NY-03: Peter King - Knee-jerk reactionary
by Dave Mejias for Congress [Subscribe]
Mon Aug 28, 2006 at 08:54:30 AM PDT
In a recent Newsday article, Peter King endorsed a proposal to base our airport security on a full-scale racial profiling program. This is a cheap election year stunt aimed at motivating King's ultra-conservative base, NOT at increasing security. The security of our country is a serious problem that requires significant thought and practical answers. King has repeatedly shown that he cares little for coming up with a real solution.
Then, Peter King (probably stung by the criticism he received) dramatically reversed himself. During an appearance on Fox News Sunday, King's new opinion was that airport screeners should merely take into account a person's ethnicity as part of the threat equation in combination with displayed behavioral characteristics. His initial position followed by his subsequent flip-flop further proves that King, the Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, has no serious solutions for our nation's flawed security procedures.
A blanket policy to require all people of Middle Eastern and South Asian descent to undergo additional security checks at our nation's airports is ineffective, senseless and counter productive to the war on terror. National and local law enforcement officials agree that targeting people for increased scrutiny only because of their race, ethnicity, national origin or religion is ineffective policing, negligent and dangerous.
Let me put that more clearly: Peter King wants to implement an idea that just doesn't work.
Ray Kelly, the current NY Police Department Commissioner who eliminated a similar racial profiling program, put forth a successful security-screening practice that focuses on specific behavioral patterns to trigger increased scrutiny. Kelly's program resulted in fewer searches and more effective results. I support Kelly's policy and believe it should be used as the benchmark for our nation's security efforts because racial profiling is a mediocre tool that hinders law enforcement.
Despite his rhetoric, Peter King has only delivered security failures and disappointments to the residents of New York. In addition to his support for racial profiling, funding for New York's security and anti terrorism efforts have been cut by 40% under King's watch and he failed to get the Republican Congress to support a budget increase of formula-based anti-terrorism grants for high threat and high density areas. All of these failures prove that Peter King is ineffective, irrelevant or asleep at the switch in Congress.
Peter King has said he is planning to run his campaign on his homeland security credentials. He may want to reconsider.
Dave Mejias
Democrat for Congress, NY-03
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7 comments:
Isn't it interesting that Mejias hasn't commissioned a single poll or rather, released its contents, since his first poll showed him down 50-34, yet he tried to spin it by saying that it shows a lot of strength for his candidacy? A serious candidate would know that a benchmark poll needs to be done and the next poll would need to be taken no more than 3 weeks later to monitor progress. Seems to me that Mejias sees his candidacy going no where fast.
Dave,
Don't play the game of misrepresenting context or repeating the misrepresentations of others. I'm a lifelong Democrat. I disagree with Pete King on a lot, but no one has represented me better. You have a great future in politics, but don't blow it by taking potshots at Pete King. There's a reason why even us Democrats have voted overwhelmingly for him. We believe in him. Be a statesman in this campaign, not a schmuck. Whichever way you go, we'll remember. Suggest you try the statesman route.
We are waiting to see some polling numbers coming from Mejias' camp. Come on Johnny you've got your finger on the pulse of this rag-tag campaign, let us see the numbers. You talk a lot of crap on your website, give us something to back it up. Anything!
I guess I shouldn't be holding my breath for those poll numbers huh Johnny.
It's fascinating that all of the Dave Mejias criticism comes from "anonymous" bloggers. I'm proud to sign my name and express that as a life-long Democrat, I am embarrassed that Pete King is my 'voice' in Congress. As Chair of Homeland Security Committee, are we as New Yorkers and Americans 5 years safer? King makes very loud, public stances that add up to nothing more than PR like his fantatical anti-immigration stance because, somehow he connects Mexicans with the 9-11 terrorists (even though NONE of the 9-11 terrorists came though Mexico)? He is perfectly happy to continue his support of this nightmare of a war in Iraq with no need for an end, forget about a woman's right to choose or support of the Arts, Education, Energy Alternatives, or Stem Cell Research. No, Pete King is happier spending his time "taking care of the counting" in elections - you don't believe me? http://www.solarbus.org/election/cd/test/videos.html
I hope Mejias rides the tidal wave of American anger against this inept Congress to victory in November.
To the questions that there is no poll posted, it took just a minute for me to find this.
RT Strategies and Constituent Dynamics poll conducted between Oct. 8-10, Mejias has 46% and King has 48%. The margin of error of the poll is +/- 2%.
Good for you Jessica, you really cut through all the baloney out there...when you have an opinion, stand by it, put your name on it and take the heat, if any..."anonymous" has the feel of Nixonian dirty politics...and that's what sending David Mejias to congress is going to change!
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