Politics – Page 418 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Public Campaign Financing Pilot Program in PA

I’ve never been in favor of public financing of campaigns, because of one very simple reason:

Independents can also participate in the program, but would get less money.

And everyone thought that public financing will clean up politics.Â It will not.Â Â It’ll just allow the current set of politicians and government bureaucrats decide who will get the money.Â That’s too much power to have in the hands of government anyway.

The desire to get special interests out of politics is a desire of those in power to insulate themselves from criticism, and not have to work as hard to hold their seats.Â Everyone is a special interest, and we have a constitutional right to lobby our government, and I do believe that means I have a right to give however much money I want, either directly, or through interest groups, in support of candidates who agree with me on the issues.

Losing Liberty, One Step at a Time

Well, Philadelphia City Council passed the sucker:

Trans fats would be banned in Philadelphia eateries beginning in September under legislation unanimously approved by City Council Thursday.

City Council passed a bill sponsored by Councilman Juan Ramos 17-0, sending it to Mayor John F. Street. If signed into law, eating establishments would be banned from using oils, shortenings and margarine containing artificial trans fats for frying or in spreads on Sept. 1, and for all other uses the following year.

Or not:

Those who fail to comply would not be fined under the legislation, which Ramos’ office said was being used more as an educational campaign.

Seriously, I couldn’t make this crap up if I tried.

Pelosi is a Liar

Anyone who thinks Nancy Pelosi cares about the environment or global warming is kidding themselves.Â We’ve all heard about her request for a C-32 (Boeing 757) aircraft for her own personal use.Â Her claim now is:

Hastert, an Illinois Republican, flew in a small commuter-sized jet. Pelosi and her aides say that because her congressional district is in California, her security would require a larger plane that can fly coast to coast without refueling.

“It’s not a question of size, it’s a question of distance,” Pelosi said Wednesday. “We want an aircraft that can reach California.”

You are so full of crap you reek, Nancy.Â The Air Force has several other more economical options, if you bothered to look, that have the range to make it to California unrefueled.Â Â But you probably did look didn’t you?Â Â You just want the C-32, because you’re Nancy Pelosi.Â Well, screw you.Â It’s my tax money that makes those birds fly, and as far as I’m concerned, your staffers and VIPs can fly commercial.

I barely buy the security argument that justifies Pelosi flying on air force jets.Â But if it’s going to happen, she can do with a lesser plane.Â If the C-21 was good enough for hauling Denny Hastert’s fat ass around, as far as I’m concerned, it’s good enough for Nancy Pelosi too.

GOP Enters Mayoral Race

Looks like the GOP has ponied up Al Taubenberger to run for Philadelphia Mayor.

City Councilman Frank Rizzo, a Republican who had considered a mayoral run on either party’s ticket, said yesterday that he expected Taubenberger to be the nominee. Rizzo said he backed off his own bid because “we have a good candidate in Al Taubenberger, who I’ll be working for, and on the Democratic side, we have some capable candidates also.”

The city’s registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by 5-1, and most GOP leaders concede that a mayoral victory is a long shot. No Republican mayor has been elected since 1947.

Anyone who knows Philadelphia knows the Rizzo name, but I don’t know much about Taubenberger, and we probably won’t get to know much about him, because, as the article says, the GOP has a snowballs chance in hell of winning the race. Â Of course, no one thought a Republican could win in New York City either, but they elected Giuliani (I don’t count Bloomberg. He’s a lifelong Democrat riding on Rudy’s coattails).Â I may have my issues with Giuliani as President, but he was a great mayor of New York City.Â Philadelphia is long overdue for it’s own Giuliani.Â Sadly, this guy probably ain’t it.

From the City That Brought Us the Cheesesteak?

Apparently the City of Philadelphia is considering its own ban on trans-fat, modeled after that of New York.

Major food retailers such as Starbucks and Kentucky Fried Chicken have banned trans fats. Trans-fat oil, associated with bad cholesterol, is scheduled to be eliminated in New York City by July. A proposed New Jersey ban on trans-fats in restaurants has remained in a legislative committee since October. Philadelphia’s City Council is scheduled to vote today on the fate of fryer oil in restaurants and food carts.

The article is mostly about local universities removing trans-fats from their cafeterias, which I’m all for. I have no issues with restaurants and food service providers removing them voluntarily, through market forces. Apparently my alma mater is getting in on this too:

Drexel University, which also contracts with Sodexho, switched to trans-fat-free oil in January 2006. In addition to its bread, tortillas and cookies, the school will get trans-fat-free doughnuts and cakes, said Marie Faherty, resident district manager for Sodexho there.

Dan Steinberg, Drexel’s Student Government president and a senior graphic-design major, said he hadn’t noticed a change in the food’s taste.

“A lot of that is a mental thing. I’ve been a resident assistant for three years, and coming down here with my residents, the food gets better every year,” he said.

The food is getting better every year? This isn’t the Drexel I went to! When I went, they still had 32nd street open and lots of artery clogging street vendor food, which is where most of us ate. The cafeteria was known as the “all you can stomach” plan, since if you signed up, you could eat as much as you wanted to, but who wanted to? Now, the street vendors are gone, and the cafeteria is serving tasty food with no trans-fats? Crazy.

139 Counts? Jayzus!

Vince Fumo, long time State Senator from Phiadelphia, is facing 139 felony indictments from a federal grand jury.

The feds said Fumo, 63, one of the state’s most influential power brokers, used his Senate workers to clean his house and provide personal services, and tapped a charity he helped organize to provide him with cars, tools and other goodies.

The charges include conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, obstruction of justice, and aiding and assisting the filing of a false tax return.

If convicted of all charges, Fumo, a state senator since 1978, could face from five to 15 years behind bars, sources said.

That’s a lot of time, but if found guilty, I hope he serves it all. When I speak of getting criminals off the streets of Philadelphia, it would seem that includes a fair number of their politicians. Maybe that’s why they would rather disarm us than lock up criminals. It would mean locking up too many of their own.

I should point out that Fumo was one of the Philly politicians that had close ties with the NRA (yes, there are some pro-gun politicians in the city), but corrupt politicians can go to hell, no matter how much they might agree with me on other issues. 139 felony indictments is no laughing matter. We’ll see how this plays out in the federal courts.

What’s Going on With the NSSF?

Dave Hardy points to an NSSF¹ statment warning gun owners about Rudy Giuliani and his record. Now, I totally agree with the NSSF on the matter of Giuliani, but what doesn’t make sense to me is why the NSSF is cozying up to Mitt Romney, who’s record on the second amendment is nearly as despicable.

What has Romney promised or stated to you guys that make you feel okay about him? I’d really like to know. I don’t exactly trust the NSSF, because it was the manufacturers that got us the GCA ’68 importation restrictions. I don’t always expect that NSSF’s interests align themselves nicely with the shooting community, but they aren’t doing themselves, or us, any favors by blowing kisses to someone this early in the game. Especially someone like Romney, who has a record of banning cosmetically incorrect guns, among other things.

¹For the non-gun blogger types that read, the NSSF is the National Sports Shooting Foundation, which is the group that represents the interests of the gun industry. Despite what the anti-gunners say, the NRA does not represent the industry, they represent the shooters. The two organizations don’t always have like agendas. Romney was invited to SHOT, which is the NSSF’s trade show, a few weeks ago.

McCain Wants to Mend Fences

According to Captain Ed and Mary Catherine Ham, John McCain wants to mend fences with bloggers and play nice. Ed thinks McCain has a ways to go:

John McCain has a record of courageous stands on behalf of the war on terror and on spending, two key issues for conservatives in the 2008 cycle. However, as MK points out, he has not taken a market-driven approach on campaign finance reform, instead relying on intrusive government control of political speech. How committed will he be on free markets as President in any sense, if not in political speech? He now sings the conservative tune on tax cuts, but we still remember McCain the Maverick opposing them when George Bush pushed them through Congress — and his part in blocking the efforts to make them permanent.

I won’t ding McCain too much for opposing the tax cuts, but he has to repudiate that Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act if he wants to mend fences with me. My chief problem with McCain is that I think he’s too convinced of his own correctness and infallibility, and that makes him shut his mind off to other ways of looking at things. It’s some of the same “I know what’s best!” traits that I despise in Hillary Clinton. My problem with John McCain is that, while he seems to support freedom as a political issue, he doesn’t seem to grasp freedom as a philosophical concept.

Back to Captain Ed:

He may well wind up as the best of the choices that present themselves during this long campaign season, and I would encourage open minds and ears for the next year. However, until McCain either makes a case for government oversight over political speech that convinces conservatives or pledges to reverse the BCRA, I don’t see him winning many converts, no matter how expert his campaign staff is — and they are certainly working their hearts out early for McCain.

Yup! Let’s not forget he needs to start acting like he’s from Arizona on the gun issue too.

Read My Lips, More New Taxes

Ed Rendell is a tax raising madman! In addition to a 1% boost in the state’s sales tax, he’s also now proposing an increase in the state gasoline tax as part of the 2007-2008 state budget:

â€œWe propose a tax on gasoline. But for the first time we propose a tax on those who make gasoline rather than those who buy it.â€

Umm, Ed, what’s the difference? You think the gasoline refiners are going to just eat that tax rather than pass it on to consumers? Do you think we’re that stupid? Plus, I would point out that Sunoco is a huge employer for both Pennsylvania and particulary the Philadelphia area. We have plenty of other refiners in the state too. It would seem to me that a new tax on them would not really encourage them to create more jobs. If there’s one thing that Pennsylvania definitely does not need it’s higher business taxes. That’s what this is. Don’t try to pull the wool over our eyes.

Oh, also:

In his speech, Rendell also called for legislation that would allow local governments to make their own gun laws and would limit handgun sales to one per month.

Push that, and we NRA types will do everything we can to make sure the Democrats lose their newfound control of the PA house. You got into office by keeping your mouth largely shut on the gun issue. Open it again, now that you have lame duck status, and you’ll hurt your party in downstream elections. We didn’t elect you governor to act like the Mayor of Philadelphia. But even that’s not enough:

Rendell also wants to increase the tax on waste haulers, increase cigarette taxes by a dime a pack, impose new taxes on cigars and smokeless tobacco products, and impose a surcharge on electricity of about 45 cents a month for the average residential user.

Jesus Christ, Ed. Given the cold weather we’ve been having lately, you’re making Arizona or Texas start to look damned attractive. And you wonder why young professionals like myself don’t stay in the state?

Mitt Romney’s Innovative Leadership

Check out Bitter’s post on Mitt Romney’s leadership of the Bay State, which lost nearly a quarter million people in the five years between 2000 and 2005.Â But Mitt wants to paint himself as “the president who can see around the next corner, who will equip Americans to meet the competitive challenges of the 21st century, who will bring innovation and reform to government.”

See around the next corner?Â I hope he hasn’t gotten a hold of a pair of these.