Mr. Freedom

Pursuit of Happiness

2007-11-11T20:55:00.000-06:00

"The Right of the Citizen to travel upon the public highways and to transport his property thereon, by horsedrawn carriage, wagon, or automobile, is not a mere privilege which may be permitted or prohibited at will, but the common Right which he has under his Right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Under this Constitutional guarantee one may, therefore, under normal conditions, travel at his inclination along the public highways or in public places, and while conducting himself in an orderly and decent manner, neither interfering with nor disturbing another's Rights, he will be protected, not only in his person, but in his safe conduct." II Am.Jur. (1st) Constitutional Law, Sect.329, p.1135.

Opponents of "Freedom of Choice"

2007-11-11T13:45:00.000-06:00

Got Freedom? Not if these folks can help it!Below are insurance companies and organizations that oppose freedom of choice for adult motorcyclists. Is YOUR INSURANCE COMPANY on this list? Any organizations you belong to?If so, make your voice heard. Change insurance companies and tell the old one exactly why you are changing.

www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/New-fact-sheet03/MotorcycleHelmet.pdf
Taken from: Traffic Safety Facts; Laws; Motorcycle Helmet Use Laws April 2004
Who Supports Universal Motorcycle Helmet Laws?

AAA• Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety• Allstate Insurance Company• American Academy of Family Physicians• American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons • American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials • American Academy of Pediatrics • American Coalition for Traffic Safety, Inc.• American College of Emergency Physicians • American College of Preventive Medicine • American College of Surgeons • American Driver and Traffic Safety Education Association • American Insurance Association • American Medical Association • American Nurses Association • American Public Health Association • American Trauma Society • Association of Women"s Health, Obstetrics, and Neonatal Nurses • Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine • Brain Injury Association • Center for Rural Emergency Medicine • Emergency Nurses Association • Emergency Nurses CARE • Epilepsy Foundation of America • GEICO • General Federation of Women"s Clubs • Indian Health Service • Motorcycle Industry Council • National Association of County and City Health Officials • National Association of Orthopedic Nurses • National Association of Public Hospitals • National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians • National Association of State EMS Directors • National Association of State Head Injury Administrators • National Center for Injury Prevention and Control • National Conference of Black Mayors • National Flight Nurses Association • National Safety Council • National Sheriffs Association • Nationwide Insurance • Native American Injury Prevention Coalition • Prudential Insurance • State and Territorial Injury Prevention Directors Association • Students Against Destructive Decisions • State Farm Insurance • Think First Foundation • Wellness Councils of America

Motorcyclist Aplogizes to members of DUMB

2007-11-04T15:47:00.000-06:00

Larry Supina

ARTICLE TOOLS: Email Article Print-Friendly Format
An apology is in order, so, please, forgive me. It was not until this morning on my ride to work that I fully understood I was in error.

Yes, I've noticed that there are many very busy and important people on the roads. You all are hard to miss with the cell phones, laptops, breakfast bars, coffee, cigarettes and all, but until now, I didn't realize I was causing so much trouble for you busy, multitasking drivers.
I figured it out this morning, thanks to the nice lady working on the laptop who needed the lane I was in.

First, ma'am, let me say that when I honked at you from the shoulder, I didn't mean to startle you. My intent was just to give you a little beep to let you know the lane was all yours. But I was braking so hard, I couldn't lift my thumb off the horn button. My bad.

I surely didn't mean to cause you to nearly hit the guy talking on the cell phone. You know, he was smoking and talking as he moved his SUV right into the space you had just left.

Anyway, the good news is, that's when I realized all of you multitasking drivers must be texting each other about intended lane changes and running traffic lights and stop signs and such. I'm sorry - I'm still using old-fashioned blinkers. I didn't realize you needed some time to e-notify that guy that you needed the lane back. I really messed it up for both of you!

I can only say that the guard rail was a little distracting, and I was only thinking about myself. I'll try harder next time.

Like I said, I didn't know that was how you multitasking drivers were communicating. It must have been in an e-mail, but my laptop fell off my tank and I haven't replaced it.
However, I have a solution.

I know many of you are so busy and important that you have no choice - you have to eat, work, talk, read and do lots of other really important things as you drive.
Those of us who use the road only for traveling would be happy to stay out of your way; we just need to know you're coming.

A little visual clue would help - I was thinking of a bumper sticker. That way, everyone could identify you as Drivers Utilizing Multiple Behaviors.

Of course, that's a little long, so we'd cut it down to an acronym - DUMB.
If you'd place stickers on the front, back and maybe the sides of your car, the rest of us would know not to interfere with you on the road.

I think it's such a good idea, I'll pay for the bumper stickers and even put them on for you. Deal?
Again, I'm sorry I got in your way. I'll try harder to see you coming from now on.
I promise!

Larry Supina is an Amarillo resident. He works as a safety manager at Pantex.

Michigan Freedom Faces Veto

2007-10-18T18:34:00.000-05:00

Motorcycle-helmet bill passes Senate; faces Granholm veto By Amy Lane

Legislation that would allow some motorcyclists to ride without helmets has passed the Senate, after clearing the state House last week.

The Senate on Thursday approved House Bill 4749, sponsored by Barbara Farrah, D-Southgate. The bill would give riders over 21 the option of going helmetless if they pay an annual state permit fee and meet other requirements. The measure calls for riders to purchase a $100, one-year permit or a $200, three-year permit. They must carry at least $20,000 in insurance to pay first-party medical benefits in the event of an accident, have been licensed for at least two years to operate a motorcycle, and have completed a motorcycle safety course. Riders who do not purchase a permit and ride without helmets face a fine of up to $300. The Senate amended the bill to put money raised by the new permit fees toward a greater number of law-enforcement purposes than previously listed in the bill, and the bill now returns to the House.

The legislation appears unlikely to see approval by Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who supports the state’s current helmet law and has vetoed past helmet-law repeal.

Beating Back Biker Discrimination

2007-10-17T22:12:00.000-05:00

Delray Beach motorcyclists prevail - for nowClick-2-ListenBy Michael LaForgiaPalm Beach Post Staff WriterTuesday, October 16, 2007
DELRAY BEACH — Looking out at a grizzled, bandana-and-leather-clad crowd this evening, the city commission put off a proposal to ban raucous motorcyclists from a five-block stretch of Atlantic Avenue, saying the city's noise problems need more research.

Last week, Mayor Rita Ellis, who said she heard complaints about bikers revving their engines in the bustling downtown district, asked city attorney Susan Ruby to research an ordinance that would ban motorcycles.

Bikers, business owners, patrons all disgruntled Opponents of the proposal said existing noise regulations should cover engine noise without resorting to a ban.

At tonight's meeting, Ruby offered commissioners two options for amending an existing ordinance, one that included a motorcycle ban and one that didn't. Before discussion began, Ellis noted she was disappointed that "our guests on motorcycles" had roared down the avenues in a show of unmuffled defiance over the weekend, after word of the proposed ban spread.

The suggested changes, up for first reading tonight, would have made motorcycles off-limits on Atlantic between Swinton and southbound Federal Highway, a corridor lined by shops and bistros."I believe that this is entirely in the best interest of our downtown," the mayor said tonight before discussion began.City commissioners Woodie McDuffie and Brenda Montague, however, said they would rather work with bikers toward a solution than ban them from the popular throughway, which runs from Interstate 95 to A1A.

McDuffie said the city had a noise problem, not necessarily a biker problem."What I would like for us to do is not single out one group of people, one motor vehicle," said McDuffie, addressing the motorcyclists who packed the audience and spilled out into the lobby. "We are willing to work with you."In the end, the city commissioners decided to follow a suggestion of city police Chief Larry Schroeder, who recommended the city survey business owners to get a better sense of what was causing noise problems on Atlantic. He also proposed waiting 90 days after the survey to see whether the corridor quiets down.

The city commission voted 4-0 to approve the ordinance option that omitted a ban on motorcyclists, pending results of the study. The bikers, who had gathered in the parking lot 2 1/2 hours before the issue came up, cheered the decision. Backs were slapped. Graying ponytails swished against leather vests."For now, it appears we have prevailed," said Rosco Sessa, national president of the Enforcers motorcycle club, who helped organize protests of the proposal. After the vote, the jubilant bikers poured out of the commission chambers, hopped on their hogs and roared away in the rain.

MRF Call to Action RE: NTSB

2007-10-10T08:53:00.000-05:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MRF CALL TO ACTION

For the past several weeks the Motorcycle Riders Foundation (MRF) has been actively working on a multi-tiered strategic initiative to counter the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) program to pressure states into enacting mandatory helmet laws. We are prepared today to launch the program beginning with a Call to Action to our State Motorcycle Rights Organizations (SMROs).

The MRF's Call to Action is to encourage our SMRO partners to send their top lobbying teams to Washington D.C. in late October and early November to visit with their members of Congress to voice opposition to the NTSB's lobbying efforts. It is our position that the NTSB is proposing to directly lobby the states with federal tax money based on poorly-drawn conclusions, using a very narrow scope, and not employing the rigors of research to which they normally hold themselves. This is simply not acceptable to the MRF and our SMRO partners. A clear message was sent by the Senate in the 109th Congress when they voted 69-28 to defeat the Lautenberg Federal Helmet amendment, which would have pressured states into passing mandatory helmet laws, based on the fact that this issue is clearly a State's rights issue. Accordingly, we will be asking members of Congress to write a letter to the NTSB reminding them of this fact.

During these SMRO visits we will also be presenting a bullet point statistical fact sheet developed in conjunction with the MRF Legislative, Motorcycle Safety, and Statistics Committees that clearly shows that the answer to motorcycle safety and reducing fatalities is, in fact, an aggressive approach toward CRASH AVOIDANCE and NOT safer crashing. In addition, we will be educating members of Congress on the many points contained in our Motorcycle Safety Action Plan, pointing out to them that states with the highest reductions in motorcycle fatalities and states with low fatality rates per registered motorcycle are not those with mandatory helmet laws, but rather states that utilize the many tools in the motorcycle safety action plan. Additionally, we will thank many of them for their belief in motorcycle safety shown by the creation of the 2010 motorcycle safety grants and the creation of the Motorcycle Advisory Council in TEA-LU. We will take advantage of this time to inform them as to how these programs are being used effectively.

The second phase of the MRF's strategic initiative involves the MRF holding a press conference in the first week of November in one of the office buildings of the United States House of Representatives in Washington, DC. The press conference will feature a prominent member of Congress. Expect another Call to Action encouraging our members, our SMRO partners, motorcyclists in general and other concerned citizens to attend.

At that time we will be issuing a formal letter to the Chairman of the NTSB asking him to reconsider their proposed lobbying of the states and asking that he consider the statistical facts related to our Motorcycle Safety Action Plan and its effectiveness with regard to Crash Avoidance and NOT Safer Crashing as the goal.

For strategic reasons, third phase of our initiative will be announced once we complete the necessary research and sufficient discussions have taken place. We will go on record, however, as stating that we will not rule out asking Congress to take action against the NTSB, as we have done with NHTSA in the past, should they continue to ignore the spirit of previous congressional mandates against federal agencies lobbying states on mandatory helmet laws.

Monkeys on Motorcycles

2007-10-04T07:14:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Splatt the Harley Rat,

"Stick a monkey on a motorcycle and he will crash. Stick a helmet on the monkey and he will still crash."

The NTSB Doesn't Get It!

2007-09-27T15:35:00.000-05:00

A.B.A.T.E. OF PENNSYLVANIA RESPONSE TO THE NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD’S RECOMMENDATIONS OF 9-11-07

On 9-11 the NTSB issued recommendations to states to require all motorcyclists and their passengers to wear Department of Transportation federal motor vehicle safety standard (FMVSS) 218-compliant helmets.

A.B.A.T.E. of Pennsylvania, the Alliance of Bikers Aimed Toward Education, has expressed their opposition to the NTSB safety recommendations. Accident prevention saves lives, not federal mandates. Greater penalties for right-of-way violations and stricter laws for inattentive driving would be more effective. Motorist need to pay greater attention to the action of driving. Being behind a wheel of an automobile is NO time to multi-task.

Pennsylvania already has a helmet law. The General Assembly passed Senate Bill 259 in 2003. That legislation modified the existing mandatory motorcycle helmet law to provide qualified adult motorcycle operators and passengers with the option to decide what is best for themselves. Pennsylvania Senators and Representatives supported a minimum of two year riding experience or successful completion of an approved motorcycle rider education program as condition for optional helmet use by motorcycle operators 21 years of age or older.

While the law does allow freedom of choice in the use of helmets it also contains safeguards for those not yet trained or skilled enough to make an informed decision on helmet safety. Enactment of the freedom of choice bill on helmets represents what our founding fathers intended when they wrote the Constitution….that government works best with the consent of the governed.

Facts not fiction…

Since the helmet modification Pennsylvania has experienced a sharp rise in motorcycle sales and a dramatic increase in biker tourism. In 2003 there were 263,696 registered motorcycles. In 2006 that number increased to 335,720. In 2005 there were 205 motorcycle fatalities.

In 2006 the fatality rate decreased to 187.

Between 2000 (before helmets were made optional) and 2005 (after), motorcycle registrations in Pennsylvania increased 48.3%. Fatalities in motorcycle crashes also increased, but only 36%.

A study by the State Legislative Budget and Finance Committee in 2006 found an 8.6% decrease in motorcycle fatalities, per 10,000 registrations, from 2000 to 2005.

Most motorcycle fatalities in 2005 involved bikers who wore helmets. Only 42.6% involved known non-helmeted motorcyclists, and the report does not say what portion of them died of something other than head trauma.

Conclusion: The NTSB implies in its recommendation that thirty state governments have somehow "got it wrong" when it comes to the validity of universal mandatory helmet laws. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Most of these states have had, at one time or another, a universal mandatory helmet law, yet considered the results and modified their laws accordingly.

A.B.A.T.E. of PA believes that state legislators have more intelligence than the NTSB gives them credit for. A.B.A.T.E. of Pennsylvania states, “Nothing illustrates individual freedom more than bare-headed bikers, and many federal authorities detest freedom. We believe they will do anything to suppress it. “ The NTSB reached its recommendations with little or no input from the motorcycle community. This is just another incident of bureaucrats in Washington trying to ram regulations down the throats of all fifty states. We’ll have none of it.

Freedom from (Paying for) Hospital Errors

2007-09-26T13:08:00.000-05:00

Hey Docs, nurses, et al... before you come after the bikers who want freedom of choice, maybe you should clean up your own house! Hospitals cause over 100 times the deaths that supposedly couild be saved if all bikers wore helmets, and we don't accept NTSB or NHTSA's numbers on that!

New Medicare Regulations Adopted to Reduce Certain Hospital Infections and Medical Errors
Medicare Will Withhold Payments To Hospitals For Failing To Keep Patients Safe

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Under new Medicare regulations, hospitals will no longer receive higher payments for the additional costs associated with treating patients for certain hospital-acquired infections and medical errors. The new rules will give hospitals a powerful new incentive to improve patient care, according to Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports.

“Every year, millions of Americans suffer needlessly from preventable hospital infections and medical errors,” said Lisa McGiffert, Director of Consumers Union’s Stop Hospital Infection’s campaign (http://www.stophospitalinfections.org/). “These new rules are a good beginning for Medicare to use its clout to mobilize hospitals to improve care and keep patients safe.”
Under the rules adopted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), payments will be withheld from hospitals for care associated with treating certain catheter-associated urinary tract infections, vascular catheter-associated infections, mediastinitis after coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery, and five other medical errors unrelated to infections (bed sores, objects left in patients’ bodies, blood incompatibility, air embolism, and falls). The new rules will go into effect in October 2008.

To comply with a 2005 law passed by Congress, CMS evaluated a number of serious, preventable health care acquired conditions and identified these eight for the first round of non-payment due to the high volume of patients affected, the high cost of treating patients, and the existence of prevention guidelines. The agency intends to consider other hospital acquired infections and medical errors for non-payment in future years.

The new Medicare regulations include protections to prevent hospitals from billing patients when payments are withheld and to minimize avoidance of patients perceived to be at risk for infections. “We are pleased that the rules clearly state that hospitals cannot bill patients for the amount that Medicare refuses to pay,” said McGiffert. “CMS will need to make sure these protections are enforced so patients are treated fairly. And the agency should be on the lookout for hospitals that try to game the system by falsifying codes to avoid nonpayment.”
Catheter-associated urinary tract infections are the most common infection developed by patients in hospitals. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported that there are 561,667 catheter-associated urinary tract infections per year. According to a study in the American Journal of Medicine, the annual cost of urinary tract infections in hospitals is as much as $451 million.

Bloodstream infections are high in volume and cost, and are preventable. The CDC has reported that there are 248,678 cases of central line associated bloodstream infections every year. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement estimates that approximately 14,000 people die every year from central line-related bloodstream infections.

CMS failed to address the incidence of infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a virulent antibiotic resistant bacterium. According to CMS, over 95,000 Medicare patients had MRSA infections in 2005, running up hospital charges of almost $3 billion. MRSA was not selected for nonpayment because of coding issues and because CMS does “not believe there is a consensus among public health experts that MRSA [infection] is preventable.”

“CMS needs to take strong action to curb the spread of this powerful superbug,” said McGiffert. “Many hospitals do not share the attitude that MRSA infections cannot be prevented and CMS should be on the front lines with them fighting this deadly and costly problem.”
Hospital acquired infections are a leading cause of death in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 2 million patients suffer from hospital infections every year and nearly 100,000 of them die.

Research shows that hospitals could prevent many infections through stricter adherence to proven infection control practices.

The financial costs associated with hospital infections are equally staggering. Dr. John A. Jernigan, Chief of Interventions and Evaluations at the CDC, has said that hospital acquired infections result in up to $27.5 billion in additional health care expenses annually. Medicare foots the bill for a big portion of infection-related health care costs. A 2005 report by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council found that Medicare was billed for 67 percent of the total number of patient infections reported by the state’s hospitals.

“Taxpayers spend billions of dollars every year covering the cost of patient infections,” said McGiffert. “Restricting Medicare payments for medical errors like patient infections will help ensure that the health care taxpayers pay for is safe and effective.”
A copy of the new CMS regulations can be found here (begin at page 290):http://www.cms.hhs.gov/AcuteInpatientPPS/downloads/CMS-1533-FC.pdf

Racing Freedom

2007-09-11T16:42:00.000-05:00

I mean really, is this not the best? USLMRA

Really! The racing series most anyone can afford to compete in. High speed lawnmowers on dirt.

That reminds me, now that we have rain, I have grass to cut as soon as it's dry!

Breaking News - Patriot Act!

2007-09-06T11:40:00.000-05:00

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge struck down parts of the revised USA Patriot Act on Thursday, saying investigators must have a court’s approval before they can order Internet providers to turn over records without telling customers.

U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero said the government orders must be subject to meaningful judicial review and that the recently rewritten Patriot Act „offends the fundamental constitutional principles of checks and balances and separation of powers.“

The American Civil Liberties Union had challenged the law, complaining that it allowed the FBI to demand records without the kind of court order required for other government searches.

The ACLU said it was improper to issue so-called national security letters, or NSLs — investigative tools used by the FBI to compel businesses to turn over customer information — without a judge’s order or grand jury subpoena.

Fred Thomspon in for Freedom!

2007-09-06T09:28:00.000-05:00

"In 1994 when I first ran, I advocated the same common sense conservative positions that I hold today. They are based upon what I believe to be sound conservative First Principles - reflecting the nature of man and the wisdom of the ages. They are based upon the conviction that our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution are not outdated documents that have outlived their usefulness. It is a recognition that our basic rights come from God and not from government. That government should have its power divided, not only at the federal level but between the federal government and the states. Federalism is the belief that not every problem should have a federal solution. Essentially it's about freedom. A government that is big enough to do everything for us is powerful enough to do anything to us."

Papers Please - NOT!!!!!!!!!

2007-09-04T11:07:00.000-05:00

Papers Please: Arrested At Circuit City
September 1, 2007 by Michael Amor Righi

Today was an eventful day. I drove to Cleveland, reunited with my father’s side of the family and got arrested. More on that arrested part to come.

For the labor day weekend my father decided to host a small family reunion. My sister flew in from California and I drove in from Pittsburgh to visit my father, his wife and my little brother and sister. Shortly after arriving we packed the whole family into my father’s Buick and headed off to the grocery store to buy some ingredients to make monkeybread. (It’s my little sister’s birthday today and that was her cute/bizare birthday request.)

Next to the grocery store was a Circuit City. (The Brooklyn, Ohio Circuit City to be exact.) Having forgotten that it was my sister’s birthday I decided to run in and buy her a last minute gift. I settled on Disney’s “Cars” game for the Nintendo Wii. I also needed to purchase a Power Squid surge protector which I paid for separately with my business credit card. As I headed towards the exit doors I passed a gentleman whose name I would later learn is Santura. As I began to walk towards the doors Santura said, “Sir, I need to examine your receipt.” I responded by continuing to walk past him while saying, “No thank you.”

As I walked through the double doors I heard Santura yelling for his manager behind me. My father and the family had the Buick pulled up waiting for me outside the doors to Circuit City. I opened the door and got into the back seat while Santura and his manager, whose name I have since learned is Joe Atha, came running up to the vehicle. I closed the door and as my father was just about to pull away the manager, Joe, yelled for us to stop. Of course I knew what this was about, but I played dumb and pretended that I didn’t know what the problem was. I wanted to give Joe the chance to explain what all the fuss was for.

I reopened the door to talk with Joe and at this point Joe positioned his body between the open car door and myself. (I was still seated in the Buick.) Joe placed his left hand on the roof of the car and his right hand on the open car door. I asked Joe if there was a problem. The conversation went something like this:

Me: “Is there a problem?”
Joe: “I need to examine your bag and receipt before letting you leave this parking lot.”
Me: “I paid for the contents in this bag. Are you accusing me of stealing?”
Joe: “I’m not accusing you of anything, but I’m allowed by law to look through your bag when you leave.”
Me: “Which law states that? Name the law that gives you the right to examine my bag when I leave a Circuit City.”

Of course Joe wasn’t able to name the law that gives him, a U.S. citizen and Circuit City employee the right to examine anything that I, a U.S. citizen and Circuit City customer am carrying out of the store. I’ve dealt with these scare tactics at other stores in the past including other Circuit Cities, Best Buys and Guitar Centers. I’ve always taken the stance that retail stores shouldn’t treat their loyal customers as criminals and that customers shouldn’t so willingly give up their rights along with their money. Theft sucks and I wish that shoplifters were treated more harshly than they are, but the fact is that I am not a shiplifter shoplifter and shouldn’t have to forfeit my civil rights when leaving a store.

I twice asked Joe to back away from the car so that I could close the door. Joe refused. On three occasions I tried to pull the door closed but Joe pushed back on the door with his hip and hands. I then gave Joe three options:

“Accuse me of shoplifting and call the police. I will gladly wait for them to arrive.”
“Back away from the car so that I can close the door and drive away.”
“If you refuse to let me leave I will be forced to call the police.”
Joe didn’t budge. At this point I pushed my way past Joe and walked onto the sidewalk next to the building. I pulled out my phone and dialed 911.

Two minutes later Brooklyn, Ohio police officer Ernie Arroyo arrived on the scene. As I began to explain the story leading up to Joe Atha preventing my egress from the parking lot, officer Arroyo began to question why I refused to show my receipt in the first place. I explained that I lawfully purchased the contents in the bag and didn’t feel that it was necessary for me to let a Circuit City employee inspect the bag as I left. Officer Arroyo disagreed. He claimed that stores have the right to inspect all receipts and all bags upon leaving their store.

At this point Officer Arroyo asked to see my receipt and driver’s license. I handed over the receipt, and stated that my name is Michael Righi. Again, Officer Arroyo asked to see my driver’s license. The conversation went something like this:

Me: “I’m required by law to state that my name is Michael Righi, but I do not have to provide you with my driver’s license since I am not operating a vehicle.”
Officer Arroyo: “Give me your driver’s license or I will place you under arrest.”
Me: “My name is Michael Righi. I am not willing to provide you with my driver’s license.”
Officer Arroyo: “Turn around and up against the wall.”

At this point I was placed in handcuffs, patted down, had my wallet removed from my back pocket and was placed in the back of Officer Arroyo’s police car. My three siblings sat in the back of the Buick crying their eyes out, which is the only part of today that I regret. I wish my little brother and sisters didn’t have to watch this, but I knew exactly what I was doing and was very careful with my words. Other than putting my family through a little scare I don’t regret anything that happened today.

Officer Arroyo ran my father’s license plate, my driver’s license and inspected my two receipts along with the contents of my bag. He also handed over my Circuit City bag to Joe Atha and allowed him to ensure that in fact I stole nothing from the store.

While being driven down to the station in the back of the police car I struck up a conversation with Officer Arroyo. I asked him if he was surprised that my receipts matched the contents in the bag and in a surprise moment of honesty he admitted that he was. I then asked Officer Arroyo what charges were going to be brought against me. He explained that I had been arrested for failure to produce my driver’s license. I asked him what would happen if I never learned to drive and didn’t have a driver’s license. After all, at the time that he arrested me I was standing on a sidewalk outside a Circuit City. I wasn’t driving a car, and even when I was seated in the Buick I was a back seat passenger. The officer never gave me a satisfactory answer to this question, but promised to explain the law to me after I was booked.

This morning I slept through my alarm clock and was in a hurry to drive to Cleveland. I didn’t have time to iron my shirt, and this is what I regretted while my mugshot was being taken. Listen up kids. Always press your clothes because you never know when you’ll be unlawfully arrested.

Shortly after being booked, fingerprints and all, Officer Arroyo presented me with my charges:

ORD:525.07: Obstructing Official Business (M-2)
(a) No person, without privilege to do so and with purpose to prevent, obstruct or delay the performance by a public official of any authorized act within the public official’s offical capacity shall do any act that hampers or impedes a public official in the performance of the public official’s lawful duties.

Not being able to find the law in the books that states that a citizen must provide a driver’s license while walking through a parking lot, Officer Arroyo had to settle for “obstructing official business.” Keep in mind that the official business that I was supposedly obstructing was business that I initiated by calling the police. I called for help and I got arrested.

My father posted the $300 bail that was needed to get me out of jail and back on my way to Park Avenue Place. (Sorry for the lame Monopoly joke, but it’s my first time being arrested. Cut me some humor slack.) After being released I stuck around the police station for a little while to fill out the necessary paper work to press charges against the Circuit City manager who physically prevented me from leaving the parking lot. I’m most interested in seeing my charges dropped for refusing to present identification, but I view that as a completely separate issue from the store manager interfering with my egress.

I understand that my day would have gone a lot smoother if I had agreed to let loss prevention inspect my bag. I understand that my day would have gone a lot smoother if I had agreed to hand over my driver’s license when asked by Officer Arroyo. However, I am not interested in living my life smoothly. I am interested in living my life on strong principles and standing up for my rights as a consumer, a U.S. citizen and a human being. Allowing stores to inspect our bags at will might seem like a trivial matter, but it creates an atmosphere of obedience which is a dangerous thing. Allowing police officers to see our papers at will might seem like a trivial matter, but it creates a fear-of-authority atmosphere which can be all too easily abused.

I can reluctantly understand having to show a permit to fish, a permit to drive and a permit to carry a weapon. Having to show a permit to exist is a scary idea which I got a strong taste of today.

My hearing is scheduled for September 20th, 2007. I will be contacting the ACLU and the IDP on Tuesday (the next business day), and I plan to fight these charges no matter what it takes. I will provide updates on this page as events unfold.

September 1st, 2007 @ 10:50PM EST Update:The police officer never read me my Miranda rights. I’ve heard differing opinions on how much this really matters and will certainly be bringing this up with my attorney.

September 1st, 2007 @11:34PM EST Update:I found the detail on Ohio’s “stop and identify” law. I encourage you to read it in its entirety, but I will spell out the important part:

2921.29 (C) Nothing in this section requires a person to answer any questions beyond that person’s name, address, or date of birth. Nothing in this section authorizes a law enforcement officer to arrest a person for not providing any information beyond that person’s name, address, or date of birth or for refusing to describe the offense observed.

I stated my name to the police officer, and if he had asked me for my address and date of birth I would have provided that as well. The officer specifically asked for my driver’s license and this is what I was unwilling to provide. If I’m reading this correctly it would appear that Ohio’s law specifically protects citizens from having to hand over driver’s licenses unless they are operating a motor vehicle. This is what I always believed, but it’s nice to see it in writing.

September 2nd, 2007 @10:01AM EST Update: I was speaking to my father this morning about what unfolded yesterday, and he told me something that I was not aware of until this point. While I was speaking to Joe Atha from the back seat of the car, Santura stood in front of my father’s vehicle with his hands out to the side as a way of preventing him from driving forward. My father would not have been able to drive forward because Santura stood in the way, and he would not have been able to drive backwards because the open door would have hit Joe who was leaning into the car.

Party Freedom

2007-08-28T22:06:00.000-05:00

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.

NCOM News

2007-08-17T14:28:00.000-05:00

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. Â“European countries fundamentally pay more political attention to road safety,Â” 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 Â“colors,Â” 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.

Â“If this persists, IÂ’ll consider it,Â” said Rep. Putnam, R-Armour, who sometimes wears a Sturgis motorcycle rally necktie during the legislative session. Â“PuttÂ” 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. Â“IÂ’m not going in there,Â” he told the Journal. But One-Eyed Jack's owner Ray Gold is just as adamant about keeping his new ban on Â“back patches,Â” 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. Â“You canÂ’t ban patches for just one group,Â” he said. Â“If you ban them for motorcyclists you have to ban them for bowling teams, the Knights of Columbus -- everyone.Â”

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 Â“Back To The GrindÂ”, 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: Â“Knowledge is power (Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est).Â”Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626) English statesman and philosopher

Beer Freedom!!!!

2007-08-16T17:59:00.000-05:00

From a bar in Canada where they do at least one thing right, BEER!

The Statist's Prayer

2007-08-15T18:14:00.000-05:00

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

Inflatable Firearms Ban

2007-08-14T19:32:00.001-05:00

This is one that will make you think!

Courtesy of Uncle Say

Trust Me, I'm from the Government

2007-08-10T10:42:00.000-05:00

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!

Killing me with GPS+Karaoke+TV

2007-08-07T16:47:00.000-05:00

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.

Who's Your Nanny?

2007-08-07T15:31:00.000-05:00

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.

Sales Tax Holiday a Sham?

2007-08-06T22:07:00.000-05:00

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.

So That's How it Works!

2007-08-06T09:53:00.000-05:00

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 !!!

Scary Poll

2007-07-31T12:03:00.000-05:00

A Scary Poll courtesy of Russ McBee.

The Constitution - Great Site!

2007-07-27T09:42:00.000-05:00

http://www.usconstitution.net/index.html

Here's hoping at least a few people will take the time to read and learn!

A Declaration of Dependence

2007-07-25T10:03:00.000-05:00

Courtesy of The Gunny Sack from AIM/NCOM

---A DECLARATION OF DEPENDENCE:

We, the undersigned, having grown weary of the burden of freedom and responsibility, do hereby foreswear, forfeit, and waive our following rights:

1) Our right to protect our physical persons. We pay the government -- and quite well -- to do this for us, through the police, the military, and far too many other government agencies to count. We have chosen to disregard numerous court decisions that they have no responsibilities to us individually, and still place our fate entirely in their hands. And when they fail us, we will blame our excessive freedoms and surrender more rights in the name of physical safety.

2) Our right to tally and pay our own taxes. We have chosen to separate ourselves from the cost of our government by delegating to government and employers the task of paying our taxes, through "withholding." Instead of being presented with a bill for payment, our taxes are taken from us before we even see our salary. Then, when (as is often the case) we have overpaid, we rejoice and see as a gift our refund, and choose not to realize that this refund is simply the government repaying an interest-free loan from us. The only real burden we choose to accept is that of filing our own returns, when we can see just how much of our labors are on behalf of the government. (And if one Presidential candidate has his way, he will relieve us of even this onerous task.)

3) Our right to make decisions for our own safety. Every one of us knows -- or ought to know -- that certain things are safe and unsafe, healthy and unhealthy. Trans fats are terrible for our bodies. Seatbelts, in nearly every circumstance, improve our chances of surviving a car crash almost logarithmically. Motorcycle helmets, even more so.

In these and in countless other ways, we know what the smart thing to do is. But we do not wish to be burdened with the responsibility of caring for ourselves, so we call upon the government to make certain we make the right choices, and accept whatever punishment, fine, or sanction they see fit if we put ourselves at risk.
In the name of our own safety, our own security, and our own peace of mind, we, the undersigned, do hereby pledge our lives, our fortunes, our liberty, our judgment, and our own common sense. Signed, Far Too Many Americans.
---
This sort of apathy FEEDS the daily erosion of our Constitution and Bill of Rights, perpetrated by those we elect to make our laws. It’s time to STOP the process and look to our welfare. If we don’t, this nation will collapse on itself, and we’ll have no one to blame but ourselves. Our Constitution is under attack by those who think these documents are outdated. In Europe, whole countries have lost some of their national identities through the European Parliament, a NON-elected group. Those countries don’t even have their own currency anymore. They all use the “EURO.” No more British pounds or German Marks. We are likewise losing our freedoms here almost daily, a little piece at a time, and usually in the name of SECURITY.

I didn’t even mention the evils of the Patriot Act, or the lives we are sacrificing in corporate warfare all over the planet that seems to have no end. I can’t believe that this country, with all it’s strength and wisdom, can’t devise strategy to win these conflicts and get this carnage brought to an end, or to have won WITHOUT bullets in the first place, if and when winning is in the interests of the American People.

America, Your Freedoms Are Slipping Away

2007-07-23T22:08:00.000-05:00

The FBI Can Hear Every Word You Say
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G1fNjK9SXg

Help End Healthcare Discrimination

2007-07-23T11:05:00.000-05:00

Anti-Discrimination bill headed to WashingtonJuly 19, 2007 06:40 PM EDT

When you get sick or hurt how do you pay for your medical care? Usually it's through your work. But if you're injured riding a motorcycle, will the same health insurance you receive through your job cover you?

Strapping on his gloves, lowering the visor on his helmet, WAFF 48 Photojournalist Blake Mann goes through his pre-ride routine. Checking for a break in traffic, he knows accidents can, and will happen even to the most cautious biker. One worry many who ride a motorcycle face is if their medical bills would be covered in the event of a crash. While your insurance provider may offer coverage, employers can deny benefit payouts.

Scott Newland, store manager for Rocket City Power Sports in Huntsville, doesn't agree with the law. "The mid-90's law was written poorly. In the first place, leave out that kind of loophole this is something that should have been taken care of a long time ago," says Scott Newland.The American Motorcyclist Association agrees and is fighting to have the law re-written. They want to eliminate discrimination against anyone who rides and get rid of an expensive loophole. "Basically they said you could not deny coverage to a motorcyclist. They didn't have to pay benefits that's the loophole. Current law. Close the loophole," says Newland.Until new rules are put into place, bikers take their chances on the highways, hoping they are not involved in a crash that could devastate their finances. "Primarily motorcyclists are some of the safest guys on the road. Time for a change time to fix broken law," says Newland.

What can you do?You can send a message in support of "The HIPAA Recreational Injury Technical Correction Act" bill to your Congressman and Senators. That website is www.AMADirectlink.com

25 Years for DUI-ROWV

2007-07-21T07:51:00.000-05:00

Saturday, 07/21/07
Illegal immigrant sentenced to 25 years in fatal DUI wreck
By SHEILA BURKEStaff Writer
An illegal immigrant convicted in a fatal DUI wreck on Friday described the U.S. as a great country and apologized to the family of the renowned Nashville mandolin maker he killed.
But Julio Villasana's words did little to reduce the pain felt by the widow of Charlie Derrington, who died in an August 2006 head-on collision as he rode home on his motorcycle along Briley Parkway.
After his comments, Villasana was sentenced to 25 years in prison for causing the accident by being drunk and driving the wrong way into oncoming traffic. A federal agent who testified during the hours-long hearing said Villasana, 34, had been deported from the U.S. 14 times before the deadly wreck, only to return each time.
He had four previous DUI arrests.
"I don't know how that can happen," said Derrington's wife, Susan. "I'm very much in favor of closing the borders."
Loss is still painful
Losing her husband of 24 years, she said, has been almost unbearable.
"Just getting out of bed at times has been a daunting task," Susan Derrington said. "I missed two months of work because I could barely function."
Under Tennessee law, Villasana must serve 30 percent, or 7½ years, of the sentence before becoming eligible for parole.
"I just don't know that there's anything short of a maximum sentence that can protect the citizens from Mr. Villasana's outright disregard and flagrant violations of the laws of the state of Tennessee," Davidson County Criminal Court Judge Mark Fishburn said in imposing the sentence.
Villasana's blood-alcohol level was more than four times the legal limit when he crashed into Derrington's motorcycle on Briley in west Nashville.
Witnesses told police that he laughed as he fled the scene of the crash.
Villasana denied laughing and fleeing, but Davidson County Assistant District Attorney General Kathy Morante reminded him that he had agreed with those statements when he pleaded guilty.
Charlie Derrington, 51, was the production manager of Nashville-based Gibson Musical Instrument's mandolin division.
He reassembled bluegrass legend Bill Monroe's prized 1925 Gibson mandolin after it was smashed by a burglar in the musician's home.

Numbers USA - Helping Define the Immigration Battle

2007-07-17T11:21:00.000-05:00

You can find this fax by proceeding tohttp://www.numbersusa.com/
Ask your representative to cosponsor H. Res. 499. A resolution which would "[Express] the sense of the House of representatives that the Administration should rigorously enforce the laws of the United States to substantially reduce illegal immigration and greatly improve border security." How could your Representative not want current immigration law enforced?Fax your rep. and ask him to cosponsor H. Res. 499.Further information on H. Res. 499 (click here for our bills page):H. Res. 499 would provide a sense of the House that the Bush administration should implement statutorily-mandated immigration and border controls and enforce existing Federal immigration law, including, notably: (1) implementation of the entry and exit portions of US-VISIT; (2) enforcement of existing provisions requiring the sanctioning of employers who do not comply with "unlawful employment" laws; (3) compliance with the Secure Fence Act of 2006 through completion of the fencing called for along the U.S.-Mexico border; and (4) increasing the use of expedited removal procedures for all illegal aliens eligible for such removal under Federal law; and also would provide a sense of the House that taking these steps would: (1) result in a considerable decrease in illegal immigration into the United States; and (2) vastly improve U.S. border security.

Lawn Chair Freedom

2007-07-10T22:30:00.000-05:00

Helium Balloons Carry Man in Lawnchair 193 Miles

BEND, Ore. — Last weekend, Kent Couch settled down in his lawn chair with some snacks — and a parachute. Attached to his lawn chair were 105 large helium balloons.
Destination: Idaho.
With instruments to measure his altitude and speed, a global positioning system device in his pocket, and about four plastic bags holding five gallons of water each to act as ballast — he could turn a spigot, release water and rise — Couch headed into the Oregon sky.
Nearly nine hours later, the 47-year-old gas station owner came back to earth in a farmer's field near Union, short of Idaho but about 193 miles from home.

more at http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,288809,00.html

Philosophy of Reform

2007-07-09T11:50:00.000-05:00

"Let me give you a word of the philosophy of reform. The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims, have been born of earnest struggle. The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, and for the time being, putting all other tumults to silence. It must do this or it does nothing. If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters."

Frederick Douglass, 1857

Priceless - Amen!

2007-07-09T08:27:00.000-05:00

Many thanks to Wes Comer http://www.wescomer.com/ for this picture.

This Biker has a Monkey on his back!

2007-07-02T11:20:00.000-05:00

Is the monkey in violation of Tennessee's helmet law?

Illegal Alien Kills Bikers

2007-06-29T08:28:00.000-05:00

Jackson Clarion Ledger, MS - GULFPORT — The man police say is responsible for a traffic accident that killed a Saucier couple allegedly fled the scene because he is an illegal immigrant who feared being deported.
Police say Raymundo Rojas Garcia caused Sunday's accident that killed Wayne and Michelle Hughes, who were riding a motorcycle. He fled the scene because he was an illegal immigrant facing almost certain deportation once he was captured, authorities said.
Garcia was attempting to make a left turn in front of northbound traffic on U.S. 49 when he pulled in front of Wayne Hughes' northbound Suzuki motorcycle, a witness said. Hughes tried to get out of the way but it was too late.
The couple's son, who had joined his parents for dinner at a restaurant that night, was in a vehicle behind them and saw the deadly accident.
After the collision, a witness said, Garcia took off running with his wife and 1-year-old son, only to be captured a block and a half away.
He was charged with felony leaving the scene of an accident, driving without a license, driving without insurance, driving with an expired tag and failure to yield. His total bond was set at $51,351.
It is not Garcia's first run-in with the law. Garcia, 27, was charged June 17 by Gulfport police with misdemeanor drunk driving and other traffic violations. He was detained overnight and later fined.
Gulfport Deputy Chief Alfred Sexton said Monday that a hold has been placed on Garcia pending confirmation of his immigration status.
However, Sexton said Garcia admitted to police he was an illegal immigrant. Sexton said Garcia likely would face criminal charges here before deportation.
Harrison County Coroner Gary Hargrove said autopsy results Monday showed Wayne Hughes died of injuries to the head, chest and extremities; Michelle Hughes was thrown from the bike and died of head and neck injuries

Bikers for Fred You Tube Video

2007-06-27T10:14:00.000-05:00

Bikers Video on You Tube

2007-06-27T10:07:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was a fine day to welcome Fred Thompson to Nashville and hundreds show up at Mercury Air in Nashville to do just that. One of the video folks wanted to know why bikers support Fred so I told them. Now it's on the You Tube site for all to see!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nQoTy2be34

Illegal Murder

2007-06-19T11:50:00.000-05:00

Once again the Nashville news brings reports of an illegal alien murdering a US citizen. He was drunk and he was illegal and what's worse, it wasn't his first bust.

By Jared Allen, jallen@nashvillecitypaper.com and Nate Rau, sports correspondentJune 19, 2007
The latest fatal car crash allegedly committed at the hands of an illegal immigrant who was driving drunk has claimed the life of a Tennessee State University (TSU) senior member of the women’s track team, Metro Police said late Monday.Joycelyn R. Gardiner, 22, was pronounced dead at Vanderbilt University Medical Center at 4 a.m. Saturday, one hour and 15 minutes after her Pontiac Grand Prix was struck by a Ford Expedition driven by Victor Javier Benitez, 24, of 365 Paragon Mills Road, Apt. A-5, police said.“The Expedition left no pre-crash skid marks,” police officials said of the crash scene at Old Hickory Boulevard and Nolensville Pike, “indicating that Benitez did not try to brake prior to impact.”

No information on Benitez’s blood alcohol content was immediately available, and police described him as an “alleged drunk driver” even though his only current charge is vehicular homicide.At the same time, police were quick to point out that Benitez, whose physical identification was issued in Texas, was on two separate occasions convicted of a total of four criminal charges in Nashville.He was arrested in February 2006 on three counts of car burglary and two counts of attempted theft. Two months later he was convicted of one count of car burglary and sentenced by General Sessions Judge Casey Moreland to one year of supervised probation.On Nov. 5, 2006, Benitez was rearrested on charges of public intoxication, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. The following day he was convicted of all three charges and sentenced by General Sessions Judge William Higgins to seven days in jail.

This murder happened near my home, on a route I take daily. Nolensville RD at Bell/Old Hickory has enough crashes from folks just plain not paying attention, trying to beat the light or worse. Go North from that location and it's often like running a gauntlet of illegal drivers.

Time to expedite the deportation of illegal aliens in the USA and a good place to start is that intersection and head north.

The Speech Bush NEEDS to GIVE

2007-06-17T12:47:00.000-05:00

The following "speech" was written by an ordinary citizen. While satirical in nature, all satire must have a basis in FACT to be effective.

The speech George W. Bush SHOULD give: Normally, I start these things out by saying "My Fellow Americans. Not doing it this time. If the polls are any indication, I don't know who more than half of you are anymore. I do know something terrible has happened, and that you're really not fellow Americans any longer.

I'll cut right to the chase here: I quit. Now before anyone gets all in a lather about me quitting to avoid impeachment, or to avoid prosecution or something, let me assure you: there's been no breaking of laws or impeachable offenses in this office. The reason I'm quitting is simple. I'm fed up with you people. I'm fed up because you have no understanding of what's really going on in the world. Or of what's going on in this once-great nation of ours. And the majority of you are too damned lazy to do your homework and figure it .

Let's start local. You've been sold a bill of goods by politicians and the news media. Polls show that the majority of you think the economy is in the tank, and that's despite record numbers of homeowners including record numbers of MINORITY homeowners. While we're mentioning minorities, I'll point out that minority business ownership is at an all-time high. Our unemployment rate is as low as it ever was during the Clinton Administration. I've mentioned all those things before, but it doesn't seem to have sunk in.

Despite the shock to our economy of 9/11, the stock market has rebounded to record levels and more Americans than ever are participating in these markets. Meanwhile, all you can do is whine about gas prices, and most of you are too damn stupid to realize that gas prices are high because there's increased demand in other parts of the world, and because a small handful of noisy idiots are more worried about polar bears and beach front property than your economic security. We face real threats in the world. Don't give me this "blood for oil" thing. If I was trading blood for oil, I would've already seized Iraq's > oil fields and let the rest of the country go to hell, and don't give me this 'Bush Lied, People Died' crap either. If I was the liar you morons take me for, I could've easily had chemical weapons planted in Iraq so they could be 'discovered.' Instead, I owned up to the fact that the intelligence was faulty. Let me remind you that the rest of the world thought Saddam had the goods, same as me. Let me also remind you, regime change in Iraq, was official US policy before I came into office. Some guy named 'Clinton' established that policy. Bet you didn't know that, did you?

You idiots need to understand that we face a unique enemy. Back during the cold war, there were two major competing political and economic models squaring off. We won that war, but we did so because fundamentally, the Communists wanted to survive, just as we do. We were simply able to outspend and out-tech them. That's not the case this time. The soldiers of our new enemy don't care if they survive. In fact, they want to die. That'd be fine, as long as they weren't also committed to taking as many of you with them as they can, but; they are. They want to kill you, and the bastards are all over the globe. You should be grateful that they haven't gotten any more of us here in the United States since September 11, but; you're not. That's because you've got no idea how hard a small number of intelligence, military, law enforcement and homeland security people have worked to make sure of that.

When this whole mess started, I warned you that this would be a long and difficult fight. I'm disappointed how many of you people think a long and difficult fight amounts to a single season of 'Survivor'. Instead, you've grown impatient. You're incapable of seeing things through the long lens of history, the way our enemies do. You think that wars should last a few months, a few years, tops. Making matters worse, you actively support those who help the enemy. Every time you buy the New York Times, every time you send a donation to a cut-and-run Democrat's political campaign, well, dammit, you might just as well Fedex a grenade launcher to a Jihadist. It amounts to the same thing. In this day and age, it's easy enough to find the truth. It's all over the Internet. It just isn't on the pages of the New York Times or on NBC News. Even if it were, I doubt you'd be any smarter. Most of you would rather watch American Idol.

I could say more about your expectations that the government will always be there to bail you out, but; you're too stupid to leave a city that's below sea level and has a hurricane approaching. I could say more about your insane belief that government, not your own wallet, is where the money comes from, but; I've come to the conclusion that were I to do so, it would sail right over your heads.

So I quit. I'm going back to Crawford. I've got an energy-efficient house down there (Al Gore could only dream) and the capability to be fully self-sufficient. No one ever heard of Crawford before I got elected, and as soon as I'm done here, pretty much no one will ever hear of it again. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to die of old age before the last pillars of America fall.

Oh, and by the way, Cheney's quitting too. ,That means Pelosi is your new President. ,You asked for it. ,Watch what she does carefully, because I still have a glimmer of hope that there're just enough of you remaining who are smart enough to turn this thing around in 2008. So that's it. God bless what's left of America. Some of you know what I mean. The rest of you, ?????????.

Michigan Bikers Fighting for Freedom - AAA Opposes

2007-06-15T21:38:00.001-05:00

Do yu have a Triple AAA account? Maybe yu should seek alternatives?

http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-2/11817426383390.xml&coll=6

AAA is pulling out all the stops on this issue. They are posting copies of the same crappy argument everywhere and everyday. They are also very careful not to post where any kind of response can be made. I would like to know how much they spend on this campaign and where the funds are derived from.

They did the same crap in TN!

Bikers need to quit buying AAA's services, NOW! These folks are in the insurance business and their ultimate goal is to have us off the road so they don't have to pay claims when their insured drivers kill us.

Right to Repair Your Own Veicle?

2007-06-15T21:36:00.000-05:00

From Jeff Hennie, MRF VP of Governmen Relations, MRF (www.mrf.org)
Do You Have the Right to Repair?We all know that we have certain inalienable rights such as life, libertyand the pursuit of happiness. We also have the right to remain silent andthe right to an attorney. What we don't have is the guaranteed right torepair our own vehicles.That's right, the way it is right now, vehicle manufacturers only have tomake a very small percentage of the large and growing number of diagnostictools, training and codes available to the general public. The originalequipment manufacturers (OEMs) must make all information available toeverybody only as it pertains to emissions. So that leaves you at themercy of authorized dealerships exclusively if you need work on yourantilock brake systems, some fuel injection systems, security systems andany other electronic systems on your car or bike. The Motorcycle RidersFoundation (MRF) has been working on this issue for a couple of years.

Read more - http://pub42.bravenet.com/forum/3562429698/fetch/824855/

CA Bikers - Challenging the Lid Law in the Courts

2007-06-15T21:32:00.001-05:00

For the uninitiated, Richard Quigley and other members of BOLT -Bikers of Lesser Tolerance, have been challenging the California helmet law in the courts. Read about the latest maneuverings by "the state" at Bruce & Ray's Biker Forum http://pub42.bravenet.com/forum/3562429698/fetch/825365/

Another Blow for Freedom

2007-06-12T14:53:00.000-05:00

The TN General Assembly passed SJR248, a resolution opposing the Real ID Act of 2005... Here's how your representatives and Senators voted.... Ever a champion of freedom, I salute Douglas Henry, a true Tennessee patriot and statesman!

HOUSE:
SJR0248 by Henry
FLOOR VOTE: MOTION TO CONCUR
6/11/2007
Ayes...............................................88
Noes................................................0
Present and not voting.......................7
Representatives voting aye were: Armstrong, Baird, Bass, Bibb, Bone, Borchert, Briley, Brooks H, Brooks K, Brown, Buck, Casada, Cobb C, Cobb J, Coley, Cooper, Crider, Curtiss, Dean, DeBerry J, DeBerry L, DuBois, Dunn, Eldridge, Favors, Ferguson, Fincher, Fitzhugh, Floyd, Ford, Fraley, Gilmore, Hackworth, Hardaway, Harmon, Harrison, Harwell, Hawk, Hensley, Hill, Hood, Johnson C, Johnson P, Jones S, Jones U, Kernell, Litz, Lollar, Lynn, Maddox, Maggart, Matheny, Matlock, McCord, McCormick, McDaniel, McDonald, McManus, Miller, Moore, Mumpower, Niceley, Odom, Overbey, Pinion, Pitts, Pruitt, Rinks, Roach, Sargent, Shaw, Shepard, Sontany, Tidwell, Tindell, Todd, Towns, Turner L, Turner M, Vaughn, Watson, West, Wilder, Williams, Windle, Winningham, Yokley, Mr. Speaker Naifeh -- 88.
Representatives present and not voting were: Bell, Campfield, Coleman, Gresham, Kelsey, Rowland, Swafford -- 7

SJR0248 by Henry
FLOOR VOTE: AS AMENDED MOTION TO ADOPT
5/31/2007
Ayes...............................................30
Noes................................................0
Senators voting aye were: Beavers, Black, Bunch, Burchett, Burks, Cooper, Crutchfield, Finney L, Finney R, Ford, Harper, Haynes, Henry, Herron, Jackson, Johnson, Ketron, Kilby, Kurita, Marrero, McNally, Norris, Southerland, Stanley, Tate, Tracy, Watson, Williams, Woodson, Mr. Speaker Ramsey -- 30.

The Good Guys at Cyclemo's Motorcycle Museum

2007-06-11T18:28:00.000-05:00

Sometimes you just have to acknowledge the good guys, because way too often it's a quick thanks and that's it.

This past Saturday, my lady and I set off on our motorcycles to visit Cycle Mo's Motorcycle Museum in Red Boiling Springs. After some great back road riding over to Smithville, we turned north to work our way back to RBS and Cyclemo's. Somewhere between Smithville and the interstate I ran over something and it hit the underside of my bike, doing damage to the brake light switch and much to my dismay, 3o miles later I found myself on the side of the road with an electrical problem, 8 miles from the destination. Carol set off to get help and Mike Silvio, owner of Cycle Mo's showed up with help and a trailer a short while later. We got the bike to the museum and after determining there would be no quick fix, we arranged storage until I could return with a trailer.

Thanks to my lady Carol who decided I should ride her bike and she would passenger on her own bike. That is one fine riding 1984 FXRT, but she says the passenger seat isn't all that great.

Thanks also to my buddy, local musician, composer and Little Hollywood studio owner Danny Ramsey who offered the use of his bike trailer. Time to get greasy!

Freedom, Not an Exact Science

2007-06-08T21:56:00.001-05:00

Don't you just love the US of A? FREEDOM, not an exact science, but when at it's finest, there's nothing better.

This from the AFA www.afa.net
Wal-Mart has announced they will no longer support or oppose controversial issues. Ford originally made a similar pledge to AFA but reneged when a small group of homosexual leaders demanded retraction. AFA has repeatedly asked Ford to remain neutral in the culture wars, but the company has continued to promote the homosexual agenda. During the November elections, Ford pointed their employees to visit a radical left wing online voters guide for information on how to vote. The Website that contained the guide urged votes against constitutional amendments banning homosexual marriage, for stem cell research in Missouri and against an amendment banning abortion in South Dakota.

Freedom to support or oppose anything and everything....

Listen Up TN General Assembly!

2007-06-06T17:15:00.000-05:00

"I am not robbed by people who have more money than I. I am robbed by a government that wants to penalize my industry and give increasing portions of what I earn to people who do not emulate my principles, morals and ethics... We once taught our young people the virtues of hard work, saving, personal responsibility and accountability for one’s actions, chastity before and fidelity and commitment in marriage, honesty, integrity and virtue—not to mention the Ten Commandments (especially the one about not coveting that which belongs to your neighbor). We now teach them entitlement, victimhood, class envy and rights to other people’s money."
—Cal Thomas

We The Sheeple - Apathy

2007-06-06T11:19:00.000-05:00

I am your enemy, your nightmare and your destruction.
I hide in unseen places and go about my work silently.
I never sleep and I am everywhere your are.
You can not hide.
I will give you nothing-
but take everything you have and seek more.
I spare no one.
I respect no race or creed.
My victims are rich and poor, young and old, strong and weak.
I massacre millions each and every generation.
I have destroyed more people than all wars combined.
Children shall know me to their eternal sorrow.
I have brought you great misery
by replacing benevolent rulers with tyrants.
I played a major role in the downfall of great civilizations.
The Prince of Darkness alone sends me into your life.
Once allowed inside, seldom am I asked to leave.
You have been warned of my presence, but you do not care!
Allow me to introduce myself,
My name is APATHY!
Have you been visited by me?
~Unknown

Freedom from Injustice

2007-06-05T12:59:00.000-05:00

For years now, the saying in the biker's rights community has been "shoot a duck out of season and it costs you $200, your rifle and your pickup, kill a biker, you MIGHT get a $50 fine!" That IS an injustice in my book.

That is about to change if HB1335 passes a House Vote on Thursday. HB1335 will raise the penalty for violating the right of way and seriously injuring a biker (or pedestrian, bicyclists or other motorist) to $250 and the possible loss of license for up to 6 months while a crash resulting in death will cost $500 and up to a year's license suspension.

Will the law be enforced? ONLY if the biker community monitors crashes and presses the DA to bring the charge that will result in the higher penalties. Too often, bikers get run down by someone who "didn't see them". Much too often the officer on the scene does not even write a ticket.

Governor Bredesen, Sign This Bill on it's Passage.

Don't Call Me a Social Burden!

2007-06-04T22:22:00.000-05:00

Every time the helmet law debate comes around the safety nannies tell us how much of a social burden the bikers who don't wear helmets will be, costing the state a couple million bucks. Like WE don't contribute to the very system that supports a slew of social programs that the vast majority of bikers don't ever use!

Don’t Call ME a Social Burden!!!!!!!!! This IS MY Country! I AM an American Damnit!

THE COST OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION - Over $140,000,000,000 Per Year
THAT’S 140 BILLION DOLLARS FOR PEOPLE HERE ILLEGALLY!

1. $11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each year.
http://tinyurl.com/zob77

2. $2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens.
http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html

3. $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens.
http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html

4. $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary school education for children here illegally.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

5. $17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

6. $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

7. 30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens. COSTS?
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

8. $90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal aliens for Welfare & social services by the American taxpayers.
http://premium.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0610/29/ldt.01.html

IN Canada as in Tennessee

2007-06-04T14:34:00.000-05:00

http://www.gfwadvertiser.ca/index.cfm?iid=2556&sid=21972
Rant and Rave
Choices should be personal, not law
Natalie Musseau
The Advertiser
There should be a law limiting the amount of fries and gravy a person can eat. Another one is needed to make sunbathing and tanning beds illegal. Maybe even one mandating an acceptable level of dessert consumption should be one the books.

Hopefully, those suggestions sound as ridiculous as they are.

Those activities are personal choices — albeit ones that can cause various conditions and diseases that can potentially shorten a person’s life. But they are choices that every adult has the right to make for himself or herself.

Why then are seatbelt and helmet laws viewed as acceptable, almost without question?
There is evidence that both seatbelts and helmets save lives, or at least help prevent major injuries — just as there is evidence that trans-fats are unhealthy and too much sun will cause skin cancer. What makes one worth putting into law and not the other?

Non-compliance with seatbelt and helmet laws will not lead to the injury of other people. Unlike impaired driving, people who choose not to buckle up or strap on a helmet are only putting themselves in danger.

Police officers have better things to do than to be mothering people about seatbelts and helmets.
Adults should be able to make these choices for themselves — just like the ability to buy alcohol and cigarettes once reaching the age of majority. And just like smoking, their insurance premiums would likely reflect whatever choices they make.

It makes sense to mandate the use of such things for children who cannot be held responsible their own safety. However, adults have the information and the decision-making ability and can accept responsibility for those choices. They should not be forced to buckle up any more than they should be made to skip dessert.

It’s time that lawmakers stopped treating everyone like little children and allowed people to make their own choices.
nmusseau@gulfnews.ca

Confederate Decoration Day

2007-06-03T21:16:00.000-05:00

Today, in Springfield TN, the Sons of Confederate Veterans, John Hood Camp, presented a program every American should have witnessed. With an honor guard and many others dressed in period clothing, the gathering in the cemetary was both solemn and inspiring. Honoring those others wish to forget, our Confederate forefathers, is not politically correct in this day and age.

Civil War history taught in the schools is a joke. Every student at every school in America, but particularly those in the South, should have the honor of hearing Dr. H K Edgerton of Asheville, NC speak on Southern Heritage, from a black perspective. He is a proud Southerner and unashamed of the history of his forefathers, fighting along side white southerners to protect their lives, family and homes.

When he hits the stage carrying the Cross of Saint Andrews (or better known as the Confederate Battle Flag), he does it with pride, chest out, head held high. When he speaks of his pride, it is with conviction like I rarely hear.

Do yourself a favor, Google HK Edgerton, then spend a little time getting to know the man!

Stand up and Challenge the Nannies!

2007-06-03T11:02:00.000-05:00

It amazes me how citizens in the great state of Tennessee continue to allow the special interests with big money to control the state legislature. I was hopeful that the Tennessee Waltz sting would bring about a more transparent General Assembly and state government, boy was I wrong! One look at Governor Bredesen's pork laden budget shows precisely the influence of money on the budget.

ON the freedom front, particularly as it relates to biker's rights and repealing the mandatory helmet law, it's not too hard to see that big money also influences legislation. ON one hand we have trauma centers in Tennessee walking around with arms outstretched looking for buckets of money so they can continue to rail against helmet laws! Folks, trauma is BIG MONEY in Tennessee! Now Nashville General wants to start a trauma center, the same hospital that can't make a go of it without sucking up your tax dollars now wants even more of your tax dollars to fund a trauma center so they "can make it". Make it on your tax dollars or make it treating trauma patients?

Senator Kurita added 2 cents to the cigarette tax to help fund trauma centers. Do they need more tax dollars to survive? Heck no, they WANT more tax dollars to expand yet they cry the blues over what might happen to them if bikers are allowed to go helmetless. Ever look at the numbers fo patients who die because hospitals can't do a better job? Hospital genocide I call it. Half a million deaths nationally in the last few years. Clean up your own house doc!

Bottom line, they simply think they know what is best for everybody. Bottom line number 2, they DONT!

It's the Law, Not the Device

2007-06-03T10:49:00.000-05:00

Jessie's got it right!

IT’S THE LAW, not the Device.

Written by: Jessie McDugald in 1998

Over the past thirty-plus years of our helmet law there has been a lot of confusion about exactly what we’ve been working to achieve. Popular slogans such as “Let those who ride, Decide,” and “Freedom of Choice” have been misleading because they indicate that we haven’t had a “choice” or that we haven’t been “deciding” on helmet use, when in fact we’ve always had the choice and have never stopped deciding. Like me, many of us in South Carolina have the tickets to prove that we do decide and we do make choices. The problem has been the consequences of our choices which, until June 16, 1980, was a $100 fine or 30 days in jail. The punishment for not wearing a helmet hasn’t changed, it’s still $100 or 30 days, but the law has changed. We amended the law so that adults, 21 years of age and older, would no longer be punished for our choices. To this day each of us, as adults, continue to exercise our “Freedom of Choice” on helmet use, We Ride, We Decide.

This seems fairly simple to many of us who have been dealing with this issue for the past 25 or more years, but to many others it’s been difficult to understand. “How-in-the-hell did South Carolina earn their Liberty almost 18 years ago?” is a question I’ve heard more times than I care to count. “Why do you have a Helmet Law Support rally every year?” is another question I’ve heard just as often if not more so. The answer is very simple; we stopped arguing the device and began arguing the law.

What the heck is the device? It’s the hat, the helmet, the brain bucket, the skid lid. For years we fought on the helmet battlefield with little success. Much like General Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia, CSA, whenever our enemies “picked the ground” we were less than successful. (This would be an opportune time to discuss military tactics and strategy but I’ll save that for another time.)

Even the most cursory glance at our helmet law made it obvious that the issue of the device is mentioned only in that it should be of a certain type and on an approved list. Not one word mentioned how good a helmet was or how it would save your life, prevent an accident or injury, reduce the “social burden” or medical cost. NOTH-ING! Not one word and yet we continually found ourselves doing battle over the device because our enemies wisely fought us in the device arena knowing full well that the law said nothing about these issues. When we finally awakened to our enemies’ strategy we decided to let them expend their energies on those issues that had nothing to do with the law, we let them argue the helmet, the device. We decided to argue the law and we WON!

I recognize that many of you might find this line of thinking difficult to comprehend when you’ve heard all those device arguments over and over again, both pro and con. So imagine for a moment that you’re seated in the audience of a public hearing arguing to mandate helmet use for all adults. The enemies of Liberty bring up all the same old arguments about insurance, public burden, accidents, injuries and fatalities. That forcing everyone to wear a helmet will cause the economy to boom and be the answer to every safety question known to man. It is the one “silver bullet” that mankind has searched for millenniums. That this one device, if used by every man, woman and child, would bring peace and happiness the world over. (I know, I know, they don’t get that carried away publicly but they might as well.)

Notice that not one word addresses the law, the question of arrest, incarceration, or fine. Seldom will the enemy venture into the battlefield of the law because he is woefully unprepared. He won’t address why I (or you) should be arrested, incarcerated, or fined when I don’t wear a hat except to say that I MIGHT get into an accident and I MIGHT be injured and I MIGHT sustain greater injuries if I’m not using the device and I MIGHT not have sufficient medical insurance coverage and I MIGHT cost the taxpayers (funny how we aren’t taxpayers when this argument comes up) a little more money. Our enemy will argue anything but the law itself. He has chosen the battlefield, he has picked the ground and it is the device he wishes to argue. In the past we went headlong into the fray and were as successful as the Light Brigade in the Crimea. Try as we might, we could not provide sufficient informa- tion to counter the artillery and infantry charges of our enemies on their chosen field of battle. We lost once again.

Flashback! Valentine’s Day 1980. House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Special Laws. Our opponents have launched a vicious attack with various medical personnel, highway safety “experts,” and so much printed data that it would take several gigabytes to store.

As we begin our counter-attack the legislators wonder how a bunch of dumb-ass bikers, with only leather jackets and denim (no coats & ties) and a love of Liberty to protect us could possibly contravene such an overwhelming force aligned against us. But hold on, we refused to fight at Gettysburg and picked Fredericksburg to make our stand. We switched battlefields; we picked our own ground. We chose to argue the law and not the device. As we began we stated that we had no arguments with all the data provided by our opponents, in fact it was the same data that we used to come to diametrically different conclusions. We reminded the legislators of the old saying: “Figures don’t lie, but liars can figure.” We reminded them that our Highway Department and other opponents had a great deal of practice at figuring.

We pointed out that not one word of testimony from our opponents addressed the issue we were there to address, the question of arrest, incarceration, or fine of adults who simply choose not to wear a hat when operating a motorcycle. We pointed out that on every level, federal, state and local, the laws recognized the principle of adult responsibility and in many instances specified a particular age when these responsibilities were incurred. On the federal level, age of responsibility is addressed in the areas of service to country and other areas (president-35, senate-30, house-25, voting-18, etc.). On the state level (governor-30, senate-25, house-21, drinking-18 [before the fed blackmail, now 21], consensual sexual intercourse-14, etc.) this issue was equally addressed.

What was it about this one particular device that made it so important that regardless of age and experience adults must be mandated under threat of arrest, incarceration, or fine to use it. Even if we believed that every word spoken by our opponents were 100% true would that be sufficient warrant to punish adults that simply didn’t want to use this device ALL of the time? We argued the law; we left the device alone. Although we didn’t convince all of the legisla-tors (some continue to believe that those adults who voted them in to office need to have these decisions made for them), in the end our arguments won the battle. And although the war continues our enemies have yet to put forth even one sound argument for punishing adults, so they continue to argue the device and we don’t mind at all. We’ll continue to argue the law, not the device. The reason I’m bringing this up now is because Parkay reminded me there are many bikers, in and out of South Carolina, either too young to remember almost two decades ago or new to motorcycling and have little knowledge of the history of our struggle for Liberty. So for the record: ABATE of South Carolina has no position on the device, wear it if you will or don’t if you won’t. As for the law, we support the amendment added on June 16, 1980 which no longer punishes adults with arrest, incarceration, or fine when making the choice of not wearing a helmet. We’re adults. We’re expected to act like adults and we’re expecting to be treated like adults. Maybe using this particular device is a good idea, if so then convince us. But don’t try to beat us into submission because it just won’t work.

There you have it, a Readers Digest version of our DEVICE versus the LAW history. If you’re still confused then think about it the next time you have a drink or smoke a cigarette. The law says that if you’re under 21 and you have a drink or under 18 and smoke a cigarette then you can be arrested, incarcerated, or fined. The device is the alcohol or the cigarette. See if you can come up with some good arguments as to why you should drink or smoke, then think about some reasons why you should be arrested if you do either or both. I’m willing to bet that you can’t come up with many (or any) sound arguments as to why you should be arrested, incarcerated, or fined for using these devices.

Should you use them? Probably not, but it isn’t my job to be your guardian angel or big brother. Should you be punished if you do use them? NO! Not in a million years. It’s your prerogative to decide on what devices you should use or not use. You should only be threatened with punishment when you use these devices against others. Does not wearing a helmet cause accidents, injuries, fatalities, insurance cost increases or enhanced public burden? Nope! Never has, never will. And to credit a few bits of Styrofoam and fiberglass with such qualities is ridiculous. Remember this the next time someone questions you about our law here in South Carolina; we have no argument with the device but we do object to a law that threatens us with arrest, incarceration or fine when we don’t use that device. After all, it’s the LAW, not the device, that concerns us. Dum Spiro, Spero.

Blogging for Freedom!

2007-06-03T10:19:00.000-05:00

I'm new to blogging but not new to fighting for freedom! My primary area of interest has long been the right of bikers to determine their own destiny, to decide whether to wear a helmet. Before anyone starts in on helmet use, pro or con, let me just say I am not opposed to helmets, just a law that mandates them, and yes, I am opposed to mandatory seat belt laws too! Why, because they are simply steps to total government control of every aspect of our lives.

Here's a guest editorial I wrote for the Memphis Commercial Appeal....

Helmet Laws - A View from the Rider’s Seat April 17, 2007

It was back in 1967 that Tennessee enacted a helmet law, under threat from the Federal Government that highway funds would be withheld if the state failed to enact both motorcycle licensing and helmet laws. Interstate projects were just getting underway and the loss of those dollars and the jobs that went with them were too much to ignore, besides, there weren’t a lot of motorcycles on the road so who would care?

In 1976, President Gerald Ford signed HR 3869, effectively ending the federal mandate and by the end of 1977, 22 states had repealed or modified their helmet laws. Today, 30 states have legalized freedom of choice. According to the NHTSA, the statistical difference between states with freedom of choice and those without is small but comes down to the fact that free states are safer overall, with lower fatality to registration ratios during the period 1978-2002 and downward trending injury rates from 1995-2004, the last period studied. (see attached charts)

Tennessee’s 270,000 licensed motorcyclists overwhelmingly support the right to choose when or if they wear a helmet, yet the medical and insurance lobbies bring up all the same old arguments about insurance, public burden, accidents, injuries and fatalities. If you believe those who oppose freedom, then forcing everyone to wear a helmet will cause the economy to boom and be the answer to every safety question known to man. It is the one “silver bullet” for which mankind has searched for millenniums. NHTSA says it is THE answer, yet their own stats that they don’t show you say otherwise. Studies show that mandatory laws and helmet hype also contribute to “risk homeostasis”, a false sense of security or feeling of invincibility. Considering that helmets only come into play in 20% of crashes, maybe the feds need to mandate body armor for the other 80%.

Since Tennessee head injury rates in automobiles are over 12 times higher than that for motorcycles, will we all be wearing helmets in automobiles soon? If the folks who proclaim “if we can just save one life” have their way, it’s possible. Fact: most accidents occur in the home. I wonder when we'll be facing mandatory floor mats and safety gear in all bathrooms, kitchens and bedrooms. Don't laugh... helmet laws are okay as long as they apply to the "other guy."

Tennessee motorcyclists sincerely want to reduce injuries and fatalities and feel the way to achieve this goal is increased availability of rider training programs, motorist awareness programs, addressing the issues of riding under the influence and the epidemic of motorists driving distracted and running over motorcyclists. Let’s concentrate on preventing the crashes! Look Twice – Save a Life!

The Tennessee Senate has passed SB 1511. Tennessee motorcyclists calling their House Representatives and making their feelings known to those who will vote on this issue over the next few weeks have the opportunity to make a fundamental change in government’s overwhelming desire to control our lives from cradle to grave. The prime sponsor of HB 1283 is also a practicing physician who rides. Co-sponsors include members from law enforcement, PhD’s , lawyers, engineers and other professionals.

(The prime sponsor, Dr. Hensley, has turned over the lead on the bill to Rep. Curry Todd since this was written)