Republicans are looking for the new Ronald Reagan . At least some of them are. It appears that the establishment Republicans are not happy with the field as it stands now, and would prefer a more moderate candidate who speaks the language of fiscal responsibility and still pays homage to the gods of over governance. The party is at odds with itself.

Mitt Romney would be perfect, but he doesn’t speak the language that moderate party insiders and extremely wealthy backers know they need in order to bring the fiscal conservatives along for the ride.

What they seek is someone who shouts conservative monetary policy from the highest mountain top, who, at least publicly cares deeply for the issues over which social conservatives salivate, and who will shout “deregulation” long and loud but still regulate where regulation is needed to promote the companies who shove him to the top of the political pile. Establishment Republicans don’t want a Ronald Reagan, they just want someone who sounds like him.

Updated: 8/22/11
See this for an update on the illegal tax/double jeopardy called Texas Drivers Responsibility Program

If you know of attorneys who might be interested in getting involved, please let them know about this case before the Texas Court of Criminal appeals!

The United States began in a tax revolt. The revolt was about being unfairly taxed without having any representation in the government doing the taxing. We all know the rest of the story.

Today, we have many unfair taxes, inspite of our representation in Washington, but we do have the possibility of turning these over if we all band together and send the right people to Washington.

An unfair tax in Texas

Here in Texas, we now have something a little different. An unfair tax on Texas drivers which has had the effect of turning 10% of the drivers in our state into criminals. It was not passed by our legislators, it was forced into place by bureaucrats. You may say that it is not a tax, but that is precisely what it is. The program is the Drivers Responsibility Program.

If you are ticketed for any of the issues on their list, you will go to court, and the judge will issue a ruling. If you are found guilty, plead guilty, or plead no contest, you will be issued a fine. That is where it should end, the reasonable assesment of a judge based on the laws of our state.

Unfortunately, the folks over at the department of public safety don’t see it that way. They say you now owe the state a surcharge. It is this surcharge that is the offending tax. It was not passed by our representatives, but by a band of beurocrats bent on collecting more than they are due, and the proceeds were to go for a program to build a highway that would effectively have stolen land from our fellow Texans!

Furthermore, the surcharge is administerd by a third party company, who mails out the documentation in an envolope that looks suspiciously like junk mail, with no notice that this is an official state document. I suppose that makes sense since it is not an official state document. If you miss it, your license will be suspended, and the suspension notice will be mailed by the third party administrator in the same non descript envelope!

If you get caught driving after the suspension that you may have tossed out with the circulars in the mail, you will be subject to a frightening array of possibilities like having your vehicle towed, going to jail, and of course, more surcharges!

It is time for Texans to band together and put an end to this rediculous tax! Call your representative and tell them that you want the program to come to an end, and all the money collected through the program returned to it’s rightfull owners, those who were cheated out of their hard earned money by bureaucrats!

This would send a clear message to the folks in Austin that Texans are fed up!

There is talk that this may skip the ballot box altogether and go straight to a certificate of obligation, the ultimate expression of the arrogance of power and authority, and a demonstration of the complete disdain for the will of those who will be forced to pay for it!

It may be half the cost of the last bond, which was half the cost of the one before, but that is not the whole issue. As we have stated before, it is not the cost that is the issue, well at least not all of it. The problem is that the system is slow, archaic, medieval, Jurassic, and antediluvian. It is so slow, that it travels back in time. There are not sufficient courts to process the inmates in the current jail, much less a new, larger addition which will be filled the day it opens. We should deal with the core problems before adding more cells. Stop arresting sidewalk spitters  and other petty offenses, and give them a ticket instead, have them appear before a judge, and if they don’t, arrest them then. Even our legislators in Austin understand this, why cant Smith county?

So, we may be up for another jail election, or maybe not.

I have one suggestion to Smith county voters if the commissioners decide to go with the certificate of obligation: Clean house! Do not re-elect a single one of them when his or her term is up. Maybe then, they would get the message!

The illegal taxation program known as the “drivers responsibility program surcharge” looks as though it may have  been hobbled a bit. It’s about time!

Scott Henson and other petitioners presented a petition, and proposed rule changes to the  existing program on the 9th of August. Hopefully, they will be adopted. Read more from his Grits post: Suspending drivers licenses for ‘economic crimes’ problematic here and abroad. There are links to the petition, and the proposed rule changes in the post.

Our legislature needs to further deal with this by dismantling this ridiculous, missguided, and unlawful program, Legislators, please do away with this travesty! It is a tax, it is not legal, it is responsible for making 6 to 10% of Texans criminals because they can’t afford to pay! While you are at it, please refund the money to the individuals who have  payed thus far!

Rupert Murdoch is leading the charge to charge for online news! After losing millions in the online news sector, the media mogul has decided that it is not his companies service that is the problem, but the free news, advertising model that is to blame for the massive failure.

What’s hard to understand here is that while most media news outlets are suffering a major drop in subscriptions, how a business man like Murdoch, involved as he is in the media, could have missed knowing that subscribers are no longer subscribing!

There is plenty of evidence that the online, advertisement funded, model works. Could it be possible that Murdoch and the other media companies may be suffering from something else? Could it be that the moment by moment, on site reporting of individuals through such mediums as Twitter, is eroding the main stream media’s fan base? Could it be that that the American public would rather decide for itself what is news and what is not? Could it be that the general public is no longer paying attention to the media because it perceives it as biased? Well, of course not! It must just be the wrong monetary model!

I suspect that Murdoch will find that the subscription model will be less successful than the advertising route. The fact is, that if no one is willing to pay for your product, it matters little how you choose to monetize it. The main stream media is becoming irrelevant, and will continue it’s downward spiral in the toilet bowl of our culture, unless it wakes up and takes a look at the real cause of it’s flushing!

Ok, you can accuse me of being as late with this update as the print media, and TV coverage, but I have been busy, and news is not my livelihood.

I sat up late several nights as the main stream media covered the death of a couple of our media icons ad nauseum, but I was not engaged in such important pursuits, I was engaged in something the media considered far less important. I was wasting my time online getting fresh updates from Iranian dissidents as they went to the streets of Iran’s major cities protesting the results of the presidential election. This news came to us in real time, as blow by blow accounts, many from the dissidents themselves!

As a side note, and in a related story, the main stream media might want to start watching the skies over Jordan and Iraq, they will in all likelihood soon be host to Israeli jets headed to Iranian nuclear sites! Also watch for streams of Iranians headed toward the Afghan and Iraqi borders.

Sorry Mr. Hinton, this was not a murder, it was a suicide! The autopsy results are in, and the wounds were self inflicted. TV and radio could learn some valuable lessons here as well:

• The main stream media has long determined what’s news, and what’s not, and were able to shape the events of the world, and the way people looked at them by suppression and exaggeration. Digital media has been able to allow individuals to have that choice.
• They were as unprepared for digital media as scribes were for the printing press.
• The speed with which digital media is able to “scoop” print media makes last nights news obsolete by the time a daily newspaper hits the stands.
• The “democratic”  nature of the Internet offers news and views from multiple perspectives rather than the monolithic spin for which print media has become infamous.
• Interaction is possible with digital media, interaction which is far better than the watered down versions offered by newspaper “readers comment” sections.

I could go on for pages about this, but why? The people who need to hear it the most, consider the general public, of which I am a part, to be ignorant and unable to decide anything on their own!

Let us know where to send the flowers.

The man “affectionately” known as the “Crash Dummy Bandit” managed his own personal bailout this week hitting several banking and credit institutions in an area from the Metroplex to Tyler.

While we can not condone the methods he is using, and find them appalling, we still can’t help but wonder if they are all that much different than the ones the men in Washington are using.

Driving While Stupid

I have said this before on this blog, that if the State of Texas does not do something about the drivers who talk and text on their phones while driving, they should release everyone ever convicted of driving while intoxicated, apologize, and refund all their losses! Even the borg like creatures with devices that require no hands to operate. People who use these devices have the automobile operating portions of their brains turned off just like the people who use the devices requiring hands to use.

This little rant resulted from a KLTV story tonight on the subject. We invite opposing veiws to comment if you think you can stand the humiliation and ridicule that will follow.

Illegal Taxation: Drivers Responsibility Program Surcharge

An issue that our legislature needs to deal with is the dissmantleing of the ridiculous, missguided, and I might add, illegal tax otherwise known as the drivers responsibility program surcharge. Legislators, please do away with this travesty! It is a tax, it is not legal, it is responsible for making 10% of Texans criminals because they can’t afford to pay! While you are at it, please refund the money to the individuals who have  payed thus far!

UnTarp Tarp

Now onto Federal stupidity. It is time to do something about the insanity going on with our money. It would have cost less to solve the mortgage crisis if we had just bought everyone a home! It is ridiculous! We are being saddled with a huge amount of tax debt, and the money is being given by, and to the idiots who got us into the mess to begin with. As poor as I think Mr. Bush’s performance has been, and as incompetent as it was to actually sign this ridiculous bill to begin with, we can’t lay it all off on him. This problem goes back, at least to the Clinton administration for loosening the lending requirements. This is a result of the stupidity of both parties, and is a good argument for the introduction of a third party, along Libertarian lines. Neither current party has the moral authority to stand against the socialization or nationalization now that both parties have contributed to the fiasco, and that is frightening.

Interfering with the free market system is always a mistake, and giving money to banks to set on it instead of loan it is a big fat charlie foxtrot!

Jefferson complained that people were wanting more banks in his day, now we know why!