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Fred, i’ll go on record (again!) to say we don’t need a convention, but if there is one, I’d like to be on it.
With that said, Senator Piccola at PLC argued for a limited convention with Article One completely off the table.
So that’s good. Of course there’s no way to guarantee a convention will limit itself. That’s where I come in. 
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Gun problem in Philly? Look west, young man. The Post-Gazette has an astounding editorial on how to rid us of the “gun problem”
Before anyone starts to hyperventilate about me as a crazed liberal zealot wanting to take the gun from his cold, dead hands, let me say what my experience is of guns. As a child I played cowboys and Indians with cap guns. I had a Daisy Red Ryder B-B gun. My father had in his bedside table drawer an old pistol which I examined surreptitiously from time to time. When assigned to the American embassy in Beirut during the war in Lebanon, I sometimes carried a .357 Magnum, which I could fire accurately. I also learned there to handle and fire a variety of weapons, including Uzis and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. I don’t have any problem with hunting, although blowing away animals with high-powered weapons seems a pointless, no-contest affair to me. I suppose I would enjoy the fellowship of friends who are hunters. Now, how would one disarm the American population? First of all, federal or state laws would need to make it a crime punishable by a $1,000 fine and one year in prison per weapon to possess a firearm. The population would then be given three months to turn in their guns, without penalty. Hunters would be able to deposit their hunting weapons in a centrally located arsenal, heavily guarded, from which they would be able to withdraw them each hunting season upon presentation of a valid hunting license. The weapons would be required to be redeposited at the end of the season on pain of arrest. When hunters submitted their request for their weapons, federal, state and local checks would be made to establish that they had not been convicted of a violent crime since the last time they withdrew their weapons. In the process, arsenal staff would take at least a quick look at each hunter to try to affirm that he was not obviously unhinged.
Pardon me while I hyperventilate and call this guy a crazed liberal zealot since that’s exactly what he is.
So here’s my question–if someone has made the decision to, I dunno, walk onto a college campus and murder three dozen other human beings, precisely what kind of moral restraint is going to make him obey gun ownership laws?
And as for the Philadelphia mayoral candidates, here’s a snippet from the Pennsylvania Constitution:
Section 21.
The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State shall not be questioned.
If we actually do have a Constitutional Convention, let’s make sure we keep that part, huh?
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Got this in the ol’ inbox.
The Texas Legislature will spend about $70 million this year for its own operating expenses.
The Pennsylvania General Assembly is expected to spend $335 million this year for its own operating expenses.
Texas has 22 million people, compared to 12 million in Pennsylvania.
Doing the math the numbers are:
Those are the numbers for the legislatures, and don’t include the executive or judicial branches.
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This is not a good thing for the governor.
Capitalwire (subscription)
If two top cabinet secretaries award grants again to organizations linked to their spouses, they will be violating conflict-of-interest laws in Pennsylvania, the State Ethics Commission stated today.
By separate 7-0 votes, the State Ethics Commission stunned insiders by ruling that Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Katie McGinty’s and Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Secretary Michael DiBerardinis’ past actions, if repeated, would be conflicts of interest.
Now the Senate must ponder how to vote for their confirmations. Gov. Ed Rendell, who had predicted the Ethics Commission would not issue findings as tough as they did, must also decide whether to press for a vote.
Rendell has said he will keep both in office as acting secretaries, “as long as I am governor, and breathing.”
The Ethics Commission’s decision was requested on April 25. The surprisingly fast and unanimous response stunned participants in the cases of McGinty and DiBerardinis.
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KYW1060 had their Breakfast with the Mayoral Candidates this morning.
Tom Knox:
“If more legislators spent more time listening to their conscience and less time listening to the NRA, I think Philadelphia could have its own gun laws.”
Bob Brady:
” I think the city should be able to have its own gun laws.”
Dwight Evans says that as mayor, he’d lean on the legislature:
“Because it has not been solved at the city level currently. In my view, the current administration or anybody who’s running on this panel doesn’t have the skill set necessary in getting the law.”
Chakah Fattah hailed a weekend gun turn-in and after-school programs as home-grown efforts:
“I think we need to act now, not wait for the cavalry from Harrisburg to come.”
Michael Nutter:
“What I’ve proposed is to implement the plan that I’ve laid out, ‘Safety Now.’ We cannot wait.”
I never understood the gun turn-in fetish. If you’re a criminal, and your occupation has intimate involvement with other criminals and guns, why, why, why would you ever turn it in?
Education is often about money, and Bob Brady says city kids start out standing in a hole:
“It’s a shame that (governments spend) $21,000 per child outside the city, $11,000 per child inside the city.”
Tom Knox says maybe school vouchers are the way to go:
“I beleive we have to help families that are needy find ways to fund their education even if it’s by giving vouchers.”
Chakah Fattah:
“Private choices should be paid for privately, public choices should be paid for publically.”
Does Fattah “get” it? School funding comes from OUR POCKETS! Government money is OUR MONEY. Not “government’s” money. Since he feels strongly about that, I wonder what his position is on say, publicly funded abortions or federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.
In that case, public money is ok.
Michael Nutter says he supports city funding for student aid, while Dwight Evans says there’s another path to explore:
“Poor families should have the same options. If you want to transform this city, tax credits, like charter schools and options, should be available. That’s the American way.”
From the story, it looks like Brady offered nothing to make up the $10,000 shortfall. Knox surprised me with the vouchers. But he’s from the private sector, so that’s expected.
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Since all of the other Republicans have left, it was only a matter of time.
After 41 years at the Philadelphia Zoo, Dulary the elephant will be leaving as the zoo prepares to close its elephant exhibit.
Friends came to sign a going away card for Dulary, who is headed for retirement, because the zoo is closing its elephant exhibit, reacting in part to pressure from animal rights groups who believe they suffer in cramped enclosures.
“The minute as an organization you stop listening to your audience, your guest, or any one of the groups that that are out there, I think you run the risk of becoming irrelevant,” said Vikram Dewan, present and CEO of Philadelphia Zoo.
Philadelphia is not alone. Zoos in San Francisco, Detroit, Chicago and the Bronx Zoo have all decided to phase out their elephants.
Symbolism abounds.
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The Philadelphia Inquirer gained 0.6% readers over the same period one year ago.
They now average 352,000 readers per day.
0.6% is in the “noise” range, so it’s hard to tell what affect Brian Tierney and the new ownership have.
Other than chaffing the usual suspects because the new owners are evil Republicans, which I’ll take.
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Did you know that as a franchise, the Philadelphia Phillies are going to have their 10,000th loss this season?
No, Alex, but I appreciate you pointing this out to me.
My pleasure.
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Now now Fred… we all know, if there were only a little more money for government to spend on programs, we’d be ok…
Just a little more.
A little.
For the children!
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Does the state committee usually get involved in county races?
It does feature statewide candidates on it though…
Could just be the scan, but Jackie Shogan’s name is misspelled.
Of course that small potatoes compared with the issues raised over the mailing itself.
Can they mail out stuff in support of candidates? I thought the state committee is set up to “raise awareness” and party build.
Couldn’t that be considered “washing” of campaign funds?
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…only a spending problem.
There’s a good article in the Pittsburgh Tribune about taxes, spending, and economic growth. It’s nice to know that somebody’s talking about it.
For instance:
“If we can limit spending, we can lower taxes,” he said. “If we can lower taxes, the economy will grow. If the economy grows, there will be more and better jobs here at home so folks don’t have to move away.”
It really is that easy.
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I really really dislike Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd. His solo stuff even more.
I don’t mind sixties psychedelic rock (Strawberry Alarm Clock, Lemon Pipers, Donovan, etc) but the Syd Barrett creeps me out.
Everytime it shows up in iTunes’ Party Shuffle or on the iPod I have to skip it.
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Today is the 119th day of 2007.
Last night marked 137 murders in Philadelphia.
I understand there are some Philly cops with Afghanistan and Iraq service under their belts that are manning their desks instead of the beat.
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Liberals are blaming theocracy (in particular Catholicism) for the Supreme Court upholding the partial-birth abortion law.
John Yoo writing in the Wall Street Journal…
Playing the religion card is worse than silly because it shows how intellectually lazy the liberal defense of Roe has become. There are many reasons why the court upheld the federal partial-birth abortion law, but not a state ban that it struck down in 2000. The court found the state law too vague, while the federal law is more specific about the prohibited procedures. The court may have been demonstrating more respect for the judgment of Congress than that of the states. Or the court may have been following public opinion: Polls show that a majority of Americans agree with the partial-birth abortion ban. Almost two-thirds of the Senate, including Democratic Sens. Patrick Leahy and Harry Reid voted for it. Four years ago, today’s critics didn’t ask whether Mr. Leahy’s and Mr. Reid’s votes were inspired by their Catholic or Mormon faiths.
Rather than develop reasoned responses to the court or the arguments of conservatives, liberal critics resort to the mystical for easy answers. They suggest that irrational religious faith or pure Catholic doctrine handed down from the Vatican drives the Justices. It is much easier to dismiss your opponents as driven by mysterious forces than to do the hard work of developing arguments built on human reason. This religious critique recalls the nativist fear of Catholicism that too often appears in U.S. history. Senate Democrats appealed to the same bias when they filibustered judicial nominees for their “deeply held” religious beliefs, as Sen. Charles Schumer said of now-circuit judge William Pryor.
See also, Joe Murray opinion and Tom Auth’s original cartoon.
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Extreme Mortman seizes on the following line about Melissa Fitzgerald from last week’s story.
Fitzgerald, who played the assistant to the character C.J. Cregg on the hit NBC drama about life in the White House and is politically connected in Pennsylvania, has been toying with a run for the past six months, said Marcel Groen, chairman of the Montgomery County Democratic Party. ‘’I think she is fairly serious,’’ Groen said.
It was unclear Thursday whether she is already a resident of the 6th District.
Read the exchange between Marcel Groen and Melissa Fitzgerald.
From my info, she’s not registered to vote in the Montgomery County part of the district. Maybe Chester County?
Update: Other sources tell me no where in the 6th.
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For you Philly folk, Dr. Dog has a new record out. Check it out here.
Ahh…, the Philly band scene…, memories of Friday nights at J.C. Dobbs with George Thorogood and the Delaware Destroyers and lots of beer.
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Two activists — center city grad student Jim Nixon and a man dressed as a shark who calls himself “Tommy the Loan Shark” — regularly appear at Tom Knox campaign stops to drive home accusations that Knox has been accused of predatory lending in poor neighborhoods.
On Friday, the pair called their own press conference to claim that Nixon is now suffering harassment of his own:
“I am disgusted and outraged at the way Tom Knox has responded to me! Tom Knox has sent Michael Youngblood chasing me, threatening me!”
The Philly Inquirer will also be endorsing Michael Nutter.
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By now most people know if you deal with a scalper, you might end up with bogus tickets. But, as our hidden camera investigation outside Citizens Bank Park revealed, you may also end up with counterfeit cash!
If you find yourself stuck with extra tickets on game day, you might be inclined to do as Greg Rosato does. He tries to sell them to make back the money, but Action News got a tip that people like Greg could be getting bogus bills.
With Phillies tickets in hand, Action News went undercover to see if a scalper would give us counterfeit cash
The first scalper to walk up to our producers gave them a $20 bill in exchange for one of our tickets.
When we took that bill to the secret service, we learned that the bill was indeed counterfeit.
Pretty clever, really. People trying to scalp their own tickets aren’t looking to hang around any longer than they should… and by that time, the scalper is gone.
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A Philadelphia lawmaker who supports tougher gun control laws said Thursday he will probably start wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying his gun more often after receiving a threatening e-mail.
Rep. Jewell Williams said during a news conference on gun control that he would ask police to investigate an e-mail he received Thursday morning from an Allentown resident saying Williams should be shot for supporting Rep. Angel Cruz, also a Democrat from Philadelphia.
Williams, a former police officer who has a gun permit, said he also felt threatened by a gun rights rally Tuesday during which two participants held up a banner calling for Cruz to be ”hung from the tree of liberty.” The message was protesting legislation sponsored by Cruz to require gun registration and a $10-a-gun annual fee.
”Now that I hear this attitude of people recommending lynching, I’ll probably be wearing my gun more and possibly wearing my bulletproof vest, because we now think we’re being threatened,” Williams said.
There’s no irony in a pro gun-control lawmaker having to carry a firearm in self defense.
None.
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There’s nothing to see here.
Spiraling-malpractice insurance costs appeared to have little effect on the number of doctors in high-risk specialties practicing in Pennsylvania over a 10-year period, according to a new study.
Opponents of efforts to limit pain-and-suffering awards in medical malpractice lawsuits said Wednesday the study refutes claims that insurance costs have forced doctors to leave Pennsylvania. A doctors’ lobbying group questioned the findings.
Researchers based their conclusion on an analysis of more than 47,000 doctors, including medical residents, who participated in the state’s medical-malpractice insurance fund known as Mcare from 1993 to 2002. The study was published online Tuesday in the journal Health Affairs.
The study found that an average of 16 percent of doctors in high-risk specialties such as urology, neurosurgery and orthopedics stopped practicing in Pennsylvania each year from 1999 through 2002, which researchers defined as the “crisis period” after insurance rates spiked. The number of high-risk specialists leaving the state from 1993 through 1998 averaged 15 percent a year, by comparison.
What’s magical about 2002? That’s five years ago. What’s happened in the past five years?
Here’s a purely anecdotal story.
In early 2003 my wife was pregnant with our first child, and I distinctly recall the sitting in the ob-gyn’s office for an ultrasound and seeing a poster saying “Would the last doctor in Pennsylvania turn off the lights?”
And weren’t a number of doctors (ob-gyns specifically) going “on-strike” to protest escalating insurance prices as a result of jackpot payouts?
Absent a half decade of data, one has to wonder what’s really been happening.
Comments, compliments or complaints?
