Politics – Page 349 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Move Toward Confrontation

City Council is preparing to pass gun control in Philadelphia:

Mayor Nutter has indicated that he will likely sign the billsÂ and begin enforcing the gun laws even if, as some believe, the lack of Harrisburg approval makes them illegal.

And Clarke expects the state to fight the city’s efforts:

“We anticipate that the state, along with the National Rifle Association, will very quickly challenge our ability to implement those bills.”

My letter to Attorney General Corbett, asking him to investigate the possibility of prosecuting anyone attempting to enforce these provisions, which are illegal and unconstitutional under Pennsylvania law, will be in the mail before the ink is dry on Nutter’s signature.

How to Deny City Residents Credit

Suspend foreclosures for six months.Â If creditors know that the city is going to dick around with the instruments used to secure loans, they are just going to stop offering cheap credit to city residents.Â No doubt this kind of thing hurts poor people the most.

Politicians in the City of Philadelphia are nothing if not stupid.

Rot Runs Deeper

Philadelphia’s corruption probe that surfaced with bugs in the office of Mayor John Street a few years ago has now nabbed the governor of Puerto Rico, along with several Philadelphians.

But Luis Fraticelli, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s San Juan Field Office, said, “Our democratic system cannot function when public officials act as though they are above the law.

Feldman, who raised more than $1 million for Democrats, including U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr. and Gov. Rendell, was a former business partner of Ronald A. White, the late power-broker who was the lead defendant in the Philadelphia corruption case.

In the Philadelphia case, Feldman was not charged. In San Juan, he was charged with one count of conspiracy to violate federal election laws.

This is what happens when you let one party rule a city for decades.

Hat tip to Instapundit

Thinking about Government

A government which has the power to do unlimited good, has the power to do unlimited evil.Â GeekWitha.45 tries to explain that to one of his acquaintances.Â It’s a good read.

Pennsylvania Pessimism

This article takes exception to Pennsylvania’s generally dour outlook on its future.

But if ever there were a case that documents what the economist Joseph Schumpeter described as “creative destruction,” it’s what happened in Pennsylvania. Steel and other manufacturing industries were indeed shattered by competition from the globalized economy that was just emerging. But new industries that nobody could then have imagined took their place, and they provided new jobs, year after year.

Employment in Pennsylvania reached an all-time high in January 2008, and then fell slightly in February. People there fear that a steep recession may be coming. But as of February, the last month for which statistics are available, unemployment Wall-Street-LayoffsÂ in Pennsylvania was just 4.9 percent. Since January 2003, the state has added a total of 178,000 new jobs, according to the state government.

Where did all these jobs come from?Â According to the article, technology and health care sectors, bolstered by our state’s large number of universities.Â The big problem with this outlook is that, while unemployment may be low, young people are still leaving the state for opportunities elsewhere.Â Pennsylvania’s chief problem is a high tax burden, and a regulatory environment that’s still mired in the obsolete industrial era policies.Â If Pennsylvania wants to be truly dynamic, it has to find ways to cut taxes, and reign in state government.

Union Thuggery in Philadelphia

This is one of the many things that keeps the city down, but it’s a big one.

Voluntary Searches

Cam Edwards has a good post up on the recent push by DC and Boston authorities to go door to door asking homeowners whether they can voluntarily search the house for drugs and guns:

This effort may end up leading to more violent crime. If itâ€™s already leading to police being referred to as â€œvampiresâ€, youâ€™d have to think itâ€™s not a great boon to establishing rapport between the beat cops and the people who live in these high-crime communities. It seems designed mostly to get positive press coverage rather than achieving any real benefit.

The politicians in D.C. have become so used to taking away liberty in the name of the common good that itâ€™s fair to say they really donâ€™t see anything wrong with this. And thatâ€™s the scariest part of all.

Indeed.

Anti-Hunting Folks

New Jersey is a long ways down the slippery slope, thanks to people like, this who now see their goal of banning all hunting and gun ownership within political reach:

Hunting makes an unnecessary contribution to a world already plagued by too much violence and suffering.Wildlife and the outdoors can and should be experienced through activities such as camping, hiking and wildlife watching; ways to get close to nature without having to cause suffering and death.

Joe Miele, President, Committee to Abolish Sport Hunting
Maywood, NJ

Anti-hunting forces in New Jersey were dealt a pretty significant blow in New Jersey’s last election, but they aren’t going away.Â Joe Meile and his ilk are not biologists, they do not understand the role hunters play in conservation and wilflife management efforts. Â He also, apparently, isn’t above telling people from Mississippi how they ought to be living their lives.Â People like this need to be vigorously opposed.

Quote of the Day

From Barack Obama campaign spokesperson Jen Psaki:

Barack Obama believes the Second Amendment creates an individual right, and he greatly respects the constitutional right of Americans to bear arms.Â He also believes that the Constitution permits state and local governments to adopt reasonable and common-sense gun-safety measures.

This was their answer in regards to the question of why Barack Obama, if he’s such a supporter of the second amendment, didn’t sign onto the Congressional brief with 55 other colleagues asking the Supreme Court to find the DC gun ban violates the second amendment.Â We can only assume that DC’s gun laws are “reasonable” and “common sense” in the senator’s eyes.

McCain Criticism

Over at Volokh.Â McCain most definitely fits the mold of “National Greatness” conservative, and what National Greatness conservatives always forget is that it’s liberty that made this country great.