Politics – Page 421 – Shall Not Be Questioned

The NRA Strikes Back at Street

I’m pleased to see this up over at NRA News:

Philadelphia Mayor John Street talks tough when he pushes anti-gun laws, but when it comes to enforcing laws, he doesn’t put his money where his mouth is.

Philadelphia just set another record for the number of murders in 2006. Last year in the City of Brotherly Love, there were 406 murders, the most in almost a decade.

Yet instead of calling for increased enforcement and prosecution, Mayor Street is pushing a budget that’ll take a dozen prosecutors off the job!

Back in September, Mayor Street was more than happy to join New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg in demanding still more new gun bans for the state of Pennsylvania.

I will not go so far as to compare John Street to Wilson Goode, who is without a doubt the worst mayor that the City of Philadelphia has ever had, but the City has certainly not gotten better under Street’s watch. Cutting law enforcement and prosecution, appointing an incompetent Chief of Police, while at the same time as blaming law abiding LTC holders for the cities crime is just reprehensible. Does John Street really believe the gangs shooting it out over drug turf in North Philadelphia are bothering to apply for licenses to carry their guns with the Philadelphia Police? Does anyone really believe that?Â Why does the Philadelphia press keep acting simply as mouthpieces for this nonsense rather than ask the hard questions?

Federal Gun Rights Bill Even a Federalist Could Love?

Of Arms and the Law gives us the text of a new law that has been introduced in Congress by Rep. Roscoe Bartlett of Maryland.Â This looks like a bill even federalists might be able to get behind, since it appears to be essentially restoring second amendment rights through the 14th amendment.Â It doesn’t explicity cite the source of Congressional power, but I seem to recall that Congress does not specifically have to state the enumerated power under which it passes legislation, it just has to fit within the scope of it’s powers.Â So if my non-lawyer eyes are reading this right, it would let someone denied the right to have a firearm in Washington D.C., Chicago, or New York to obtain a firearm for self-protection, state or local law to the contrary.

That means this bill will absolutely infuriate Mayor Bloomberg, and for that reason alone, I think it would be worth passing.Â Sadly, as Dave mentioned, there’s a snowball’s chance in hell of that happening, which is a sad statement on what’s become of our Congress.

My Letter to State Representative Chris King

Chris King (D-142), my newly elected state rep who defeated incumbent Matt Wright, is so green he doesn’t even have an e-mail address yet. But when he does, I plan to forward this along to him in regards to the subject of the legislation that Dwight Evans has introduced into the PA house.

Hon. Christopher King
Room 101A East Wing
Harrisburg, PA 17120-2142

Dear Representative King,

First, I would like to congratulate you on winning the seat to be representative of Pennsylvania’s 142nd Legislative District. Winning a seat held by such a long time incumbent is quite an achievement, and I look forward to having you represent us.

I’m writing you today about an article, appearing in the Philadelphia Inquirer on January 11th, revealing Representative Dwight Evans’ intention to reintroduce measures to revise the Commonwealth’s gun laws, considered and defeated in last September’s Committee of the Whole session of the General Assembly. I attended this meeting and had a productive conversation with Representative Wright on the issue, but since Representative Evans has announced his intentions to reintroduce these bills, I wanted to take time to discuss my views on this with you.

As I’m sure you are aware, the Pennsylvania Constitution, which you no doubt have recently taken an oath to uphold, recognizes an individual right to keep and bear arms in defense of one’s self and the state. While I share everyone’s concerns about the violence in the City of Philadelphia, as a gun collector and sport shooter, I urge you to oppose any of Representative Evans’ bills which place further burdens on our rights as Pennsylvanians.

While some of the proposals may seem reasonable, such as “one gun per month”, these types of laws do affect collectors, and will do very little or nothing to address the violence we’re seeing in Philadelphia. The City of Reading, which shares the same gun laws that the City of Philadelphia claims to be woefully inadequate, has experienced a sharp drop in violent crime this year after having a record year previously. The City of Pittsburgh, I understand, has also experienced falling crime rates. Philadelphia’s claims that our gun laws are inadequate would not seem to stand up to evidence, and I think The City would be better served focusing on effective solutions, such as putting more police officers on the streets, locking up violent criminals, and aggressively targeting gangs, rather than focusing on symbolic measures which won’t really address the problem.

Thank you for your consideration in this matter. I am happy to see that you were rated A- by the NRA in the last elections. Reading over your campaign materials, it seems we agree on many issues, so I hope your legislative record will give me cause to support you in future elections.

Sincerely,

Sebastian
Langhorne, PA

I’m sickeningly nice when I want to influence them. I don’t even mind stroking their ego a little. What I won’t mention now, but might, if he starts buying into Evans’ and Rendell’s crap, is that I’ll do everything I can to make sure he’s a one termer if he pisses me off.

Here We Go Again

This one almost flew under my radar screen, but fortunately, David Codrea picked it up before I missed it:

Hoping that the new Democratic state House will be more receptive to gun-control legislation, state Rep. Dwight Evans yesterday said he will reintroduce a series of gun bills that previously failed.

“We have 50 new members in the House who are not entrenched, who can listen to reason,” Evans, a Democratic candidate for mayor, said at a City Hall news conference attended by a crowd of state and local leaders.

“What we want is common-sense gun policies that can stop the flow of illegal guns on our streets,” said Evans.

The package of 13 bills, which he said he’d introduce on Feb. 22, includes proposals to limit gun purchases to one a month, to ban assault weapons statewide and to allow cities to enact their own gun laws.

If the new Democratic house passes any of this shit, you’ll be out so fast your heads will spin. When Evans’ steaming pile of gun control manure came forward last year, culminating in the Committee of the Whole meeting, which I traveled to Harrisburg to attend in September, there was overwhelming opposition to all the measures Evans and his gun control cohorts wanted. Again, Philadelphia politicians are failing to understand that the city has a criminal problem and not a gun problem. Pushing the gun angle is a way to make it look like they are doing something, but it’s a dodge because they have no political courage to actually tell people what the problem is and solve it.I’d really like not to have to travel to Harrisburg again this year, but I will if it becomes necessary. My state rep at the time, who I met in last years session, and was sympathetic to the cause, was unfortunately voted out this fall. My new state rep, who’s part of the new Democratic caucus in the house, got an A rating from the NRA during the campaign, and I will have to write to him to make sure that he lives up to rating. I didn’t vote for Mr. King, but I have nothing against him, and would be willing to become a supporter if he keeps good on his promises.

Lessons in Smaller Government

Bitter, who claims she’ll get me to like Mitt Romney so much I’ll want to kick him in the nuts by the time he hits the campaign trail, has started a new category called Lessons in Smaller Government by Mitt Romney.

I agree that Romney is a lackluster candidate. He has the odor of a rank political opportunist, who will say whatever he feels he needs to say, and take any position he needs to take, in order to get himself elected. Unfortunately, I think I could probably say the same thing about 99% of politicians. Getting me to despise politicians isn’t hard, and they usually do a good job of that on their own, but I can’t quite work up enough nut kicking indignation about the former governor of Massachusetts. But I will certainly give Bitter a fair chance to try.

My other options for 2008 are shaping up to be Rudy Giuliani, who I think was a fantastic mayor of New York, but I have some issues with him, particularly that he hasn’t seen a gun control law he didn’t like. John McCain is, sadly, shaping up to be my preferred choice for 2008, which pisses me off because I already think McCain deserves a kick in the nuts for McCain-Feingold. But I have no idea how Rudy would behave on the national stage, and I’m already suspicious of Romney. Plus, I want some strong leadership for 2008, because I think Bush’s has been pretty abysmal, and I tend to like McCain’s opinions on the war. Casting a vote for McCain will make me feel dirty, but unless someone else comes along, I think he’s the lesser of the three evils. And if Hillary or Obama runs for the Democrats, the Republicans could run Britney Spears and I’d still vote for them.

Drug Warrior Politicians Can So Go To Hell

I’ve been battling a cold for the past week, and have so far managed to avoid buying any Sudafed to help with the congestion, but I finally got tired of feeling stuffed up, so I broke down and forked over my license and John Hancock to buy a pack of the good stuff.

I just have one thing to say about Sudafed PE: it sucks! The PE apparently stands for Placebo Effect, because I’m not convinced that crap does a damned thing. It certainly doesn’t clear me up. The government, and any Congress Critter who voted for this, can take all the packs of Sudafed PE I’ve bought, and and stuff them where the sun don’t shine.

I don’t care if people make methamphetamines from pseudoephedrine containing products, I really don’t. What I buy is between me and the pharmacist who’s selling it to me, and as far as I’m concerned, the politicians can keep their noses out of my f**king business. Fork over my license and sign forms because I have a stuffy nose? Piss off.

I feel bad for the kid behind the counter though, because clearly he has been abused over this. I felt the need to make the comment “You’d think I was buying plutonium or something.” as I affixed my signature to his government watch list. He ran through a rehashed script, in a rather defensive tone, “People are using to make meth. It’s a new law. It’s not just us. It’s every pharmacy counter in the country.” So I said “I know, I just still think it sucks.” I guess I should have just kept my mouth shut, it wasn’t his fault, and I wasn’t trying to rag on him.

Americans in early times would have brought out the tar and feathers for any politician who had this much gumption. Two centuries ago, Pennsylvanians, over a 9 cent a gallon excise tax on whiskey, engaged in outright rebellion, which got so out of hand that Washington himself lead federal troops into Western Pennsylvania to put down the uprising. What have we become? We’ve gotten too accustomed, as Americans, to bending over for the politicians. From time to time, they need to be reminded who they work for. So write your Congress Critter, and tell them, in very nice, polite and eloquent prose, that how you treat a stuffy nose is none of his damned business. And if that doesn’t work, I’ll bring the tar, and you can bring the feathers!

Pennsylvania Treating Adults as Responsible

In a move that feels much like Brady Grading Time, where we shoot for a low grade, Advocates For Butting Their Noses Where They Don’t Belong, notes:

They let motorcyclists ride without helmets, haven’t cracked down on seat-belt use, and still allow distracting carloads of passengers to ride with inexperienced drivers.

They have, however, landed hard on drunken drivers.

All in all, Pennsylvania lawmakers have done a mediocre job of keeping motorists out of harm’s way, a national traffic-safety advocacy group said in a report released yesterday.

In a fourth annual state-by-state report card, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety placed Pennsylvania among 31 states that have advanced, but not nearly enough, in their highway safety laws.

New Jersey scored better, ranking among 16 states that have adopted most or all of the 15 safety measures deemed important by the coalition of insurance, consumer, health, safety and law enforcement organizations.

New Jersey scored better, so I’ll make that reason number 2823 I’d rather spend the rest of my life with my head in a pile of manure than live in that state. Keep up the good work Pennsylvania! Hopefully our new Democratic legislature will tell these ninnies to go to hell, but I won’t hold my breath.

So if I may borrow some style from from Kim Du Toit, if you happen to know anyone who works with the Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, make sure to give them a swift kick in the nuts.

Let the Race to the Bottom Begin

It seems that the Philadelphia mayoral race might come down to who’s been shot the most. For the record, I’ve never thought Dwight Evans to be a bad guy. I don’t agree with him most of the time, but I think he’d make a better mayor than John Street. I’d hate to think that being shot scores you sufficient political points in Philadelphia politics that the candidates feel compelled to recall these incidents to gain advantage over each other in the race.

Cartoon of the Day

Sorry, but color, me, skeptical. The cartoon is right about one thing though. It’s not just Democrats that want to close the gun show “loophole”. It’s Republican Mike Castle of Delaware spearheading the effort! So Mike, if you or any of your staffers come across this post, I’d just like to point out how much you suck, and that I’m really glad I don’t live in Delaware.

Just Get Rid of It Already!

Our governor sets off the stench detector with his latest appointment of a CEO to the PA Liquor Control Board:

State Liquor Control Board Chairman Jonathan Newman is quitting to protest the “heavy-handed, political” method that Gov. Ed Rendell used to select the board’s new $150,000-a-year chief executive officer.

Rendell chose a retired politician. This reeks of returning a political favor:

Some critics claim the hiring looks like a political deal because he supported some major Rendell initiatives, such as raising the personal income tax and legalizing casinos, but Ms. Philips denied politics was involved. Mr. Conti couldn’t be reached for comment.

Ms. Philips said Mr. Conti chaired the Senate committee that oversaw liquor issues and was active in pushing for Sunday sales of liquor and beer. She said he knows the liquor business because his family owned two restaurant/bars in Bucks County.

No politics involved my ass. The real question is why we still have the LCB at all? Seriously, I get sick of having to drive to New Jersey to be able to get decent wine and real top shelf booze. Try getting decent scotch in a PA state store, and you’ll quickly see what I mean. Under Newman’s leadership, the LCB has done a good job of reforming itself, with Sunday hours, premium stores with better wine selections, and locating state stores inside of supermarkets. All positive moves. But the LCB still sucks, and it’s time the state legislature dissolved it and sold off its assets. I don’t see what benefit we get from the state being in the business of selling wine and booze, and I’m tired of the LCB continuing to pop up as a political issue. I think the state can find better things to worry about.