I’m happy to report that we’ll be flying Hawaiian Airlines between the islands and eating more fish to celebrate PETA’s failures.

Those wacky People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) people are up to their usual tricks, and now they’re dragging airlines into it. This time, they’ve sent a letter to Hawaiian Airlines asking them become the official airline of Sea Kittens. What the heck is a sea kitten? That’s how they want to brand fish in order to stop people from fishing. Seriously. Is there any way I could make up something so dumb?

PETA’s pitch is to have Hawaiian wrap an airplane to promote saving sea kittens, and in exchange, the PETA folks will sing the praises of Hawaiian to their fellow members. They’ve even mocked up the plane, but in doing so, they’ve proven that they have worse Photoshop skills (at left) than even the United/Continental merger team. You’d think they could have at least mocked it up on an aircraft type that Hawaiian operates and not a 737.

Maybe I’ll take pictures of all the sea kittens we enjoy on our trip and do a report when we return.

Hotline is highlighting the issue of female candidates who face perceived sexism on the campaign trail.  The only problem is that I’m finding it very hard to sympathize with their examples.  In fact, I don’t consider most of the to be instances of sexism at all.  That is a problem in my book since it’s the classic story of the girl who cried wolf.  When it really happens, it won’t be taken seriously.

Martha Coakley

Teamsters were vowing, “I’m not voting for that broad,” according to a labor leader. At a GOP rally, one man reportedly shouted, “Shove a curling iron up her butt!”

Is the use of the word “broad” now sexist? I have friends who love using old school non-offensive language, and “broad” typically fell into that category. So did “skirts.” Are we now supposed to get outraged over every informal reference to women? If Coakley was a man, that sentence would have probably been much, much harsher. I don’t think the statement in any way reflect that the reason for not earning the vote is due to her status as the owner of a vagina. I suspect that statement reflects that the candidate herself admitted she did not enjoy talking to or working with Democratic party members, only the leadership. She mocked her opposition for shaking people’s hands. She was clearly out of touch.

The curling iron bit was out of line, but I still don’t see any inherent sexism in the statement. I suspect if the candidate was a man, the line would be something like, “Shove your foot up his butt!” There was no outcry of sexism when Mayor Daley threatened to shove a gun up a reporter’s butt recently. These are statements that the media allows to pass all the time when said about men, so women who run for office need to be ready to face the same kind of criticism. There’s nothing sexist about it just because they change the gender references.

Betty Sutton

Fast-forward to April, when a local chapter of the Ohio Republican Party sent out a mailer urging, “Let’s take Betty Sutton out of the House and put her back in the kitchen.”

If she had been a homemaker before running for office, this would fail on the issue of being inappropriate, but not inherently sexist. However, she was an attorney (sort of – she’s really been a politician since before she even finished law school) before running for Congress. In that regard, there may actually be an issue of sexism in this mailer. My feelings on this could change given the circumstances of the race – if she’s ever made a comment about women in the kitchen or homemakers that could offend, then I would argue they are simply playing upon her own words. But, I don’t see anything that indicates that is the case.

Hillary Clinton
They cite a specific example for Hillary, but I’m sure we all remember the cry wolf moment in the 2008 campaign. She said that all of the male candidates piling on to attack here were sexist, but the reality was that they were all piling on because she was the frontrunner. Once the momentum started to change, the attacks changed, too. It was not the presence or lack of a vagina that determined the attacks, but the poll numbers.

The problem is that many of the citations of supposed evidence are really not based on her sex at all. And that drowned out the appropriate claims of sexism – such as the WaPo writing about her cleavage.

Sarah Palin
Now there was some serious sexism across the board in the attacks on Palin. I say that not because I’m generally on her side of the issues, but because there were comments made by women in the media that made me want to lunge through the television and start a cat fight. I loved the CNN female anchor who questioned whether a mother should be running for high office since it might pull her out of the home – a question she had never raised with women running for office on the other side of the aisle.

I suspect that beyond the general hatred of Palin by the press, Clinton’s charges of sexism early in the year really put a damper on any accusations later on in the campaign.

Mary Beth Buchanan
Their evidence of sexism? She lost her primary to a man. Nevermind that she was batshit crazy and he ran on solid messages. On the day she announced she called into a radio show to pick a fight and threaten to sue the host for libel because he had on previous guests who didn’t say nice things about her. That has nothing to do with gender, she was simply insane.

Dede Scozzafava
They say she was “viciously pushed out of the race by her own party,” except that’s not true at all. She was selected by her own party leadership, but she was rejected by the voters in her district when a candidate who got out and organized a very good campaign ran on a better message. She wasn’t driven out, but she chose to bow out when it was clear she wasn’t very popular. She lost the support of her party when she actively endorsed and campaigned for the Democrat who has since voted for everything she claimed to be against. She let a personal grudge get in the way of long-term policy issues. Regardless of the parts between her legs, she was a poor campaigner and a very sore loser.

Colleen Hanabusa
The evidence of sexism in this race is that some Democrats endorsed her opponent because they thought he was more electable. Now how the hell is that sexism? At this point, the groups that are whining about how few women are in politics are a joke. She proved all of them wrong and came out in the lead with Democratic votes – somehow this is evidence of sexism. She is likely to win the Congressional seat in November, so we must condemn the loss in May as due to sexism.

The Party Leadership

Men still head the Democratic National Committee, the Republican National Committee, and all of the party committees that recruit candidates for top-tier offices — House, Senate, and governorships. Men chair all six recruiting panels and all have white male executive directors. Add in the DNC and the RNC, and all eight chairs are men, as are seven of the eight executive directors.

This is a tough one. Yes, there are definitely still pockets of a boys’ club in DC. There are also plenty of women who don’t really aim for the top slots. In most of my time there, and in talking to others higher up than I’ve ever been, the consensus is that women do far more to undermine the careers of women under them than men do. I’m not one to paint a universal brush because I’ve worked under great women. I’ve also worked under terrible women who actively try to get in the way of their female underlings while promoting and hiring completely incompetent men. I’ve worked under very competent men and guys who could really learn a thing or two about vision and leadership. It’s not always a clear picture on gender in the leadership issue.

Just because a woman loses an election doesn’t mean there was sexism at work. Every comment made by a pundit that references gender doesn’t have to be taken as a sexist attack (at least if a similar comment would be made if the candidate was a male). Just because the party leadership chooses to back a male candidate over a female candidate in a single race doesn’t mean there’s a conspiracy at work against all of the other women running for office. If we want more women in office, we need to get more women involved in politics in general. Sometimes chicks will lose. Just like men will lose. Not everything is a conspiracy, and if we want to shed the reputation of having hissy fits over every little thing.

Today begins another season of gun shows. Sure, gun shows happen all year round. Once the primary is over, that’s when we start setting up tables at gun shows in our roles as volunteers with NRA-ILA. No longer do we just attend gun shows whenever we feel like it, we have to camp out at them for an entire weekend. It ranks lower on the fun scale, but much higher on the rewarding experience scale.

Our "gun show box" that gets filled with candidate gear & paperwork. This will get progressively fuller & larger as the season wears on.

But the food. Oh my, the food. At some gun shows, you can find a good beef jerky vendor and your lunch is set. Who needs well-rounded when there’s beef jerky?

At other shows, you could pay through the nose if you eat on site. If the facility is selling food, it’s pretty much a guarantee that it will suck. The Valley Forge gun show has something we have lovingly come to call “radioactive relish.” They buy relish that has been dyed to the point of being neon green. To top it off, the one time Sebastian used it as a topping, he got very ill and we actually had to leave the show early.

This weekend, we’re hitting up a new show. It’s actually just down the street from us. However, since we’ve never been, we don’t know what, if any, food options are available on site. The good news is that it is right across the street from a grocery store and next door to a Burger King. In a worst case scenario, we have options. If we really want to go nuts, there’s even a Rita’s about a block away.

The State of Pennsylvania has partnered with Foursquare to promote tourism. That sounds all snazzy and great. Except I have to wonder if there’s a revenue stream in it because the ways to earn these badges are – not terribly Pennsylvania-centric.

For example, to get the “4 Score & 7″ badge, you can visit a private tour company in Gettysburg. But you won’t earn it if you actually visit Gettysburg National Cemetery – where the infamous speech was actually delivered. (Of course, only the private tours come with the endorsement of the Paranormal Investigators & Research Association, the battlefield only comes with a better sense of history and what men have sacrificed for this country.)

On the retail front, only 21 stores in Pennsylvania qualify for the “Retail Polka” badge. If you want to talk tourist, why not offer up some themed store listings? For outdoor outreach, they should include the numerous Bass Pro, Cabela’s, and Gander Mountain stores. For general shopping, the same agency has tons of listings just a few clicks away that somehow don’t qualify for the badge. One antique center earns a badge, yet they can find dozens that won’t earn a Foursquare honor on another list.

For food, Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development staff at least didn’t pick favorites in the Pat’s vs. Geno’s debate. Visits to either joint will qualify you for the “Shooflyer” badge. However, so will a trip to a central Philadelphia sushi joint. Yeah, because that’s what we all associate with Pennsylvania culture. A Brazilian steak house in Nazareth gets the official nod, but my visits to my favorite Brazilian steakhouse here in the Philly suburbs isn’t worth jack.

I’ve been playing around with Foursquare and looking at how ranges & gun clubs could creatively use it. I check in “off the grid” many times just to get an idea of how people in this area use it. And, yes, I do sometimes enjoy earning the badges. (Like when I got one for staying out late the other day when in fact I was actually making my first stop for the day at Starbucks. I even tried to organize a bit of a swarm party at the NRA convention – we made it to 30 people. Here’s to 50 in Pittsburgh!) But this isn’t actually about the badges.

The agency’s efforts in this new social media front give a bit of a boost to those select businesses. The agency is leaving special “tips” on all of the venues to promote business, and they get this special listing. Not to mention, if visitors earn these badges, their friends & family on the service will always see these specific businesses on the user’s profiles.

I’d be curious to know if this is a revenue source for the agency. Are they asking businesses to pay up to be considered some kind of Pennsylvania icon? Pay-for-promotion is by no means the end of the world, but it should be transparent when it is being initiated by government. Every business & citizen should have equal rights to get in on the ground floor.

I’m all for people getting involved with pro-gun campaigns to advance liberty in the political game. But all political activity should come with a warning sticker: Don’t be a douche for your candidate.

I was all set to vote for Sam Rohrer on May 18. Now, I’m pretty convinced I’ll push the button for Tom Corbett. It has very little to do with anything their formal campaigns have done, but mostly based off of how Rohrer’s supporters behave online and in real life.

Take the RKBA rally in Harrisburg last week. When we got in the security line, we were behind a couple of Rohrer supporters who decided to a) break the rule on signs at the rally (when it was initially to be held inside, they block people & get in the way with so many people there), and b) deck themselves in gear – shirts, hats, and about a dozen buttons. Now, for all us waiting behind the person to undress from all of her metal, do you think we had a positive image of Sam Rohrer at the time?

It may not be Sam Rohrer himself, but when you’re wearing that much gear, you’re representing the campaign by default. Not to mention, how is wearing all that crap for one candidate going to help you when you go to lobby other lawmakers? It’s distracting and going to turn off anyone who isn’t a Republican or backing Sam Rohrer. One t-shirt you can cover up or change, but all of that crap doesn’t fit in a bag or a locker. Overall, this experience was of “eye-rolling annoyance” levels, so not enough to make me change my vote, but enough to realize that his supporters were willing to put the man above the issues, which doesn’t help us in any cause. Men, even Sam Rohrer, will disappoint at some point. Stick to the issues, and you’ll fare much better in the political game.

But now we have Rohrer fans going around gun forums, setting up new accounts, and then spamming them with claims that Tom Corbett will allow the government to seize all of our guns. As Sebastian has pointed out on his blog, either Tom Corbett or Sam Rohrer would make the most pro-Second Amendment governor in decades. They shouldn’t resort to lying about the only other candidate in the race who might be a friend to gun owners. Gun owners win in the GOP nomination regardless of who actually wins the primary.

On a pro-gun Facebook page, one Rohrer supporter complained about using technology to connect with lawmakers – it wasn’t as pure as meeting them in person. Considering that most folks don’t have time to drive to Harrisburg on a regular basis, or even time to take off of work to visit a district office with each week or month, more opportunities to make your voice heard should be celebrated! But, no, that’s not good enough for a man who puts up Sam Rohrer’s campaign pictures as his Facebook avatar (at the request of the campaign, I might add).

Rohrer’s campaign also linked to a recent article about how his campaign has focused on local meetings as opposed to state-wide advertising. The biggest reason is that Rohrer has very little cash for his campaign. Part of that is because he spent quite a bit of it for Joe the Plumber’s endorsement. But his supporters jumped on board to condemn Tom Corbett for having more money. Based on some of these responses I’ve seen online, I will venture to guess that quite a few will stay home in November if Rohrer doesn’t win the primary. If that is the case, the why cut off your nose to spite your face?

Oh, but of course, they aren’t taking note of the fact that Rohrer’s campaign is seeking big bucks. They are proud of being outsiders, not realizing that their candidate is very much on the inside with every other major contender – he’s seeking out the $100K donations, just like everyone else. He voted for the infamous midnight legislative pay raises, just like everyone else. Some say that Rohrer’s campaign is showing how he manages to make a little go a long way. I would agree with that to some degree, but paying thousands of dollars for the endorsement of Joe the Plumber, and now (presumably) paying to have Aaron Tippin perform in Harrisburg is just bizarre. (My brother is in the music industry, so I have an idea of what it costs for a performance like this, and it is not cheap. More importantly, it doesn’t turn out votes.)

I was completely prepared to send the state party a message of how disgruntled I was with their behavior. I think they are missing opportunities, and I see their county affiliates actively burning down bridges with voters. Voting for Rohrer was going to be a message, along with voting against Jim Cawley for Lt. Governor.

The fact is, I’m leaning toward Corbett more now. I’m happy with him on the issues, and I haven’t see any crazy expenditures by him in the headlines. I’ll still vote against Jim Cawley, but also against Daryl Metcalfe. (I’m against bigots in my party, and Metcalfe’s behavior in the primary has so far been more petulant pre-teen than professional politician. His web presence mirrors a 1995 Angelfire website as opposed to 2010 serious politician. Hell, it’s not even up to the level of 2010 joke politician.) Right now, it’s between Checking Chet and Floating Head Guy.

Locally, I’m still sending my message by voting for Gloria Carlineo. I actually like her as a candidate even though she was not in my list of favorites from the tea party candidate forum. She really seems to have pulled a campaign together, and I’d like to see her active in politics even if she doesn’t win. Though the local GOP is out to destroy her for even questioning their favored boy. And that is why I’ll probably leave the party once the primary is over.

I’m just really happy that we have some fantastic state level candidates who will see the majority of my volunteer time in 2010. And more importantly, if I’m wearing their gear, I’ll be all smiles, friendly handshakes, and polite. Being a douche for your candidate doesn’t help.

When all of this is over, I hope that Sam Rohrer will consider returning to the State House. We could use more men like him there. I just hope that his local supporters in Berks County know about the “don’t be a douche” rule.

Because with them, I would have known for sure that eating the Ched’r’ Popper Cheeseburger from Sonic was actually worse for me than getting one of the newly demonized Double Down burgers from KFC.  I assumed it was worse as I savored the cheddar-stuffed peppers topped with chipotle mayonnaise on a delicious cheeseburger, but I didn’t need to stare that fact in the face when ordering it.

It will be cheaper to have a cold beer than a cold soda if New York’s governor has his way. It may not be a good beer, but beer nonetheless.

“A six-pack of soda is going to cost you approximately $4.99” if the penny-an-ounce tax goes through, Mr. Eusebio said, “where you can pick up beer from $2.99 to $3.99.”

Off to the neighborhood supermarket, where it turned out that Mr. Eusebio’s math was not far off. With the tax, a six-pack of Coca-Cola or Pepsi would cost 2 cents more than a six-pack of the cheapest beer in the store.

It’s a crusade for cash to bridge the gap due to too much spending, and it’s been framed as a health initiative to tax people away from unhealthy beverages. It’s unclear what the next taxes on beer will be when there’s a upward spike in alcoholism.

Cross-posted at Snowflakes in Hell.

I’m convinced that state workers hate their jobs. And they hate taxpayers even more than they hate their jobs. When you mix those two factors together, you get the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board – the state monopoly for all liquor & wine sold in the state.

I swear, they better watch it. Every single time I leave one of their stores, the urge to dismantle the system, fire the workers, and open the markets builds a little more. At this point, it takes most of my self control to not mumble about the evils of government monopolies when I’m walking around the store. If I’m with someone else, usually I just go ahead and talk about their crappiness out loud. At least then I just seem bitter, but not crazy.

If I didn’t want to hurry back to finish cleaning up the house, then I would have just gone to Jersey. And forcing me say that I can look to New Jersey as the bastion of freedom & liberty makes me hate the monopoly even more.

Got up Sunday morning at 3:30 am, threw on some clothes and took off for the mall to get in line for the Palin book signing at Barnes and Noble.  Got there a little before 4 and the line already had about 500 people.  Find my stop among many strangers.  It was an interesting experience as I got to visit with folks from other states, Richmond, VA and surrounding cities.  People were there for lots of reasons but the common thread was most of us see her as representing our
American values.  She tends to tell it the way she sees and feels it not the way she thinks we might want to hear it.  I managed to get my 2 books signed around 11.  I thought my legs and feet were going numb from the standing.  I had taken a chair but wasn’t able to use it but about an hour of the whole wait!  I hope Bitter enjoys her book.  According to the Roanoke Times there were over 1700 people in line and I would agree.  It was unreal but refreshing to see so many there.  Maybe there will be hope for the next election.