The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …
Congressman Peterson has an editorial responding to a previous editorial in the Allentown Morning Call that I blogged about here. I agree with the Congressman that tolling I-80 would be a negative for the Commonwealth, and wish him the best of luck in stopping it at the federal level.
UPDATE: Looks like plans are moving ahead on tolls anyway.
Geez, Midge Rendell probably barely has her inauguration gown back from the dry cleaners, and they are already talking about the 2010 election. Pennsylvania has alternated between Democrat and Republican Governors for half a century. I’d like to keep things this way.
On the slate for the Republicans, we have folks like former Congressman Pat Toomey and Attorney General Tom Corbett. On the Democrat side, it seems that Robert Mellow, Auditor General Jack Wagner, Dan Onorato, and Don Cunningham.
Advantage so far goes to Republicans as far as names go. Most everyone who follows Pennsylvania politics knows who Tom Corbett and Pat Toomey are. For the Democrats, only Jack Wagner holds statewide office, and not a very well known one. The rest are local players. It’s still really early yet, but so far it’s looking like we might have some good candidates.
Go check out Congressman John Peterson’s editorial in CenterDaily, in regards to I-80 tolls.
Tolling of I-80 has little to do with solving Pennsylvania’s transportation and infrastructure problems. It has a lot to do with paying off debt and fixing problems that should have been addressed years ago.
Until, the governor and our leaders in Harrisburg find the courage and political will to take on the likes of Philadelphia’s Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority and the Turnpike Commission and start managing our transportation system properly, they will be tolling every highway in Pennsylvania.
I agree here. I’m not in favor of continually dumping money into SEPTA. SEPTA has to reform itself, and at least develop a modicum of efficiency and accountability, before I’m going to agree to dump massive amounts of state dollars into the system, no questions asked.
From the Inquirer, it appears one of our stalwarts against gun control in the Pennsylvania General Assembly might be switching sides:
After a face-to-face meeting with Cappelli last month, Thomas said the lawmaker had agreed to become a spokesman for some of the Legislative Black Caucus’ gun-control bills, 33 of which are stalled in committee.
Specifically, Cappelli agreed to support House Bill 1746, which would allow the city to enact its own gun laws in consultation with the U.S. and state attorneys general, Thomas said.
Needless to say, this is not a welcome development. I have to drive through Philadelphia on my way to see Bitter.  The city, given the chance, will ban concealed carry within city limits. I do not favor weakening our state’s preemption laws. The Pennsylvania Constitution applies in Philadelphia, as it does in every other city in Pennsylvania. If we let Philadelphia infringe on it, other cities are sure to demand the ability to do the same. That would create the patchwork of local regulations that preemption was created to avoid.
I have to congratulate the Boston Beer Company, makers of Sam Adams, for choosing to open a new brewery in Pennsylvania rather than Freetown, Massachusetts.
Bit of advice for Deval Patrick: When business is fleeing Massachusetts for Pennsylvania, man, you have a real problem.
So says The Allentown Morning Call, in regards to Rep English and Peterson’s efforts to prevent tolling on I-80.  Political posturing? I can’t help but notice that I-80 runs mostly through counties that didn’t vote all that heavily for Ed Rendell or the Democrats.
Pennsylvania’s smoking ban is dead for now. I actually don’t smoke, but I’m tempted to go to some public place, and light up a stogie just as a hearty up yours to our governor.
This CentreDaily editorial is pretty spot on:
Making I-80 a toll road is, at best, a quick fix and would disproportionately affect those living near the swath the highway cuts through the Keystone State countryside from New Jersey to Ohio. Worse, it would greatly expand the authority of the highly inefficient, patronage-laden Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.
Toll booths at the borders — incoming and outgoing — would be less objectionable.
Leasing the turnpike — turning over a valuable asset to a for-profit corporation with less, if any, accountability to the public — is an even worse idea.
Read the whole thing.
Good article about the divide appearing on the global warming issue among sportsmen here in the Keystone State:
An intense debate about whether global warming exists — and what should be done about it — has created a sharp division within Pennsylvania’s largest sportsmen’s organization and threatens its 71-year conservation alliance with the National Wildlife Federation.
The 100,000-member Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs has wrestled with global warming for years. But the issue came to a head in March during the group’s spring convention in Williamsport, where several delegates threatened to quit if an NWF-sponsored resolution recognizing global warming as a serious environmental problem was adopted.
I think there’s a real risk in bringing other parts of the conservative agenda into situations like this. While I would agree sportsmen should reject anything seriously radical, it seems to me recognizing global warming as a serious environmental problem ought not ruffle enough feathers to risk fracturing the coalition.
Ed Rendell isn’t happy he’s getting screwed on putting toll booths every 30 miles along I-80.
Mr. Rendell said he “was shocked and disappointed” to learn of the congressional action, which is not yet final. He will urge Democrats in Congress to remove the ban on federal funds for I-80, but he said that may not happen until October.
Meanwhile, he added, “we can’t afford to wait” to find a way to generate nearly $1 billion a year in new funding for fixing roads and bridges and aiding deficit-ridden mass transit agencies, including the Port Authority of Allegheny County.
Ed can’t wait to get his hands on more of your money! But wait, he has a plan B:
Within 30 days he plans to ask private companies to offer bids on how much they would pay to run the Pennsylvania Turnpike for up to 99 years. He thinks such a lease could generate up to $1.7 billion a year for 10 years — considerably more than would be obtained under House Bill 1590.
Lawmakers have resisted the turnpike leasing plan in the past. I may actually not be opposed to it if someone can show me a good plan, and tell me how we’re going to get tolls, which generate 400 million a year in profit now, to generate 1.7 billion a year in profit, without massive toll increases.  I am not as concerned as our legislators about foreigners in the toll booths.  Foreigners work cheap!  You don’t have to speak English well to calculate change!
Either way, this was a great move by the Pennsylvania GOP. Rendell burned a lot of political capital with that furlough of state workers, and it looks like they inked the deal to end the standoff, knowing full well they could block it at the federal level.  Normally I’d call this kind of stuff sleazy, but furloughing state workers to get your way is pretty sleazy too.