the shop and told me he just came from an auction.  And I buy Masonic regalia and swords and antique oak furniture as was sold at the auction for rather reasonable prices I understand.  Some communication in this town.  Gazette, I think you should look into my devoted page idea and I’m sure circulation would improve with improved communication.  And people who are thinking about having an auction, I don’t think I’d be looking for that same auctioneer.

            Fortunately, we discovered computers and their use as tools to make running our inventory and managing our Gun Show Promotions business back in the early nineties.  We call them Arms Fairs when we promote the shows in Saratoga Springs.  After the tornado we also used it for our settlement and then to design and build our own website, www.NEACA.com.  If not for our internet business today and our warehouse at 38 North Main Street to house our inventory, we could not survive here in Mechanicville as this business.  We are now worldwide and average over five million hits a month.  That translates for us to about 150,000 people coming into our store and looking around.  It can actually become “big business,” these computer things.

            Folks have physically stopped into our shop from the website viewing and have hailed from all across the country.  One fellow, down from the Canadian Border area, told me he routinely visits gun shops from there to the southeast and we have the finest selection he’d ever seen, bar none.  We don’t have all the new models and gadgets but sure do have our share of collector and investment firearms.  Plus a whole lot more.

            Had a nice news article about the shop a while ago when we started selling Victorian Dolls.  “Guns and Dolls” was the new name we were thinking of.  We’re still Hudson River Trading Company, and not to be confused or affiliated with any other of similar nomenclature.  You could spend days viewing our website and not see it all.  If you are a left leaning liberal you may not want to view it at all.  Or you could visit our store and see only a small portion of our inventory.  Even wanting to, I couldn’t go out of business in this lifetime!  We constantly get wonderful comments and orders from, literally, around the world but the local folks only come when we are going out of business.  What would Cathy’s hundred or so tax clients do if we did?  But, I digress again.

            Small towns can be wondrous things; living can be enjoyable, friendly, insightful and even harmonious to a Norman Rockwell design.  But they can also be death traps because they can't or sometimes won't support the town businesses.  I prefer the harmony because being a salesman I've always been an extroverted type of person.  One who enjoys people and conversation and sales.  But many or even most of the business people that I talk to in Mechanicville would sell and leave if they could.  But who is there to buy my four story brick building on Main Street.  And where could I find the space I now have and use as a warehouse and storefront as cheaply as here in this city?  The question may be answered with the statement about that camel and the straw, it may just be that the straw is the sewer tax and the business people who may be in the death trap will finally seek a way out.  Take heed “Powers That Be,” you are making no friends in the business community.  We can vote with our feet and our dollars, “whoosh”, is the sound of those leaving.

            This is our 35^th year anniversary in business.  We began on Long Island with our own sewing machine shop after I left the Singer Company to start my own store.  I was the youngest ever to be promoted to manager in our rather large New York district and had a rewarding career on Long Island.  Then we decided to move back to my hometown because of the comfortable feeling of small town life and good schools, away from the hustle and bustle and the Long Island Expressway.  We don’t regret the move and our three children grew up in a much more safe environment and friendly atmosphere.  That was the 70’s and things were good.  At the time we took a big loss in pay but a raise in morale.  We’ve been in business in this area for 35 years and on Main Street in our own building for 20 years.  When I had a flood in the basement in 1991 from a broken water main in front of the shop, Mayor Pat Hildreth stopped in by my request.  In April of 2007, when I had a flood in my basement from the overflowing sewers on Main Street and the flooded cellar next to my store, where their water seeped onto my floor because the sewers couldn’t handle the flow, Mayor Anthony Sylvester stopped into my building at my request to see the problem.  In 20 years being next to City Hall, those were the only two visits from any city official other than the new Commissioner of Public Works, Jack Messore, who tried to see if he could help me pump out the water.

            A couple of years ago I actually sat down and figured out where I was in life.  After scrounging and scrimping and saving, probably working 60 to 80 hours a week, I looked at the bottom line and I was damn near a millionaire.  But I don’t have any money.  It’s all in investments, it’s all tied up, it’s in inventory, as it is with most business people.  After a lifetime of toil one gains knowledge, knowledge is power, but in this day and age and in the world we live in, cash is king.  So please come to my Going Out FOR Business Sale, take pity on the gunman on Main Street, stop by and say hello, if I can help it I won’t be here forever, but now I need the cash to pay the sewer tax.  For now we have to stay, but we’re trading.  Amen!

David Petronis, President, NEACA, Inc.

38 North Main Street, Mechanicville, NY 12118

518-664-9743  Copyright May 12, 2007

Mechanicville City School District Budget ~ 2007-08 

May 11, 2007 ~Opinion by David Petronis           

            Budget time again for the Mechanicville School District voters and taxpayers and as usual the tax rate is going up.  Because of the much larger tax base with all the new growth surrounding the City of Mechanicville and encompassed within the School District, our overall levy per taxpayer is not supposed to hurt very much this time around.  So the Board of Education informs us, only an average increase of 1.5 to 2.5%.  How about a 3% decrease?  To me and many other taxpayers a decrease wouldn’t hurt at all.

            Here I sit on Mother’s Day, Sunday morning and finally got a chance to review the School Budget flier that came in my mail a few days ago.  It says we should all go out and vote on it this Tuesday, May 15.  Doesn’t leave us busy folks much time to review, rebuke, discuss, argue over or even properly assess what the budget figures mean or hide.  A rather interesting figure is on the reverse of their flier under “Contingency Budget.”

            I rather guess most of you taxpayers remember how we voted down last years budget on the first vote and then the Board tried shoving the same budget down our throats the second time around with the threat of the “contingency budget” being adopted if we didn’t vote yes this time.  And that the entire sports program and seven or so positions would have to be cut without a proper passage of their budget.  Well, we still voted it down and low and behold they were forced into the lower contingency budget and cancelled the swimming pool and sports program.  They certainly would teach us a lesson even though we all passed our school grades many years ago.  I do believe most of those cut positions were in some form or another re-established and eventually the pool was opened and the community made the sports programs a reality again, albeit with dedication from the individual sports program participants, which may not be a bad thing.  If you had read any of the propaganda on the various websites covering this ongoing budget battle you would find that the consensus was that the voters had learned their lesson and would definitely not vote the next budget down. Collusion all around is my opinion.

            What I did glean from the review of this year’s budget was that all the salaries have increased as they always do.  No particular reason other than that is what the Union contract states. Meaning without cuts somewhere our taxes will never go down nor ever even remain the same.  Being in business I wish I could just pass along the increase to you too, in higher prices.  Higher school taxes along with higher City and Town taxes go nicely with the newly imposed higher sewer and water tax aimed at county businesses.  But, I should be ashamed of noting these minor afflictions.  After all, if we can educate one more kid, it is all worth it.  Or is it for the perpetuation of the system where all the school salaries go up and our bank accounts go down?  Incidentally, I did not see an increase for any new sewer charges in the school budget presented for our online viewing through their website.  Now I know they have got to use an awful lot of water.  These schools are big business so why treat them differently than the rest of the area businesses?

            The School Board did teach me a lesson though.  It was to distrust whatever they spew with cloak and mirrors. My intent now is to always vote no on their budget, as a lot of other folks are thinking about doing.  But remember I mentioned page two?  This time around the “Contingency Budget” is $175,971.00 MORE THAN the regular school budget.  This Board can’t loose.  Why vote May 15? 

2004 ...We were honored by the Lt. Governors' visit and by sheer luck were able to stand for a photo with Mrs. Donohue.

I asked her to convey my invitation to Governor George Pataki to stop in and visit one of our Arms Fairs at the Saratoga City Center and show his support for our Second Amendment Rights of gun ownership and gave her a discount coupon for a reminder.  I also asked if she perhaps would like to purchase any new guns for her New York State Trooper entourage but she respectfully declined.  However, I did present the Lt. Governor with my card and reminded her Christmas is coming. 

Cathy and I both agreed that Mrs. Donohue is a class act and we thank you very much for the distinct honor and pleasure of your visit.  And to Governor Pataki, our next show is this Halloween weekend.  (He didn't show.)

Click to enlarge

(Remember the 2008 election is also coming and we gun owners have lasting memories of which politician did and did not support the Second Amendment and gun owner's rights.)