Politics – Page 201 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Travesty

Some of my earliest childhood memories are from visiting the USS Olympia, the sole floating survivor of the Spanish-American War. It Â has been a museum ship at Penn’s Landing for my entire life, and from the early childhood of my parents. I’ve taken almost anyone I know who visits Philadelphia to this ship. When Teddy Roosevelt talked about speaking softly, and carrying a big stick, the Olympia was the big stick.

I’m very distraught to hear that it’s time is very likely coming to and end because after decades of improper care, the Independence Seaport Museum can not afford the 20 million dollar price tag to fix all her problems. To me this is an icon of Philadelphia, and I agree with Wyatt hat we ought to be ashamed.

Where are the rich folks? A quality business jet can easily run you 30 million, not to mention operating cost. What’s 20 or 30 million to have your own late 19th century battle cruiser? Hell, I’d buy a 500 dollar ticket to take a cruise on that, especially if you let me blow the hell out of something with the guns. I’d hate to see this thing go to the bottom of the sea.

Anti-Gun Shenanigans

Good news: We’re finally getting a committee vote on Castle Doctrine here in Pennsylvania tomorrow.

Bad news: The gun un-friendly leader of the House Judiciary Committee realizes how much legislative support it has and is releasing three anti-gun bills at the same time.

Good news: PAFOA has put together an alert that will let you (if you live in Pennsylvania) email and tweet targeted lawmakers on the committee who haven’t expressed their support of Castle Doctrine and/or distanced themselves from the anti-gun bills.

If you haven’t contacted your lawmakers yet, today is the day to do it. Tomorrow is the vote, so make sure they hear your voice today.

Does Gutting Racist Public Sentiment Trump Property Rights?

I’m generally in agreement with SayUncle and Tam on this matter of people accusing Rand Paul of racism. But I also recognize that standing on the opposite side of the 1964 Civil Rights Act is a loser of a political stance. It’s not going to win you much among the population, and it helps opponents of the GOP paint it as “that kind of party” (even though Republicans voted for CRA ’64 in greater percentages than Dems). Part of the reason is that we’re not quite past the Jim Crow era enough for people to forgive and forget, but I do think that time is fast coming.

I’m going to forgive previous generations for believing the driving a stake through the heart of Jim Crow, and the public culture it spawned, was worth pissing on property rights for a bit. I believe it was worth it. But Jim Crow is gone. It’s not that racism is, but I think we’re fast approaching a point where disdain for racism will be a strong enough incentive to discourage any racist business practices among proprietors of publicÂ accommodations. At some point we could allow property rights to re-assert itself. Let social shame deal with the miscreants and keep the Government out of those kinds of affairs.

UPDATE: Great post on this subject by Randy Barnett here.

We Have Work to Do

Rasmussen shows that Sestak is ahead of Toomey by 4 points. It also shows that 61% of Pennsylvanians want the health care reform repealed. I have a feeling that Sestak’s numbers are going to drop once people get to know him, but I don’t want to count on that. I like what Xlrq said, “Congratulations, Pennsylvania, you just jumped out of the frying pan. Step two is not to land in the fire.” This is truth.

GOP Going After Carolyn McCarthy?

This is promising news. Jacob talks about the fact that she’s actually in a district that could easily elect a Republican, it’s just that, much like with my district, the GOP is fragmented and disorganized, and has run bad candidates. Maybe this is the year. If they have a stab I hope they take it. It would be nice to get Carolyn “The shoulder thing that goes up” McCarthy out of Congress.

Here it Comes

Castle Doctrine is getting a vote in the Judiciary Committee on May 25th. The bad news is that so are three anti-gun bills. From NRA:

House Bill 1043 would create a new Bureau of Illegal Firearms Trafficking or a â€œFirearm Trafficking Czarâ€ in the Office of the Pennsylvania Attorney General. Â Passage of this bill has the potential of establishing yet another anti-gun biased bureaucratic agency within the state government.
House Bill 1044 would gut Pennsylvaniaâ€™s firearm preemption statute which currently allows only the State Legislature to enact laws pertaining to firearms. Without a state preemption law, the result would be a complex patchwork of restrictions that change from one local jurisdiction to the next.
House Bill 1045 would bring California-style gun-control to the Keystone State and ultimately ban many semi-automatic firearms commonly owned by Pennsylvanians.

Contact information for the committee is here. We can’t count on these bills to be defeated. Remember, New Jersey was a pro-gun state until the day it wasn’t. So it will be the same for us if we do nothing.

Bucks GOP Can Get Bent

Given that we’re under attack, this is hardly a time for infighting. But as a Republican in Bucks County I’ve beenÂ progressivelyÂ annoyed with the party. A few months ago I finally decided to come back to the party that abandoned me almost a decade ago, and I’m already regretting it. Take this story, for instance, about getting Tea Party groups kicked out of polling places. Now the reason was because they weren’t following state disclosure laws for fliers handed out at polling places. The Tea Party groups should have known about the law, and that they didn’t get their message out is on them. If you’re going to be insurgents, you better know how to play the game. But this is not to say I’m letting the GOP off. Here’s what pisses me off:

Poprik said that although the effort to block the tea party fliers was driven by the election code violation, she finds the idea that the tea party candidates would try to buck the party’s endorsements distasteful.

“In order to be a state committee person you do some work, you get to know people and then you run for state committee,” Poprik said.

Poprik said the tea party candidates are unknowns to most members of the Bucks County Republican Party. She said the party would not support them because they haven’t risen through the ranks and proven themselves.

“This is a party office. This is not a public office. This is our election,” Poprik said. “It is highly unusual for people who have never done a thing for the party to run for state committee.”

Listen Lady, when your party hijack the election apparatus that my tax dollars pay for, it’s no longer a “party office” or a “party election.” At that point, it becomes a public office, and candidates are entitled to a fair shake before voting members of their respective parties. Maybe the Tea Parties are blocking your endorsements because they no longer feel the Republican Party represents them.

I certainly felt that way, and now I come back to rejoin and get involved again, and I find alternate views are being shut out. You have no right to the Bucks County GOP. If members of the party feel you’re doing a lousy job, and make no mistake about it, you’re doing a lousy job, we’re entitled to run other candidates to replace you.

This isn’t the safe, GOP dominated Philadelphia suburbs they used to be. It’s time to come into the 21st Century and get serious about rebuilding the party’s brand. That’s not going to happen with the political dinosaurs that currently rule the GOP.

Where’s Your Bloomberg Now?

We’re quite pleased with the result of last night’s primary, a summary of which Bitter put up over at PAGunRights.com. There were two races we were keeping a very close eye on were two State Senate districts where a MAIG mayor was trying to move to a higher office. These are solidly Democratic seats, so this was essentially the election.

We helped raise money for both pro-gun candidates through ActBlue, and we are happy to report we won one of the two races, but most pleasing was that both MAIG mayors lost their primary. We’d like to congratulate NRA endorsed State Rep. John Yudichak on his commanding primary victory over anti-gun MAIG mayor Tom Leighton. We are very pleased to have thoroughly trounced Bloomberg in this race.Â In the second district, our endorsed candidate did not win, but it doesn’t look so bad. Here’s what Bitter had to say:

This is a mixed bag election for gun owners. On one hand, the NRA backed candidate â€“ State Rep. Jim Wansacz â€“ did not make the final cut for November. On the other hand, the extreme anti-gun Mayor of Scranton did not survive either. A dark horse candidate won the race, and we hope to find out more about his position on guns rights in the future. This is his first elected office, and he was backed by the retiring pro-gun Senator for this open seat. For anti-gun Chris Doherty, this is his second setback in a few months after his campaign for governor floundered. Calling in the big guns, the anti-gun leaderÂ brought in Bill Clinton to record phone calls for him, though it did no good.

The important thing is this race is that Doherty didn’t win. It was a multi-way race, and we had some other issues in this district that could have affected the outcome. This is a pretty clear message that no matter what Bloomberg is promising to MAIG mayors, if you try for higher office, NRA will notice, and we will kick your ass.

Specter is Gone

The man who switched parties to avoid getting beat in his primary just got beat in his primary. As much as I’m enjoying the poetic justice, the words “Senator Sestak” scare the living hell out of me. I’ll work like hell for Pat Toomey.

Primary Day

WithÂ recuperationÂ from Annual Meeting now fully underway, I nearly forgot that I came back to primary day in Pennsylvania. Who am I going to vote for? I’m undecided, believe it or not. Might not decide until I’m in there. Let me explain my conflicts.

Governor: Without a doubt, Sam Rohrer represents my values of limited Government much more closely than Tom Corbett does. But Corbett is proven in a statewide race. I have my doubts as to whether Rohrer will be able to raise enough money, win enough independents in the general election, and beat whoever the Democratic nominee is. I also don’t think Tom Corbett is a bad candidate. Given the choice, I’ll probably go with the guy I think can win in November.

Congress: Mike Fitzpatrick is the presumptive winner in the race, and is carrying an NRA endorsement. I like Gloria Carlineo philosophically, but much like the situation with Rohrer, I’m very concerned about her ability to raise money. That’s not a small concern, because Patrick Murphy is a fundraising machine. If Carlineo loses, I really hope she doesn’t disappear from politics. She should really consider a stab at State Representative, or maybe a County Row Office. I am by no means happy the GOP reanimated Fitzpatrick to go after Murphy, but it is what it is.

In both cases, I will back whoever the eventual nominee is. We have to get Murphy out, and we definitely need to prevent any of those Dems from getting in the Governor’s Mansion. Ed Rendell has convinced Democrats in this state the NRA can’t beat them. Its only so much time before the General Assembly starts believing that too, and when that happens, we’re screwed.

It’s a difficult choice. Do you vote for someone who is with you 90% of the time who can’t win over someone who is with you 70% of the time who can? These are the compromises you make along the way. All politics is compromise. It’s the only way we all live together without killing each other.