Tasers are classified as LESS lethal weapons, not non-lethal weapons.

Don’t Ever Change, Cambridge
In these uncertain times, it’s nice to know we can rely on some things. The sun will always rise and set. Gravity will always hold us down. And Cambridge will always be liberal to a fault.

During last week’s elections, a troop of Boy Scouts set up donation boxes at polling places to raise money for the troops in Iraq. In typical Cambridge fashion, the city removed the boxes and the Boy Scouts because they may have had a “pro-war” bent.

Marsha Weinerman, executive director of the city’s Election Commission, said the boxes were removed after a resident complained to commission workers about their implied “pro-war” message.

“We contacted the law department, and it was determined that the best course of action would be to remove the boxes,” Weinerman said.

Way to stand up to those preteen hawks, Cambridge.

The Secretary of State told the Cambridge Chronicle that most of the Scouts’ booths were legal.

Weinerman cited a law that prohibits political messages near any polling station in an election. But state law prohibits political messages pertaining to a particular election within 150 feet of any polling station, according to a spokesperson for Secretary of State William Galvin’s office. There is no law stopping someone from promoting an unrelated political message within 150 feet of any polling place.

This is how the idea that those who are against the war are also somehow against the troops gets started. Good for you, Cambridge. You’ve managed to teach a group of kids that ideology trumps empathy every time.

http://www.sj-r.com/News/stories/20099.asp

City going after Ron Paul signs
Because they're too large not to mention too early
By BERNARDSCHOENBURG
POLITICAL WRITER

Published Thursday, November 15, 2007

The city of Springfield is trying to get some signs for presidential candidate Ron Paul taken down because they apparently are larger than zoning allows.

Letters dated Oct. 25 were sent from the building and zoning department to owners of property at 2115 S. Fifth St. and 1211 S. Sixth St., saying that "banners and stakes" there exceeded the square footage allowed. The property owners were asked to contact the city within 10 days.

Follow-up letters dated Tuesday said no contact had been made, so the matter was referred to the city's legal office for further action.

One property owner said Wednesday that he had taken down a banner after getting the first letter but that if the city tells him to take down a wooden sign remaining in front of his home, he won't do it.

"Putting signs in your yard is as old as the election process itself," said Calvin Mabus, 49, who lives at the South Fifth Street address. "What's more important - preserving our national sovereignty or worrying about a stupid little sign?"

Included on the sign, which is about 16 feet square, are the words "Save our Constitution," "freedom," "liberty," "President '08" and "RonPaul2008.com."

A couple of smaller printed Ron Paul signs also are displayed at Mabus' single-family residence.

Zoning for such homes allows temporary signs no more than 12 square feet. The city allows only temporary signs advocating a candidate to be in place within 60 days of an election, which will be Dec. 7 for Feb. 5 primary.

Joe Gooden, the city's zoning administrator, said the size instead of the timing of the signs was made an issue in the notices because, with the hearing process, if a property owner fought to keep a sign up, the case probably wouldn't be resolved until the allowed period.

A sign the size of a small billboard is outside commercial property at the Sixth Street address, and owner Garret Jordan said he had just received copies of both letters Wednesday afternoon. Gooden said allowable temporary signs at such commercial property cannot exceed 50 square feet combined.

Jordan said he planned to check with the city to see what his options are.

The large hand-painted wooden sign on Jordan's property represents an American flag, asks people to "Wake Up" and says the nation's founders warned people about things including "disregarding the Constitution," "not preserving sovereignty," "private central banking" and "foreign entanglements."

"The price of liberty is eternal vigilance," it says.

Jordan also said that while banners attached to the bottom of the sign, including one urging a vote for Paul, could be considered campaign material, he doesn't consider the large wooden structure in that category.

"It's no different than 'Don't drink and drive,'" he said. "It's a message. It's not a campaign sign."

Jordan, 49, said he considers himself a Democrat but has been apathetic about recent presidential races.

"The last time I voted for a president, I voted for Ross Perot twice," he said. "I did vote for Ronald Reagan, who was the last true conservative."

He said the main reason he's for Paul, a Texas congressman considered a long shot for the Republican nomination, is that Paul wants to bring troops home from Iraq and shrink the federal government.

"He wants to have a strong national defense, not a strong national offense," Jordan said, adding that he thinks Paul's strength is building "underground" via the Internet.

"The people who support the Ron Paul campaign are the most learned political people in the country," he said. "They know what's going on."

Mabus said, "Ron Paul is the only one that stands for our freedoms and liberties."

Bernard Schoenburg can be reached at 788-1540 or bernard.schoenburg@sj-r.com.