This is Bill Nojay, my Republican New York State Assemblyman, former right-wing radio personality, and teabagging jackass. Bill is on the floor of the Assembly with a legitimate beef: the New York State SAFE Act, which regulates assault weapons, was jammed through the Assembly at the last minute and it has some stupid provisions. I have a couple of Democratic gun-owning friends who are pretty pissed about it, because it mandates seven-round magazines that you can’t get for a whole bunch of guns, which essentially makes them illegal. It also was poorly written and could be construed to cover cops, which it shouldn’t. All in all, it was the usual hash from one of the most dysfunctional legislative bodies in the nation, and the magazine provision in particular makes it very hard for gun owners to determine if they’ll be following the law when it goes into effect on April 15. So it needs to be clarified by amendment, or perhaps a court will strike it down.
Of course, if Nojay stood up on the Assembly floor and made those points, he wouldn’t be the subject of a post on Maddowblog. He went on to say this:
Let me state what the reaction has been to this act once the people north of the Bronx, and with the exception of the People’s Republic and certain other little hotspots of Upstate, the rest of us have demanded that our elected county clerks will not administer this law. Our sheriffs, elected by the people, will not enforce this law. Our juries, who are the people, will not convict under this law. And our citizens, being free citizens and not subjects, will not obey this law.
By “People’s Republic”, he means Tompkins County, which contains Ithaca, home of Cornell and a lot of hippies. (It don’t mean a thing if you can’t punch a hippie.) But that last part is the topper. I’ve heard some grumbling, but nobody is upset enough to make sheriffs and county clerks ignore the law. I’m sure I’m not the only voter who will be goddamed if I’ll ever vote for a clerk or sheriff who wouldn’t enforce a law passed by the Assembly and signed by the Governor. And as for the jury, judges are also elected out here, and I’ll be similarly goddammed if I vote for a judge who wouldn’t set aside a verdict by a jury that willfully ignores the law.
My presence in Bill’s district is due to an act of gerrymandering-his district is full of rural Republicans, and my Democratic suburb was added in because New York has a lot more urban and suburban Democrats than rural Republicans. Bill would be yakking on the radio without having a district with boundaries that defy reason. Instead, he’s advocating jury nullification and rebellion by elected officials who are sworn to uphold the law. That’s how low New York Republicans have fallen.
Crossing the Douchebag Line and Immigrating into AssholevillePost + Comments (59)