Common Sense: Ray Aalbue

Honoree Ray Aalbue, guest speaker Ken Giradin and U.S. Senate candidate Wendy Long made last week’s Kings County Conservative Party Brunch at the Bay Ridge Manor a very special occasion. Ray received the party’s Ronald Reagan Americanism Award. Ray has done an amazing amount of work on behalf of veterans and the military during a career that has taken him to West Point, Fort Hamilton Army Base and the Veteran’s Administration. Today he is the executive director of the United War Veterans of Kings County which sponsors the oldest Memorial Day Parade in the United States, which kicks off at 11 a.m. at Third Avenue and 78th Street, running to Cannon Ball Park where it concludes with a ceremony.

Ken Giradin is a senior policy analyst with the Empire Center for Public Policy, a leading New York State think tank. Ken made a point of illustrating the extreme bad economy in upstate New York as defined by north of Orange County. He also made special note of the many billions of dollars in taxpayer monies the governor has committed to programs in these areas and the utter failure of the expenditures in bringing about any improvements through the creation of sustainable jobs.

Conservative-Republican U.S. Senate candidate Wendy Long has no problem identifying things she would do differently than Charles Schumer. For starters, she supports a federal policy focused on protecting our borders from those who would cross illegally. Senator Schumer has been a strong proponent of President Obama’s failed border policies. And Long wants the Affordable Health act repealed. Schumer remains silent as insurer after insurer drops out of the exchanges because of the immense costs.

The Conservative Party event was well attended and a credit to Fran Vella-Marrone, David Ryan, Ross Brady and Liam McCabe, the committee who ran the event.

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The Brooklyn Conservative Party with the Boy Scouts will be holding its annual POW-MIA ceremony at the flag pole at Look Out Point at 81st Street and Shore Road on Memorial Day, May 30 at 10 a.m.

The Conservative Party has been presenting a POW-MIA flag to the Parks Department to be flown at this location annually for over 33 years. And in doing so, the party is keeping its solemn pledge that “we will never forget” those who made the ultimate sacrifice and have yet to return home.

This ceremony is a great way to start your Memorial Day. And from the ceremony which is about 20 minutes in length, you can join us in making your way to the Memorial Day parade, in which the Conservative Party will be marching, or just to enjoy being a spectator along the avenue.

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There has been a lot written about the many Democrats that were removed by the Board of Elections from the voting rolls in an effort to clean up a voting list that has been notoriously inaccurate.

Due to the massive interest in the Democratic presidential primary most of the attention has gone to the Democrats who were purged. In fact, 10 percent of the Republicans, 10 percent of the Conservatives, 10 percent of those not enrolled in a political party and 10 percent of everyone else were removed. In the case of the Conservatives, and those many thousands not enrolled in a party, they had no election to participate in on April 19, so if a member of those groups was removed he or she simply would not have known.

I have been assured that in quick fashion all of those who were improperly removed will be restored and if they voted by affidavit their ballot will be counted.

When all is said and done, despite this terrible mishap, the new final voting list will be much more accurate and significantly reduce the chances of fraud come the November election.