April 2012 – Page 3 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Philadelphia Ignores Voter ID Law

According to reader and faithful voter/activist Adam Z., his precinct in Philadelphia seems to be ignoring the new voter identification law in Pennsylvania. The law requires that election staffers request to see identification during today’s primary. Because this is the first election post-passage of the law, if a voter answers that they don’t have identification on them or they show a form of id that doesn’t count for voting, then they will still be given a ballot. They are also supposed to be told at that point that they need to provide valid id when voting November. So let’s look at his account of what happened at his precinct:

Voter ID law? Whatâ€™s that, according to the reaction of the local polling people? Told them my name and was pulling out my Driverâ€™s License (although I knew it was not necessary during this primary in PA but will be during the General election in November) but was wavied off with a statement to the effect of â€œDonâ€™t need that, Thanksâ€. Technically speaking they were right but one would like to think they would get people used to showing their ID for votingâ€¦Nahhh! Additionally noone mentioned that I will need ID for the General Election.

Sadly, this, and the treatment he describes for daring to mention that he was voting in the GOP primary, are par for the course in Philadelphia. In fact, there are widespread reports of poll workers choosing to ignore the law in the city according to The Daily News. Why would the poll workers feel like they need to follow the law when there’s a report of election violations by a lawmaker in the city?

A voter just called to complain that Babette Josephs, who is fighting to keep her House seat, was inside the 8th ward/3rd division and said to him: â€œI know Iâ€™m not supposed to be doing this, but please vote for me, Babette Josephs.â€ Unless they have a valid poll watcherâ€™s certificate, candidates are not permitted to enter a polling place except to cast their own vote.

(h/t on the Josephs tidbit from PoliticsPA)

Sexy Sells – Booth Babes, Not So Much at NRA Annual Meeting

Leave it to me to dig into the ongoing controversy over booth babes at gun convention and shows. John Richardson provided a little photographic evidence that some booths got the “babe” concept very wrong. Too much make-up, over-the-top jewelry, absurdly out of place clothing, and enough skin to offend the family crowds that walked through the exhibit floor. Don’t even get me started on the look that qualifies more as a sneer than a smile.

She wasn’t the only one hired by exhibitors that was a complete miss on the concept of using attractive women to get more people to the booth. I saw one woman on Sunday who was wearing underwear over the top of her skin-tight leggings that she took a razor blade to so that they didn’t hide much. Yes, underwear as outerwear. Mix that with some very bad highlights, and that’s not what too many people call sexy. Certainly, none of the guys I was talking to in the area were looking at it with anything complimentary to say.

As a fairly feminist woman, I actually have very little objection to idea that sex sells – especially sexy women. But sexy is doesn’t mean trashy. The funny thing is that I don’t think there’s even a thin line between the two – it’s usually pretty damn clear. Night club and strip club wear isn’t exactly a fit for the NRA crowd. There were other booth babes in clothes that snuggly hugged the curves and even dipped to show quite a bit of cleavage who didn’t cross the line into trashy. They tied their look to the look of the booth and the gear they were trying to sell.

I would also say that even though NRA’s Annual Meeting is more family-focused than something like SHOT, women aren’t inherently turned off by the idea of selling sex. This week, the NYT Bestseller list for fiction has erotica with a BDSM focus written for women at the numbers 1, 2, and 4 spots. (On a side note, did John Grisham ever expect to come in behind a novel with a plot created for no other purpose than putting the characters in a position to have sex again?) Women are fine with it and even appear to be spending big money on it. It doesn’t offend the vast majority of us. But trashy? Yeah, not the same as sexy. It is a turn-off, and it will make women (and some men) walk in the other direction.

One of the best uses of sexy to sell was a booth I passed far too quickly to notice the brand, but their ads used pinup-style models. A well-done pinup look for an ad or a booth babe is pretty much a way to win the sex sells game at a venue like the NRA exhibit hall. It’s sexy, it harkens back to a time of patriotism, and it doesn’t have to push the boundaries of anyone in attendance in order to get attention.

I don’t know what it was about the exhibit hall this year, but the times I did notice booth babes, it tended to be the wrong reasons. Usually, it’s not that much of a problem at this event. I don’t quite know what happened if the company standards went down temporarily, if the selection of ladies to hire in St. Louis isn’t quite the same as other convention cities, or if generally this is the path some companies want to take in the future. I sincerely hope it isn’t the latter option.

Opposition to Stand Your Ground

Evan Nappen posted a rather humorous bit of satire about opponents to Stand Your Ground that’s about the “Turn Tail and Run” law.

Senator Lousenburg (D. NJ) has filed the â€œTurn Tail and Runâ€ (TTR) bill in the U.S. Senate which, if passed, would preempt ALL State â€œStand Your Groundâ€ (SYG) laws. The new bill would impose a national duty to retreat at all times when one encounters a criminal threat or is about to become a victim of violent crime. New York City Mayor Bloomingidiot has made passage of the â€œTTRâ€ a centerpiece of his national “Second Chance at Shoot First” campaign. The mayor heartily approved of TTR, especially since bodyguards of celebrities, VIPâ€™s, and political figures were exempted.

There’s more, so go read the whole thing.

Bad News For Our Opponents

A plurality of Floridans support the Stand Your Ground law. Support is particularly high among Republicans and Independents, with Democrats against it by about half. Sorry, but self-defense laws aren’t a place our opponents are going to get much traction among the people. Part of the reason that votes on these bills has been so lop sided is that no politician wants to be the one who voted against self-defense. Our opponents may find that our momentum is slowed for a bit, but I think it’s wishful thinking if they believe this is going to turn the tide.

On the Acela

Stopped briefly at New York Penn Station on my way to Boston. I do have to admit, this is nice, and we cruised through New Jersey at ludicrous speed, which is the right speed to go through that state at. Speedometer app on the phone says we averaged about 120 and hit a peak speed of about 140mph. I do have to admit, you combine this with no TSA and I have to admit it’s nicer than flying. Still frigging expensive though.

Voters are a Threat to Children

We vote in a school. Traditionally, we go down a long hallway toward the gymnasium where each half of the room is divided off to support two different precincts. This morning, we were directed into a fenced area with different doors and different rooms than we’ve used before. The person outside directing people told us, “It’s about keeping the children safe.”

Wow. I didn’t realize that voters who care enough to turn up to vote on Primary Day at 7am were a threat to children. As Sebastian said when we passed a large group of kids waiting to catch the school bus on a busy street, how could we leave them so unprotected from voters? The might learn about being engaged with their community or something!

Seriously, this annoyed me on so many levels. First of all, the woman just said I was a threat to kids. Second, the doors had to be propped open so they would remain unlocked, and it was 40 degrees out this morning with windchill in the mid-30s. The election workers were all in long sleeves and coats and still talking about being cold. How much extra will we pay in heating bills today for those rooms to never get warm? Third, there are no signs to tell the people who have been voting there for years that things changed. Just a woman who will inform any lost looking adults that they must enter the fenced area and go in the designated rooms so they are kept away from the children in the name of safety.

On a random note, I was voter number 1. I should have let Sebastian go first since he’s never been the first voter before. This is not my first time. Yes, I take a little pride in it.

As for the controversial voter id law here in Pennsylvania, it was painless. I didn’t even have to pull my license out of the holder in the little wallet. My only complaint is that you’d think the poll workers could learn how to spell our names even when we are spelling them verbally AND showing them identification. But no. Alas, expecting poll workers who can see, hear, or spell simple names is too much.

Brady Pledge Drive Fail

On the anniversary of Virginia Tech, apparently the Brady folk didn’t have a whole lot of luck convincing anyone to sign their pledge to support gun control. As Jacob notes, there are a lot of reps in safe districts that could have played along. Why haven’t they?

A Reality Check

Thirdpower rubs it in for opponents a bit that the task force that will examine Florida’s gun laws seems set to have a number of pro-gun people on it, which likely mean it’s not meant to come to a predetermined conclusion in favor of gun control. In fact, this probably won’t end well for our opponents. They seem to believe that this is it. This is the big one. The event that makes the pendulum swing back around in their favor.

The thing is, I’m not sure they won’t ultimately be right in the end. The case against Zimmerman is so thin you could shine a candle through it, which makes it ripe for being dismissed under Florida’s immunity statute. If cities ultimately burn because our opponents managed to amp up the mob, things could get very bad for us. But whether the pendulum ultimately swings or not, is up to us. We’re a movement that can turn out close to 74,000 people in crappy weather in St. Louis. There’s really no excuse for getting our butts handed to us by these people.

A Right to Record the Police

Glenn Reynolds has a Commentary in the Washington University law review on a citizen’s right to record the police. I think this is an important check against governmental power.

Pennsylvania Primary Decisions

Tomorrow is Election Day in the Commonwealth. Now that the presidential race is largely locked up, attention focuses on our Senate primary to take on Sen. Bob Casey. For those of you who only loosely follow politics in the Keystone State, this is a great article summing up the problems the GOP has created for itself in this race.

For those who don’t follow Pennsylvania politics, well, the state Republican Party powers that be endorsed a guy who wanted to host a fundraiser for very liberal (and extremely anti-gun) Joe Sestak and was a Democrat who voted for Obama in 2008. In the lead is a guy who was a Democrat for 40 years and hasn’t even been a Republican long enough to have voted in a GOP primary before. Somewhere between those two is Sam Rohrer who has already shown he’s not so great at running a statewide campaign when he made bizarre campaign investments in his failed gubernatorial race.

So you might see why Republicans in Pennsylvania are kinda “eh” about the whole thing. Here are a few funny quotes I’ve found in the media surrounding the race:

Welch [the GOP endorsed former Democrat] is hoping the high amount of undecided voters — even in Smith’s own most recently released survey, about a third of the Republican electorate was undecided — will gravitate to him.

I love the logic of this businessman. If a voter tells a pollster they are undecided, they will come to me! Unfortunately, that’s flawed logic. We’re undecided, but I know my indecision is over which non-Welch candidate will get my vote. I will not reward the state party officials who handpicked pretty much the worst possible candidate. It will be a blow to the party, and maybe a few more county leaders will oppose the endorsement process all together next time.

Next is the view of a voter:

â€œMost of the time, itâ€™s Election Day before I make up my mind,â€ said Richard Beard, a dinner attendee from nearby Chambersburg, Pa., who couldnâ€™t name the Republican candidates.

What dinner was he attending? The area GOP dinner. This is someone who cares enough about the party to show up to dinners with potential presidential candidates. Yet he can’t name any of the GOP candidates in the primary, much less the party-backed candidate. Yes, that my friends is what we call enthusiasm. And that’s what awaits us for November.

That said, we will both be at the doors to the school as soon as they open tomorrow morning. Make sure you know which Congressional district you are in this year since those maps changed. NRA is endorsing in the primaries in the new PA-4 (old PA-19), PA-17 (dramatically redrawn), and PA-18.