Courage of Conviction

I’m taking a little time off from blogging…just for a few days anyway.  My wife is due with our third child.  In fact, her due date was Jan. 20th.  That’s right 11 days ago.  She is showing no signs of going into labor anytime soon either.  So why the time off - She’s scheduled to be induced on Friday morning.  So we need a little bit of time between now and Friday morning to make sure we get everything taken care of and ready.  I’ll be back next week.  I may even post some pictures of the little guy. 

That’s what I feel like doing right now.  Why?  Way too much insanity going on today. 

Here’s the latest - a story about a Republican who plans on blocking a proposal to allow beer sales in grocery stores. 

Are you kidding me?  How many nannies do we need running our lives?  For God’s sake, if a teenager really wants beer, he/she will probably just raid mom and dad’s refrigerator.  Besides what about all the surrounding states that have enough faith in their residents to allow the sale of beer and wine in grocery stores? 

Another good example of why I re-registered as an Independent - too many Republicans who are just arrogant and don’t believe you or I can take care of ourselves. 

Also a good reason why I cannot find many incumbents to support - at most levels of government - in most places of the country.  There are a few here and there, but a rare find. 

I was looking at the news this morning and one story after another has confirmed that my world is now upside down.

What did it - three stories.  That’s all I could handle before I had to stop.

First story - Barbaro.  He died - get over it.  He was a horse.  We go out of our way to morn a horse and yet children die every day without anyont even thinking about them.  I saw one comment about someone understanding Philly mourning his death because they are in search of a champion and haven’t had one since 1983.  When will people realize that each and every person is a champion.  Each person is a leader.  We can and should stop looking to others for leadership when we have it within us - all we have to do is use it.

Second story - poll - 56% of Philadelphians want survellience cameras.  Wow.  All I can do is quote a Philadelphian - Ben Franklin once said something to the effect that the man who would give up some freedom to gain some security deserves neither.  How sad that our national birthplace of freedom is willingly wanting to give up freedom for security.

Third story - Republicans propose a state smoking ban.  I’m not a smoker.  I have never in my entire life even put a cigarette to my lips.  I don’t support a ban on smoking though.  I can see teh spin to this story - These Republicans are one-uping Rendell and attempting to pose as the party of health care.  I’ve often said that it is ridiculous to do this piecemeal approach to banning smoking that we have done in the past.  Still, Republicans are proving once again to me that they are not the party of limited government - they are still nanny state light - in other words they are really Democrats who are just taking their time getting to big government.  Real Democrats are running toward big government. 

So the rumors are true - there is now a primary for the GOP nomination for County Commissioner.  Mechanicsburg lawyer Karen Gunnison has decided to run. 

Here’s the story - click here.

It’s pretty obvious based on where she is making her announcement that a certain past county commissioner is upset that the current GOP Commissioners have been undoing what she had done while in office. 

The most amusing part of the article is summed up in one paragraph:

Stabile, a classmate of Gunnison’s at Dickinson School of Law, says the committee will hold its endorsement meeting Feb. 17. Gunnison is hoping for an open primary, but if not, says she is interested in the endorsement.

I have news for Gunnison - there is a better chance of it snowing in the Bahamas in July than there is of there being an open primary.   Here’s some free advice for Gunnison, if you really are going to go through with this and really run - forget the Committee - they aren’t going to support you, they aren’t going to go for an open primary. 

I received this joke from a friend of mine.  I don’t post forwards too often, except when I find them really amusing - most i end up deleting before even reading them.  I found this one pretty funny, so I wanted to share it with you. 

My Dad the Dancer 
  
One day, a fourth-grade teacher asked the children what their fathers did for a living. All the typical answers came up–fireman, mechanic, businessman, salesman, doctor, and so forth. 
However, little Justin was being uncharacteristically quiet, so when the
teacher prodded him about his father, he turnrd red and replied, “Well…my father’s an exotic dancer in a gay cabaret and takes off all his clothes in front of other men and they put money in his underwear. Sometimes, if the offer is really good, he will go home with some guy and give him a private show.” 
  
The teacher, obviously very shaken by the young man’s statement, hurriedly set the other children to work on some exercises and then took young Justin aside to ask him, ”I am so sorry to hear tha story about your father! Is that really true?” 
  
“Well, it wasn’t really true,” the boy said, “he really works for the Democratic National Committee and is helping to get Hillary Clinton elected as our next President, but I was WAY too embarrassed to say that in front of the other kids.”

Keystone Politics caught my attention with a posting on their blog about Rep. Todd Platts, the Congressman representing York, Adams, and half of Cumberland Counties - hence he represents me in Congress. 

Keystone Politics picked up the article that the York Daily Record did on Platts. 

To answer Phillydem’s comment about not knowing anything about Platts, let me take a shot at answering it.  I should know too - I managed, or rather mismanaged, a primary campaign against Mr. Platts in 2002.  It was the first time I managed a congressional-level campaign.  What an experience.  We had a million mistakes, but it was a great learning experience.  But enough about me.

Platts is no conservative - he definately is a moderate Republican.  Platts hallmark was and still is Campaign Finance Reform.  He sees himself as a younger John McCain in terms of a “reformer.”  Platts is mildly Pro-Life, or atleast became pro-life when he decided to run for Congress.  He supports the minimum wage and several other Democrat Party policies. 

Anyone who has ever seen Platts speak knows what an honor and privledge it is for him to serve in Congress - because that’s what he talks about when he speaks before talking about other issues. 

Platts views himself as above the partisan fray.  How so - look at his campaigns.  When an opponent attacks him, he will most likely respond that he opposes negative attacks and that he is running for the office, not against anyone else.  I have to give it to him, he’s got his message down and has great spin in handling opponents.  Platts is one of the few Members of Congress that does not raise much money - usually about $200,000 for a campaign.  Imagine a well-financed candidate coming in and spending a $1 million on a campaign - Platts might very well be toast.  Platts doesn’t run TV ads, only direct mail pieces and he does it the old fashioned way - surrounding himself with popular politicians.  In 2002 it was him shaking hands with the President.  In 2006 it was him standing next to John McCain.  He also opposes PAC money claiming that special interests are bad. 

Overall, Platts has a strong following in southern York County where he served as a member of the PA General Assembly.  He’s well liked in that area because he manages to not do anything controversial.  The Platts machine is all about promoting Platts in anyway Platts can be promoted.  On election day Platts’ people will hand out Platts’ material, but no one else’s campaign literature - so much for helping the Republican team out. 

That’s the quick version of my knowledge of Platts.  Let’s put it this way, Platts is exactly where he wants to be - someone who others have to go to for votes.  He’s a good politician and knows how to play politics.  He’s already behind McCain, so look for Mr. Platts to be seen as an up and comer. 

The Sentinel has run a couple of articles the last two days about the re-election campaigns for some of the County elected positions - the Commissioners and the DA primarily. They’ve gotten two straight days of coverage in fact.  I’m kind of surprised at the Sentinel for that much coverage.  Usually political stories get one day unless some new development happens.  The other reason I’m surprised is because of everyone else talking about Rendellcare right now - the Sentinel used AP stories on Rendellcare. 

The amusing part about all of this is one paragraph:

There were rumblings of a primary challenge on the Republican side, but county GOP Chairman Victor Stabile says he hasn’t heard from anything concrete. The Republican committee meets Feb. 17 to endorse its slate of candidates.

I’ve heard similar “rumblings.”  From what I can tell, someone is interested in running, mainly against Commissioner Eichelberger - although I don’t know who.  I suspect the reason why Stabile hasn’t heard anything concrete is that this mystery candidate is probably thinking of running without talking with the Party - doing a real primary. 

I can understand this reasoning having been a part of the Cumberland Republican Committee.  The Committee is not open to hearing from anyone who may challenge an incumbent.  The Committee would continue to endorse a dead man if he were the incumbent.  I honestly can’t think of a single reason why the current committee would vote for an open primary - they are very closed minded when it comes to primaries - which is the main reason I quit the committee.  I believe in the conservative principle that competition is healthy and brings out the best. 

If anyone were to ask me about running in Cumberland County as a Republican and taking on an incumbent I’d tell them to not waste time talking with the Republican Committee.  Any candidate that did would only get grief and complaints.  That’s all before the anointment meeting, I mean endorsement meeting.  Then during the endorsement questioning, the candidate would be made to feel like it was the Inquisition and that the candidate had some kind of mental problem for even considering taking on an incumbent. 

So the Gov has proposed health care for all Pennsylvanians.  Here’s my prediction - he’ll get what he wants.  There are several reasons for this.  1. The House of Weenies.  There are too many spineless individuals in the state house - they won’t do anything to stop it.  Plus it looks good politically to show that you care.  2. Conservatives have already lost this debate before it got started.  Several Republican Governors implement socialized medicine in their respective states.  If R’s can’t keep other R’s from swallowing socialized medicine, how are they going to stop a Democrat governor?  3.  Conservatives have lost the longetivity battle before it even began.  Conservatives should have seen this coming down the pike long ago.  They got complacent in their defeat of universal healthcare during President Clinton’s term.  They thought that was the war when in fact that was just the first battle.  4.  Conservatives lost the PR war before it began.  Everywhere I see a story about Rendell’s plan I read about “health care” for everyone.  Gee, who could possibly be against health care for everyone?  The proposal isn’t about health care, it’s about health insurance.  There is a huge difference between health care and health insurance.  Conservatives need to be framing the debate about insurance, not health care.  If conservatives don’t, then there really is no point in fighting a losing cause like this. 

The House of Weenies, as I have already mentioned in a previous post the name that I will now refer to the House of Representatives in Pennsylvania, has gone further down into chaos.  Let’s update the tally - we have a Speaker of the House, we have a Speaker Emeritus, and now a Deputy Speaker.  To say that I am amused is an understatement.  Let’s just cut to the chase and rename all of our representatives titles to Speaker Representative, or something like that.

The lower chamber never ceases to show its incompetence.  How many inmates are running the asylum now?  Do they even know? 

All this for a legislative body that is essentially part-time to begin with.  The one good thing about all of this for the people of Pennsylvania is that hopefully all the arrogance that is shoved into one chamber will halt all legislation from actually getting passed.  The danger is that some really large horrible bills do make it through though.  We are stuck relying on the Senate and the Governor and I’m not holding my breath on either one of those two - although they seem to be better than the House of Weenies. 

I’m the type of person who doesn’t like too many holiday’s.  Being a small business owner I tend to look at holiday’s as unproductive days - days where there is a limited opportunity to be profitable.  It’s true for MLK day as it is for Labor Day and New Years Day and several other holidays on our calendar. 

I would argue that most people see today as just another day off from work.  The reality is that they will do whatever they want or what they couldn’t get done over the weekend.  There won’t be much thought about the man who we are supposed to be honoring.  I’d argue that would be because on days like today, it comes down to this - how do you celebrate MLK day?  It’s a good question.  It’s a question that the country has been dealing with since this became a federal holidy - what to do on this day.  Recently it seems that some have turned it into a day of service.  That’s not a bad idea really. 

Still, for most people, it’s either just another day off or another day to work.  Does that make the people who don’t “celebrate” the holiday bad people - I would say no.  Just as people who don’t celebrate Christmas are not bad people.  It’s just like anything, unless it carries some kind of signifigance to you, you probably could care less what the day is. 

For me, the most pointless holiday we have is New Years Day.  We take a entire day off so that we can do what?  The only answer I can come up with is put up a new calendar and watch college football. 

Labor Day has always been interesting to me as well - we celebrate Labor Day by not laboring. 

July 4th I get.  Christmas I get.  We don’t celebrate Washington’s or Lincoln’s birthday officially anymore, even though without either of them, we would have no country.  Easter’s on a Sunday, so it’s not even debateable.  Memorial Day is an odd one.  We remember all those who died for their country on that day.  The typical way to do that in America - have a picnic.  Thanksgiving is an easy holiday to figure out. 

So where does that leave MLK day?  If it’s important to you then I hope you are celebrating in an appropriate way.  If it’s not, then do something productive.