Politics – Page 153 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Willow Grove JSB (Formerly Naval Air Station) Closes

A local aviation related story is that one of our historic military landmarks for the area has closed:

Seven military aircraft powered up their engines and taxied slowly along the runway, as if hesitant to leave the ground.

Yet one by one, the hulking C-130 turboprop, the nimble A-10 Thunderbolt, and an assortment of other helicopters and jet fighters took off – hurtling down the 8,000-foot stretch of pavement for what would ultimately be a one-way trip.

“Willow Grove, thanks for the 68 years of dedicated service,” a radio trafficker’s voice squawked as the last plane disappeared into a gray afternoon sky.

Then, the runway lights went dark.

Given that the entire history of modern aviation is only about a century old, Willow Grove has been around for most of it. I went to air shows there as a kid, and more recently, back when they were doing that. The Pentagon has wanted to close it for a while, but local Congress Critters always lobbied to keep it open. What will happen to the base is uncertain, but there’s been talk of using it as an alternate airport to take pressure off of Philadelphia International Airport, which is the 11th busiest airport in the world.

On FAA Budgeting Matters

This is one of those times I’ll wander away from guns and into my sort of side-interest in aviation.Â Someone e-mails Instapundit in regards to an FAA bill:

There is also an automatic assumption that â€œprivatizingâ€ air traffic will somehow always be more cost effective than what we are already doing. Itâ€™s an article of faith, much like Socialists/Communists always seem to think that their system will work (despite a century of mass graves, economic failure, and oppression) if only the right people were running things. The world already has a wide variety of air traffic control systems in use. There are public, private, and public/private air traffic systems all around the world. The US system has the lowest cost per operation in the developed world. We also have the safest system, while running more traffic than the rest of the world combined. Rather than automatically demonizing people that are trying to improve what is already the safest, busiest, and most cost-effective air traffic system in the world, Iâ€™d ask your readers to find the working business model out there in the world that will out-perform what we are doing now. Not just an automatic assumption that a private enterprise just has to be more efficient, but a system in use somewhere else. Iâ€™m not saying it canâ€™t be done, but I am from Missouri on this. Show me. Or should we just assume that it will be more efficient if the right people are running it?

Glenn notes that Canada has a private ATC system, and I believe Eurocontrol is a private consortium as well. I’m not well familiar with how these systems operate, but I suspect there’s still a very high degree of public control.

One fear I would have of privatized air traffic control would be that the large scheduled carriers would dominate any consortium. Those large carriers would have no incentive to allow general aviation or even smaller scheduled or non-scheduled carriers to use their system at anything close to a reasonable price. A completely private system would essentially be handing a public resource, namely the skies, over to private interests who have bad incentives to monopolize the resource as much as possible.

Typically when we do things like this, such as for rights-of-ways for wires and pipes, we regulate them as public utilities. This kind of regulated market is not really a free market in any recognizable sense, and given that, it’s hard to see the case for privatization from a free market perspective.

Being un-PC

I’m not always the biggest fan of Congressman Don Young. But when I read his comments about why he is publicly declining an award from HSUS, I *heart* him.

Alaskan Congressman Don Young refused an award this evening from The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and the Humane Society Legislative Fund that would have honored his work for animals in 2010. While capitalizing on the good work of local humane societies that shelter, spay, and neuter animals, the HSUS does not own, operate, or directly control a single animal shelter in our country, despite a budget of well over $100 million.

â€œHSUS are hypocrites, plain and simple, and I will not join them by accepting this award,â€ said Rep. Young. â€œLocal animal shelters and humane societies do excellent work by caring for neglected and homeless animals, and through their spaying and neutering programs. This organization, however, has absolutely nothing to do with animal welfare. Instead they prey on the emotions of big-hearted Americans. They flash images of abused animals on our television screens to raise money that will eventually go to pay their salaries and pensions, not to helping better the lives of these animals. They run anti-hunting and anti-trapping campaigns and are of the same cloth as PETA and other extremist organizations. I can only guess that I was to receive this award due to my support of the Wildlife Without Borders program, which develops wildlife management and conservation efforts to maintain global species diversity. That program is true conservation; what this group wants is preservation. To accept this award would be supporting their manipulative ways and misguided agenda, and I want no part of that.â€

Because HSUS is so good at what they do – lying & misleading Americans into believing that they are giving to help their local shelters – it’s really tough for a politician to take a stand against them. It’s times like this that I remember Ronald Reagan’s attitude on political agreement.

Possible Problems in Attorney General Race

Several of the candidates mentioned in this article would be a disaster for us. Dan McCaffery has the backing of Bob Brady, meaning he’s cozy with the Philadelphia political machine who are no friends of ours. Lynne Abraham was not friendly to gun rights during her tenure as District Attorney for the City of Philadelphia, and Patrick Murphy’s gun control credentials have been well documented here.

The only unknown is Kathleen Granhan Kane, who was a prosecutor in Clarks Summit, near Scranton. I have no idea what her position is on Second Amendment issues. Considering how high profile the Attorney General is, and the amount of policy under that office’s control, it’s important that we keep that in pro-2A hands. So far the Democratic contenders do not impress me. We’re fortunate that since the Attorney General has been subject to popular election (by the Attorney General Act in 1980) that office has never been held by a Democrat. But we should not take anything for granted. The office is too important.

Reasonable Redistricting

It looks like the GOP might not get greedy in the redistricting process for Pennsylvania. That’s a good thing. When they tried it 10 years ago, the Democrat who was supposed to lose his seat in a “safe” GOP district with an incumbent managed to hang on. And he’s still there. That’s a lesson the party folks needed to learn since the GOP has control of the House, Senate, and Governor’s office.

Politico reports that they believe the redistricting process will rework PA-4 & PA-12 – Jason Altmire & Mark Critz (used to be John Murtha’s district). On the gun issue, it’s a not really a loss. Both are good on the gun votes. On one hand, we lose one pro-gun Democrat in the process, but we would likely lose one anyway if they tried to merge any of the seats with the anti-gun Rep. Mike Doyle in PA-14. It also makes the most sense since that is the corner of the state that is actually losing population – not “not gaining as rapidly” as is the case in most lose-a-seat scenarios, but actually losing.

They are also talking about creating a very long district for PA-17 to include Scranton. It would tighten up the Democratic seat, but give a chance to make Lou Barletta in PA-11 a little more safe. The downside for gun owners is that it sets up a potential primary challenge to pro-gun Democrat Tim Holden by an extremely anti-gun Scranton mayor.

Here in our little corner of the world, they don’t seem to want to pit two Philly Dems against each other. It makes sense given the population numbers. It does appear, according to Politico, that they will dump the heavily Democratic neighborhoods from our district, as well as PA-7 and PA-6 – Pat Meehan & Jim Gerlach. That would be very handy, indeed.

And for any Iowans, get ready for your big day tomorrow!

Exactly What I Quietly Feared

Having checked the unrestrained passions, to put it mildly, of the left, the Tea Partiers head home to sleep it off.

Well, look. Victory in the midterms was bound to cool some peopleâ€™s ardor. Conservatives were irate over unchecked Democratic governance, and now thereâ€™s a check in the form of a Republican House, so the temperature had to come down. The difficulty here isnâ€™t convincing grassroots righties that they need to get their message out 24/7, itâ€™s figuring out how to raise that temperature again to the point where people are out in the streets, knocking on doors, volunteering, organizing, donating, and so forth. Candidly, I donâ€™t know how you do it; the best fuel is anger, but having just won a major legislative victory in Wisconsin â€” imperiled though it may be â€” some conservatives just may not be feeling the rage right now, no matter how vicious or intimidating the left tries to be.

Instapundit has more on the subject here. One has to have a grasp on exactly what politics is, and how you win elections. Only a small minority on either side of the political spectrum, however loosely we define it in this country, have put any serious thought into, or have bothered to educate themselves, on the issue of the day. They are motivated by far more superficial considerations than most people who follow what’s going on would be comfortable with. The process of winning elections involves bending these pliable voters over to your side. Neither side is capable of winning elections without bringing these voters along with them.

It’s an open question in my mind as to whether a republic can survive with universal suffrage. Limiting suffrage in this country, however, has been littered with racism and sexism. We’re not keen on the idea, and given the history understandably so. But we’ve developed a notion that voting is a civic duty, rather than something you should only do if you’ve bothered to learn something about the issues. I think being able to vote should be harder, to weed out those who are only casually interested. That could be as simple as requiring people to go to the county seat in order to register.

This obviously is not a workable idea, because we’ve all been raised to revere democratic governance. I’m just not convinced you can have lasting and stable republican government with a voting population that doesn’t want to pay taxes or cut spending. Something has to give.

Saving Money With a Freezer

When I saw this headline over at Instapundit, my first thought was that William Jefferson had a new book out.

I’ll be here all week.

Bring it On

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette thinks Obama needs to grow a spine when dealing with the “gun lobby.”

If Mr. Obama called for limiting the size of ammunition clips in certain weapons, something that we and even former Vice President Dick Cheney think is a good idea, it would confirm the NRA’s darkest conspiracy theories. But all Mr. Obama wants is a reasoned discussion, and the mighty NRA can’t bear even that.

To them a reasonable discussion means “You guys talk about how much of the Second Amendment you are willing to surrender.” Â Personally, I’d prefer it if Obama came after us. We have the votes to defeat this in Congress, and that would be the excuse we need to fire our people up headed into 2012. That’s going to be a lot harder if politicians like Casey and Tester can still claim Obama won’t touch the gun issue.

Philly Mayor and Police Chief Back Magazine Ban

Not really shocking. Neither of these two have ever met a gun control bill they didn’t like:

Ramsey, also president of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, said there’s “simply no legitimate reason not to have this ban in place.”

So are you going to take them away from your officers then Commissioner? I say lead by example. If there’s no legitimate reason to have one, your cops don’t need them either.

Funding the California Recovery

Never let it be said that bureaucrats in Pennsylvania aren’t doing their part to stimulate the economy. Well, the economy of California anyway. Because the feds & Pennsylvania are giving a Catholic high school money to buy iPads for all of their students.

Funding for the iPads came from an allotment by the state of Pennsylvania for textbooks and technology and the America Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s Enhancing Education Through Technology program. Bishop Canevin received $23,000 from the technology grant program, of which $19,000 will be used to purchase the iPads and $4,000 will be used for professional training and development.

Clearly, the school was in desperate need for some kind of technology solution, and iPads were a simple and reasonably priced option, right?

The school has state-of-the-art computer labs, a wireless infrastructure, business class high-speed Internet, streaming audio and video broadcasts and SMART Boards in most classrooms.

But with all of that other technology at their disposal, the high school administrators have launched some new and innovative teaching methods that can only be served by giving out free iPads, right?

“That’s a crucial component,” said Mr. Sinagra. “Certainly from day one, when the students enter the classrooms, teachers need to be ready to use the iPads.”…

In the meantime, Mr. Sinagra has an assignment for the faculty.

“Their homework, beginning now through mid-summer, is to learn to use the iPad and to research what applications would be appropriate for their curriculum,” he said.

It’s such a crucial component to the curriculum that teachers don’t even have lesson plans ready to use the devices.

I’m so pissed about this, I’m seriously thinking of printing the article, taking my highlighter to key points and sending it off with a letter to my state lawmakers and Congressman. This is a school that seemingly has everything, and we just handed them $23K in education and recovery funds to buy iPads to give out for free while not even having a plan in place to utilize the technology. Insane.