… that eventually, they are going to run out of people in Philadelphia who are worth shooting. 251 and counting.  Meanwhile city council members have the energy to worry about what SEPTA is painting on their buses, and the time to stop off and hurl profanities in my general direction.
Category: Politics
Good I-80 Toll Editorial
This CentreDaily editorial is pretty spot on:
Making I-80 a toll road is, at best, a quick fix and would disproportionately affect those living near the swath the highway cuts through the Keystone State countryside from New Jersey to Ohio. Worse, it would greatly expand the authority of the highly inefficient, patronage-laden Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.
Toll booths at the borders — incoming and outgoing — would be less objectionable.
Leasing the turnpike — turning over a valuable asset to a for-profit corporation with less, if any, accountability to the public — is an even worse idea.
Read the whole thing.
Pennsyvlania Sportsmen Divided on Global Warming
Good article about the divide appearing on the global warming issue among sportsmen here in the Keystone State:
An intense debate about whether global warming exists — and what should be done about it — has created a sharp division within Pennsylvania’s largest sportsmen’s organization and threatens its 71-year conservation alliance with the National Wildlife Federation.
The 100,000-member Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs has wrestled with global warming for years. But the issue came to a head in March during the group’s spring convention in Williamsport, where several delegates threatened to quit if an NWF-sponsored resolution recognizing global warming as a serious environmental problem was adopted.
I think there’s a real risk in bringing other parts of the conservative agenda into situations like this. While I would agree sportsmen should reject anything seriously radical, it seems to me recognizing global warming as a serious environmental problem ought not ruffle enough feathers to risk fracturing the coalition.
Bryan Miller Time
Bryan Miller has an editorial going on NJ voices. I’d pick out a quote, but the whole thing really must be read, because it’s a continuous several pages of pants shitting hysterics. I decided to put int he comments:
Wow Bryan. That was the longest hysterical rant I’ve read in a while. I normally won’t touch Anheiser-Busch’s products, because, let’s face it: it’s not good beer. But your post has made me decide maybe I should get a six pack of Bud, if Anheiser-Busch they are so dedicated about protecting my constitutional rights from people like you.
You guys really need to come up with some original arguments. You’re still pushing crap about the 50 caliber rifle being able to destroy things like rail cars, when Sr Vice President of Trinity Trail Group said:
“The assertions put forth about the threat to rail from fifty caliber rifles have no basis in reality. We exhaustively test our chemical rail car designs against all types of firearms, including fifty caliber. In almost all tests the bullet simply bounced off. The worst-case scenario we could demonstrate was a tiny leak equivalent to a hand-valve that wasn’t completely closed. Leaks of that scale happen every day all across America.â€
The type of armor piercing incendiary ammunition that would light anything on fire is not available to the civilian market. Regular ammunition is not generally capable of lighting fires. The 50 BMG is not an explosive round. It’s not much different, ballistically, from other big game hunting rounds of similar caliber.But the rifles that fire the BMG look scary, don’t they. And with many people in New Jersey having absolutely no familiarity with firearms, it sure does make them easy targets for the kind of disinformation your organization likes to push, doesn’t it?
Bryan Miller is also executive director of CeaseFire PA, because it wasn’t enough to destroy everyone’s second amendment rights in New Jersey. Now he has to do it in my state too. Fortunately, unlike New Jersey, we have a very clearly worded right to bear arms provision in our state constitution, and an active shooter community. He will not find his ideas so receptive on this side of the Delaware.
Go register and leave a comment. Be polite, and factual. We can’t let these folks misleading of the public go unanswered.
Homeowners Assocations Governments?
There seems to be some disagreement over the New Jersey Supreme Court’s decision that the first amendment doesn’t apply to homeowners associations. I have no love of homeowners associations. I went out of my way to avoid them when I was buying my home. Why so many homeowners buy homes that force them to enter into contracts to limit the use of their property, I will never understand.
But should they be treated as governments? With all the constitutional limitations imposed as a matter of course? I’m not too sure about that. I don’t see any reason why homeowners shouldn’t be able to enter into contracts with other homeowners over what they can and can’t do with their property. I don’t even have a problem with the owners entering into a contract that specifies that they will follow any rules that the homeowner association passes, even though at that point, the association would be indistinguishable from a government.
If people want to preserve their constitutional rights, and their right to property, there’s an easy solution: tell your potential neighbors who demand you enter into an association contract that they can go to hell, and find yourself a better neighborhood. Otherwise, you decided that having your dream house was more important than your freedom. That should be a choice you’re allowed to make. But I won’t have too much sympathy for folks who complain about it later.
Ed Comes out Swinging
Ed Rendell isn’t happy he’s getting screwed on putting toll booths every 30 miles along I-80.
Mr. Rendell said he “was shocked and disappointed” to learn of the congressional action, which is not yet final. He will urge Democrats in Congress to remove the ban on federal funds for I-80, but he said that may not happen until October.
Meanwhile, he added, “we can’t afford to wait” to find a way to generate nearly $1 billion a year in new funding for fixing roads and bridges and aiding deficit-ridden mass transit agencies, including the Port Authority of Allegheny County.
Ed can’t wait to get his hands on more of your money! But wait, he has a plan B:
Within 30 days he plans to ask private companies to offer bids on how much they would pay to run the Pennsylvania Turnpike for up to 99 years. He thinks such a lease could generate up to $1.7 billion a year for 10 years — considerably more than would be obtained under House Bill 1590.
Lawmakers have resisted the turnpike leasing plan in the past. I may actually not be opposed to it if someone can show me a good plan, and tell me how we’re going to get tolls, which generate 400 million a year in profit now, to generate 1.7 billion a year in profit, without massive toll increases.  I am not as concerned as our legislators about foreigners in the toll booths.  Foreigners work cheap!  You don’t have to speak English well to calculate change!
Either way, this was a great move by the Pennsylvania GOP. Rendell burned a lot of political capital with that furlough of state workers, and it looks like they inked the deal to end the standoff, knowing full well they could block it at the federal level.  Normally I’d call this kind of stuff sleazy, but furloughing state workers to get your way is pretty sleazy too.
Smoking Ban Difficulties
The Senate said no to the smoking ban the house passed a few weeks ago. Ed Rendell and the Democrats want it badly, the Republican controlled senate wants a weaker one. There is some hope for Keystone State smokers:
The House ban required a stricter, more limited list of exceptions than legislation recently approved by the Senate.
Senate legislation allowed smoking at a quarter of casino gambling floors, bars where food is less than one-fifth of the gross sales, addiction treatment centers, nursing homes and other adult-care centers.
The hope is they won’t be able to work out a deal. I’m not so optimistic.  Daine Phillips, of the American Cancer Society says:
“I believe nonsmokers have their rights, too,” Beranek said. “It’s a stinky, filthy, expensive habit.”
Nonsmokers have a right to go somewhere else that caters to their preferences. They have a right to persuade property owners to ban smoking on their property.  Ms. Phillips, I am not, nor have I ever been a smoker, but crapping on people’s freedoms and liberties of free association and property rights, is a filthy expensive habit, that you really ought to break yourself of.
My mother died of Breast Cancer when I was twenty.  But I shall not give another dime to ACS as long as they keep pushing for these smoking bans. Freedom is more important.
Sticking it to Fast Eddie on Tolls
Congress is moving to restrict tolling on I-80, which was the centerpiece of Rendell’s deal to fund transportation in Pennsylvania. For once, folks, Congress does something useful!
“The amount of federal money transferred from the state motor license fund to mass transit funds in Pennsylvania is unprecedented compared to the rest of the country, further underscoring the inequity in the state government’s transportation agencies,†said Peterson, a member of the House Appropriations Committee. His congressional district has numerous counties through which I-80 passes.
I don’t doubt that the amount of money is very high. SEPTA, as an agency, is a total cluster fsck. They put the M in mismanagement.  So now it looks as if there’s a good chance the feds are going to say no to tolling I-80. Any day that starts with Ed Rendell getting screwed is a good day in my book!
Specter Causing Trouble
Via John Lott (who’s book I’m finishing up, and will write a review on shortly), Senator Specter is trying to inflate his own sense of importance again:
Specter, who championed their confirmation, said Tuesday he will personally re-examine the testimony to see if their actions in court match what they told the Senate.”There are things he has said, and I want to see how well he has complied with it,” Specter said, singling out Roberts.
The Specter inquiry poses a potential political problem for the GOP and future nominees because Democrats are increasingly complaining that the Supreme Court moved quicker and more dramatically than advertised to overturn or chip away at prior decisions.
Specter, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, who served as chairman during the hearings, said he wants to examine whether Roberts and Alito have “lived up” to their assurances that they would respect legal precedents.
Hey, GOP leadership, are you regretting throwing Pat Toomey under the bus yet? I am. I’ve always voted for Snarlen Arlen, because the other choices have been worse, but I’ve never enjoyed it.
Road Rage Genocide
Eric takes the Inquirer to task for classifying a felonious violation of numerous state gun laws and laws against murder as a “road rage incident”. Race is coming into the issue.  This could get ugly.
People might take this as a racially charged remark, but so be it: black males are shooting other black males on a daily friggin basis in the City of Philadelphia, and police are having a hard time getting anyone to come forward to finger who’s doing it, or cooperate in investigations. A white guy shoots a black guy, and suddenly there’s outrage, and there must be justice.
Sorry, but if Philadelphia communities don’t start treating black-on-black violence in the city with the same energy and vigor as incidents like this, the body count will continue to increment. Treating murder as a racial issue is the road to hell for the city. Let’s not go farther down that road than we’re already going.