Category: Politics

You Have To Consider Local Standards

Apparently Corzine is out of the hospital.  He had this to say:

“I set a very bad example,” said a contrite Mr. Corzine, who broke his left femur and 11 ribs in the accident, speaking from a wheelchair just outside Cooper University Hospital in Camden, N.J.

His voice breaking with emotion, he added: “I hope the state will forgive me. I will work very hard to set the right kind of example.”

Here at Snowflakes in Hell, we have a loathing distaste for the politics of Governor Corzine, but we’re glad he’s OK, nonetheless, and hope he makes a speedy recovery (no pun intended).  Oh, but wait:

No one in the motorcade used emergency lights, as his driver had been doing at the time of the accident. They kept to a pace of about 70 miles per hour, even though the posted limit is 55 on the stretch of Interstate 295 that leads to Drumthwacket, the governor’s official mansion in Princeton, where Mr. Corzine will spend the next stage of his recovery.

Doing 70 in a 55 eh?   Well, I guess by New Jersey standards that’s really sane driving.  Doing 55 anywhere in Jersey would generally make you a traffic hazard.

Pennsylvania Governor Rendell got into a bit of hot water for having his motorcade do 100MPH down the PA turnpike between Philadelphia and Harrisburg.  It gave new meaning to his nickname “Fast Eddie”.  No news since on whether the Governor has slowed it down.  I suspect after Corzine’s trouble, he has.

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Tax Freedom Day – When are you free?

It’s tax freedom day for a lot of us today. Looks like Pennsylvania’s tax freedom day was last Friday. Bitter’s is today! Washington D.C. still has to work 13 more days to their tax freedom. New Jersey has 11. People in Tennessee were free 15 days ago. Most heavily taxed states?

  1. Connecticut (May 20)
  2. New York (May 16)
  3. New Jersey (May 10)
  4. Vermont (May 9)
  5. Rhode Island (May 9)
  6. Nevada (May 8 )
  7. California (May 7)
  8. Washington (May 6)
  9. Massachusetts (May 6)
  10. Minnesota (May 4)

Least heavily taxed states:

  1. Oklahoma (April 12)
  2. Alabama (April 12)
  3. Mississippi (April 13)
  4. Alaska (April 13)
  5. Tennessee (April 15)
  6. New Mexico (April 15)
  7. Louisiana (April 16)
  8. South Dakota (April 16)
  9. Texas (April 19)
  10. Idaho (April 19)

Pennsylvania appears to be slightly below the average rate of taxation. There’s a handy map, if you follow the link.

Hat tip to Instapundit

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House to House Searches? Why Not

Dan Simpson, a retired diplomat writing in the Toledo Blade, writes:

The disarmament process would begin after the initial three-month amnesty. Special squads of police would be formed and trained to carry out the work. Then, on a random basis to permit no advance warning, city blocks and stretches of suburban and rural areas would be cordoned off and searches carried out in every business, dwelling, and empty building. All firearms would be seized. The owners of weapons found in the searches would be prosecuted: $1,000 and one year in prison for each firearm.

Dan, buddy. If it ever comes to that I’m turning in my ammunition first. I suspect many of my fellow countryman would too. We have a term for the society you envision. It’s called a police state.

There could conceivably also be a rash of score-settling during hunting season as people drew out their weapons, ostensibly to shoot squirrels and deer, and began eliminating various of their perceived two-footed enemies. Given the general nature of hunting weapons and the fact that such killings are frequently time-sensitive, that seems a lesser sort of issue.

Yeah, because the people murdering each other in America are hunters. Not drug dealing gang members. Seriously Dan, how do you call yourself a proud American? Perhaps you’d find Russia, China or some other police state more to your liking.

And how is it that the Toledo Blade thought this was a serious enough editorial as to publish it? Is the Toledo Blade advocating bringing a police state to America? Looks like it to me.

UPDATE: Looks like David found this turd’s article too.
UPDATE: Eugene Volokh too.

This is what happens when I post something before checking other blogs :)

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Terror Watch List Purchase Prohbition is Back

The Senate’s token Dinosaur, Frank Lautenberg, who was well on his way toward fossilization when the NJ Democrats brought him back to life to run in place of Robert Torricelli, is pushing more gun control again. This time, adding the terrorist watch list to NICS:

The Justice Department proposed legislation on Thursday that would give the attorney general discretion to bar terrorism suspects from buying firearms, seeking to close a gap in federal gun laws.The measure, which was introduced by Senator Frank R. Lautenberg, Democrat of New Jersey, would give the attorney general authority to deny a firearm purchase if the buyer was found “to be or have been engaged in conduct constituting, in preparation for, in aid of, or related to terrorism.”

Suspects on federal watch lists can now legally buy firearms in the United States if background checks do not turn up any standard prohibitions for gun buyers, which include felony convictions, illegal immigration status or involuntary commitments for mental illness.

So Bush’s Justice Department is proposing this? More evidence that Bush is a turd when it comes to this issue. The problem with this legislation is that you’re depriving someone of their constitutional rights administratively, without any due process. Lautenberg isn’t treating gun ownership as a right here, he’s treating it as a privilege that’s granted or revoked at the whim of a federal bureaucrat.

Dean Boyd, a spokesman for the Justice Department, said the process took time because it involved delicate issues, including “the protection of sensitive information upon which terrorist watch listings are based, as well as due process safeguards that afford the affected individual an appropriate opportunity to challenge the denial after it is made.”

We call this “prior restraint” and it usually doesn’t fly when it comes to constitutional rights. It’s time to remind the Justice Department, and Frank Lautenberg of another part of the constitution they seem to have forgotten:

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Sorry, some government bureaucrat deciding you belong on a list does not qualify as due process in anyone’s dictionary. Frank Lautenberg should retire. Clearly he’s forgotten the oath he took to uphold the passage stated above.

Hat tip to The Ten Ring

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Single Issue Voter?

Reader KathyH brought up something in the comments about single issue voting, which got me interested.   Just out of curiosity, how many of you folks are single issue voters?

I am not, generally, believe it or not.  I’ve never voted for someone outright hostile to gun-rights, but I have voted for politicians who were less than staunch allies because I agreed with them on other things.  Despite the fact that I think our senior senator, Arlen Specter, is batty and often annoying, I’ve consistently voted for him, because on a lot of other issues, I agree with him on.

I also voted against Rick Santorum, despite is strong support of gun rights, because while I’m willing to accept some token social conservatism, he took the issue to new and insane heights, and I thought he deserved to get kneecapped because of it.

My major issues tend to change from election cycle to election cycle, but 2008 presidential it’s shaping to be:

  • Foreign Policy
  • Supreme Court
  • Smaller government
  • Firearms Policy

I actually suspect 2008 won’t feature much gun control, so I think that issue could end up being off the table.  It will come down to the other three.  I can’t rank in any order, because it depends greatly on how much the candidate offends or supports each view.  My support for Richardson over other Democrats reflects my desire to see gun control completely off the agenda, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t vote for Guiliani over Richardson, if Richardson proposed something like, pulling our of Iraq and leaving the field to Iran and Al-Qaeda.

I’m also very concerned with seeing judges appointed to the Supreme Court who follow what the law says, rather than what they wish it to be.  I tend to agree more with Republicans on this issue than Democrats.  Though I support keeping abortion legal, I don’t favor how the Supreme Court chose to go about doing it.  So I don’t get quite that worked up as your averge Democrat when someone says they think Roe was wrongly decided.

Gun control ranks high in my political calculus, but it’s not overwhelmingly dominant.  This means I will probably never vote for a candidate who is explicitly running on a campaign of gun control, but other things can offend me as well.

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Fred Thompson? Why Not

I’ve heard Fred Thompson say enough good things lately to really start hoping he runs. I am currently registered as a Libertarian, which means I don’t vote in primaries in Pennsylvania, but I would gladly switch my registration to either of the two parties if they can front someone I’d be willing to vote for.

I was thinking I might actually register Democrat so I could vote for Bill Richardson, but if Fred decides to throw his hat into the ring, I’ll register Republican and vote for him. Given that my other choice are the three stooges on the Republican ticket, Thompson seems like he might be a breath of fresh air.

It’s still early yet, and there’s plenty of time to disappoint, but given that Obama might actually beat Hillary, I might find myself hard pressed to find a Republican I won’t vote for given that choice.

UPDATE: Be sure to check out Frank J’s Daily Fred Thompson Fact

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PA Gun Registration – House Bill 760

I have gotten an update on the status of the Pennsylvania Gun Registration bill from Representative Sam Rohrer. Here’s the relevant excerpt:

The provisions of House Bill 760 are, in my opinion, unconstitutional, impractical and simply outrageous. Without question, a requirement to register all firearms with the State Police, to submit to fingerprinting, to provide full home address and social security number or be guilty of a summary offense as House Bill 760 would require, is an example of the clear violation of the citizen’s right to keep and bear arms. For any member to sponsor, cosponsor or support legislation that clearly infringes upon constitutionally identified and guaranteed rights raises a serious question as to whether this action violates the oath that Members took to defend and protect the citizen’s rights as guaranteed in the Constitutions of the United States and of Pennsylvania.

House Bill 760 would not only impose a violation of our constitutional rights through invasive government requirements, it would also tax our right to own firearms through a $10.00 tax to be levied every year on each firearm.

On Wednesday, April 18, 2007, Representative Caltagirone, who is the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, was quoted in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. In reference to the House Bill 760 moving out of Judiciary Committee, Representative Caltagirone said, “It’s not going anywhere.” His decision has much to do with the responses from each and every one of you.

Good work on both the part of Representative Rohrer and Pennsylvania gun owners. But he goes on to remind us that we have to remain vigalilent. It’s been my opinion that HB 760 was never meant to get anywhere, but serves as political cover for one-gun-a-month. By giving gun rights advocates something to focus their energies on, that had no chance of passing, it would wear us out in the fight to make sure gun rationing never becomes law in the commonwealth.

I think he’s right this bill isn’t going anywhere, but beware of gun rationing. That issue won’t go away.

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Gun Rights Conference Today in Harrisburg

The Allegheny County Sportsman’s League (sort of like PA’s version of VCDL) is holding a Gun Rights Conference today in Harrisburg:

We all knew the challenges we would face after last year’s election and our darkest fears are being realized. The only way to defeat this is to join together once again and show those who would take our freedoms that we will not yield.

We will join together for an early preemptive strike on our issues by having a lobbying and education day, focusing on freshmen legislators, and connect that with launching our pro-gun agenda, as we did last year. Members of the Pennsylvania grassroots and gun owner’s coalition, which has been so successful for us on other issues, met with Representative Daryl Metcalfe in early December to devise a strategy for the upcoming session so that we would be prepared to deal with these issues. The date we have agreed upon is April 24th and we will combine our meeting and lobbying with another Pro-Gun Press conference to introduce our pro-gun/pro-sportsmen agenda of legislation. We can also use this opportunity to excoriate the anti-gun forces, legislators and issues.

I went to the last rally at Harrisburg last September, where the house defeated, pretty overwhelmingly, the gun control wishlist of the Philadelphia politicians in the Committee of the Whole.  I feel bad that I can’t get to this one to cover it, especially given that I have a freshman state representative, but I could end up short on vacation this year.  Maybe next time.

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New Scapegoat – Global Warming?

The really sad thing about this editorial is that I’m not certain whether it’s for real or a joke.  If they were talking about any other politician, I would assume a joke.  But according to this, John Street is about to blame Philadelphia’s murder rate on global warming.

I really think it’s satire, but since the city government is the biggest joke in the universe, it’s hard to tell for sure.

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