The White House seems to be trying to recruit NEA grant recipients in the arts to act as his propaganda arm. What if Bush had done this? I guess we can look forward to more wonderful art reminiscent of Soviet propaganda.
Category: Politics
Dynasty
I didn’t think we were supposed to have royalty or titles of nobility in this country. Why do some apparently think this would be a fine tradition to start? If I were the GOP, I’d run someone who’s fiscally restrained, but otherwise socially liberal enough to possibly win in Massachusetts. Kind of like Mitt Romney, only with a soul. Maybe there’s enough discontent even in Massachusetts to elect a fiscal hawk who doesn’t offend their socially liberal sensibilities. But perhaps I’m being a bit optimistic. Any Republican has a big uphill battle in the Bay State, but the state at least has some tradition of electing Republican governors.
Take a Sugar Pill, Grandma
Star Ledger Strives for Balance and Fails
I think this article in the Newark Star Ledger that MikeB pointed to in the Star Ledger tries to seek balance, by pointing out both sides of the coin. It’s a tired formula the media uses in attempt to appear balanced and insightful, without actually being balanced and insightful, and still pushing an agenda.
It’s also an intellectual cop-out to suggest we just ought to split the difference and be done with it, as if we’re not already sitting on top of a pile of gun laws and regulations already.  It’s difficult to take an article seriously when it’s author can’t even understand the difference between licensed dealers and black market dealers:
Half the guns used in crimes come from one-percent of gun dealers. There can be better oversight of those dealers, and better enforcement of laws.[…]
In New Jersey last month, undercover State Police busted a Glassboro gun dealer who allegedly sold them two assault weapons and a 37 mm projectile launcher, as part of a crackdown on the one percenters.
The guy in the link above is not a legal gun dealer. There is no change in regulatory oversight or new gun laws that are going to affect him. This isn’t some kind of crack down on otherwise legal gun selling operation. This is smuggling. It’s already operating outside the law.
The anti-gun people are always quick to paint this image of rouge licensed dealers who blatantly and willfully violate the law. If that were the case they’d be in jail. It’s always difficult for them to accept that guns are regulated beyond belief, and those regulations don’t do squat about keeping firearms out of the hands of criminals who really want guns.
Strict Liability to Be Put into Tax Code
Instapundit is reporting the Health Care bill has a provision buried in it that will make taxpayers strictly liable for mistakes, meaning you’ll be fined for them. I’m wondering if this will apply to Obama’s cabinet too?
Success Against the Mayors! (Sorta)
As we continue to study and find weakness with the Pennsylvania coalition of Michael Bloomberg’s anti-gun group, I discovered that we’ve already reduced his numbers! Well, we can’t exactly claim credit for these since they happened during the primary election season, but that’s okay.
Harrisburg Mayor Stephen Reed was defeated in the Democratic primary election, though he may weigh a write-in campaign for the general. There is no indication that his replacement Linda Thompson will support the rights of sportsmen and gun owners, but at least one mayor is out of the coalition for now.
Weissport Mayor Tina Hagenbuch was defeated in the Democratic primary election by Jonathan Glenn Trout. Again, there’s no indication that he will respect the rights of Pennsylvania’s gun owners and hunters, but we remain more hopeful given the generally pro-gun region.
In addition, information available from election resources indicates two mayors have opted not to run for re-election. Mayor Fred C. Moyer Jr. of Freeburg doesn’t appear to be on the ballot following the primary election. In fact, it would seem that no candidates ran with the major parties in Freeburg, but there were 20 write-in votes on the GOP primary ballot and 3 write-in votes on the Democratic primary ballot. (Names were not available, so I don’t know if these are all for the same candidate or not.) Think about that – a mayor of a town based on 20 votes. Crazy!
Based on the records found online, it would also appear as though Pine Grove, PA’s Mayor Morris S. Williams opted not to run again. We don’t know what positions the other candidates hold, but here’s hoping they don’t join Bloomberg’s anti-gun crusade.
Look for more updates on this issue. Needless to say, the fact that I’ve done such detailed research should give a clue that my research was not simply for blog post purposes. We’re not going to allow Bloomberg to keep such a stranglehold on Pennsylvania politicians.
The Problem of Politics
I’m always amazed when people on the left believe there’s any such things as “for the public good” in politics. Ilya Somin points out some important facts in that regard to Matthew Yglesias, and tells us why we don’t get politicians who are concerned for the public good:
One might still ask why the power-seekers tend to predominate over those who place a higher value on the public good. The key explanation is selection effects. A politician willing to do anything to take and hold on to power will have a crucial edge over an opponent who imperils his chances of getting elected in order to advance the public interest. The former type is likely to prevail over the latter far more often than not.
That’s a big reason I have little faith in the political process to always produce good outcomes, and consider Government to be a necessary evil. I think Ilya is also correct in his refutation of Yglesias’ claim that standing up for the “public good” can make one a great political “hero.”  I can remember one local politician who probably thought this. Her name was Marjorie Margoles Mesvinsky.  How many readers remember her, let alone as a hero?
Most of the great political heros we remember, Lincoln, TR, FDR, and Reagan, were very adept at power politics, and navigating the difficult maze of interest groups.
Playing the Race Card in Politics
David Patterson thinks that the reason voters don’t like him is because of his race. I think the reason voters don’t like him is because he’s a lousy politician, and they don’t like his politics. This takes the cake though:
Paterson told a blogger that some people are uncomfortable with too many black people in power.
“Part of what I feel is that one very successful minority is permissible, but when you see too many success stories, then some people get nervous,” Paterson told political blogger Gerson Borrero over the weekend.
I’d like to see lots of success stories in this regard, but you know, I’d like them to be actual success stories. Patterson’s story is not about success. He’s a lousy politician. Nothing to be ashamed of, considering what success in politics requires. But I don’t think this country is so far backwards that any siginficant number of voters are uncomfortable that minorities are having all this success in politics.
Cost Cutting
Philadelphia is pretty much broke at this point. Over at PA Water Cooler we find out some lesser known parts of Nutter’s nutty plan to keep the city from going bankrupt, like laying off 1000 police officers, laying off 200 firefighters and closing 10 companies. Switching traffic signals to blink and shutting off all street lighting. What could possibly go wrong?
Maybe this is why they call him Nutter.
More Alinsky, On Change
One theme Alinsky repeats again and again in Rules for Radicals is the need to accept the world as it is, and not how one wants it to be, and to begin activism from where the world is. In the preface, he laments how the young people at the time he wrote Rules, in 1972, weren’t getting this:
As an organizer I start from where the world is, as it is, not as I would like it to be. That we accept the world as it is does not in any sense weaken our desire to change it into what we believe it should be — it is necessary to begin where the world is if we are going to change it to what we think it should be. That means working in the system[…]
Our youth are impatient with the preliminaries that are essential to purposeful action. Effective organization is thwarted by the desire for instant and dramatic change, or as I have phrased it elsewhere the demand for revelation rather than revolution. It’s the kind of thing we see in play writing; the first act introduces the characters and the plot, in the second act the plot and characters are developed as the play strives to hold the audiences attention. In the final act good and evil have their dramatic confrontation and resolution. The present generation wants to go right into the third act, skipping the first two, in which case there is no play, nothing but confrontation for confrontation’s sake — a flare-up and back to darkness. To build a powerful organization takes time. It is tedious, but that’s the way the game is played — if you want to play and not just yell, “Kill the umpire.”
Elaborating on this a bit further, he speaks of the importance of creating a reformation in pubic opinion before revolutionary change can happen:
We will start with the system, because there is no other place to start from except political lunacy. It is most important for those of us who want revolutionary change to understand the revolution must be preceeded by reformation. To assume that a political revolution can survive without the supporting base of a popular reformation is to ask for the impossible in politics.
Men don’t like to step abruptly out of the security of familiar experience; they need a bridge to cross from their own experience to a new way.
Alinsky was also a big fan of fighting today’s battles on today’s terms, and focusing on your battles right now, rather than fighting today the battles you should be fighting tomorrow.