Politics – Page 413 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Turnpike Leasing – Pissing Off The Right People

I suspect the Governor may be doing right when I see things like this:

Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell’s initiative to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike was instantly panned by the state Turnpike Authority and union workers who operate toll booths on that road. A majority of New Jersey residents oppose Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine’s idea to lease the Garden State Parkway to cut the state’s debt or lower property taxes, according to a January poll.

People from New Jersey, the Turnpike Commission and the toll workers unions are against it?Â Sounds like it might be worth a try if you ask me.Â Personally, I’d rather just rip the damned tolls up entirely, but I’m willing to give leasing a try for a bit.Â They certainly would have a hard time doing a worse job of maintaining the Turnpike than the Turnpike Commission currently does.

Slot Troubles

Several spurned suitors for a coveted license to operate a gambling establishment in PA are suing to have the deliberations opened up.

The rejected applicants will get a chance to make those points in person on May 15, when the state Supreme Court hears oral arguments on challenges to the slots licenses awarded Dec. 20 by state gambling regulators.

Their arguments were outlined in briefs dozens of pages long filed Monday with the court. Separate confidential briefs were also filed, containing information from the applicant’s files that the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has withheld from public view.

The gaming board will have a chance to respond in its own briefs to the Supreme Court, which are due April 23. A spokesman said Tuesday that the agency is confident it will prevail in court.

“The board is sure that the record will support its decisions and that the process used to determine awards was not only designed to assure fairness to all parties, but was applied consistently by us throughout the licensing process,” spokesman Doug Harbach said in a statement.

The record they are so sure is fair that they don’t want to open it to public scrutiny?Â I smell a rat.

DeNaples, a politically connected businessman with interests in landfills, auto parts and real estate, was repeatedly allowed to skirt rules designed to allow competitors to critique each other’s plans, Matzel’s group said.

Changes to DeNaples’ application continued practically up until the gaming board’s vote, almost a week after the panel was to have stopped considering any new material, Matzel’s group said.

Nothing to see here.Â Please move along.

How They Think Outside of Philadelphia

Berks County is close to Philadelphia, but does not border it.Â The County Seat is Reading.Â Â But they have a Sheriff who, unlike John Street and Ed Rendell, can face reality:

Berks County Sheriff Barry J. Jozwiak asked a panel of state lawmakers in Reading on Thursday to shoot down any legislation that would limit handgun purchases, claiming it would not curb crime or gun violence.

That had to have given the Philadelphia pols, and Mayor McMahon a heart attack.Â But it gets better:

Jozwiak, a Republican, said he opposed a bill that would limit people to buying one handgun per month.

Instead of passing new gun laws, Jozwiak said, police and judges should enforce existing laws.

â€œGun control does not reduce crime,â€ Jozwiak said. â€œIn fact, criminals prefer their victims to be unarmed.â€

Jozwiak even criticized a proposal that would require gun owners to notify police if their handguns were lost or stolen.

Supporters believe that would reduce instances of people buying guns, turning them over to criminals and then claiming that the gun was lost or stolen.

Jozwiak said such a law would punish honest, law-abiding gun owners who didnâ€™t realize that their guns were missing.

Sheriff Jozwiak isn’t alone:

State Rep. Jim Cox, a Spring Township Republican, said he would not support the one-handgun-per-month legislation because it chips away at gun ownersâ€™ rights and could lead to more drastic restrictions.

â€œI want people to have the sheer, unadulterated ability to defend themselves,â€ Cox said. â€œIf they want to go out and buy 20 weapons to protect themselves because there has been a crime wave in their neighborhood, I donâ€™t want to restrict them.â€

Why not?Â You know the criminals don’t have any problems doing the same. Â I’m glad to see once you get out of The City, politicians start having more sense.Â The City of Philadelphia continues to make guns the scapegoats for their crime epidemic, rather than, you know, criminals.

Licsensing Rights

Cathy Young gives us a strong reminder of why free societies don’t license rights:

In March, Putin signed a decree merging two existing federal agenciesâ€”one for media oversight and the protection of culture, the other for telecommunications monitoringâ€”into a single body, the Federal Service for the Oversight of Mass Communications and Protection of Cultural Heritage. It is perhaps no accident that the Russian word for “oversight” used in the agency’s name, nadzor, has a somewhat sinister ring for a Russian speaker: It commonly refers to the supervision of a prisoner. The new agency, which will start its work in about three months, will oversee and license broadcasters, the print media, and websites.

Now, what’s the likelihood that broadcasters, print media and bloggers who have a rather unfavorable view toward Vladimir Putin are going to be able to get this license?

Best Fark Headline

I loved this one:

Good news: Philadelphia is in line to meet another one of its milestones. Bad news: A milestone that means Philly is on par to hit 400 murders in one year. Guns don’t kill people, Eagles fans kill people.

Hah!

John Street’s Sense of Irony

John Street is holding a conference with other area mayors, talking about ways they can crap all over lawful gun owners in this commonwealth (and other states). I particularly like the headline here “Mayor Street Hosts Area Mayors for Anti-Gun-Violence Summit”. So does that mean the mayor would be happy if people were getting their skulls bashed in with baseball bats? The problem in Philadelphia is violence in general, not just the guns. But here’s where the irony comes in:

Mayor Street and about a dozen regional mayors were holding a daylong summit on Friday at the National Constitution Center on how to curb gun violence.

Emphasis mine. The National Constitution Center? Are you friggin kidding me? I think we have to remind the mayor of something. First federal, Amendment II:

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

Now the Pennsylvania Constitution, Art. 1, Â§ 21:

The right of the citizens to bear arms in defence of themselves and the State shall not be questioned.

Emphases mine, just in case John Street thinks that part isn’t clear. But does Mayor Street get the irony of his venue?

Street wants the mayors to work for stricter gun laws — especially in Pennsylvania, whose gun laws Street called “lax.”

Nope.

Act 71

Let me just clarify my position on Act 71. The way it stands now, I don’t think it’s acceptable, but I don’t want to go back to just making gambling flat out illegal, nor do I like the folks who are fighting it. The folks coming out against Act 71 are doing it because they think gambling is bad and immoral, at the root. I’m doing it, because I don’t appreciate Ed Rendell using legalized gambling to help line the pockets of his political cronies, and I’d like to see it being done differently so that’s there’s less government and less politics involved in the process.

I’ve never bought Ed Rendell’s justification for passing Act 71; that it’ll bring in enough revenue to offset other taxes. I have no problem with the state taxing gambling, or licensing establishments for gambling, provided the licensing requirements are objective and free from political influence of powerful people. But it was was about revenue for me. I would have been happy with a “because we’re not your fucking parents” justification for liberalizing the commonwealth’s gambling laws.

Casino Shenanigans

While I favor the legalization of slots within The Commonwealth, commonly referred to Act 71, I don’t really appreciate the fact that Ed Rendell seems to be using the act to pay off political favors:

Boyd Gaming Corp and its partners submitted an application to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board late December 2005 to open a Slots Parlor and high-rise hotel on a 125 acre plot in Limerick, PA, just off the Sanatoga exit of Rte. 422 and adjacent to an outlet mall proposed by Chelsea Property Groups. A major partner to Boyd in this proposal is David Sweet, the former campaign manager for Gov. Rendell. The site for the proposed casino is not currently zoned for such a use.

Now, I don’t agree with the folks I linked to that Act 71 ought to be repealed. I think it needs some reform, but I do favor gambling being generally legal, so I think it’s a step in the right direction. The problem with the act is, there’s not enough protection to keep politicians like Governor Rendell from milking the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board for their own benefit.

My proposal would be getting the gaming control board out of the business of approving casinos. They should be licensed the same way liquor establishments are, and whether they ought to be approved for zoning left up to the local communities. I’d like to see the GLCB merely implementing regulations and taxes on gambling establishments as authorized by the state legislature. Anything more is going to invite cronyism.

Because I Don’t Already Pay Too Much

From Captain Ed, we learn the Democrats want to enact the largest tax increase in US history:

The bill set to reach the House floor today (resembling the Senate version) would raise taxes an average of $1,795 on 115 million taxpayers in 2011. Some 26 million small-business owners would pay an average of $3,960 more. The decreased number of Americans subject to income taxes would all pay higher taxes, and 5 million low-income Americans would be returned to the rolls.

But it’s going to go to balancing the budget right?

The House version would increase non-defense, non-emergency spending by $22.5 billion for next fiscal year, with such spending to rise 2.4 percent in each of the next three years. To pay for these increases, the resolution would raise taxes by close to $400 billion over five years — about $100 billion more than what was passed in the Senate.

The Democrats are just as bad or worse than the boneheads they replaced.Â I already pay way too much in taxes to the federal government, upward is really not the direction I want to see my tax bill going.Â Apparently the Republicans have decided that they need to give more than lip service to cutting government and fiscal responsibility:

Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the fifth-termer who is the House Budget Committee’s new ranking Republican, has proposed an alternative resolution. It not only retains Bush tax cuts but also proposes deep reductions in spending, protects Social Security payments and runs down the national debt.

Heh.Â The authors closing statement sums up my feelings exactly: “Why was no such resolution advanced during the 12 years the GOP was in the majority?”Â Good question!

We already knew she was a hypocrite…

… for having a concealed weapons permit when Diane Feinstein herself is a huge advocate of taking guns away from ordinary Americans. She’s apparently used her power in congress to make millions for her husband’s firm too.

Feinstein is and always has been a piece of garbage, and ought to do the honorable thing and resign. I don’t think she has an ounce of honor in her though, so I’m not expecting much.

I’m really glad the Democrats took over from those corrupt money grubbing Republicans, let me tell you. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.