SNUG is Gun Spelled Backwards. That’ll Be $4m Please

Yesterday, my liberal gun pal opined that the Tea Party’s spending cut lust could send America toppling into another recession. “If you let people hang onto their money, they’ll just spend it on cheap goods from abroad. At least the government spends the money here in America.” Oh yeah? When I was steering TTAC, I unearthed the fact that over half of the cars Uncle Sam purchased in an emergency measure to help Detroit were hecho en Mexico. Besides, the U.S. government is too damn big. In my world, the ATF, DOE and IRS would all be gone. As would all the billions of dollars channeled to “community organizers”; ensuring that every man, woman and child in America gets a suckle on Uncle Sam’s tit. Programs with zero accountability that create a culture of dependency. Like . . . Operation SNUG. Which is guns spelled backwards. And stands for the following, I shit you not . . .

Operation SNUG stands for:

S:  Street intervention and stopping the violence

•    violence interrupters and outreach to high-risk youth

•    support for and coordination with police and law enforcement

•    clearly communicating community values against shootings and violence

•    engaging schools and educators as part of the solution

N:  National, state and local funding support

•    funding for all alternatives

•    legislation to help implement solutions

•    public and private support for intervention and prevention as part of the response

U:  Use of celebrities and centers

•    development of a comprehensive public relations effort, including celebrity PSAs and materials

•    reopening and revitalization of existing community centers, creation of new bunkers and community “safe haven” storefronts for youth

G:  Gangs, guns, gainful employment

•    real-world gang awareness and prevention initiatives

•    new efforts to stop the spread of illegal guns, including new law enforcement efforts targeting “middlemen” and gun-running

•    connections to employment and economic alternatives

Thank you New York State Senator Malcolm A. Smith, a man who knows that taxpayer-funded pork is best served with a side order of self-righteousness and big tall glass of sanctimoniousness. And that the final fate of that pork is best shrouded in secrecy, lest the people providing the pig discover that the guardians of the public interest are the main if not only snouts at the trough. Or something like that.

One things for sure: the beneficiaries of SNUG sure didn’t spend their—I mean “our” money on their website. Which provides no clues as to how, when and where the .org spent their $4m annual budget.

Obviously that’s not much money in the grand scheme of things. But as my father used to say, four million here, four million there and pretty soon you’re talking about real money. Besides, I bet the cops could do more with that money to stop gang crime than an army of organizers, with or without Al Sharpton’s blessing.