In DC, you don’t own your driveway or lawn. Now it’s finally coming to the attention of the press since the Congresswoman with no vote started getting tickets for parking in her own driveway.
My old office suffered from this problem. There were no warnings. One day officers just started ticketing all of the cars in the parking lot claiming that it was really public space and not a parking lot. Nevermind that it had been a parking lot since the building was zoned for business or that it was completely paved. We were told we had to preserve it as open space for the city, yet we were also responsible for maintaining it in bad weather. Several very expensive “tax” payments eventually resulted in special permission for us to use it. They had to be paid quarterly, so I wonder if changing this law will finally solve the problem for my old former employer.
Ross’s proposal would impose additional fines for a person cited for careless driving if they were found, among other things, to be reading, eating, grooming, or gabbing on a cell phone. Unlike Rep. Josh Shapiro’s cell-phone amendment, Ross’s amendment would make those violations a secondary, rather than primary offense.
I think that’s a fair compromise. If you can’t talk on the cell phone without commiting the traffic offense of careless driving, then I don’t have any problem with the secondary offense. It also includes a number of other items that are equally hazardous. Shapiro’s bill was too draconian. If I’m stuck in traffic, I don’t want to risk a fine because I call the office to tell them I’m running late. Not much of a risk to the public for calls of that nature.
The Allentown Morning Call has coverage of the event here. Apparently they checked 63 guns in total. Mine would be among them. NUGUN also has some coverage here, here, some great photos here, and finally here. What’s really interesting is that NUGUN got a photo of the reporter interviewing the Grumbines for the article above. I noticed him because we follow his blog.
I love this headline: “Obama aims to cut wasteful spending,” from the LA Times. What is their shining example of Obama’s self-evidence fiscal responsibility?
The president singled out a move by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to end consulting contracts to create seals and logos that he said had cost the department $3 million since 2003.
Three million? Wow. I am in awe of that number. With a budget deficit projected at 2 trillion dollars for this year, surely the Department of Homeland security having to go without seals will save our children from this massive, crushing debt.
Do we need any more evidence the media is in the tank? Two trillion dollars. Think about that number. It’s 1000 million to get to a billion, and a 1000 billion to get to a trillion. And we’re not doing that once, but twice. That’s 2 million times a million dollars. Nitpicking little items here and there can add up to real money eventually, but it won’t be a drop in the bucket when all is said and done.
I now yearn for the days of the fiscally restrained Bush Administration!
I remember a while back, I read in a women’s magazine about political activists who were out “saving the world.” What struck me was something one of the activist’s said: “I found out that me and 25 friends could make a difference in changing politics.” I never forgot that. We often think it takes a big majority of people or a huge group to make a change. I think that’s wrong. Most people don’t care about politics and the truth is you and 25 friends can make a difference.
I know it sounds odd, but it’s true. In my experience as a “community organizer,” if I had 25 dedicated people in this Congressional District as my volunteers, this would be a far more pro-gun county than it is. With 25 dedicated people, I’d have something very real and valuable to offer state and local politicians, and even Congressional and National races. In grassroots political activity, volunteers are very hard to find. Dedicated volunteers are pure gold.
The politicians know this too. The biggest thing you can give them (and by converse take away), more than money or your individual vote, is your time. This is especially true for your state and local level politicians, who depend more on grassroots activity than a federal Congressman or Senator who has money to buy media ads. But even federal politicians still need volunteers.
With 25 dedicated people, I could easily change the political calculation on guns in this county. I can say that without a doubt. That’s why I plead so often for people to volunteer their time. The things that keep people from volunteering are understandable, namely a lack of time, and because no one really likes politicians all that much. I don’t really like them either. But, unfortunately, much like cattle, if you don’t keep them well corralled and under control, they’ll stampede and ruin everything.
Bitter I attended the Bucks County Tea Party today, in Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania. This is the historic park where Washington is reputed to have crossed the Continental Army across a partially frozen Delaware River in December of 1776, in order to attack a Hessian garrison at Trenton. A great place for a Tea Party, and a great day for one too. I’d estimate the crowd on the ground at about 500-600 people, and given that people were coming in and going out the while time, total attendance is probably more like 700 to 800 people. Not bad for a tax protest in a quiet suburb outside of Philadelphia.
Bucks County Tea Party
The Crowd
Stars and Stripes
Gadsden Flag
Impersonating Congress
Continental Soldier
Guns and Money
We’re Trees
Stop Our Spending
Porkulus
Cap & Screw
Kool Aid
Generational Theft
Think of the Children
Hands Off!
They had several speakers, and a few politicians were brave enough to speak to the crowd. One of them was Scott Petri, the local Republican State Representative. To be honest, I thought his speech was pretty inappropriate for the event. At a protest aimed at big, intrusive and tax hungry government, I’m not looking for a detailed speech on fiscal policy. I want to understand your philosophy, and I want you to signal to me that you get it.
Petri didn’t do that for me. A bit about how the federal government is creating local budget problems by not paying their fair share for special education prompted one Tea Party goer to shout “Education is not a federal mandate!” In another sentence he sought more funding for a the park museum. Absolutely, this is part of the problem. You can’t argue to cut other people’s pet projects, and then say hands off your own. You shouldn’t argue that people in places remote to your local community pay for your community’s projects.
I understand the difficulties involved with budgeting, and finding money, especially in poorer communities, but a Tea Party isn’t the place for policy discussions. It’s the place to show voters you understand them and their concerns, and to set yourself apart from the same old, same old. Scott Petri failed at that.
Fast Eddie took to the airwaves to call all gun owners who own semi-automatic rifles “nuts.” If you own one of these firearms, you also hate police. The anchors of CNBC didn’t challenge him on anything at all, they agreed that there’s no reason at not to ban guns.
Ed Rendell says these guns have zero purpose because you wouldn’t use a black rifle in a duck blind. (Actually, Governor, if that is your new standard, no American could own anything other than a shotgun.) The “fact” that they have no purpose might come as a surprise to all of these people.
Eddie also seems to have missed out on the latest talking points – he’s about three months behind. The argument that NRA is worthless was only the popular meme after the election up until Inauguration Day. After that, the NRA suddenly became so powerful that even Dianne Feinstein is afraid to introduce a gun ban.
UPDATE: From the comments:
So the police have need of weapons whose only purpose is to kill and to maim? Has “To kill and maim†replaced “To protect and serve�
Jim Geraghty has been researching only the mainstream media reports of tea party protests to get an idea of the minimum number of attendees. He took the rather cynical stance of assuming only 200 when an article said “hundreds” or 2,000 when it simply said “thousands” to describe the protesters. Based on his research, at least 341,472 Americans took time out of a busy work day to protest irresponsible spending.
The Pajamas Media crew took estimates from both journalists and organizers. Their tally so far is 515,919. Congress better listen up. These events were locally organized and from all accounts in the blogosphere, the attendees were fired up for action. We already know from the Louisiana House and Georgia Senate races held after election day that Obama’s coattails don’t extend very far when he’s not on the ticket – which he won’t be in 2010. It could be possible to pick off Congressional Democrats in more than a handful of districts.
There are two more events tomorrow in my area. There’s another rally on Indepedence Mall, and I would like to feature some coverage of it. However, Bitter wants to go to the more local Washington Crossing protest. If there are any readers or bloggers in the area who plan to attend the Philadelphia Tea Party on Saturday, email me. I will feature your pictures and commentary on the event.
Last night, CeasefirePA held its heavily promoted forum for District Attorney candidates in Philadelphia. I intended to send Bitter to cover it, but we both forgot about it. It may be for the best since it was described by the Inquirer as “sparsely attended” and questions were only allowed from journalists and anti-gun activists who had to recount the loss of their family members in “heartbreaking detail.” If Bitter had been there, she probably would have been considered an anti-gunner, and she would not have been able to ask any questions. Even the paper called the event “unusual…political theater.”
There are a few points worth highlighting from the report. One is that two of the Democratic candidates seems to realize that there’s a problem beyond blaming guns for Philadelphia’s problems.
“What it’s going to take,” [Dan McCaffery] said, “is someone with enough balls – excuse my language – to stand up to” soft judges. “If I have to go to war with the judiciary, I will.” …
[Brian] Grady said the most dangerous criminals needed to be incarcerated for decades. He faulted a system in which assistant district attorneys prepared hard to win trials, then fell down on the job in the sentencing phase.
“Sentencing is not a day off for the A.D.A.,” he said. “Sentencing day is a day of reckoning.”
Those statements may well have come with plenty of anti-gun rhetoric, but there’s not much in the way of pro-gun choices. Proving once again that the Second Amendment isn’t a matter of partisan politics, the only Republican candidate used the event as an opportunity to push “laser branding” for tracing guns. But the award for the most creative statement goes to Democrat Michael Turner who wants to frame the fight for Philly to end preemption and disregard state gun laws as a “civil rights” debate. Using the term “civil rights” to trample civil rights, that’s a funny one.
