bil14ga

Bipartisian my a$$. We alll know Moore has an agenda. As far as healthcare goes.... If you want to save it we need tort reform. Until then the middle class will not have affordable health care. I say middle class because it is the middle class that fund the healthcare system for the poor but do not have healthcare for themselves. Think of the last time you watched TV and did not see an ad for a class action law suit for this or that medically. Also look at the costs to be a physician/hospital and cover insurance. I agree that there are many stories of justified law suits for medical malpractice, but the payouts are over the top. As far as France and the "free nanny." Lets face it, nothing in this world is truely free. Also, as wonderful as France is, why do they have such a high unemployment rate? Look at the employment rates for most of the EU countries. They are very high as well. The US currently has a very low unemployment rate and tends to be very dynamic encominically. While I agree that the USA is not perfect, it is better than most if not the best. I welcome the oppurtunity to debate such issues as this. I believe that Moore has the right to produce any and all propaganda he wishes. I also believe that it is my right to refuse to view his movie and in turn support him and his liberal views.

A couple of years ago, I realized that the bottles were getting trashed. I took 3" hose and used it to cover the bottles dujring training. Dave Walsh rote an article about it a year or so ago. The reason why the bottles are getting trashed is because of what they are made of. The current bottles are carbon fiber which is a very strong pooduct that is also very light. I have a goalie mask made of carbon fiber. The older bottles were made of kevlar, which is also a strong product but not as light as carbon fiber. Carbon fiber is very easily damaged when something sharp is run accross it. Examples are when we do drag type rescues of a downed firefighter, rubbing in SCBA brackets, or in the case of my mask a skate hits it. In the case of the SCBA brackets, try using a household sponge in the bracket where the wearing occurs. Just duct tape it in and it should take care of it. Hope this helps. Chris

It means geeting rid of the waste that local governments preform that are duplicated at the county level. Example: In Dutchess County, each local town has its own assessors office complete with record management. This is also true for each local town. Also each town has a tax collector. Often these tax collectors have to go to the county and pay the county for the bill that you get in the mail. Seems silly and a waste. As far as the fire departments, we could get rid of alot of equipment that is not really needed. In a county like Dutchess, do we really need all of these rescue trucks that we have. I say no. Merging services could save us the tax payers a huge amount of money. This is not just at the fire department level, but all levels of government.

From what I have seen the new material will be much better. Currently there are a number of states that use the Delmar material. As for low bid, Delmar is a very good publisher and put out a nice product. The one thing that you will notice is that this book is specific to New York State. I do not know how others feel but I thought the current text was poor at best.

I worked at Alamo in the mid 90's when shootings and stabbings were a frequent occurrence. Myself as well as a number of the other Alamo employees wore vests for a level of protection. Buffy? Maybe. But at the same time I did go to a number of scenes where they were declared safe by the PD and went south quickly, including one scene where a Mac 10 was found by me as I rolled over a patient. At the same time there are scenes that are OK to go into and the perp sticks around unknowingly to the responder. Remember the Philadelphia incident where a paramedic was treating a shooting victim in the back of the bus. The perp entered the back of the bus and proceeded to shoot the initial victim dead and then shot the medic as well. Something to think about. Be safe out there.

Agreed!!!!!!

For your information, I have been President of my local, Secretary for my local, attended numerous district meetings at the state level, and lead negotiations for two contracts. I sat at a state convention a few years back and listened to the IAFF General President tell us all that the union was going to try to support candidates that more reflected the values of the membership as a whole. Soon thereafter the IAFF was supporting Kerry right out of the gates. While I agree the IAFF took a step forward by inviting all of the candidates, my fear is that the IAFF will again support a candidate that does not reflect my values. I also seem to find that most of my fellow IAFF members that I speak to, both inside and outside my local tend to have similar (not to be confused with identical) values as myself. I will admit that I am a registered Republican, but I am not afraid to vote outside the party line. I have done so in the past, and will most likely do so in the future. The candidate that the IAFF supports should be the right candidate for our country at this point and time in our history to get my support, and hence my vote.

As an eight year member of the IAFF, I am very disappointed with the leadership of the union during the last 2 presidential election cycles. I always gave to the FirePac as I thought it was important to support it with my money. When the union supported John (JFK) Kerry, I stopped giving to FirePac as I began to see that what we preach as brother and sister firefighters did not matter to the leadership of the union. I will not give to FirePac again. To be brief, Kerry turned his back on men still in the war zone. This is something firefighters would never do. Why does this matter when we are talking about Hillary? The union should look at the individual it supports and consider some questions… Would this person be a person that you would want in your chief’s office with all the gold on leading you and your fellow firefighters in the fire house? Would you want that person next to you searching the room or humping a line into the fire room? Most of all, would you want that person to sit next to you when something goes wrong? Will that person sell you out to save their own skin? When I ask these questions and put Hillary’s name in equation I always seem to answer “NO.” So the question is, why do we as a union support such candidates?

Emplorer is required to offer them and pay for them if the series is given to the employee. The employee has the right to refuse the series if he/she wishes.

Not a problem about the whole age range thing, but can you break up that 35-44 thing. I feel so old now!!!

A request for a 10-35 is a request for off duty career FIREFIGHTERS and volunteer staff to return to the station. In the Fairview Fire District a 10-35-1 is for 1 firefighter and 1 officier. A 10-35-2 is for 2 firefighters and 1 officer. 10-35's in other career departments will bring different amounts of manpower depending on each departments SOP. 10-35's are requested when there are incidents that have prolonged scene times, during mutual aid calls in an attempt to cover our own district, etc.

The Rangers will be starting Weeks tonight. Guess "The King" could not handle it between the pipes!!! BTW Lets Go Flyers!!!!

Are you guys kidding me? It will be the Flyers all the way. BTW Ranger look good this afternoon!!!