The Committee on Oversight & Government reform is making their case for a vote to hold Eric Holder in contempt of Congress in the Fast and Furious scandal. Also see this statement from Rep. Trey Gowdy.
Category: Politics
Why We Need to Get rid of PICS
See this statement from the PA State Police:
Outages of PICS are common, and far more prevalent than the federal system. This is several days that the people of Pennsylvania will essentially be denied their Second Amendment rights. The State Police has shown they are unable to run a reliable system, that’s respectful to the Constitution rights of its citizens. I think it’s time to end PICS, and switch to using the federal NICS system, which is doesn’t have severe reliability issues.
Loyalty Day: Creepy
Apparently Barack Obama has made May 1st “Loyalty Day.” Does anyone else fine this creepy? The left points out that Eisenhower did it first, and every President has followed suit. As if had Eisenhower eaten a dog, that would make eating dogs OK. I say it’s time to stop Loyalty Day. I get that it was a knee-jerk anti-communist reaction from the McCarthy era, and today we still have morons who celebrate May day with rioting and attempting to blow things up. Also, given that apparently the educational system has fallen into such a state that kids feel they can call themselves “anarchists” while protesting for bigger government, maybe we should rename today “National Don’t Sleep in Civic’s Class Day.” But this would, of course, presume schools still teach civics.
Vertical Integration
A bit off from our normal topic, but I was quite surprised to hear this morning that the Conoco-Phillips refinery, which has been up for sale, found a buyer, and that buyer is Delta Airlines. The refinery has pipelines going to Philly, JFK and LaGuardia, two of which are Delta hubs. Delta claims this will supply 80% of their domestic fuel needs. Wow. If this works, I wonder if you’ll see other airlines buying their own refineries. Apparently they also have a deal with BP to swap non-jet fuel products for more jet fuel, given that you can’t take crude and make exclusively jet fuel.
It’s partially a fractional distillation process, and you get what’s in the crude, essentially. You can crack your way to lighter hydrocarbons, but can’t go from lighter to heavier. The local angle is, the folks who worked at those refineries will get to stay in business. As the article mentions, refineries have been closing in this area because they are meant to take more expensive sweet crude, and find it difficult to compete with refineries who can deal with heavier, cheaper crude. So what Delta is attempting here is a bit of a risk.
Romney Meeting Bloomberg
A lot of people seem to be making a big deal out of Romney meeting with Bloomberg, and I’ve heard a few speculate that perhaps Bloomberg will be Romney’s VP pick. That gave me a strange sense of Deja Vu. This isn’t something I’d read all that much into. If you’re a Presidential Candidate, and you make a trip to New York City, you’re pretty much obligated to drop in on the mayor. It’s just politeness. Even I wouldn’t turn my nose up at the Mayor, and if I met with him, I’d certainly talk about gun control.
I was initially a lot more concerned about Bork on his judicial advisory committee, but a lot of folks in the comments noted that Alan Gura is also on the committee, and that in DC, these things are mostly a way to signal to different parts of the base. In other words, they are BS.
Mitt Romney is not the Savior of the Republic
It’s pretty clear over at places such as Uncle and Robb (the last one is really funny, go click), that Mitt Romney isn’t lighting the gun blogosphere ablaze with enthusiasm. I think the problem is that Mitt Romney is not the savior of the Republic at a time when people feel like the Republic needs one.
I recall a conversation we had with one of Bitter’s lobbyist friends when campaign 2012 was just getting started. Her friend noted that Romney was surrounding himself with the same people Bush did, and Bush Part III and Part IV are certainly not what we really need right now.
So I set my expectations for Romney low. All I’m looking for Romney to do is to replace the Chicago machine with the devil we know. I’m looking for him to make better Supreme Court and Federal Court appointments than Obama would, and I’m looking for the White House to remain accountable to voters, and have to stand for re-election in four years. That’s all I’m really expecting. I think Romney can probably also be counted on to, at least, ease off the accelerator a bit to give us more time in the game to see if we draw a winning hand in the future.
It’s worth noting that both parties are making attempts to purge their moderates. Dick Lugar is increasingly looking like he’s going down in Indiana, and the defeat of blue dog Democrats Tim Holden by a much more left-wing challenger, and the defeat of Jason Altmire by a more left-center candidate, are actually pretty remarkable in politics. This doesn’t happen often, and when it does, politicians take notice. This will be an opportunity for both parties to grow new leadership.
But that doesn’t necessary portend good things, having both parties polarized. I’m not sure where having the GOP lead far right and the Dems leading far left is going to lead. If we fight culture wars, the Democrats tend to win independents. But if we’re arguing about deficits, spending and the economy, Independents tend to follow the GOP.
But will the GOP be smart enough not to fight culture wars while we drive off the fiscal cliff? Like Nixon going to China, the Democrats are probably the only ones who can defuse the entitlement bomb. Will a far left Democratic Party be able to accomplish that? Will the GOP have political cover from Independents to do it over the objections of the left? I don’t really know. A lot is going to happen in the next decade. All I’m counting on Romney to do is give it time to play out, while we solidify our Second Amendment protections through the courts.
A Subtle Message…
He may not be my representative, but I do believe that Representative Stephen Bloom is my favorite lawmaker in Harrisburg. He uses social media frequently to keep in touch with his constituents. Yesterday, he posted a picture on Facebook that you could say highlights his dedication to making use of every possible resource…
I also get Mr. Yuk stickers, which come in extremely handy when reviewing stacks of legislative co-sponsorship memos…
The Torches and Pitchforks are Still on Standby
Wow. If anyone thought that incumbents could cruise to safety in 2012, Pennsylvania just showed that voters are still pissed off. The Speaker of the House – a race I didn’t see anyone mentioning as seriously competitive prior to last night – just barely squeaked out a challenge from within his own party. He even lost the part of the district he lives in! A total of five sitting incumbent state lawmakers lost their seats last night, and members of Congress were sent some walking papers, too.
For gun owners, here’s what’s relevant:
Babette Josephs is gone. She was defeated in a primary after she was caught illegally campaigning inside of a polling place. This video made from soundbites of Philly politicians pushing gun control features her rants about how only a few people who show to protest in Harrisburg are the only people in all of Pennsylvania who oppose radical gun control. She was pushing the idea of overturning Castle Doctrine here in the Commonwealth in honor of Trayvon Martin. My favorite comment from her was actually on Facebook about breastfeeding. She said a staffer was a new mom and bragged that her office was breastfeeding-friendly. Great, that’s the law since it’s a state building. I guess as a Philly lawmaker, she probably should be patted on the back for not breaking the law, but I still like to hold my standards a little higher. Sebastian had an experience with her office that showed they may be breastfeeding-friendly, they were hardly tolerant of gun owners coming in to have a conversation.
No, the seat isn’t going pro-gun. Regardless, gun owners should still celebrate the victory of ousting a lawmaker who wasn’t even willing to give them the respect of her time. The future representative also walks into the office as a freshman rather than with her seniority.
Patrick Murphy‘s political career was largely summed up as this: Over. He lost his Congressional seat in 2010, and then he set his sights on Attorney General as a stepping stone to Governor. He seemingly expected to walk right into the position with his national fundraising contacts and support of Barack Obama. What he didn’t count on was an opponent who has, oh, actually tried cases in Pennsylvania – a teeny, tiny thing missing from Murphy’s resume. And the woman brought in Bill Clinton to campaign for her. In case Murphy didn’t notice, Pennsylvania Democrats actually like the Clintons. They didn’t support Obama in the primary in 2008, a reflection that he was out-of-touch with the state outside of Philadelphia.
The Attorney General‘s race is big for gun owners. That’s the office that handles reciprocity with other states for carry licenses. Gov. Tom Corbett made an effort to seek out states that would sign agreements when he was in the office. We know that anti-gun groups have put a target on cutting reciprocity agreements – something they previously tried to attack in the legislature when they knew the Attorney General wouldn’t do it. I believe that the woman who beat Murphy is more anti-gun than he was in Congress. It seems odd that I would celebrate her win, but she ended Murphy’s political career as a whole. Now, it’s time to beat her.
We mourn the loss of pro-gun Blue Dogs last night. Congressman Tim Holden was NRA A-rated, but he was dealt a devastating loss last night. The Democratic nominee for the district, Matt Cartwright, has never held office before and refused to return NRA’s questionnaire. However, he told the local media that he swears he’s pro-gun even though he also generally campaigned on the message that he’s farther to the left than Rep. Holden. It sounds like Democratic gun owners in that part of the state need to start picking up their phones and firing up their keyboards to actually demand some answers from Mr. Cartwright.
On the far western edge of the state, two A+ rated Democrats engaged in a pretty bitter primary fight. While they are rated the same on guns, Rep. Jason Altmire has actually made time for the NRA by speaking at the convention and actually leading on the Democratic side of the aisle. Unfortunately, unions painted a giant target on his back and vowed to end his political career for opposing Obama’s healthcare law. With gun control not a major difference between the two Democrats, Altmire fell last night to Rep. Mark Critz.
In better news, NRA’s endorsed candidate in PA-4 (the former PA-19) won the GOP primary with more than 50% of the vote. That doesn’t sound too impressive until you consider that Scott Perry won a seven-way race. Yeah, huge. That race was effectively the general election. It also goes to show that money isn’t everything in a contest because Perry wasn’t the biggest fundraiser of the field.
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? What’s that, according to the reaction of the local polling people? Told them my name and was pulling out my Driver’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 “Don’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 voting…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: “I know I’m not supposed to be doing this, but please vote for me, Babette Josephs.†Unless they have a valid poll watcher’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)
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.