Turning off the Speed Cameras

It’s a start. 

Swindon has become the first English authority to scrap the use of its fixed speed cameras.

The Conservative-run borough council said it was reinvesting the £320,000 a year maintenance costs for the five cameras in road safety measures.

The move does not mean the town will be left without any speed cameras as Wiltshire Police will continue to operate mobile units.

[...]

“Because the amount of money we were putting into cameras wasn’t delivering the results we required, we decided to make the focus road safety rather than enforcement,” said Conservative councillor Peter Greenhalgh.

Attempt to Forcibly Unionize UW Academic Staff Begins

So the push begins…

Several unions affiliated with American Federation of Teachers-Wisconsin have begun a push to expand their membership by absorbing some 4,000 of the UW System’s academic staff into their units.

They plan to file unit clarification petitions to assign employees into existing unions - rather than giving these workers the chance to vote.

The newly passed state budget does give faculty and academic staff the right to be represented by a union if they choose. In those cases, unions would have to spend time and money on organizing campaigns and then have to win votes by targeted employees. Unit clarification petitions are a different process.

[...]

“We have recently learned that WPEC or other AFT representatives may be approaching UW staff members to discuss unit clarification, asking people to describe the nature of their duties,” Crist wrote in his e-mail.

“Approaching you for this purpose in the workplace while on work time is unacceptable.  You have no obligation to speak to union representatives while on work time.

Good for UW to oppose this.  Consider the fundamental unfairness of what the Democrats put in the budget.  If the union can “clarify” their jobs, then the staff can be forced into the union against their wills and then the union will extort dues out of their paychecks.  I thought unions were about a group of workers banding together to gain clout over management?  If the academic staff doesn’t want to vote to unionize, then why force them?

Oh yeah… the dues… much of which ends up in the coffers of Democratic politicians who, in turn, put crap like this into the budget to benefit the unions.

House Pumps $2 Billion More in Borrowed Money Into Cash for Clunkers

Nice.

The House has voted to rush an additional $2 billion into the popular but financially strapped “cash for clunkers” car purchase program.

The bill was approved on a vote of 316-109. House members acted within hours of learning from Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood that the program was running out of money.

Let me see if I have this right…

The government passed a program and expected the money to last until October.  It ran out of money within days, so they tripled its budget with more borrowed money.  Is that about right?  What does this tell us?

- Government is woefully bad at estimating the actual cost of things.

- Government is equally poor at predicting the consequences of what they pass.

- Government has botched the implementation of this program by changing the rules in the middle of the implementation period.

- If a government program is proving popular, they will immediately throw more money at it without even considering any of the above lessons. 

- This same government wants to control much more of our lives. 

Prediction: This program is creating an artificial demand in the automobile market, but it is not fundamentally changing the market.  As soon as the government stops pumping money into this program, demand will not only return to its previous levels, it will slump lower since some of the pent up demand has been alleviated.

Park at Work Tax

Whoa… don’t let Doyle see this.

The country’s first “workplace parking levy” will come into force in Nottingham in 2012 and is likely to be adopted by other councils.

Under the scheme, any firm with 11 or more staff parking spaces will be charged £250 a year for each. That cost could rise to £350 within two years.

Employers would be free to pass the cost on to their staff. An estimated 40,000 commuters in Nottingham drive to work and some businesses have threatened to leave the area if the scheme is introduced.

Business associations oppose the extra cost, which has been put at more than £3 billion if it were rolled out nationwide. About 10 million people in Britain drive to work every day.

Busted for Lack of Common Sense

A&M to Host First Wave of Iraqi Students

Awesome.

This fall, Texas A&M University will be host to the first of many Iraqi students participating in their country’s newest scholarship program.

Over the next five years, Iraq intends to send up to 50,000 students abroad to earn their bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees. The program will begin by sending about 500 students to England and the U.S. this fall to be trained in English before beginning coursework in their academic programs. Students will later be able to study at universities in Canada, Japan, France and Australia.

[...]

Twenty two American universities and 21 British universities will participate, including Vanderbilt, Ohio State, the University of Cambridge and Newcastle University. A&M was asked to participate in the program through the Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture of Texas A&M, which has been involved in agricultural development projects in Iraq.

“Because of these programs to help the Iraqi people develop sustainable agricultural production as an effort toward encouraging independence and security, Texas A&M is well known in the country,” Droleskey said. “As a result, the Borlaug Institute was invited by the Iraqi government to facilitate Texas A&M participation in an educational fair that was the first step of the Iraqi Education Initiative.”

Hey, Obama… Beer Me

This little bit of amateur theater was just embarrassing.

Wisconsin Lawmakers Oppose Insurance Mandate for Cash for Clunkers

Umm… guys?

Wisconsin members of Congress said Wednesday that requiring a car to be insured for a year prior to its acceptance into the “cash for clunkers” program is unfair to state residents and should be changed.

In a letter Wednesday to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is handling the program, U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) said current Wisconsin law does not require drivers to have car insurance, so the government should not make that a requirement for residents to participate in the program.

The letter was signed primarily by Democratic U.S. senators and representatives from Wisconsin, Michigan and New Hampshire. Two Republicans, Rep. Tom Petri of Wisconsin and Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, also signed on.

Wisconsin will require auto insurance for all drivers starting June 1, 2010. New Hampshire is the only other state that does not require drivers to have car insurance.

Shouldn’t y’all have, um, you know… read the bill and brought this stuff up during the legislative process?  After all, all you you voted for this.  Didn’t you think about in the context of the constituents you serve?

Paul Ryan Tells It Like It Is

Deal on Health Care Reached… for Now

This has all of the hallmarks of mere political show. 

WASHINGTON (AP)—After weeks of turmoil, House Democrats reached a shaky peace with the party’s rebellious rank-and-file conservatives Wednesday to clear the way for a vote in September on sweeping health care legislation.

They wanted to give the appearance of a deal before the august recess so they can go home to their districts and claim that they accomplished progress.  But the deal still is still bad for conservatives and liberals.  These Congressmen are going to go home to their districts and hear loudly from both sides.  Some of them will find new resolve and insist that the deal be changed one way or the other.  And then there’s the Senate…

This was a face-saving gesture.  The landscape will be different in September.

Fond du Lac TEA Party Coming Up

Great people and a great cause.

The Declaration of Independence was signed by the delegates to the 2nd Continental Congress on Aug. 2, 1776.  This was the final step in the long process of the 13 colonies ending recognition of rule from Great Britain.  To commemorate this signing, the organizers of the Fond du Lac TEA (Taxed Enough Already) Party and Americans for Prosperity are co-sponsoring an event at Veterans Memorial Park in the City of Fond du Lac at 3 pm on Aug. 2.  Veterans Park is located at the corner of Western Ave. and Main St.

The keynote speaker for this event will be Joe the Plumber (aka Sam Wurzelbacher).  Joe received instant fame during the 2008 presidential campaign when upon encountering Barack Obama campaigning in his Ohio neighborhood, he asked Mr. Obama how his proposed tax policies would affect his ability to purchase and own a business.  Since then, the common wisdom of Joe the Plumber has swept across a nation of like-minded individuals who want to see “Change We Can Bank On”.

Invited to this event are all taxpayers who are dismayed at the current direction our nation and state have undertaken and are interested in hearing a contrasting approach.  Thousands of TEA Parties have been held nationwide in recent months, including one that attracted a boisterous crowd of around 1000 in Fond du Lac on April 15.  Participants in these events have a number of issues of contention with the current state and federal government.  At the heart of the dissent has been the rapid increase of government borrowing and spending further deepening what had already been skyrocketing budget deficits and national debt.  The resulting excessive tax load on business and families, government bailouts, government-owned businesses, as well as excessive regulation of the lives of freedom-loving citizens by flanking maneuvers on the United States Constitution have also been prominent in the gatherings.  Each of these TEA Parties has drawn Americans of all political affiliations inspired by the ideas that sowed the seeds of the original Boston Tea Party on Dec. 16, 1773.

Company Sues over Tweet

This will be an interesting test case.

A tenant who used the micro-blogging service Twitter to complain about mould in her Chicago apartment is being sued.

Horizon Group Management filed a lawsuit that has accused Amanda Bonnen of defaming the company with her tweet.

She sent out a message that said “Who said sleeping in a mouldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon realty thinks it’s okay.”

“The statements are obviously false, and it’s our intention to prove that,” said Horizon’s Jeffrey Michael.

In the end, if she committed libel then she committed libel.  Whether she did it on Twitter or elsewhere seems immaterial.

New York Shipping Out Homeless

Not a bad idea. 

NEW YORK —  New York City is buying one-way plane tickets for homeless families to leave the city.

It’s part of a program by Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration to keep the homeless out of the expensive shelter system, which costs $36,000 a year per family.

More than 550 families have left the city since 2007. All it takes is for a relative to agree to take them in.

The city employs a travel agency for domestic travel and the Department of Homeless Services handles international travel.

Pick A Topic

Owen and I are both on the road due to work, so help us out here.  Pick a topic to discuss.  And make it a good one.

Finding Capri

This is a symptom of an over-reliance on technology. 

Two Swedes expecting the golden beaches of the Italian island of Capri got a shock when tourist officials told them they were 650 km (400 miles) off course in the northern town of Carpi, after mistyping the name in their GPS.

“It’s hard to understand how they managed it. I mean, Capri is an island,” said Giovanni Medici, a spokesman for Carpi regional government, told Reuters Tuesday. “It’s the first time something like this has happened.”

The middle-aged couple, who were not identified, only discovered their error when they asked staff in the local tourist office Saturday how to drive to the island’s famous “Blue Grotto.”