There's a certain unease in citing this opinion piece by a recovering homophobe politician who may have finally decided it's catastrophically wrong to screw up our constitutions with limits on individual rights. Jeff has, perhaps, come to understand that the purpose of a constitution is to limit government power.
Jeff left the Iowa senate and opened a "media relations" operation. He is now somehow connected with One Iowa, part of the national coalition of weepers who, among more noble goals, want to turn the gay-lesbian-transgendered-etc. bunch into another victim group. If he's being paid, he's not the first ex-pol to shoot for riches by hawking his residual clout to the highest bidder, ideas be damned. Within the limits of my Bing patience this morning, I couldn't learn if he is taking One Iowa bucks.
That said, I recommend the piece. Among other things, he makes a point pertinent to "conservatives" interested in freedoms guaranteed by Amendment Two:
When we start allowing constitutional amendments that limit individual control, and give that control over to the government, we open ourselves up to more limitations on our individual freedom. It's easy to feel so passionately about an issue that you don't look at it objectively, but what happens when the individual freedom we're discussing is gun control or universal health care? We need to set aside the rhetoric and look at the slope on which we're starting to slide.
Apr 2, 2011
You can't make this stuff up
Just when you thought American politicians had scaled the Mt. Everest of venality, comes along something like this.
A recommendation approved by the Polk County Compensation Board calls for elected officials with at least eight years of service to "receive one week of pay for every year, not to exceed a maximum of $30,000" when they retire from office or lose a re-election bid.
I sympathize with the argument that it's a cheap way to get some of them out of our hair, but that ignores the reality that they will be replaced.
It's also pertinent that the takers would be the ones too stupid to steal enough in office to make $30k look like lunch money. I'm not sure whether that is a good thing or bad.
But still...
A recommendation approved by the Polk County Compensation Board calls for elected officials with at least eight years of service to "receive one week of pay for every year, not to exceed a maximum of $30,000" when they retire from office or lose a re-election bid.
I sympathize with the argument that it's a cheap way to get some of them out of our hair, but that ignores the reality that they will be replaced.
It's also pertinent that the takers would be the ones too stupid to steal enough in office to make $30k look like lunch money. I'm not sure whether that is a good thing or bad.
But still...
Apr 1, 2011
Iowa self defense: Run, Rabbit, Run.
Iowa's finest this week decided to kill "stand-your-ground" legislation. The old law will continue to govern your legal actions when a thug approaches you on the street. You must try to retreat, giving the goblin a nice broad back to aim at.
It's more complicated than that, of course. The measure would have made it very difficult for a prosecutor to pursue charges when a citizen met force with force. He could nail you for egregious lapses of perception and judgement, but not because he didn't like you, or guns, or the very concept of a citizen assuming responsibility for his own survival.
Even with the duty-to-skedaddle, you retain the right to pay a lawyer to try to talk the county attorney out of prosecution, and to pay him more to tell your tale to a jury -- that is, to bankrupt yourself with legal costs because, in a very tough moment, you decided to stay alive.
---
Also dead are moves to ban cops from confiscating your firearms during a "state of emergency" and to let professional school security guards carry sidearms. Iowa legislators looked at New Orleans and Columbine and pronounced them good?
A Constitutional carry bill is still alive, but that's probably going nowhere. It died in the first "funnel" week but was revived as a funnel-exempt tax measure when a backer argued that its tinkering with permit fees constituted tax law.
(It is possible that one or more of the dead bills could also resurface as "tax" measures, but with a liberal majority in the senate, chances of passage remain slim.)
---
If you like, you can forgive these poor fellows and girls. They were badly distracted this week. The first new legislative redistricting map surfaced yesterday, and all of what ever mental power exists down there was focused on, "Jayzuss! Am I losing my seat?"
They know what's important.
.
It's more complicated than that, of course. The measure would have made it very difficult for a prosecutor to pursue charges when a citizen met force with force. He could nail you for egregious lapses of perception and judgement, but not because he didn't like you, or guns, or the very concept of a citizen assuming responsibility for his own survival.
Even with the duty-to-skedaddle, you retain the right to pay a lawyer to try to talk the county attorney out of prosecution, and to pay him more to tell your tale to a jury -- that is, to bankrupt yourself with legal costs because, in a very tough moment, you decided to stay alive.
---
Also dead are moves to ban cops from confiscating your firearms during a "state of emergency" and to let professional school security guards carry sidearms. Iowa legislators looked at New Orleans and Columbine and pronounced them good?
A Constitutional carry bill is still alive, but that's probably going nowhere. It died in the first "funnel" week but was revived as a funnel-exempt tax measure when a backer argued that its tinkering with permit fees constituted tax law.
(It is possible that one or more of the dead bills could also resurface as "tax" measures, but with a liberal majority in the senate, chances of passage remain slim.)
---
If you like, you can forgive these poor fellows and girls. They were badly distracted this week. The first new legislative redistricting map surfaced yesterday, and all of what ever mental power exists down there was focused on, "Jayzuss! Am I losing my seat?"
They know what's important.
.
Mar 30, 2011
Mother Jones Weeps. Good.
An appreciative nod to The Associated Press this morning for this lede on the Wisconsin saga:
"Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and his fellow Republicans face a new hurdle in their campaign to curb public sector unions' power."
Reporter Todd Richmond and his editor rate compliments for the final five words. The construction recognizes that there is more to the debate than the shrieks of public titters frightened at the thought that their grip on your wallet may be slipping, ergo diminishing their "rights."
News guys from the outset wore out the phrase "strip unions of bargaining rights." as though they had never run across the concept of "at will" relationships between the person who writes the paycheck and the one who cashes it.
--
The mass of U.S. labor law is daunting, but anyone interested might start with the Clayton Act. The union provision, stripped to its essentials, prohibited a trucking company from obtaining enough power to shut down American motor transport but ceded the right to do just that to, for instance, Jimmy Hoffa.
.
"Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and his fellow Republicans face a new hurdle in their campaign to curb public sector unions' power."
Reporter Todd Richmond and his editor rate compliments for the final five words. The construction recognizes that there is more to the debate than the shrieks of public titters frightened at the thought that their grip on your wallet may be slipping, ergo diminishing their "rights."
News guys from the outset wore out the phrase "strip unions of bargaining rights." as though they had never run across the concept of "at will" relationships between the person who writes the paycheck and the one who cashes it.
--
The mass of U.S. labor law is daunting, but anyone interested might start with the Clayton Act. The union provision, stripped to its essentials, prohibited a trucking company from obtaining enough power to shut down American motor transport but ceded the right to do just that to, for instance, Jimmy Hoffa.
.
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