Here's the report on the great party I attended over the weekend and was proud to have had a hand in plannig and execution. from www.cmtabate.blogspot.com
The Southern Thunder Rally endured scorching temps with a high of 105 on Friday and close to it on Saturday but bikers are tough and ready to party! The crowd Friday night was much larger than last year and both Rockin' Foot Clutch and TKO rocked the house after the local electric coop came out and put a new transformer on the pole, quite a show in itself.
Saturday was more heat and more fun with some great competition in both the bike show and the rodeo games. Bikers rolled through the gate all day and into the early evening and by nightfall, the campground area was full of tents in every direction and the RV field was humming with the sound of 40 generators kickin' out the watts to run the BTUs.
As the sun set the bands fired up and MYTH rocked hard! Over a dozen guys answered the call for the boxer shorts contest and after lots of fun, a young US Army soldier form Fort Campbell won it! The wet t-shirt contest ended up being the "what" T-shirt contest as they didn't even wait for the shirts. The ladies started peeling the swimsuits and more, and the music came up for some serious bumping and grinding. It was hard to decide the winner as our two finalists each got huge ovations. IN the end, the young lady that won it was the one with all the personality!
Stacie Collins (www.staciecollins.com) tok the stage around 10:30 and proceeded to tear it up for a solid 90 minutes. IN addition to regular guitarist Warner Hodges, Dan Baird of the GA Satellites (and Stacie's Producer) joined her for an outstanding dual guitar attack! What a show!
Thanks to Pastor Ron of the Covenant Confirmers MM for the Sunday morning blesings as
he brought the church to the rally!
Thanks to all who came out to the party for the cause, Freedom in Tennessee. This rally supports the operation of the CMT/ABATE state office and our efforts in the legislative and safety areas.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Friday, August 17, 2007
NCOM News
NCOM:
THE AIM/NCOM MOTORCYCLE E-NEWS SERVICE is brought to you by Aid to Injured Motorcyclists (A.I.M.) and the National Coalition of Motorcyclists (NCOM), and is sponsored by the Law Offices of Richard M. Lester. For more information, call us at 1-(800) ON-A-BIKE or visit us on our website at http://www.ON-A-BIKE.com.
NCOM NEWS BYTES
Compiled & Edited by Bill Bish,
National Coalition of Motorcyclists (NCOM)
BIKERS RALLY TO SAVE SAFETY FUNDING When word got out that the US House of Representatives was considering a transportation appropriations bill in late July, and an amendment to eliminate funding for motorcycle safety funds was being proposed, the biker community rallied to the call and succeeded in saving $6 million in grant money provided to 44 states for motorcycle safety programs.
After being reminded by scores of concerned riders across the country that saving lives is more important than saving a few dollars, the amendment by Texas Rep. Jeb Hensarling was never introduced and the Section 2010 motorcycle safety funds remained intact as the $104.4 billion dollar FY2008 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations bill (HR 3074) went on to pass by a vote of 268-153.
TRAFFIC DEATHS REACH HISTORIC LOWS, WHILE MOTORCYCLE FATALITIES CLIMB Declining traffic deaths has lead to the lowest highway fatality rate ever recorded, announced the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The number of people who died on the nationÂ’s roads fell by 868 deaths last year, the largest drop in total fatalities in 15 years; representing a 2% decline that contributed to the historic low fatality rate of 1.42 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT), reported U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters.
But while total highway deaths fell from 43,510 in 2005 to 42,642 in 2006, the lowest level in five years, motorcycle fatalities continued to escalate for the ninth consecutive year following a decade of steadily declining fatality rates. Data from NHTSAÂ’s 2006 Annual Assessment of Motor Vehicle Traffic Crash Fatalities and Injuries shows that 4,810 motorcyclists were killed on AmericaÂ’s roadways last year, an increase of 5.1 percent over 2005. Motorcycle rider fatalities now account for 11 percent of total fatalities, exceeding the number of pedestrian fatalities for the first time since NHTSA began collecting fatal motor vehicle crash data in 1975.
Many blame the increase on the rise in popularity of motorcycles, with states experiencing record numbers of registrations and dealers selling record numbers of new bikes year after year for over a decade. Other experts cite the aging ridership, bigger bikes, changing traffic mix, miles traveled and other factors.
A comprehensive study into the causation of traffic accidents involving motorcycles is expected to begin later this year at the Oklahoma Transportation Center at Oklahoma State University, the first such motorcycle-crash study since the Hurt Report in 1980.
The National Transportation Safety Board conducted a motorcycle safety forum late last year to explore safety concerns in that sector of transportation.
While driving has never been safer in the U.S., internationally the United States ranks 42nd of 48 countries measured in the number of highway fatalities per capita. And although the fatality rate has plummeted since 1970, when the U.S. led the world in road safety with the lowest death rate among industrialized countries reporting data, it now ranks 11th in fatalities per distance driven.
Safety experts say the reasons are many. Bella Dinh-Zarr, the North American director of Make Roads Safe, a nonprofit organization based in London, said other countries have stricter laws, better enforcement, more accessible public transportation, greater awareness, public support and more rigorous training and licensing standards.
But expert after expert said the real problem was one of culture. With personal freedom being a cornerstone of the United States, many states are loath to pass legislation that curtails them, even when it comes to road safety. So while the governments of other countries can easily pass laws to make driving safer, like a national ban on hand-held cellphone use, those laws here are left up to the states to impose, and that is often not so easy. Fred Wegman, managing director of the National Institute for Road Safety Research in the Netherlands, said attitudes were different in Europe. There, he said, safety is not just about the individual, but is the responsibility of society as a whole. “European countries fundamentally pay more political attention to road safety,” he said.
HELMETS DONÂ’T SAVE LOUISIANA MOTORCYCLISTS Despite passing a mandatory helmet law in 2004, motorcycle fatalities in Louisiana are on a record pace and on course for one of the worst totals in the country, Highway Safety Commission executive director James Champagne told attendees at a safety summit in Baton Rouge.
The summit, produced by the Louisiana Motorcyclist Safety and Awareness Committee and the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission was convened to decrease the number of motorcycle fatalities and injuries in Louisiana. Achieving that goal is urgent.
Champagne told summit attendees that more motorcycle fatalities are projected for this year in Louisiana than in any other year in the state's history. If the trend continues, we will have not only the state's worst year, but also one of the worst totals in the country.
At the Louisiana summit, safety officials pinpointed reasons for the alarming increase in motorcycle fatalities. One is lack of professional training. Champagne says training should be required before a cycle owner or rider can apply for a license.
Ultimately, according to Champagne, almost all the factors that contribute to the problem can be reduced by new legislation, enforcement of existing laws - and mandated education.
LOUD PIPES TICKET DISMISSED The first and only ticket that police have issued to a motorcyclist under Denver's controversial new noise ordinance has been dismissed. Attorney Wade Eldridge, himself a biker, challenged the law on behalf of his client, Stuart Sacks, who was pulled over in LoDo and ticketed for having an "unlawful modified muffler," records show.
"The officer neither inspected his bike to see if it had the stamp nor did he use a sound meter," Eldridge said. "So the most they would have had was the officer's gut feeling that it was too loud, which is not enough."
Designed to curb motorcycle noise, the controversial new ordinance took effect July 1st and limits noise levels to 82 decibels from a distance of 25 feet, and requires motorcyclists with bikes made after 1982 to have a muffler with an EPA noise-certification stamp.
Eldridge, who is the Aid to Injured Motorcyclists (A.I.M.) Attorney for Colorado and legal counsel for the Confederation of Clubs of Colorado, also claims the noise ordinance is unconstitutionally vague. The law "lends itself to arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement," he told the Rocky Mountain News. "The police can stop you for whatever reason."
Eldridge said the law leaves enforcement up to the "unfettered discretion of the individual officer," adding that his client was told he was stopped because his pipes were too loud.
Police Capt. Eric Rubin, who used to head the Traffic Operations Bureau, didn't know the details of that stop but said officers are using their training and experience in the field "as reasonable suspicion to briefly stop the rider" and check for the EPA stamp.
But the city's decision to drop the case highlighted a fundamental flaw in the law - Denver police aren't equipped with the $1,000 noise monitors needed to make the charge stick, said Eldridge, adding that, "In any case in which it's properly challenged, the city has an impossible burden." The reason Assistant City Attorney April Snook cited in her motion to dismiss the case was the city was "unable to prove charge beyond a reasonable doubt."
Ellen Dumm, spokeswoman for the city's Environmental Health Department, said an "oversight" caused the case to be dismissed. "The police officer did not inspect the pipes for the required (Environmental Protection Agency) sticker," she said, adding that the dismissal was a "one-time" thing and that the ordinance's enforcement will result in quieter streets.
Eldridge points out that even police bikes may be louder than DenverÂ’s allowable limits. According to court documents, tests conducted by the city on police motorcycles found sound levels at redline of 81.3 decibels and 81.7 decibels, and since the accuracy of the sound meters the city used is within plus or minus .5 decibels, police motorcycles may be in violation of the new noise law, Eldridge said.
PATCH BAN AT STURGIS BAR SPURS BOYCOTT, POSSIBLE LEGISLATION A beef with Hells Angels could inspire legislation to protect wearing motorcycle-club “colors,” a state legislator told Rapid City Journal columnist Bill Harlan during Sturgis Bike Week. One-Eyed Jacks saloon on Main Street was boycotted during the rally because it is the only bar in town that bans motorcycle club insignia, and they even barred South Dakota State Representative Jim Putnam from entering while wearing the colors of his own dangerous motorcycle club, the Lawmakers.
“If this persists, I’ll consider it,” said Rep. Putnam, R-Armour, who sometimes wears a Sturgis motorcycle rally necktie during the legislative session. “Putt” is not only a long-time motorcyclist himself, but is also a long-serving member of the National Coalition of Motorcyclists Legislative Task Force (NCOM-LTF), and anti-biker discrimination legislation is on their agenda.
Putnam added that legislation protecting motorcycle attire passed the state House in the early 1990s. It failed in the Senate, he said, but a similar Minnesota law has survived court challenges.
Now, Putnam supports a boycott of the saloon. “I’m not going in there,” he told the Journal. But One-Eyed Jack's owner Ray Gold is just as adamant about keeping his new ban on “back patches,” which he told the newspaper is to keep out the Hells Angels, whose Sturgis headquarters is near the bar.
But the ban on patches also angered Louis Nobs of Hibbing, Minn., who was barred entry wearing his Soldiers for Jesus colors. “You can’t ban patches for just one group,” he said. “If you ban them for motorcyclists you have to ban them for bowling teams, the Knights of Columbus -- everyone.”
Nobs is on the board of the National Coalition of Motorcyclists, and he helped distribute 60,000 fliers calling for the boycott.
ChiPS STAR NEVER GOT MOTORCYCLE LICENSE TV biker cop Erik Estrada has revealed he never passed his motorcycle test. Estrada played California Highway Patrol motorcycle cop Ponch in 1970s hit CHiPs, reports The Sun.
But he never actually had a motorcycle license for real. Estrada, now 58, had to hurriedly arrange a bike test when he was assigned to the California Highway Patrol for a new reality TV show.
And it took him three attempts to pass before he could appear on “Back To The Grind”, a show that gets actors to try their TV jobs.
WEIRD NEWS: A motorcycle was once plucked out of the Los Angeles sewer system. It's the largest object ever found in there!
QUOTABLE QUOTE: “Knowledge is power (Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est).”Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626) English statesman and philosopher
THE AIM/NCOM MOTORCYCLE E-NEWS SERVICE is brought to you by Aid to Injured Motorcyclists (A.I.M.) and the National Coalition of Motorcyclists (NCOM), and is sponsored by the Law Offices of Richard M. Lester. For more information, call us at 1-(800) ON-A-BIKE or visit us on our website at http://www.ON-A-BIKE.com.
NCOM NEWS BYTES
Compiled & Edited by Bill Bish,
National Coalition of Motorcyclists (NCOM)
BIKERS RALLY TO SAVE SAFETY FUNDING When word got out that the US House of Representatives was considering a transportation appropriations bill in late July, and an amendment to eliminate funding for motorcycle safety funds was being proposed, the biker community rallied to the call and succeeded in saving $6 million in grant money provided to 44 states for motorcycle safety programs.
After being reminded by scores of concerned riders across the country that saving lives is more important than saving a few dollars, the amendment by Texas Rep. Jeb Hensarling was never introduced and the Section 2010 motorcycle safety funds remained intact as the $104.4 billion dollar FY2008 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations bill (HR 3074) went on to pass by a vote of 268-153.
TRAFFIC DEATHS REACH HISTORIC LOWS, WHILE MOTORCYCLE FATALITIES CLIMB Declining traffic deaths has lead to the lowest highway fatality rate ever recorded, announced the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The number of people who died on the nationÂ’s roads fell by 868 deaths last year, the largest drop in total fatalities in 15 years; representing a 2% decline that contributed to the historic low fatality rate of 1.42 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT), reported U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters.
But while total highway deaths fell from 43,510 in 2005 to 42,642 in 2006, the lowest level in five years, motorcycle fatalities continued to escalate for the ninth consecutive year following a decade of steadily declining fatality rates. Data from NHTSAÂ’s 2006 Annual Assessment of Motor Vehicle Traffic Crash Fatalities and Injuries shows that 4,810 motorcyclists were killed on AmericaÂ’s roadways last year, an increase of 5.1 percent over 2005. Motorcycle rider fatalities now account for 11 percent of total fatalities, exceeding the number of pedestrian fatalities for the first time since NHTSA began collecting fatal motor vehicle crash data in 1975.
Many blame the increase on the rise in popularity of motorcycles, with states experiencing record numbers of registrations and dealers selling record numbers of new bikes year after year for over a decade. Other experts cite the aging ridership, bigger bikes, changing traffic mix, miles traveled and other factors.
A comprehensive study into the causation of traffic accidents involving motorcycles is expected to begin later this year at the Oklahoma Transportation Center at Oklahoma State University, the first such motorcycle-crash study since the Hurt Report in 1980.
The National Transportation Safety Board conducted a motorcycle safety forum late last year to explore safety concerns in that sector of transportation.
While driving has never been safer in the U.S., internationally the United States ranks 42nd of 48 countries measured in the number of highway fatalities per capita. And although the fatality rate has plummeted since 1970, when the U.S. led the world in road safety with the lowest death rate among industrialized countries reporting data, it now ranks 11th in fatalities per distance driven.
Safety experts say the reasons are many. Bella Dinh-Zarr, the North American director of Make Roads Safe, a nonprofit organization based in London, said other countries have stricter laws, better enforcement, more accessible public transportation, greater awareness, public support and more rigorous training and licensing standards.
But expert after expert said the real problem was one of culture. With personal freedom being a cornerstone of the United States, many states are loath to pass legislation that curtails them, even when it comes to road safety. So while the governments of other countries can easily pass laws to make driving safer, like a national ban on hand-held cellphone use, those laws here are left up to the states to impose, and that is often not so easy. Fred Wegman, managing director of the National Institute for Road Safety Research in the Netherlands, said attitudes were different in Europe. There, he said, safety is not just about the individual, but is the responsibility of society as a whole. “European countries fundamentally pay more political attention to road safety,” he said.
HELMETS DONÂ’T SAVE LOUISIANA MOTORCYCLISTS Despite passing a mandatory helmet law in 2004, motorcycle fatalities in Louisiana are on a record pace and on course for one of the worst totals in the country, Highway Safety Commission executive director James Champagne told attendees at a safety summit in Baton Rouge.
The summit, produced by the Louisiana Motorcyclist Safety and Awareness Committee and the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission was convened to decrease the number of motorcycle fatalities and injuries in Louisiana. Achieving that goal is urgent.
Champagne told summit attendees that more motorcycle fatalities are projected for this year in Louisiana than in any other year in the state's history. If the trend continues, we will have not only the state's worst year, but also one of the worst totals in the country.
At the Louisiana summit, safety officials pinpointed reasons for the alarming increase in motorcycle fatalities. One is lack of professional training. Champagne says training should be required before a cycle owner or rider can apply for a license.
Ultimately, according to Champagne, almost all the factors that contribute to the problem can be reduced by new legislation, enforcement of existing laws - and mandated education.
LOUD PIPES TICKET DISMISSED The first and only ticket that police have issued to a motorcyclist under Denver's controversial new noise ordinance has been dismissed. Attorney Wade Eldridge, himself a biker, challenged the law on behalf of his client, Stuart Sacks, who was pulled over in LoDo and ticketed for having an "unlawful modified muffler," records show.
"The officer neither inspected his bike to see if it had the stamp nor did he use a sound meter," Eldridge said. "So the most they would have had was the officer's gut feeling that it was too loud, which is not enough."
Designed to curb motorcycle noise, the controversial new ordinance took effect July 1st and limits noise levels to 82 decibels from a distance of 25 feet, and requires motorcyclists with bikes made after 1982 to have a muffler with an EPA noise-certification stamp.
Eldridge, who is the Aid to Injured Motorcyclists (A.I.M.) Attorney for Colorado and legal counsel for the Confederation of Clubs of Colorado, also claims the noise ordinance is unconstitutionally vague. The law "lends itself to arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement," he told the Rocky Mountain News. "The police can stop you for whatever reason."
Eldridge said the law leaves enforcement up to the "unfettered discretion of the individual officer," adding that his client was told he was stopped because his pipes were too loud.
Police Capt. Eric Rubin, who used to head the Traffic Operations Bureau, didn't know the details of that stop but said officers are using their training and experience in the field "as reasonable suspicion to briefly stop the rider" and check for the EPA stamp.
But the city's decision to drop the case highlighted a fundamental flaw in the law - Denver police aren't equipped with the $1,000 noise monitors needed to make the charge stick, said Eldridge, adding that, "In any case in which it's properly challenged, the city has an impossible burden." The reason Assistant City Attorney April Snook cited in her motion to dismiss the case was the city was "unable to prove charge beyond a reasonable doubt."
Ellen Dumm, spokeswoman for the city's Environmental Health Department, said an "oversight" caused the case to be dismissed. "The police officer did not inspect the pipes for the required (Environmental Protection Agency) sticker," she said, adding that the dismissal was a "one-time" thing and that the ordinance's enforcement will result in quieter streets.
Eldridge points out that even police bikes may be louder than DenverÂ’s allowable limits. According to court documents, tests conducted by the city on police motorcycles found sound levels at redline of 81.3 decibels and 81.7 decibels, and since the accuracy of the sound meters the city used is within plus or minus .5 decibels, police motorcycles may be in violation of the new noise law, Eldridge said.
PATCH BAN AT STURGIS BAR SPURS BOYCOTT, POSSIBLE LEGISLATION A beef with Hells Angels could inspire legislation to protect wearing motorcycle-club “colors,” a state legislator told Rapid City Journal columnist Bill Harlan during Sturgis Bike Week. One-Eyed Jacks saloon on Main Street was boycotted during the rally because it is the only bar in town that bans motorcycle club insignia, and they even barred South Dakota State Representative Jim Putnam from entering while wearing the colors of his own dangerous motorcycle club, the Lawmakers.
“If this persists, I’ll consider it,” said Rep. Putnam, R-Armour, who sometimes wears a Sturgis motorcycle rally necktie during the legislative session. “Putt” is not only a long-time motorcyclist himself, but is also a long-serving member of the National Coalition of Motorcyclists Legislative Task Force (NCOM-LTF), and anti-biker discrimination legislation is on their agenda.
Putnam added that legislation protecting motorcycle attire passed the state House in the early 1990s. It failed in the Senate, he said, but a similar Minnesota law has survived court challenges.
Now, Putnam supports a boycott of the saloon. “I’m not going in there,” he told the Journal. But One-Eyed Jack's owner Ray Gold is just as adamant about keeping his new ban on “back patches,” which he told the newspaper is to keep out the Hells Angels, whose Sturgis headquarters is near the bar.
But the ban on patches also angered Louis Nobs of Hibbing, Minn., who was barred entry wearing his Soldiers for Jesus colors. “You can’t ban patches for just one group,” he said. “If you ban them for motorcyclists you have to ban them for bowling teams, the Knights of Columbus -- everyone.”
Nobs is on the board of the National Coalition of Motorcyclists, and he helped distribute 60,000 fliers calling for the boycott.
ChiPS STAR NEVER GOT MOTORCYCLE LICENSE TV biker cop Erik Estrada has revealed he never passed his motorcycle test. Estrada played California Highway Patrol motorcycle cop Ponch in 1970s hit CHiPs, reports The Sun.
But he never actually had a motorcycle license for real. Estrada, now 58, had to hurriedly arrange a bike test when he was assigned to the California Highway Patrol for a new reality TV show.
And it took him three attempts to pass before he could appear on “Back To The Grind”, a show that gets actors to try their TV jobs.
WEIRD NEWS: A motorcycle was once plucked out of the Los Angeles sewer system. It's the largest object ever found in there!
QUOTABLE QUOTE: “Knowledge is power (Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est).”Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626) English statesman and philosopher
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
The Statist's Prayer
Courtesy Justin Mundie
The Statist’s Prayer:
Our Government,Which art in Washington
Inculpable be Thy actions.
Thy empire come.Thy will be done
Around the globe, As it is in the US.
Give us this dayOur daily bread
Free retirement, healthcare
Environmental protection,Transportation
education, Protectionist tariffs, Security
regulation, Fiat currency, and anything
elsethe majority of registered voters wants.
And go more into debt, As we become more debtors.
And lead us into blind obedience,As we give up our freedom.
For Thine is the Empire,and our incomes and the military
and police powers, and the glory,forever.
Or until the loose fiscal policy, borrowing money,
and creating the fiat currency necessary to
sustain the socialistic paternal State combines
with the insurmountable cost of defense against
the global unrest caused by poor foreign policy
and brings the whole Ponzi scheme crashing to its knees.
Amen
The Statist’s Prayer:
Our Government,Which art in Washington
Inculpable be Thy actions.
Thy empire come.Thy will be done
Around the globe, As it is in the US.
Give us this dayOur daily bread
Free retirement, healthcare
Environmental protection,Transportation
education, Protectionist tariffs, Security
regulation, Fiat currency, and anything
elsethe majority of registered voters wants.
And go more into debt, As we become more debtors.
And lead us into blind obedience,As we give up our freedom.
For Thine is the Empire,and our incomes and the military
and police powers, and the glory,forever.
Or until the loose fiscal policy, borrowing money,
and creating the fiat currency necessary to
sustain the socialistic paternal State combines
with the insurmountable cost of defense against
the global unrest caused by poor foreign policy
and brings the whole Ponzi scheme crashing to its knees.
Amen
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Friday, August 10, 2007
Trust Me, I'm from the Government
How Much Longer Can America
Survive an Ignorant Electorate?
Written by JB Williams
How Much Longer Can America Survive an Ignorant Electorate?
Can any representative republic survive a progressively ignorant electorate? Can freedom be sustained in any society hell-bent upon taxing its productive members out of existence, for benefit of its non-productive? Can people unable to successfully govern their own lives be entrusted with the power to govern others?
Not to be unkind, but we need to face facts here. So long as a republic represents the will of the brave, it will remain the home of the free. When it’s run by the productive members of society, it will remain prosperous. When it’s governed by the independent minded, it will not be dependent upon anyone. When run by those with a healthy respect for individual rights, special interests will no longer need special consideration.
But when cowards, thieves and thugs run things, those who believe that some progressive form of socialism is better than individual freedom and personal achievement, freedom is diminished. When those seeking to rob the rich in the name of the poor while stuffing their own pockets and growing their own political power run things, then the republic represents cowardly thieves, not the people.
When capitalism is attacked, socialism is automatically advanced. We can not afford to allow socialists to criminalize capitalism in the free enterprise capital of the world, unless free enterprise and economic freedom are things of the past.
While democracy is by far the most successful form of government on earth in the short run, it is once again proving to be unsustainable in the long run. In short, people who make a mess of their own lives and then seek government solutions to the mess they created, are about to make a mess of their entire nation. America has been on this course for some sixty years now and the self-destruction of the greatest nation on earth is accelerating.
In the best of circumstances, government is still the most evil of necessities. Societies inherently know this in the early stages of development. But generations later, few seem to remember.
Even when very limited by design, restricted by law, of, by and for the people, government is a deadly virus constantly eating away at personal liberty and individual freedom, first slowly, then at an accelerating pace as the progressive virus consumes that which it was originally supposed to protect.
The Double Edged Sword of Democracy
The very same democratic principles used to protect personal liberty and individual freedom can, and as history has proven, will eventually be used to attack personal liberty and individual freedom. "The measures of the fair majority... ought always to be respected." --Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, 1792. ME 8:397
If a fair majority decides that individual freedom and liberty are to be protected, then that should be respected. However, if that same fair majority decides that a greater common good trumps individual freedom and liberty, then that must also be respected, yes? The absolute rule of a fair majority is by definition, a democracy, even when that majority chooses tyranny over freedom, collective socialism over individual capitalism.
I wrote about the dismantling of America in a recent column titled When 51-49 becomes 49-51.
In it, I talk about how freedom and liberty are protected only so long as at least 51% (the fair majority) desire personal freedom and liberty more than government solutions to personal challenges. I also describe what happens once those who only respect a greater communal good outnumber those who still desire personal freedom and individual liberty, when 51-49 becomes 49-51, swinging majority interests away from individual rights and towards the collective rights of the community at large.
2006 Election Result - The Greater Good of the Commune defeats Individual Freedom
Because one can not be allowed to fail, one can no longer be allowed the freedom to succeed either. Individual success must be penalized by progressive taxation, because it is the only way to eliminate, pay for or offset individual failure, once failure is deemed inhumane and unacceptable by the commune at large.
This is the basis upon which the new American majority now casts its vote.
Today, capitalism, free enterprise, profit, independence, individuality and personal achievement are scorned as dirty words in America. The successful are now referred to only as “the greedy”. They are targeted for revenge, taxed against their will, driven from the community like common criminals, through excessive governmental intrusion, taxation and regulation. Not even the very real threat of world wide terrorism or national bankruptcy can spawn as much fear and anguish in average American voters as evil “corporate America” does today. Not because corporate America is an equal threat, but because ignorant voters have been fully indoctrinated.
There are indeed criminal individuals working inside of corporate America today. But far fewer than you can find working in the halls of congress or your local union office. Criminals should be prosecuted no matter where they are found, at the head of a US company, in the union office or in Washington DC. However, an inanimate object, a corporation, a union, a governing body, is only a structure, in and of itself, neither good nor evil. It’s the individuals involved who are good or evil, their acts from positions of power which are right or wrong. But progressive thinking aims to take one criminal individual, criminalize the company he runs, and indict all of capitalism on this basis. Ignorant voters buy it…
The re-education process and development of an American proletariat voting bloc is complete, at least as a fair majority. Today’s Democrat Party exists on the basis of this voting bloc alone. It also operates on the governing principle, “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need”. This is the greater common good that drives the voters that drive today’s Democrat Party. It’s a very socially conscious sounding idea, isn’t it? It was written by Karl Marx, as the foundational principle for his governing system, Socialism.
Every Democrat vote is cast based upon this principle today. Every penny poured into the Democrat Party is intended to advance this agenda. Democrat leaders know well that their party now represents the principles written by Karl Marx, the father of Marxism, Socialism, as the transitional stepping stone on the road from capitalism to communism. But few in the proletariat voting bloc recognize what they are supporting today or where they are headed. Human regression sounds very progressive to ignorant voters. Need an example?
The Hairline Difference between Universal Healthcare and Socialized Medicine
Just as socialism is but a stepping stone on the road from capitalism to communism, Universal Healthcare is but a stepping stone on the road from private medicine to Socialized Medicine.
The case for Universal Medicine is made on the basis that private medicine is failing to meet the needs of the people. Medical costs are too high, as are insurance costs. The idea is that a “single payer system” (the single payer being the federal government) will solve the problem by simplifying the process and bringing down the cost of medical treatment and insurance by way of “collective bargaining” on behalf of the people.
On the surface, the case almost makes sense, as long as you don’t ask any important questions about any of the details regarding how such a program might work, or bother to notice that the same principles have been tried in many other parts of the world with disastrous results.
Other countries have similar “free” medicine already. Yes, people in these countries can get “free” (paid for by others) substandard medical treatment, if they can live until their appointment six to eight months from now. Never mind that their nations are going bankrupt doing it or that freedom long ago ceased to exist in order to rob the productive members of society who pick up the tab.
Once Universal Healthcare is installed, the federal government will soon cut out the inconvenient middle-man, the health insurance company, collect the insurance premiums itself to stay afloat and begin to administer medicine and medical decisions from the hall of congress directly. This, my dear ignorant fellow Americans, is socialized medicine and there is only a hairline difference separating Universal Healthcare from socialized medicine.
When the people vote themselves gifts from the treasury in every election, politicians must run on government growth and spending.
Our federal government has never reduced its own size, scope or reach and it never will. Though every election cycle is filled with promises to reduce the size, scope, reach and expense of the federal government, and both liberals and conservatives claim to desire personal freedom and liberty, politicians are instead elected on the basis of just the opposite. They are elected on the basis of where they intend to grow government, not shrink it.
Many conservatives want a bigger, better, stronger military and that will increase the size, scope and cost of government. Most liberals want bigger, better social programs and this too will increase the size, scope and cost of government. Nobody is running on the basis of reducing the size, scope and reach of all of it and if they did, they would never be elected today.
Can you even imagine America electing politicians truly committed to reversing the hundred year old trend of growing government today? Reversing the trend of growing the federal government means reducing government spending, cutting government programs, eliminating government waste, ending special interest funding of all sorts of special interest projects and retreating from those who aim to vote themselves favor from the treasury. Would any Democrat voter support such things today? There is NO evidence that they would…
Getting fat is easy. Losing weight is ten times harder, whether as an individual or as a nation.
As a result, no Democrat politician would ever run on such notions today. Even Republicans feel the need to pander just to stay in the game.
The end result of the people’s choice – is the slow but certain death of America
America may have already passed the point of no return on the road to self-destruction. Only the people had the power to stop it. The fair majority was given the power to choose personal freedom and individual liberty and for almost 200 years, they did. Today, they are choosing a collective communal good instead.
But for almost 100 years now, since the 1940’s in particular, those seeking the interests of the community at large, the commune, in opposition to individual rights of freedom and liberty, have grown to become the new American majority. 51-49 in favor of freedom is now 49-51 in favor of a “universal collective right” to free (paid for by others) stuff.
Few in modern America understand that individual freedom and liberty can not co-exist with socialism or communism. Few recognize that they are systematically destroying the greatest nation on earth with every attempt to vote themselves or others gifts from the treasury. Few would knowingly vote for socialized medicine, but most now support universal healthcare. Few want socialism, but many now believe it serves the people better than capitalism, otherwise known as economic freedom.
In yet another effort to awaken the average American voter, I wrote Anything Goes in America, If you know what to name it! It turns out Americans will buy anything if you name it right. Socialism no, but progress, sure.
The people have chosen.
The new American majority is indeed willing to trade individual freedom and personal liberty for free (paid for by others) stuff, a false sense of temporary security, the greater good of the common politician always in search of political power over the burgeoning proletariat voter bloc and the end of America as many of us once knew it.
What’s their defense? “A little socialism can be a good thing. We don’t like the term “socialism,” we prefer the term “socially conscious democratic progress.” Learn to like it, you greedy capitalist pig!” It’s here to stay!
Survive an Ignorant Electorate?
Written by JB Williams
How Much Longer Can America Survive an Ignorant Electorate?
Can any representative republic survive a progressively ignorant electorate? Can freedom be sustained in any society hell-bent upon taxing its productive members out of existence, for benefit of its non-productive? Can people unable to successfully govern their own lives be entrusted with the power to govern others?
Not to be unkind, but we need to face facts here. So long as a republic represents the will of the brave, it will remain the home of the free. When it’s run by the productive members of society, it will remain prosperous. When it’s governed by the independent minded, it will not be dependent upon anyone. When run by those with a healthy respect for individual rights, special interests will no longer need special consideration.
But when cowards, thieves and thugs run things, those who believe that some progressive form of socialism is better than individual freedom and personal achievement, freedom is diminished. When those seeking to rob the rich in the name of the poor while stuffing their own pockets and growing their own political power run things, then the republic represents cowardly thieves, not the people.
When capitalism is attacked, socialism is automatically advanced. We can not afford to allow socialists to criminalize capitalism in the free enterprise capital of the world, unless free enterprise and economic freedom are things of the past.
While democracy is by far the most successful form of government on earth in the short run, it is once again proving to be unsustainable in the long run. In short, people who make a mess of their own lives and then seek government solutions to the mess they created, are about to make a mess of their entire nation. America has been on this course for some sixty years now and the self-destruction of the greatest nation on earth is accelerating.
In the best of circumstances, government is still the most evil of necessities. Societies inherently know this in the early stages of development. But generations later, few seem to remember.
Even when very limited by design, restricted by law, of, by and for the people, government is a deadly virus constantly eating away at personal liberty and individual freedom, first slowly, then at an accelerating pace as the progressive virus consumes that which it was originally supposed to protect.
The Double Edged Sword of Democracy
The very same democratic principles used to protect personal liberty and individual freedom can, and as history has proven, will eventually be used to attack personal liberty and individual freedom. "The measures of the fair majority... ought always to be respected." --Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, 1792. ME 8:397
If a fair majority decides that individual freedom and liberty are to be protected, then that should be respected. However, if that same fair majority decides that a greater common good trumps individual freedom and liberty, then that must also be respected, yes? The absolute rule of a fair majority is by definition, a democracy, even when that majority chooses tyranny over freedom, collective socialism over individual capitalism.
I wrote about the dismantling of America in a recent column titled When 51-49 becomes 49-51.
In it, I talk about how freedom and liberty are protected only so long as at least 51% (the fair majority) desire personal freedom and liberty more than government solutions to personal challenges. I also describe what happens once those who only respect a greater communal good outnumber those who still desire personal freedom and individual liberty, when 51-49 becomes 49-51, swinging majority interests away from individual rights and towards the collective rights of the community at large.
2006 Election Result - The Greater Good of the Commune defeats Individual Freedom
Because one can not be allowed to fail, one can no longer be allowed the freedom to succeed either. Individual success must be penalized by progressive taxation, because it is the only way to eliminate, pay for or offset individual failure, once failure is deemed inhumane and unacceptable by the commune at large.
This is the basis upon which the new American majority now casts its vote.
Today, capitalism, free enterprise, profit, independence, individuality and personal achievement are scorned as dirty words in America. The successful are now referred to only as “the greedy”. They are targeted for revenge, taxed against their will, driven from the community like common criminals, through excessive governmental intrusion, taxation and regulation. Not even the very real threat of world wide terrorism or national bankruptcy can spawn as much fear and anguish in average American voters as evil “corporate America” does today. Not because corporate America is an equal threat, but because ignorant voters have been fully indoctrinated.
There are indeed criminal individuals working inside of corporate America today. But far fewer than you can find working in the halls of congress or your local union office. Criminals should be prosecuted no matter where they are found, at the head of a US company, in the union office or in Washington DC. However, an inanimate object, a corporation, a union, a governing body, is only a structure, in and of itself, neither good nor evil. It’s the individuals involved who are good or evil, their acts from positions of power which are right or wrong. But progressive thinking aims to take one criminal individual, criminalize the company he runs, and indict all of capitalism on this basis. Ignorant voters buy it…
The re-education process and development of an American proletariat voting bloc is complete, at least as a fair majority. Today’s Democrat Party exists on the basis of this voting bloc alone. It also operates on the governing principle, “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need”. This is the greater common good that drives the voters that drive today’s Democrat Party. It’s a very socially conscious sounding idea, isn’t it? It was written by Karl Marx, as the foundational principle for his governing system, Socialism.
Every Democrat vote is cast based upon this principle today. Every penny poured into the Democrat Party is intended to advance this agenda. Democrat leaders know well that their party now represents the principles written by Karl Marx, the father of Marxism, Socialism, as the transitional stepping stone on the road from capitalism to communism. But few in the proletariat voting bloc recognize what they are supporting today or where they are headed. Human regression sounds very progressive to ignorant voters. Need an example?
The Hairline Difference between Universal Healthcare and Socialized Medicine
Just as socialism is but a stepping stone on the road from capitalism to communism, Universal Healthcare is but a stepping stone on the road from private medicine to Socialized Medicine.
The case for Universal Medicine is made on the basis that private medicine is failing to meet the needs of the people. Medical costs are too high, as are insurance costs. The idea is that a “single payer system” (the single payer being the federal government) will solve the problem by simplifying the process and bringing down the cost of medical treatment and insurance by way of “collective bargaining” on behalf of the people.
On the surface, the case almost makes sense, as long as you don’t ask any important questions about any of the details regarding how such a program might work, or bother to notice that the same principles have been tried in many other parts of the world with disastrous results.
Other countries have similar “free” medicine already. Yes, people in these countries can get “free” (paid for by others) substandard medical treatment, if they can live until their appointment six to eight months from now. Never mind that their nations are going bankrupt doing it or that freedom long ago ceased to exist in order to rob the productive members of society who pick up the tab.
Once Universal Healthcare is installed, the federal government will soon cut out the inconvenient middle-man, the health insurance company, collect the insurance premiums itself to stay afloat and begin to administer medicine and medical decisions from the hall of congress directly. This, my dear ignorant fellow Americans, is socialized medicine and there is only a hairline difference separating Universal Healthcare from socialized medicine.
When the people vote themselves gifts from the treasury in every election, politicians must run on government growth and spending.
Our federal government has never reduced its own size, scope or reach and it never will. Though every election cycle is filled with promises to reduce the size, scope, reach and expense of the federal government, and both liberals and conservatives claim to desire personal freedom and liberty, politicians are instead elected on the basis of just the opposite. They are elected on the basis of where they intend to grow government, not shrink it.
Many conservatives want a bigger, better, stronger military and that will increase the size, scope and cost of government. Most liberals want bigger, better social programs and this too will increase the size, scope and cost of government. Nobody is running on the basis of reducing the size, scope and reach of all of it and if they did, they would never be elected today.
Can you even imagine America electing politicians truly committed to reversing the hundred year old trend of growing government today? Reversing the trend of growing the federal government means reducing government spending, cutting government programs, eliminating government waste, ending special interest funding of all sorts of special interest projects and retreating from those who aim to vote themselves favor from the treasury. Would any Democrat voter support such things today? There is NO evidence that they would…
Getting fat is easy. Losing weight is ten times harder, whether as an individual or as a nation.
As a result, no Democrat politician would ever run on such notions today. Even Republicans feel the need to pander just to stay in the game.
The end result of the people’s choice – is the slow but certain death of America
America may have already passed the point of no return on the road to self-destruction. Only the people had the power to stop it. The fair majority was given the power to choose personal freedom and individual liberty and for almost 200 years, they did. Today, they are choosing a collective communal good instead.
But for almost 100 years now, since the 1940’s in particular, those seeking the interests of the community at large, the commune, in opposition to individual rights of freedom and liberty, have grown to become the new American majority. 51-49 in favor of freedom is now 49-51 in favor of a “universal collective right” to free (paid for by others) stuff.
Few in modern America understand that individual freedom and liberty can not co-exist with socialism or communism. Few recognize that they are systematically destroying the greatest nation on earth with every attempt to vote themselves or others gifts from the treasury. Few would knowingly vote for socialized medicine, but most now support universal healthcare. Few want socialism, but many now believe it serves the people better than capitalism, otherwise known as economic freedom.
In yet another effort to awaken the average American voter, I wrote Anything Goes in America, If you know what to name it! It turns out Americans will buy anything if you name it right. Socialism no, but progress, sure.
The people have chosen.
The new American majority is indeed willing to trade individual freedom and personal liberty for free (paid for by others) stuff, a false sense of temporary security, the greater good of the common politician always in search of political power over the burgeoning proletariat voter bloc and the end of America as many of us once knew it.
What’s their defense? “A little socialism can be a good thing. We don’t like the term “socialism,” we prefer the term “socially conscious democratic progress.” Learn to like it, you greedy capitalist pig!” It’s here to stay!
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Killing me with GPS+Karaoke+TV
Korea’s iNavi G1 is a GPS, PMP, Karaoke, etc.28 06 2007
Korea’s iNavi G1 has the kind of specs that would make you shake your head thinking you can never afford this device for your car, and you might be right.
The iNavi G1 has a GPS with 3D rendering, which is cool enough if you’ve seen one, but when you find out that this one renders landscapes with stars in the background you might just be forgiven for saying you Give up. Navigation on the G1 gets some help from a geometric sensor (g-sensor) in places where GPS is weak as in big cities with dense buildings. For TV, you use Korean DMB.
As a PMP, the G1 is compatible with AVI, ASF, WMV, MPG, MPEG,MP3, AC3, WMA, and OGG. It’s equipped with an SD slot for memory extension and USB. The G1 also has an image viewer with a photo album function and game emulator. The karaoke feature is the one feature that a minivan full of family members will truly enjoy. There’s no price yet announced, but it’s sure to beyond the means of practical individuals. But, hey, for quality time with the family on the road, nothing beats it.
Korea’s iNavi G1 has the kind of specs that would make you shake your head thinking you can never afford this device for your car, and you might be right.
The iNavi G1 has a GPS with 3D rendering, which is cool enough if you’ve seen one, but when you find out that this one renders landscapes with stars in the background you might just be forgiven for saying you Give up. Navigation on the G1 gets some help from a geometric sensor (g-sensor) in places where GPS is weak as in big cities with dense buildings. For TV, you use Korean DMB.
As a PMP, the G1 is compatible with AVI, ASF, WMV, MPG, MPEG,MP3, AC3, WMA, and OGG. It’s equipped with an SD slot for memory extension and USB. The G1 also has an image viewer with a photo album function and game emulator. The karaoke feature is the one feature that a minivan full of family members will truly enjoy. There’s no price yet announced, but it’s sure to beyond the means of practical individuals. But, hey, for quality time with the family on the road, nothing beats it.
Who's Your Nanny?
Read this real closely. AHAS may be the scariest of all the nanny groups.
Remarks of Judith Lee StonePresident of Advocates for Auto and Highway Safety And Member of the Advisory Board of the National Campaign to Stop Red Light RunningMonday, August 6, 2007
Recently the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released the annual motor vehicle fatality toll for 2006 that indicates minor overall improvement over 2005, but the total number of fatalities last year – 42,642 -- is still one of the largest in the last decade.The small decrease clearly represents neither steady nor sustained progress toward addressing the number one killer of all Americans between the ages of 4 and 34.
I see two major ironies in these numbers, related to today’s topic: First, the number of deaths, and the death rate -- 1.42 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled – still leave the U.S. lagging behind other industrialized nations throughout the world.
Within a few days of NHTSA’s announcement, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the International Transport Forum reported that the U.S. ranks 42nd out of 48 countries in motor vehicle deaths, based on number of fatalities per capita. The OECD report shows that Australia, Britain, France, Germany and Japan dramatically outperformed the U.S. in deaths per capita, and when measuring lowest death rates by miles driven, the U.S. ranked only 11th.
Our low global ranking may come as a surprise to some. The second irony that occurs to me is that most of the countries that do better than the U.S. in getting a handle on this major public health problem have been benefiting from wide use of automated enforcement, usually without public opposition, for decades. So we shouldn’t be surprised they do better than we do. Why wouldn’t governments struggling to contain costs and looking for effective ways to protect families choose readily-available technologies that lead to safer roads and neighborhoods, and why wouldn’t they see the results of their actions in the bottom line?
If you knew there was a proven technological application that would cure a lifethreatening disease diagnosed by your doctor, would you settle for anything less in the hospital?In this country, we know the solutions to reducing highway deaths and injuries but it seems we are often lacking the political leadership to enact the necessary laws and regulations to do so. We need to construct a much better safety policy infrastructure that is then vigorously enforced, if we want sizeable reductions in the annual motor vehicle crash and fatality picture.
With photo enforcement now being used in a majority of states and over 200 localities, there may be an assumption that the U.S. is implementing this technology as effectively as possible. Unfortunately, this is not the case, and there is a need for federal leadership and positive guidance to the states.
Only 17 states and the District of Columbia have enabling legislation to permit and define how photo enforcement should be used. And, only three states have passed such legislation in recent years. Despite overwhelming evidence of the effectiveness of photo enforcement to combat red light running and speeding both here and abroad, there has been very little encouragement to our state legislatures for taking such action from the federal level.
Growth in the use of automated enforcement has come almost entirely from communities – having already appealed to state representatives, but unwilling to wait any longer – that have proceeded with implementing programs without state authorization. These systems are working well throughout the nation, reducing crashes, deaths and injuries. Automated enforcement is predictably effective and a proven highway safety vaccine.
The majority of Americans agree that enforcement on our roadways is too lax.Poll after poll, including surveys conducted for my own organization by Lou Harris starting nearly 10 years ago, indicate high levels of support for automated enforcement to stop red light running and speeding. The politicians and other government leaders need not worry about a backlash.
As a member of the Advisory Board of the National Campaign to Stop Red Light Running and the President of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, I want to commend this report, Focus on Safety, and am glad it is being sent to the National Surface Transportation Commission. I urge the Commission to stress the importance of state enabling legislation by recommending in their report to Congress that states adopt such legislation to authorize the use of photo enforcement for red light running and speeding. While every American community may not need or choose to use automated enforcement, it should be an option that is available at the determination of law enforcement and traffic control experts in each jurisdiction throughout the country.
Thank you.
Remarks of Judith Lee StonePresident of Advocates for Auto and Highway Safety And Member of the Advisory Board of the National Campaign to Stop Red Light RunningMonday, August 6, 2007
Recently the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released the annual motor vehicle fatality toll for 2006 that indicates minor overall improvement over 2005, but the total number of fatalities last year – 42,642 -- is still one of the largest in the last decade.The small decrease clearly represents neither steady nor sustained progress toward addressing the number one killer of all Americans between the ages of 4 and 34.
I see two major ironies in these numbers, related to today’s topic: First, the number of deaths, and the death rate -- 1.42 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled – still leave the U.S. lagging behind other industrialized nations throughout the world.
Within a few days of NHTSA’s announcement, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the International Transport Forum reported that the U.S. ranks 42nd out of 48 countries in motor vehicle deaths, based on number of fatalities per capita. The OECD report shows that Australia, Britain, France, Germany and Japan dramatically outperformed the U.S. in deaths per capita, and when measuring lowest death rates by miles driven, the U.S. ranked only 11th.
Our low global ranking may come as a surprise to some. The second irony that occurs to me is that most of the countries that do better than the U.S. in getting a handle on this major public health problem have been benefiting from wide use of automated enforcement, usually without public opposition, for decades. So we shouldn’t be surprised they do better than we do. Why wouldn’t governments struggling to contain costs and looking for effective ways to protect families choose readily-available technologies that lead to safer roads and neighborhoods, and why wouldn’t they see the results of their actions in the bottom line?
If you knew there was a proven technological application that would cure a lifethreatening disease diagnosed by your doctor, would you settle for anything less in the hospital?In this country, we know the solutions to reducing highway deaths and injuries but it seems we are often lacking the political leadership to enact the necessary laws and regulations to do so. We need to construct a much better safety policy infrastructure that is then vigorously enforced, if we want sizeable reductions in the annual motor vehicle crash and fatality picture.
With photo enforcement now being used in a majority of states and over 200 localities, there may be an assumption that the U.S. is implementing this technology as effectively as possible. Unfortunately, this is not the case, and there is a need for federal leadership and positive guidance to the states.
Only 17 states and the District of Columbia have enabling legislation to permit and define how photo enforcement should be used. And, only three states have passed such legislation in recent years. Despite overwhelming evidence of the effectiveness of photo enforcement to combat red light running and speeding both here and abroad, there has been very little encouragement to our state legislatures for taking such action from the federal level.
Growth in the use of automated enforcement has come almost entirely from communities – having already appealed to state representatives, but unwilling to wait any longer – that have proceeded with implementing programs without state authorization. These systems are working well throughout the nation, reducing crashes, deaths and injuries. Automated enforcement is predictably effective and a proven highway safety vaccine.
The majority of Americans agree that enforcement on our roadways is too lax.Poll after poll, including surveys conducted for my own organization by Lou Harris starting nearly 10 years ago, indicate high levels of support for automated enforcement to stop red light running and speeding. The politicians and other government leaders need not worry about a backlash.
As a member of the Advisory Board of the National Campaign to Stop Red Light Running and the President of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, I want to commend this report, Focus on Safety, and am glad it is being sent to the National Surface Transportation Commission. I urge the Commission to stress the importance of state enabling legislation by recommending in their report to Congress that states adopt such legislation to authorize the use of photo enforcement for red light running and speeding. While every American community may not need or choose to use automated enforcement, it should be an option that is available at the determination of law enforcement and traffic control experts in each jurisdiction throughout the country.
Thank you.
Monday, August 6, 2007
Sales Tax Holiday a Sham?
Tennessee Sales Tax Holiday an “Insult to Taxpayers,” Says Think Tank“Sham” tax relief set to return less than 1% of surplus to taxpayers
NASHVILLE – Today is the first day of Tennessee’s second annual Sales Tax Holiday. But the tax holiday is no reason for celebration, according to the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, a Nashville-based free market think tank.
The tax holiday provides a statewide sales tax exemption for school and art supplies, clothing priced $100 or less per item and computers priced $1,500 or less. However, it will save the average Tennessean less than 50 cents.
On June 30, the state government ended the 2006-07 fiscal year with a surplus of more than $1.5 billion. This means the state overtaxed taxpayers an average of $250 for every man, woman and child in Tennessee. Rather than returning the entire surplus to taxpayers by reducing taxes, lawmakers squandered much of the surplus on wasteful pork projects.
“Taxpayers should view the tax holiday as an insult, not a gift,” according to Drew Johnson, president of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research. “We’re supposed to be grateful that the state is returning $11 million of the $1.5 billion it owes us? It’s a sham—a slap in the face.”
From August 3-5, the Sales Tax Holiday is expected to prevent the state government from taking an estimated $10-11 million in state sales tax from Tennesseans.
“If the governor and members of the legislature respected taxpayers’ money and practiced fiscal discipline, every person in the state would get hundreds of dollars back. Instead, we’re getting pocket change,” said Johnson.
The Tennessee Center for Policy Research recommends that Tennessee lawmakers pass legislation that automatically returns surplus money to taxpayers by reducing the sales tax on groceries and gasoline after topping off the state’s rainy day fund.
NASHVILLE – Today is the first day of Tennessee’s second annual Sales Tax Holiday. But the tax holiday is no reason for celebration, according to the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, a Nashville-based free market think tank.
The tax holiday provides a statewide sales tax exemption for school and art supplies, clothing priced $100 or less per item and computers priced $1,500 or less. However, it will save the average Tennessean less than 50 cents.
On June 30, the state government ended the 2006-07 fiscal year with a surplus of more than $1.5 billion. This means the state overtaxed taxpayers an average of $250 for every man, woman and child in Tennessee. Rather than returning the entire surplus to taxpayers by reducing taxes, lawmakers squandered much of the surplus on wasteful pork projects.
“Taxpayers should view the tax holiday as an insult, not a gift,” according to Drew Johnson, president of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research. “We’re supposed to be grateful that the state is returning $11 million of the $1.5 billion it owes us? It’s a sham—a slap in the face.”
From August 3-5, the Sales Tax Holiday is expected to prevent the state government from taking an estimated $10-11 million in state sales tax from Tennesseans.
“If the governor and members of the legislature respected taxpayers’ money and practiced fiscal discipline, every person in the state would get hundreds of dollars back. Instead, we’re getting pocket change,” said Johnson.
The Tennessee Center for Policy Research recommends that Tennessee lawmakers pass legislation that automatically returns surplus money to taxpayers by reducing the sales tax on groceries and gasoline after topping off the state’s rainy day fund.
So That's How it Works!
Three contractors are bidding to fix a broken fence at the White House. One from New Jersey , another from Tennessee and the third, from Florida . They go with a White House official to examine the fence.
The Florida contractor takes out a tape measure and does some measuring, then works some figures with a pencil. "Well", he says, "I figure the job will the job will run about $900: $400 for materials, $400 for my crew and $100 profit for me."
The Tennessee contractor also does some measuring and figuring, then says, "I can do this job for $700: $300 for materials, $300 for my crew and $100 profit for me.
"The New Jersey contractor doesn't measure or figure, but leans over to the White House official and whispers, "$2,700" The official, incredulous, says, "You didn't even measure like the other guys! How did you come up with such a high figure?"
The New Jersey contractor wh ispers back, "$1000 for me, $1000 for you, and we hire the guy from Tennessee to fix the fence." "Done!", replies the government official.And that friends, is how it all works !!!
The Florida contractor takes out a tape measure and does some measuring, then works some figures with a pencil. "Well", he says, "I figure the job will the job will run about $900: $400 for materials, $400 for my crew and $100 profit for me."
The Tennessee contractor also does some measuring and figuring, then says, "I can do this job for $700: $300 for materials, $300 for my crew and $100 profit for me.
"The New Jersey contractor doesn't measure or figure, but leans over to the White House official and whispers, "$2,700" The official, incredulous, says, "You didn't even measure like the other guys! How did you come up with such a high figure?"
The New Jersey contractor wh ispers back, "$1000 for me, $1000 for you, and we hire the guy from Tennessee to fix the fence." "Done!", replies the government official.And that friends, is how it all works !!!
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