Politics – Page 185 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Corbett and Onorato on Gun Control

The difference could not be more stark, which is why we need to make sure Corbett gets elected. Corbett is correct as a matter of law. His office has an affirmative duty under the law to sign reciprocity agreements, and the law does not provide for the Attorney General to make distinction between resident and non-resident permits.

“This is a real problem in Pennsylvania,” Onorato said. “Tom Corbett is running for governor. If he thinks this was just a 30-second sound-bite in June, then he has another think coming.”

Corbett’s campaign in June derided the loophole issue as a “solution in search of a problem” and said Onorato could not point to a serious crime having been committed by a Pennsylvanian with a Florida permit.

Go ahead Onorato. Let’s make this an issue. While I’m pleased Corbett is way ahead in polling, I’d like that lead to open up wider, and for the Democratic Party to be proven wrong, in a big way, that the gun vote can’t hurt you in Pennsylvania. Corbett has actually locked up straw purchasers in Philadelphia, which is more than that city ever did. What has Onorato accomplished? What has Lentz accomplished? Other than beating this dead horse of an issue.

Grave Misspelling

Political grave misspelling, that is. In an effort to belittle voters who she believes might need to be edumacated on how to write in the name Lisa Murkowski on the general election ballot this fall, her web ad misspelled her own name. Some commentary by one political online consultant:

Hey kids, check those details before you post that web video! Lisa Murkowskiâ€™s staff apparently didnâ€™t, and they misspelled HER OWN NAME in the original version…

Yep, the ad listed â€œwww.lisamurkwski.comâ€ in its first incarnation, an error caught by the online press with much mirth and joy. And of course, someone moved fast to buy up the misspelled domain name, which now plays host to a site thatâ€™s not exactly flattering to the sitting Senator (it starts here and gets worse: â€œLisa Murkowski is an elitist, Big Government, Tax and Spend career politician who was given the seat by her daddy.â€).

Here’s the revised version of the ad:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4nnCZ6jQRc[/youtube]
I think I’d be insulted by it if I lived in Alaska. Not that it matters since her sore loser moves aren’t exactly gaining a lot of ground up there.

Discharge Petition for HB 40, Castle Doctrine

Scott Perry is leading the charge to bypass Dwight Evans, who’s been tying this up in the Appropriations Committee, and get this bill to the floor for a vote. Apparently that could be any minute. From NRA:

A discharge petition has been filed for House Bill 40,Â Pennsylvaniaâ€™s â€œCastle Doctrineâ€ bill.Â In order to get the bill to the House floor for consideration, this petition must be approved.Â That vote could happen as early as tomorrow.

House Bill 40, sponsored by State Representative Scott Perry (R-92), would permit law-abiding citizens to use force, including deadly force, against an attacker in their homes and any places outside of their home where they have a legal right to be.Â Â HB40 would also protect individuals from civil lawsuits by the attacker or the attackerâ€™s family when force is used.

Please contactÂ your State RepresentativeÂ AS SOON AS POSSIBLE and respectfully urge them to vote for the discharge petition and to support HB40 on the floor. Contact informationÂ can be found by clickingÂ here.

We might be able to pass this.

Bryan Lentz Gets His Poster Child

I’m sure Lentz, who is running for Sestak’s old seat in Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District, thinks this murder in Philadelphia shows the need to remove the so-called “Florida Loophole,” but the reality is it’s another example of the City of Philadelphia’s utter failure to prosecute criminals. Make no mistake, Marqus Hill is not the kind of person who should possess, much less carry a gun. But in this country, we can’t deprive people of rights without due process, and this scumbag, thanks to the City, never got the process he was most decidedly due.

NBC 10 is also reporting on this, and notes that he was acquitted of attempted murder. This is not true. I have his record here. In 2005, he was arrested for attempted murder, aggravated assault, terroristic threats, carrying firearms without a license, simple, assault and reckless endangerment. All these, save terroristic threats, are listed as being “Held for Court,” meaning that the City District Attorney has still not brought an “Information.” In other words, he’s had a preliminary hearing, and a judge has determined there’s sufficient evidence to hold the matter, and await the prosecutors office to bring formal charges. Except the City has yet to bring charges on the matter.

Not only that, but in 2008, as they mention, he assaulted a police officer, which is aggravated assault in Pennsylvania, a felony. That charge was dismissed for lack of evidence. He was also charged with Simple Assault, resisting arrest, and disorderly conduct for the same incident. He was found guilty of disorderly conduct, and beat the other charges. One wonders how you can have lack of evidence for such a charge, since you would imagine all it would take is a cop saying, “Yes, he punched me while I was trying to arrest him,” but that’s what happened.

In short the city missed one clear, blatant opportunity to make this guy a prohibited person, and appears to have missed a second opportunity in 2008. Florida does a background check on every applicant, but that requires that the person actually be convicted of something. Philadelphia, with Brian Lentz’s help, is successfully deflecting blame for their own failings onto the backs of law abiding gun owners, rather than addressing the real problem, which is the City’s inability or unwillingness to get tough on criminals. Marqus Hill is a poster boy alright, but not for changing our guns laws.

Philadelphia Abusing Florida Permit Holders

Many thanks to the blog Vox Michaeli for covering this issue, which I didn’t notice on my vacation. The Philadelphia Daily News, to its credit, is covering the civil rights abuses of the City of Philadelphia on holders of Licenses to Carry from the State of Florida, which are legally recognized as valid by Pennsylvania, no matter the residency of the holder. The City confirms it’s handling eight, get that, eight civil rights suits on this issue. How many people have they harassed that haven’t sued:

Despite following the law, all of the men said that they were treated like criminals by city cops who either ignored their rights or didn’t know the laws.

Lt. Fran Healy, special adviser to the police commissioner, acknowledged that some city cops apparently are unfamiliar with some concealed-carry permits. But he said that it’s better for cops to “err on the side of caution.”

It’s time to get them familiar, because what they are doing is illegal, and it opens up the city, and its officers, to expensive civil rights lawsuits.Â I want the state to do more about this, not reward the city for this behavior by passing Lentz’s law. They need to follow the law. If they won’t follow the law, the state needs to make consequences for refusing to do so. I should note that one of these individuals got a Florida license because he was denied for unpaid parking tickets. That’s not a valid reason. We need to make some changes to the law, but not what Rep. Lentz has in mind.

Tossups

Clayton Cramer has a look at the races for November, and notes that he doesn’t have much faith in the GOP. In that case, the beatings need to continue until things improve. I don’t recall people being this upset in 1994, and that gives me some faith that the GOP might actually have to do something this time. I also don’t see Barry transforming himself, and remaking the Democratic Party in a centrist image the way Bill Clinton did.

A Party Leader to Be Ousted

Political parties, contrary to some tea party rhetoric, are not monolithic entities that are impossible to infiltrate or persuade. They are made up of real people, often your neighbors. Yes, you might be shocked to find out that political parties often have offices that represent even specific neighborhoods.

As with any group of real people, especially those trying to influence policy, some will make mistakes. All will try to use their role to give their favorite candidates and causes a higher profile with other party members and voters. That’s not a bad thing, even if sometimes a few act pretty stupidly while doing it.

But there are a few who have an absolutely toxic view of their role and how they are there to tell people how to vote and what is best. They aren’t willing to argue the merits of a specific candidate or policy. That is what you have in New York.

Vinny Reda, the partyâ€™s vice chairman and the Rockland County committee chair, explained Tuesday that he believed Paladinoâ€™s campaign was a distraction.

â€œWe very, very rarely have primaries, and I for one am very much against primaries. I find them very divisive,â€ he said.

â€œItâ€™s true, itâ€™s been difficult, which is why I think we had a light turnout all over the state,â€ Reda continued. â€œThe Republicans just arenâ€™t used to primaries. â€¦ People are confused, theyâ€™re getting mail from different directions, and thatâ€™s why they need the party organizations to set them straight and point them toward the endorsed candidates.â€

He believes it is his job to tell voters how to vote and “set them straight” rather than merely doing the work of arguing on behalf of their endorsed candidates. More importantly, he doesn’t even want to have a system where others can express their disagreement. That is truly a toxic view. The New York Republicans should chase that guy out of the party. Even if his endorsed slate did have better candidates, the fact that he’ll tell reporters he’d rather do away with primaries than be forced to defend or promote a candidate to voters based on merits means he needs to go. The position has gone to his head, so it’s time to cut it off. The power, I mean. Not his head.

Thoughts from Others on O’Donnell Victory

Fred Bauer talks about how O’Donnell actually pulled it off, after a career of being somewhat of a joke in Delaware politics. Overall, I think her victory ends up being a good thing, even if I think she’s a lousy candidate. Not so much for the practical impact, but for the message it sends. Castle is obviously dumbfounded, and is, so far, not endorsing O’Donnell. Jonah Goldberg thinks it was a tactical mistake to nominate her, but correctly notes:

When you have an organic grassroots uprising, itâ€™s sort of silly to expect that it will make every decision with surgical skill and perfect foresight. Indeed, the attempt to play mincing games of compromise threatens to cool the very passions that have gotten us this far. In this Rush, I think, isÂ basically right.

Jim Geraghty also relays a letter from a Delaware native that seems to grasp the First State’s political climate quite well:

Both parties in Delaware have been led by blue-blood patrician types for eons. That probably isnâ€™t unusual in most states, but in a small state it plays out in a very interesting way. The big donors and loyalists of both parties are members of the same bar association, members of the same country clubs, do business together and send their kids to the same private schools. They live in the same neighborhoods, too. This co-mingling created a genteel centrist quality in Delaware politics that has not been challenged in any significant way, until now.

Last, but certainly not least is from the Belmont Club:

Itâ€™s news that nobody from the establishment wants to hear. The Democrats may win Delaware, but at the price of watching a new political fault line define itself without being able to take much advantage of it. To the traditional horizontal divide between Republican and Democrat is added a vertical one: Washington insider vs outsider. It has divided politics into quadrants.

I think, in the end, O’Donnell’s victory may be a tactical loss, but strategically, it probably needed to happen. What surprising is that Mike Castle was able to avoid a significant primary challenge for as long as he did. It was his time to go.

Christine O’Donnell Wins Delaware Primary

NRA can now put Mike Castle’s proverbial head on a pike outside HQ, and start carving Lindsey Graham’s name into the next sharp stick. It’s one thing to be a RINO, it’s quite another not to understand which groups you don’t want to piss off and mobilize. While I think that O’Donnell is, well, nutty as a fruitcake, I do hope she beats the formerly bearded marxist. Given the choice between crazy and nuts, I’ll take nuts.

I truly feel sorry for Delaware voters. The sad thing is, I would still feel the same way if it had gone the other way. I don’t shed any tears for Mike Castle. The electorate is pissed. He’s just the latest career politician that’s gotten what’s coming to him. I don’t think the anger is over yet, as I’m sure they are going to find out come November.

Where is the True Conservative?

Click here and watch this. It’s great commentary on the Delaware senate race. (Link stolen from @Collins_Joe.)