“States Rights”
Yep. Hate it. States don’t have rights. People have rights. States have powers. In order to protect the former, we place limits on the latter.
Category: Politics
Are You Kidding Me?
Pennsylvania has long held its primary so late as to be nearly irrelevant in national politics at the primary level. By the time Pennsylvanians get around to voting, the pool of candidates has already been largely decided by other states. That’s why this quote from the Pennsylvania Republican Chair, Robert Gleason, pisses me off to no end:
With an older electorate, do we really want to force our voters out during conditions that could jeopardize their health and safety?
Are you serious? Look, I’m already quite sick of having to constantly bend over “for the children”, and my useless contributions to the various government run pyramid schemes social security systems annoys me enough as it is in regards to our “older electorate”, but this has to take the cake. Let’s make Pennsylvania relevant! We’re the 6th largest state in the union, and I think we should count for something.
Other HR2640 Considerations
Other considerations to consider when discussing who really won what in regards to HR2640 is what the NRA gains from this politically. It won’t just be the Brady’s who can declare victory. If anything, Brady is more of a loser here.
For one, you have pro-gun guys like Boucher, who are Democrats, and who represents the district Virginia Tech is located in. He’s a good guy on guns, so he’s not going to want to stiff us, but he also needs to be seen as “doing something” in regards to the tragedy. There are a lot of politicians who are in that boat right now. The NRA has now given those folks something that they can take home to their districts and say “We strengthened the federal background check system” to the people who demand action, and can say “The NRA said it was OK because we’re giving people a chance to clear their name let them buy guns again” to their RKBA constituents. Those are a bunch of legislators who, right now, probably feel pretty good about the NRA, and will be a lot more willing to listen the next time NRA comes calling.
From a political point of view, if I were working in NRA federal affairs, I would view this as a good opportunity to build some rapport with certain factions of the Democratic Party, rebuild some old relationships and maybe make some new friends. We’re probably going to be dealing with a Democratic Congress for a while, whether we like it or not. It’s good to have a working coalition that can help the gun rights movement move forward, or at the very least not move backwards. A lot of the moderate dems will really appreciate this deal, and that’s something to build on. Politics is very much an “I’ll scratch your back today, if you’ll help scratch my back tomorrow” game. It sucks that we have to do this with our constitutional rights, but it’s the game we’re stuck playing for now.
The Democrat’s Budget Strategy
From Tony Phyrillas blog, we get a view of a memo that outline’s the Pennsylvania Democrat’s tactic to wear down the Republicans and force them to accept tax hikes to cover Rendell’s bloated 27.3 billion dollar spending plan.
Rewriting History
Over at Classical Values, they are talking about rewriting Philadelphia history for the sake of political correctness.
Shift This, Ed!
Rendell is proposing another tax shift plan. Truth be told, I like it better than the last one, but hey, how about we cut spending to fund property tax relief?  There’s plenty of states that get away with a far lower tax burden, that have just as many big cities as Pennsylvania does (think Texas).
Gov. Ed Rendell is advocating a 1 percentage point increase in the state sales tax to deliver more than $1 billion in property tax cuts, his office said Wednesday.Spokesman Chuck Ardo confirmed the governor’s position, which Rendell stated on KDKA Radio host Kevin Miller’s show earlier this week.
In his February budget address, Rendell proposed using about two-thirds of the revenue from a sales tax boost to balance his spending plan. The remainder would have been used to offset property tax cuts.
No, no, you don’t get to use 2/3rds of the increase to fund your pet spending projects.  That either all goes to other tax relief, or you can go to hell. I am quite sick of having my taxes increased to cover spending increases.
The Spin is Making Me Dizzy
More spin on local New York media from McCarthy’s office.
“Rep. McCarthy supports what Bloomberg is doing with gun issues. It’s true the NRA supported today’s legislation, but for different reasons than we did. They wanted quicker access to guns for their members.”
The reason you supported it is because it’s all you could get, and when given the choice between not eating and gruel, you chose gruel. I suppose to someone who hasn’t seen a meal for quite some time, it’s easy to argue that gruel is pumpkin pie.
What I’m Settling On
After thinking about this NICS deal, and how it seems to be playing out, I’ve decided that it’s not really much to get worked up about at this point, either for good or for ill. The Democrats had a chance to build some trust and rapport with the shooting community, after years of sticking it to us, and they are failing.
While I think this deal does some good things, this was a good opportunity for the Democrats to address some real issues with the system, and help allay some of our long time concerns with it.  I’m not going to demand the Democrats dismantle all federal gun controls, make it legal for me to own a machine gun, or anything like that. I know what the political realities are. But there are some very legitimate issues in regards to the mental health and misdemeanor prohibitions, just in regards to language and rule clarifications, that I think could have been addressed here, that were not. Taking this in combination with Carolyn McCarthy being sponsor of this bill, they have slapped us in the face.
Am I going to pull out all the stops to oppose this bill? Well, not unless they tack on something more onerous to it. As it stands now, it’s not a bad deal, it’s just not nearly as good as I think it could have been. Am I mad at the NRA? No. I think the bill could have been a real problem for us, and they at least managed to turn it into something that’s, even if only minimally, a good deal. Am I convinced the Democrats have finally given up on gun control and are now our friends? Not by a long shot. If the Democratic party wants to impress folks like me, who certainly have no love or affection for the Republican Party, they are going to have to work a lot harder than this.
War on Dogs
Eric at Classical Values has an excellent post about the war on dogs.
Do We Have to Spell it Out?
Apparently the PA house wants to add “Commonwealth of Pennsylvania” to the state flag, just in case we weren’t sure. You know, if this is what you folks in Harrisburg have time to debate, I’m thinking a part time legislature sounds like a good way to save the state some money. Oh well, I guess it’s better than spending time raising taxes yet again.