Home Invasions in Delaware

Dear Faith & Freedom Coalition Members,

The other day Attorney General Biden publicly endorse a new home invasion bill put forth by Debra Heffernan.  Mr. Biden stood so proud of this bill; but the question that must be asked is who does this bill serve.  The leader of the Delaware Senate held back a bill sponsored by Dave Lawson (Which was supported by the Kent and Sussex County Councils) that would have made the penalties for home invasion so severe that it would have become the crime of last resort for criminals (It would make the crime a Class A felony. As written, the bill would set forth appropriate minimum mandatory penalties for the crime — prison sentences would increase from the current two-year minimum to a minimum of 15 years).  But Ms. Heffernan decided that criminals who break into your home, terrorize your family, and replace the security of your home with fear for ever day deserve a break and offered a water down version of Sen. Dave Lawson’s bill (The draft bill from Rep. Debra Heffernan, D-Wilmington South, would make home invasion a class B felony with a minimum four year sentence. Repeat offenders or intruders invading homes of the elderly would face additional prison time of six to eight years.).

When do we stop playing politics and start representing the people, when do we put the safety of our people over the security of our political job, and when do we return to the truth.  I guess the answer must be, when we elect different politicians.

Thank you Mr. Lawson for your courage to protect the people.  We must all call our representatives and insist that they pass the tougher bill to protect us all.

God Bless you all,

John Radell

<Our Take>

First State News agrees with Mr. Radell.  This is just a clear case of playing partisan politics with a clear cut problem of the safety and security of Delaware residents.  Instead of moving quickly to address the violent attacks that occur during these home invasions, the Delaware General Assembly (currently led by the Delaware Democrat Party) and Delaware’s one party leadership has decided that since the initial, stronger and more effective proposal came from a Senate Republican, it’s simply not good enough and so they have decided to waste more time and endanger the lives of Delaware citizens.  When it comes to the safety and security of Delaware residents, it’s time to stop playing partisan politics.

<<Update>> 2 violent home invasions have taken place since Senator Lawson’s bill was submitted to the Senate Committee.  The Democrat leadership has willingly failed to protect 2 families from these crimes.  The Senate Committee responsible for this bill is the Senate Judiciary Committee.  The leaders of this committee, Senator Patricia Blevins, Senator Anthony DeLuca, Senator Harris McDowell and Senator Margaret Rose Henry have held up the bill since January 11th.  Delaware Residents should contact these legislators and voice their opinions.

March Sadness Continued…

In March of 2011, DelDOT ran wild and ripped down basketball hoops in one section of the neighborhood of Radnor Green north of Wilmington.  They not only tore the poles out of the ground, some out of permanent concrete placements in which they had sat since the mid 60′s but they also destroyed a number of them by bending the poles and smashing the backboards.  Their destruction of the play opportunities for a half dozen families (and numerous neighborhood kids) came as a result of a regulation tucked into the Delaware code back in 1998 which prohibited any obstructions within 7 feet of a right of way.  The poles in question should have fallen under a grandfather clause but alas, the Delaware Department of Transportation used the services of Delaware State Police officers, one of which was off duty and dressed in an inappropriate FBI sweatshirt when she was caught on camera harassing the family to literally rip the poles out of the ground.  The Blaze ran the story on their website and you can read more about the original story there.

John McCafferty and his wife Melissa fought the effort to steal the poles by DelDOT even to the point of Mrs. McCafferty climbing the pole and refusing to come down in the face of government pressure.  She was eventually compelled to come down when she was told that the pole would not be taken.  Immediately, DelDOT proceeded to tear the pole out of the ground and carried it away despite the protests of the family and assurances that they would be able to keep their pole.  Today, in Delaware Chancery Court, the McCafferty’s filed suit with Case #7308.  In a statement, the McCafferty’s write, “In a rematch from last years March Sadness, the Mccafferty family has come out firing 70 pages from the complaint floor. In addition, the Mccafferty family is utilizing a Full Court Press on DelDOT. With the Instant Ticketing System being brought down to size by the Dowd case factor …. it looks like Delsnot may be the one getting bulldozed in this year’s March Sadness rematch.“

The McCafferty’s suit contains civil and criminal allegations at both the state and federal level.  The brief cites DelDOT for violation of the 14th Amendment and includes RICO charges, theft and property damage claims.  First State News will bring you more as the story develops.

Roys Rants – U.S. Government Deals Lead to Chinese Foothold in U.S. Energy

Since 2010, Chinese companies have invested more than $17 billion into oil and gas deals in the U.S. and Canada, giving their energy-thirsty nation a long-coveted foothold in a region known for innovative new drilling techniques.

Click here to read the full article.

Clinton gave them our missile guidance technology.
Obama gives them our oil.  And state dinners.
The last 3, 4, maybe 5 Presidents have given them our manufacturing.  And our money.
What’s not listed, they’ve stolen, while we talk restraint, and civility, and incentives.
And even the military is dumbfounded by their tenacity.
The time it took to build the Great Wall having been removed from history books.
Kumbaya.

And in Delaware, the newest new thing in schools is to teach foreign languages to
the kids who the state cannot currently even teach the times three table.  Or English.

Whew!  Just in time.

You Don’t Know Jack about Governor Markell

cross posted from http://www.wakeupde.com

“When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself public property.”
Thomas Jefferson

In case you did not know, Governor Markell is being used to push an extremely liberal agenda upon the state of Delaware. Governor Markell is rapidly and drastically changing the blueprint of the State of Delaware.

As a citizen of the State of Delaware, one expects their Governor to be representing the voice of constituents who elected him into office. One expects him to be loyal, law-abiding, and honorable, to uphold the Constitution of the State of Delaware and the United States no matter what his opinion is. I am saddened to say fellow Delawareans; we do not have these characteristics in Governor Markell.

Delaware was once considered to be a national leading state for business. Now according to CNBC Delaware ranks 42nd in the nation (http://criblog.wordpress.com/2011/03/03/cnbc-doesn%E2%80%99t-believe-delaware-is-the-first-state-for-business/). While many small businesses in Delaware are struggling or closing, as bank loans and lines of credit have tightened, larger companies such as Fisker (the Finnish Auto Company) have very little trouble acquiring million dollar loans from federal and state agencies under the guise of bringing jobs to Delaware.

Learn to be the Light

Christians are often portrayed to be selfish, dogmatic and rigid in their beliefs.  People see us as judgmental, intolerant and uncaring.  They see us as forcing our religion down the throats of others and the see us as being conceited and almost elitist.  These are common misconceptions about Christianity that have only in the last 100 or so years been used with any success against us.  The reasons why these attacks have succeeded vary from jealousy over the great blessings that the Lord has poured down on people (individuals and whole nations/societies) who have not only believed in God but lived for Him to the reality that many Christians have indeed lost the Holy Spirit inside of them.  That’s right, we Christians have not helped defeat these myths.  In fact, in many ways we’ve given them a place to take root.

Christians (like me) must begin to stand apart from the world and provide a place for those who distinguish right from wrong to turn to.  Today, you can find more Christians out vocally demonizing others, condemning others and judging others than you can following the teachings of Jesus.  That’s not to say that these myths have any roots but rather that we have given truth to them by trying to prove them wrong.

As I was listening to the radio on the morning drive today a line from a popular Christian song stuck out at me:
No one wants to listen to
A list of things they shouldn’t do
So I build a city on a hill
And I light a candle on the sill

Spiritual, Not Religious

by Stephen Richard Turley

During the week of Ash Wednesday, the News Journal ran a story entitled, “Priests take ashes on the road,” that recounted how Episcopalian priests were administering ashes to commuters and pedestrians at subway stations and street corners across the country. According to one priest, the motivation for the church going out into the streets was to meet people where they are. It was recognized that people today are more spiritual than religious, that is, they seek God in their own way outside of formal religious institutions. When asked to give an account for why people tend to be more spiritual than religious, one priest attributed this phenomenon to the perceived intolerance that characterizes some churches (of which she did not name) as well as sex-abuse cases in the Catholic Church.

The problem here is that perceived intolerance and sex-abuse cases do not account for the contemporary privatization of spirituality. Besides the fact that ‘intolerance’ is nothing more than a leftist buzzword that is itself the epitome of intolerance, people offended by such actions could always find another religion or church. There is something far more profound going on with the contemporary rejection of religion altogether.

Markell Ready to Help Obama Go Around Congress

The Congressional news source, The Hill has a story out from Friday the 24th that President Obama met with a group of Democratic governor’s to discuss plans to work around Congress.  In it, Delaware’s own Jack Markell said that the governors were ready to join him in helping Obama bypass Congress to achieve Democrat legislative priorities.  Markell said: “There was a sense that none of us should wait, we can’t wait for things to happen in Congress, we’re going to do what we can do [now].”

Markell joins a number of Democrat governors around the country who are ready to begin implementing the President’s agenda at the state level.  Also at the meeting were Jerry Brown (California), Jay Nixon (Missouri), Martin O’Malley (Maryland), Christine Gregoire (Washington), Bev Perdue (North Carolina), Peter Shumlin (Vermont), Neil Abercrombie (Hawaii), Deval Patrick (Massachusetts) and Pat Quinn (Illinois).

Delawareans should be very concerned about this brazen action by Markell.  President Obama’s “job creation” plans have actually led to America losing millions of jobs and billions of dollars which have been “invested” in Obama bundler companies like Solyndra.  This move by Markell signifies that he is ready to do the same thing here and drive an already teetering economy in Delaware into the deepest of the depths.  The move also shows the complete disregard for the Constitution and for the will of the American people that is held by the Democrat Party.

Roys Rants – Priceless

http://jalopnik.com/5887265/tesla-motors-devastating-design-problem

“If the battery is ever totally discharged, the owner is left with what Tesla describes as a “brick”: a completely immobile vehicle that cannot be started or even pushed down the street. The only known remedy is for the owner to pay Tesla approximately $40,000 to replace the entire battery. Unlike practically every other modern car problem, neither Tesla’s warranty nor typical car insurance policies provide any protection from this major financial loss.“
Okay gang, it’s off to Union Park Fisker with me toting a copy of this article.  Or, I could just wait, I’m sure the NJ is hard after finding out if our protected species of electric car is prone to “bricking.”   And what of our beloved Government Motors Volt?    I. L.O.V.E. T.H.I.S. !

I actually followed one of these Tesla runabouts from Hockessin to and through Chateau country the other day, bright yellow it was, tagged LUCCY I think.  Pretty fast off the stop signs, but not that attractive, IMHO.  And if it becomes a brick, well, BWAHAHAHAHA.

Roy’s Rants – What are Carper’s Values?

“At 11:30, Carper will attend the National Prayer Luncheon at Dover Air Force Base. The luncheon is being held to bring people together to reflect and recognize the values upon which the nation was founded.“

We didn’t get an invitation.  What does Sen. Carper say are the values that are nation was founded upon?

http://www.wgmd.com/?p=48817&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

At the risk of sounding trite, or confrontational, or uncivil, or merely cynical, I wonder, is it just me, or is it purely happenstance that he’ll be cutting a ribbon on another taxpayer funded boondoggle, lauding his big-government-is-the-answer self shortly after the luncheon?  Further, on close reading, it is obvious that the values question raised is not something Carper is speaking on, rather, it’s the subject of the gathering, which Carper will surely dodge while nodding reverently …

This six minutes after a story on FNC with a Brig. General who was terminated by his employer, illegally, when he returned from a tour overseas.  He took his case all the way to the US Justice Dept., the court of last resort (in a four or five step process, in which the burden appears to be on the employee), and became a statistic, one of the vast majority of cases that the Obama Justice Dept. declined to even hear.  Did you miss that?   One of the vast majority of cases that the Obama Justice Dept. declined to even hear.  His employer?  Wait for it.  The federal government.

Carper always touts himself as a staunch supporter of the military.  Words or deeds?  A carefully composed, not homogenized question on this serviceman’s loss of employment, and a direct followup would be good on Saturday afternoon.  And combined with the original question by virtue of the timing and the venue — killer!!

Polytech Highlights Problems with Delaware Education

First of all, the thoughts and prayers of everyone with First State Media go out to the folks at Polytech High School who have been rocked by 3 suicides in the last 2 months.

The tragedy at Polytech is the latest in a line of tragic incidents that really highlight the problems within Delaware’s public school system.  At Cape Henlopen High School, a fight ended with threats from a 15 year old boy to shoot up the school and a driver in the same district was removed for disgusting and inflammatory comments made in Facebook postings.  In Newark last year, a student was counseled in school about a previous suicide attempt and his depression only to be allowed to return home with no parental notification.  When his parents returned from work, they found him dead in their home.  A number of teachers have also been arrested in the last few months in Delaware for having sexual relationships with high school students.  The events are all unrelated in their individual natures (although the cause of the 3 suicides at Polytech is unknown) but they do highlight a problem with the school system.  Parental notification or more accurately, a lack there of is a huge miss in the First State.

Most parents can enrapture you with stories of their experiences with teachers and school administrators and the lack of coordination and consultation but these kinds of tragedies only make the issue more plain to the average person.  Further, the problem of communication doesn’t seem to be institutional, that is that private schools (and most charter schools) do not have the same problems with parent/school communication.  In fact, communication among private school parents and the schools their children attend is the best out of all the options.  The most logical reason for the gap between public school communication and private school communication standards is the fact that private schools are often religion based and so they therefore share a common bond with the parents of students that places a high value on the parents staying involved in the child’s educational pursuits.  Also not to be forgotten is the cost of private school education.  Parents paying tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket each year to send their kids to a school tend to want to know the value of their expense.  The question is why is there such a lack of communication between public schools and parents?  Public school exerts more and more influence over our children and their pursuits in not just education but in more and more seemingly unrelated ways.  For instance, schools now influence our children in the area of social interaction, nutrition, belief in faith (the ignorance and expulsion of Creationism while teaching the Darwinian concept of Evolution) and behavior modification.  In fact, schools operate as pseudo parents on a day to day basis in a process that they call “in loco parentis” which basically means “in place of parents”.  This is a commonly held belief among not only public schools but also private schools.