goldiron

Source: Lone Star Times

George Orwell, call your office !

If prostitution is the world’s oldest profession, then city mayors follow a very close second.  In fact, it occurs to me they may be the spiritual offspring of the aforementioned liaisons.  Whenever there is loose change or unclaimed dollar bills laying around, mayors can smell them a mile away and if a Sugar Daddy offers free cash, they never stop to question what the vigorish might be.  The urban emperors, suburban commissars, the hack and the highbrow, the Republican and Democrat, the apolitical and amoral, the exurban apparatchiks all assemble to line dance down Pennsylvania Avenue like ladies of the evening on the way to a golden score with Big Daddy.

The United States Conference of Mayors has assembled the most ridiculous and repulsive example of government excess I think I have ever seen.  Here is a PDF file of the document which stretches to 344 pages.  One of the most alarming features of this civic gluttony is the gift list request for funds to buy military SWAT assault equipment for police forces like the examples offered here by Texas blogger and Reason.com contributor, Trey Garrison:

• Frisco wants $125,000 for an armored vehicle and $200,000 for a mobile command vehicle. You know, for all that gang tank warfare going on up in Frisco.

• McKinney wants $5 million for SWAT toys and stuff.

• North Richland Hills wants $51,000 for volunteer patrol volunteers. Let’s throw in $10 for a dictionary so they can look up the word “volunteer.”

• Irving wants $5 million for biometric scanners, digital cameras, RFID scanners — nothing Big Brother there.

• Grand Prairie wants $1.25 million for nicer landscaping around the public safety building.

• And finally, Arlington is really gearing up for urban warfare. Arlington wants $1.6 million for SWAT toys including more equipment for those deadly but camera-friendly no-knock raids, $56,000 for military grade carbines, $625,000 for unmanned aerial surveillance drones, and $130,000 for “covert ops.”

Here is the “Public Safety” wish list from the US Conference of Mayors.

Radley Balko, of The Agitator and contributing editor of Reason, offers these galling examples of cops gone Rambo:

• Sparks, Nevada wants $600,000 to purchase a “live fire” house its SWAT team can shoot up, and another $420,000 for a SWAT armored vehicle.

• Pleasanton, California wants $250,000 to buy a vehicle for its SWAT team.

• Gary, Indiana wants $750,000 for a host of “modernization” upgrades to its police department, including “sub-automatic machine guns” and an “armored vehicl” [sic].

• Hampton, Virginia wants a whopping $3.5 million for “Air Tactical Unit Support and Equipment,” which I’m pretty sure means they want a sweet helicopter for the SWAT team.

• Ottawa, Illinois (population: 18,307) wants $60,000 to purchase, among other things, five “tactical entry rifles.”

• Glendale Heights, Illinois wants $96,000 to purchase red light cameras, and another $67,000 to hire someone to monitor them.

• Toward a more Orwellian America!  The following cities requested stimulus funds to supplement, initiate, or upgrade public surveillance camera systems: Brockton, Massachusetts; Buffalo, New York; Burnsville, Minnesota; Caguas, Puerto Rico; Cerritos, California; Columbia, South Carolina; Compton, California; Homestead, Florida; Hormigueros, Puerto Rico; Indianapolis, Indiana; Inglewood, California; Lewiston, Maine; Lorain, Ohio; Lynn, Massachusetts; Marion, Ohio; Merced, California; New Rochelle, New York; North Richland Hills, Texas; Oakland, California; Orange, New Jersey; Orem, Utah; Orlando, Florida; Pembroke Pines, Florida; Ponce, Puerto Rico; Riverdale, Illinois; Shreveport, Louisiana; Silver City, New Mexico; Sumter, South Carolina; Tallahassee, Florida; Warren, Ohio; and Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

Winston-Salem, North Carolina requested just under $85 million in security-related stimulation. But top prize goes to Tulsa, Oklahoma, which is asking the rest of the country to stimulte its economy with a whopping $135 million in public safety-related requests.

All in all, America’s mayors asking for a little over $5.5 billion in public safety “stimulus.”

The city of La Porte, Texas has applied for $700,000 to build a “Lifestyle Center” while the city of Houston wants a whopping $175,000,000 to build the “Metro Houston Intermodal Terminal” in downtown Houston. I could go on, but I am nauseated by reading these documents. Readers will have to carry on in my absence while I try to recover.

www.ghsa.org/html/publications/directions/2009/Winter/index.html

Governors highway Safety Association
Directions in Highway Safety - Winter 2009

Motorcycle related only:

Antilock Brakes on Motorcycles Found to Save Lives

Two new studies show that motorcycles equipped with antilock brakes can
reduce both crashes and fatalities. As the number of motorcyclists on
American roads increases (nearly 5,000 last year alone), and with it the
number of crashes and deaths, equipping bikes with antilock brakes is
also becoming more important.

The first study, conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
(IIHS), compared the rates of fatal crashes for motorcycles with and
without antilock brakes. The results showed there were 6.6 fatal crashes
per 10,000 registered motorcycles without antilocks during 2005-06. The
same bike models, when equipped with antilocks, had a 38 percent lower
rate of fatal crashes (4.1 per 10,000 registered bikes). IIHS
statisticians note that the findings are statistically significant at
the 90 percent confidence level.

The Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDA), an IIHS sister organization that
examines insurance loss data, also conducted a study comparing insurance
losses under collision coverage for 12 motorcycle models with optional
antilock brakes, versus the same models without that option.
Motorcyclists with antilocks were found to have 21 percent lower
insurance losses than those without. Their claim frequency was also 19
percent lower than for bikes without antilocks.

Antilock breaks have been found to be more beneficial on motorcycles
than on cars, because two wheeled vehicles are much less stable.
Antilock breaks reduce wheel lockup during braking and can keep a
motorcycle from overturning.

For more information, visit www.iihs.org . Select Status Reports, Volume
43, Number 9.

———————–
NHTSA Reports: 21 Drinking Age and Motorcycle Helmets Save Lives

A new statistical report by NHTSA illustrates the lifesaving impact of
21 drinking age laws and motorcycle helmet use. Minimum 21 drinking age
laws prevented an estimated 4,441 drunken driving deaths in the last
five years alone according to the report released on November 6. GHSA
strongly supports the 21 drinking age and will push back against any
effort to repeal it.

Former NHTSA Acting Administrator David Kelly presented the report at a
MADD symposium on the topic of underage drinking. According to Kelly,
“Turning our back on these laws would be a deadly mistake. Minimum
drinking age laws are among the most effective measures ever used to
reduce drunken driving deaths among America’s young people.”

The same report also notes that the number of lives saved by motorcycle
helmets has risen sharply in recent years, parallelling an increase in
motorcycle use. Estimates indicate that lives saved by helmets rose from
1,173 in 2003 to 1,784 in 2007. For the five-year period ending last
year, more than 7,502 lives were spared because motorcyclists used
helmets. GHSA continues to support helmet laws and will urge Congress to
allow states to spend federal highway safety funds on helmet promotion
in the next highway reauthorization.

The NHTSA report is available at: http://tinyurl.com/6bo2sc . GHSA’s
positions on the 21 drinking age law and motorcycle helmets can be found
in the issues section of the GHSA website.

——————-
Table of Contents
* Cell Phone Use and Driving Garners Attention
* 2007 Traffic Safety Fact Sheets
* Former Congressman Ray LaHood Confirmed as DOT Secretary
* GHSA is Going Green!
* Roadway Safety Foundation Announces Technical Assistance Winners
* NTSB Releases 2009 “Most Wanted” Transportation Safety
Improvements
* Emergency Nurses Association Reviews State Highway Safety Laws
* Maryland Creates Unique Highway Safety Partnership
* Missouri Law on Reporting Unfit Drivers Serves as Model for Other
States
* NHTSA Offers New Technical Assistance for Law Enforcement
* New FHWA Products, Websites of Interest
* Performance Measures for State Traffic Record Systems in
Development
* Antilock Brakes on Motorcycles Found to Save Lives
* Roadway Safety Award Applicants Sought
* NHTSA Reports: 21 Drinking Age and Motorcycle Helmets Save Lives
* NCHRP Evaluates Behavioral Highway Safety Programs
* State Farm: Committed to Saving Teens’ Lives
* In 2009, Resolve to Strengthen Your Partnerships
* Mark Your Calendars
* Georgia’s on GHSA’s Mind in 2009!
* GHSA Remembers Kevin Quinlan
* Alcohol Screening Conference Scheduled for May
* Study Shows Unlicensed Teen Drivers More Prone to Fatal Crashes