Category → Government Of the People…
Rum and Coke Friday, in honor of liquor store privatization
Pennsylvania is about to join the 20th century (yes, the 20th) with liquor privatization. Only PA and Utah have state stores…the Quakers and the Mormons….
Is it a core function of government to sell liquor? Uh…no.
So I am having a rum and Coke to toast the Corbett Administration and the state representatives and senators who they worked closely with to achieve this necessary milestone. Thanks!
Of Molotov cocktails and fishing expedition gaffes
It has been an interesting day today, at home and abroad.
Obama gave a bizarre speech in Israel, and Biden made yet another unbelievable gaffe. Who knew that an empty bottle and a fishing tool could become weapons, but here you have it.
Obama loaded his Jerusalem audience with ultra-leftists, most or all of whom did not stand to applaud when Obama stated that Israel has a right to exist. Throwing his second Molotov cocktail into the Middle East (the first one in Cairo that set off the Arab Winter), he declared that the bigoted Arabs bombing Israel are just like Canada next door to the US. Who knows what bizarre actions will follow. If the unrest across the Arab world is any indication, it’ll be ugly, violent.
Across the ocean and then back home, Joe Biden is still spending gobs of taxpayer money traveling about like an itinerant salesman, preaching gun confiscation, contrary to the US Constitution. Earlier, Biden spent over a million taxpayer dollars for just a night in Paris and a night in London. Apparently he thinks he is some sort of royalty, living the high life. Today, Biden said that former US Congresswoman Gabby Giffords had been “mortally wounded.” This is the same woman who is now advocating gun confiscation. Wounded terribly, awfully, tragically, yes. Mortally? Obviously not.
And that’s the problem with the Obama folks. What is obvious to so many other people is invisible to them. And the consequences of being wrong are enormous. But what me worry?
If you have a college degree, you’d better be registered to vote
Dawned on me today that there are lots of citizens with college degrees who are not registered to vote.
What? All that money and effort so you can’t directly participate in our nation’s affairs?
If you have a degree, and you’re not a voter, then you just wasted your entire education up until you begin voting.
“Obama Cop” Tom Hyers Has Some Explaining to Do
Nick-named the “Obama Cop” because of his recent role in promoting gun control with US VP Joe Biden, York County, Springettsbury Township police chief Tom Hyers now has some big-time explaining to do.
I met Chief Hyers when we debated gun control at the WITF studio last month. Hyers was quick to promote gun control, quick to dismiss armed citizens and teachers, and quick to draw imaginary images of heroic rapid response police who bust down doors and shoot bad guys.
Strangely, Chief Hyers called my observation that, when seconds count the police are only minutes away, a “smoke screen.” It’s no smoke screen; it is a fact that the laws of physics cannot overcome. After our debate, we spent some time off camera chatting, getting to know one another, and exchanging views on gun control and culture.
Now, Chief Hyers has police officers on his force accused of using wildly excessive force. One of the officers is accused in at least two different incidents. The incidents are all on camera, and they explicitly show men in uniform out of control, sadistically hurting the defenseless citizens they are sworn to protect.
My own takeaway from this is that policemen like Hyers are super into their jobs, and we both support them and cast a wary eye. On the one hand, we admire men and women who put their lives on the line to bring order to our society, who confront dangerous humans and risk their health to do a job. On the other hand, Hyers believes too much in the power of police. He practically worships it, to the point of dismissing the effectiveness of armed citizens, a silly thing to do. When I mentioned during our debate that concealed carry holders are extremely safe and have been observed to have a lower accident rate than uniformed police, Hyers bristled and demanded to know where such ‘outrageous claims’ came from.
No wonder Chief Hyers loves gun control so much. He also knowingly employs cops who beat the heck out of innocent citizens and face no internal corrective action. Police deserve our respect, and their power deserves watchfulness. Chief Hyers is very much the face of gun control. He is a man to watch, all right…watch out, America!
PA Turnpike’s Bi-Partisan Crookedness
Reports emanating from the criminal investigation of the Pennsylvania Turnpike and prosecution of many of its top officials show a culture of corruption.
By both major political parties, that is.
Whichever political party was in power at the time (Governor’s office, PA legislature) got the lion’s share, 60%, of the Turnpike contracts steered to the private contracting companies of its choice. The “minority” party had to settle for 40%. That was the arrangement for decades between the party leaders.
Both parties treated public taxpayer money there as nothing more than a slush fund for party use. No Republican watchdogs here, folks.
This culture of corruption was mirrored in Harrisburg, where both Democrats and Republicans ate up hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money in a bi-partisan orgy of self interest. Now, it is difficult to get law enforcers from either party, whether it is Dauphin County DA Ed Marsico or PA AG Kathleen Kane, to investigate the Harrisburg mess. Each one has allegiances to their respective party, each of which has well-known members involved in the criminal corruption there.
All the more need, then, for greater activism on the fringes of the party system. Republicans who are not part of the Republican party system hold the greatest promise for reforming this sickness. Principle must triumph over profit.
Where is Admiral Gauoette?
SOS at CPAC: “Where’s Admiral Gaouette?” and the “Benghazi CBA”
New organization of former US Special Ops officers issues distress calls about urgent high-profile questions.
By Mark Langfan, at CPAC
3/16/13
“SOS” is a naval emergency distress call meaning “Save our Ship”, but at the CPAC, (Conservative Political Action Committee) convention, “SOS” stands for SpecialOperationsSpeaks.com, a new organization of former US Special Ops officers who are issuing distress calls about urgent high-profile questions, and critical unanswered mysteries about the 2012 Obama Benghazi debacle.
CAPT Larry Bailey, USN (Ret.), a former senior SEAL commander and co-founder of Special Operation Speaks, demands to know, “Where the heck is Admiral Gaouette?” ADM Gaouette was the commander of the USS Stennis Carrier Strike Group on station in the Persian Gulf area who was mysteriously summarily stripped of his command during the attack in Benghazi, Libya, in which Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were murdered.
Several days afterward, it was reported that ADM Gaouette was summarily relieved of his command during a major operational contingency event during the Benghazi attacks for the alleged claim of “inappropriate leadership judgment.” ADM Gaouette’s detention and total disappearance weeks before the November 2012 presidential election was a story that CAPT Bailey says “disappeared into a black hole of silence.”
CAPT Bailey, as a “Brother-in-the-Navy” of ADM Gaouette, has some urgent and vital questions:
Where is ADM Gaouette now, and where has he been for over 4 months?
Why hasn’t Congress called ADM Gaouette to testify about the 2012 Benghazi fiasco, when he clearly was a key operational senior commander in-theater?
If ADM Gaouette is under some type of detention, what does “inappropriate leadership judgment” mean, what is he specifically charged with, and does he have proper legal counsel?
CAPT Bailey urges anyone who heard or saw anything, or has even the smallest most innocuous piece of the puzzle, to tell them what that piece is. He says, “The more questions SOS asks, the bigger the black hole of silence becomes.”
Col. Richard F. (Dick) Brauer, Jr, USAF (Ret.), SOS Air Commando Coordinator co-Founder of SOS, has a slightly different, but still vital question: “Where was President Obama’s CBA (Cross Border Authority) for the Benghazi ‘rescue’ attempt when US Defense Secretary Panetta claimed Obama told him, ‘Do whatever you gotta do to save American life.’?”
Col. Brauer explains that an insertion of any US forces into Benghazi, Libya, or across any international border into a country where US forces were not deployed, would have required a special US Presidential CBA authorization to be issued. So, in effect, Obama’s telling Secretary Panetta to “Do whatever you gotta do” without simultaneously issuing a specific CBA enabling such action is like “telling a fire station to extinguish a 5-alarm blaze while the firemen were not legally allowed to even leave the fire house, go to the fire, or douse the burning building.”
So, Col. Brauer’s point is that President Obama may have known that verbally telling Secretary Panetta to “do whatever you gotta do” without his also issuing the legally necessary CBA was “passively ordering USSECDEF Panetta to ‘do nothing.’”
Col. Brauer says his group is considering filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for all the documents and emails surrounding the ADM Gaouette and “missing” CBA questions.
Stay tuned; these soldier sailors have never left a man in the field, and they will never leave Admiral Gaouette in the field. They see the Admiral as a “man down,” and are doing everything they can to help a fellow sailor who may be in trouble.
From: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/166278#.UUZ56Vdo6sQ
Good News From Dauphin County: Redefinition of ‘Establishment Candidate’
Good News: Dauphin County, PA’s Redefinition of the ‘Establishment’ Candidate
By Josh First
March 15, 2013
Two consummate political insiders are quietly leading an interesting, even inspiring redefinition of ‘establishment politician’, and it’s happening in a quiet Dauphin County, PA judge’s race usually known more for voter disinterest and a lack of exposure to the candidates than as an all-out competition. That’s now all changing as a competitive scramble for limited primary votes gets the two candidates out into the cold, knocking on doors every day, asking for ballot petition signatures, and handing out their campaign literature.
Both Bill Tully and Fran Chardo have long and active ties to the local GOP political establishment, serving as county GOP committeemen and assistant district attorneys, among other official and unofficial roles.
Another political insider, Jim Zugay, until recently the Dauphin County Recorder of Deeds, dropped out of the race over a month ago after failing to obtain the Dauphin County Republican Committee endorsement. Reportedly, Zugay had been promised the endorsement, and would not compete in an open primary without it.
Both Tully and Chardo asked for an open primary with no GOP endorsement, instead relying upon their existing individual relationships within the party. Tully is endorsed by popular Dauphin County Sheriff Jack Lotwick, and Chardo has the support of his boss Ed Marsico, Dauphin County’s popular District Attorney.
Chardo has spent his career in the DA’s office, now serving as head assistant district attorney. Tully also served as an assistant DA, and has also done a long stint as a private defense and civil litigation attorney.
Both men are clean cut, personable, articulate, respected community leaders and family men, with excellent professional and political qualifications. Either one can pick up a phone and talk with nearly any elected leader in the state. Both are quintessential political insiders with roots in and allegiances to ‘the system’.
Except for one thing: By running in this race, these candidates both bucked their own system. You know, the smoke-filled back room system, where party bosses horse trade and usually weed out strong prospective candidates either through pressure and threats, or enticements of government jobs and contracts, future support, or party endorsements that provide some and deprive other candidates of campaign seed funds. That party machine system has been steadily eroding in Dauphin County over the past few years.
Indeed, it seems to be breaking down in the state Republican Committee, as well, where appetites are stronger for greater opportunity through healthy primary competitions rendering the fittest candidate to carry the GOP torch. Last year was a fiasco for the Dauphin County GOP machine, where party bosses ran untested, apparently unqualified candidates against independent-minded incumbents and self-starters, and lost, at great cost to party finances and credibility.
Now, these two self-driven judicial candidates face off, each with his own array of marquee supporters, and no party endorsement, which strikes me and most other Americans as the way American political races are supposed to be run. Chardo has a good strong personal presence, while Tully is older, more experienced, and probably a little more independent of party bosses. Each one has prosecuted bad guys before a judge. Either one will give you a fair and professional hearing as a presiding judge.
The primary election will be held on May 21st, 2013, and your vote absolutely matters. In my book, both candidates are already winners for bravely breaking new political ground, and letting the voters decide, instead of the party bosses.
Stay in the conversation at www.joshfirst.com and on our Facebook page
It Takes a Democrat Strategist & a Conservative Republican to Say What the GOP Establishment Can’t & Won’t Say
CPAC is going on now and through the weekend. CPAC is the annual conservative gathering held around America that pressures the GOP establishment to make sounds of conservativism.
Political strategist Pat Caddell sat on a panel at CPAC yesterday and chided the Republican Party for not fighting to win. Caddell said that the Democrats fight to win, and win they do, and he laughed at how gentlemanly Republicans and conservatives like to be, even at the cost of winning. He listed many examples that I will not reproduce here.
Caddell is a Democrat.
Slip over to the US Capitol around the same time, where US Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) was being asked simple questions about her view of the US Constitution by US Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX). You can easily look up the exchange. Cruz asked Feinstein if her approach to gutting the Second Amendment would apply to the First and Fourth Amendments to the US Constitution, where, by her kind of legislation the US citizens could be told which books they could read and which parts of their homes were open to warrantless searches.
Feinstein had a snit and “took offense” to the question, instead of answering it. Liberals always, always, always take offense to anything that they don’t agree with. Being offended is silly, and is no grounds for dismissing an issue. If someone is offended, so what…keep going.
Recall that until very recently, Cruz was the outsider Republican, excluded by the GOP establishment and undermined by them at every turn in his quest for elected office. Conservatives like Cruz are always on the outs with the GOP establishment, because they say things that aren’t considered polite by GOP moderates.
In a nutshell, Thursday, March 14, 2013, was a significant milestone in the internal reformation of the GOP. A Democrat laughed openly in the faces of the GOP for being such weenies that they willfully lose races, and a conservative Republican asked a simple question not asked by any establishment R’s, highlighting the gulf between traditional conservatives and moderate Republicans.
Fortunately, Pennsylvania has US Senator Pat Toomey, a real American with basic American values representing our views in Washington. How sad it was and remains today that the PA GOP tried to promote Steve Welch as the GOP alternative to Bob Casey, instead of staying out of the primary race and letting the candidates contend among themselves. We might today have Tom Smith as our second US Senator, instead of the leftwing Bob Casey.
New pope helps unify the world
You do not have to be Catholic to respect or benefit from the office of the pope. The position is a badly needed voice of justice and peace in a world at constant war. How many other such roles are there in any faith? None. The Vatican maintains many odd if not absurd political policies, but no one holds a candle to the Church’s ability to feed and cloth the poor, spread peace, and dialogue. I’m not interested in picking on the faults that run in newspaper headlines. I’m focused on the good that I know will follow from the new pope.
Congratulations, Pope, and may your message of belief in God and peace among men be heard far and wide.