Hey,
This is a strange mix of news items. Fortunately there’s a handful of fun items. Sometimes the politics seems too overwhelming.
Here’s something I asked myself the other day. When you’re pissed off about anything, or if you’re faced with unwanted decisions, form it or them as a challenge (meaning: dare, confront, or dispute).
I found it an interesting way to look at various issues. If they are challenges, then the mantra calls for accepting the challenge and to win, to overcome, or to succeed.
Instead of being pissed off or depressed, be challenged. Then you can’t go wrong! Hell, it could be something good like should I go with the redhead or the blonde? Ah, the challenges of life.
Let’s hit the news:
GETTYSBURG BIKE WEEK 2014 SETS ATTENDANCE RECORD– Gettysburg Bike Week, celebrated their 13th year with a record crowd and more events than ever. The week started out on Wednesday night with the kick off party at the Dobbin House Tavern and Bill O’Brien from 98.5 and live music from Schitzophonic.
The official start to Gettysburg Bike Week was Thursday morning when the first bikes went out for the Poker Run. Tom Keefer of Franklin Church Choppers and Greg Carter of Vicious Cycles started their live bike build off and shortly after, knowing that by Saturday evening they had to have a bike ready to ride up on stage.
In the late afternoon Jack Schit took to the stage for the first time during the week and helped Gettysburg Bike Week attendees “make memories”. He presided over the opening ceremonies and welcomed the first of many regional bands to the stage that day including Robbing Noll, Whiskey Demon, Silvertung and the headliners of the night TESLA. TESLA was a crowd favorite and rocked for almost two hours, giving the crowd a show that will not be forgotten.
Friday featured a tattoo contest with dozens of men and women baring all their ink from the stage. The Flaunt Girls took to the stage for the first time showing off their acrobatic, sexy performance for all of Gettysburg Bike Week to see.
Shane Speal and his Snake Oil Band wowed everyone with his improvisational instruments and rootsy blues cigar box guitar style. Hot leathers presented the Grammy winning Kentucky Headhunters with their Southern Rock Style that took the crowd by storm. The night was capped off by AC/DC tribute band Big Jack with crowd favorite 7 year old drummer Avery Molek sitting in on several songs.
Saturday was a huge day starting with the Cycle Source Ride in Bike Show with a Pan/Shovel taking best of show and winning a feature in Cycle Source Magazine. The bike show was followed by traditional biker games and the prerequisite burnout contest.
Another tattoo contest was held at the main stage with a whole new crop of men and women showing up to show off their ink. The Parade of Chrome was a spectacle to behold with hundreds of bikes making the trip and arriving in style at the Gettysburg Bike Week main event site. The bikini contest showed off the talent of local ladies with Mercedes winning top honors and $300.
The Biker Buildoff builders took to the mainstage and the winner was announced, Vicious Cycles. Saturday night was topped off by a great performance by Grate Train Robbery, fireworks that rivaled the 4th of July and an additional set by Great Train Robbery.
Gettysburg Bike Week 2015 is scheduled for July 9-12th back at the Allstar Event Complex.
About Gettysburg Bike Week
For more information on the Rally, including schedule, lodging options, and more, visit www.gettysburgbikeweek.com. To contact Gettysburg Bike Week email gbwvendor@yahoo.com
Photos Courtesy of www.exithibernationmedia.com
–Ken Conte
I cannot keep the whole litter. That’s why I first thought of you.
If no interest, I wanted to ask you kindly to send this to one of your good friends.
Thanks for your assistance.
–Paul Aiken
Aeromach
VIOLA V-TWIN STARTER SERVICE KITS– Our Viola V-Twin Complete Starter Service Kits make it easy to replace a bad starter on a late model Harley-Davidson big twin. In fact, if you just need to replace the starter clutch, we’ve got a kit for that too. There’s a fair amount of disassembly involved in replacing or repairing a starter, in some cases you’ll even need to take an exhaust pipe off. So when you put it all back together, you’ll need gaskets, and seals to complete a professional installation. Get it all in a Viola V-Twin Complete Starter Service Kit.
Kits are available for 1984 to present big twins, and you have your choice of black or chrome All Balls 1.4kw starters. The Starter motors are made by Bosch® and the starter clutches are from ZEN®. These are quality components so you’ll only have to do the job once. And with a Complete Service Kit, you’ll get everything you need by ordering just one part number! Time is money, so save time and make more $$$!
Contact your S&S Customer Service Representative today, or place an order on the S&S Dealer Portal.
REASONS TO REGISTER TODAY FOR LAS VEGAS BIKEFEST SPONSORED BY BIKERNET.COM!
10. Meet the stars of Sons of Anarchy and Pawn Stars.
9. Free drinks, snacks and music at the Rev it Up Kick Off Party on Thursday night sponsored by Budweiser, Harley Davidson Café, Victory Motorcycles & Indian Motorcycles.
8. Chance to win $30,000 in cash plus prizes!
7. Win a new ride – entries for 2 motorcycle giveaways sponsored by the Golden Nugget, The D Las Vegas & the Golden Gate Hotel.
6. Meet and chat with 20 of the top custom bike builders at the Artistry in Iron, Master Builders’ Championship.
5. 200+ Vendors of motorcycles, parts & accessories, apparel and more ($15 per day without registration)!
4. VIP perks with the purchase of the VIP Ultimate Pass registration. HURRY! Only a few left!
3. Registration prices increase August 1. So register today and get the best deal for the party.
2. Performing Live – KANSAS, Craig Morgan and Jasmine Cain – all FREE with your registration!!!
1. It’s Vegas Baby!
NEWS FROM THE DISABLED AMERICAN VETERANS–Irvine continues veterans cemetery talks
County supervisor seeks potential site, reaches out to mayors of nearby cities.
Orange County Register
By Kimberly Pierceall
If Orange County gets a state veterans cemetery, expect a high number of burials – some 200,000 or so over 50 years – based on the number of veterans living in Orange and Los Angeles counties, said Stephen Jorgensen with the California Veterans Affairs office. Burial rates are a best guess, he added.
Jorgensen, a member of Irvine’s ad hoc veterans cemetery committee who has been overseeing the development of other recent California veterans cemeteries, laid out Friday at the committee’s second meeting what it takes to get a state cemetery built. The effort in Irvine will need community support and 80 to 120 acres of land largely free of environmental and legal concerns, among other things, he said.
Meanwhile, Orange County Supervisor Todd Spitzer has asked to meet this week with the mayors within his district – Irvine, Tustin, Orange, Villa Park, Yorba Linda and Anaheim – to ask if there might be at least 100 acres of land in their cities that can be donated for a veterans cemetery.
“The whole goal is to make this informal to get it done,” Spitzer said.
He’s hoping to get the advisory group of mayors together and get a comprehensive list of possible sites within 60 days.
“If somebody can come up with a piece of land that’s viable and makes sense, I’m all for it,” he said.
Spitzer also suggested that the county’s Saddleback Vineyard property, 100 acres in Modjeska Canyon, could possibly work as the cemetery site. It was originally supposed to be residential.
He said in a news release announcing the discussion with his district’s mayors that the meeting would be “intense.” It would not be open to the public. The meeting would include Bobby McDonald, chair of the Orange County Veterans Advisory Council, to represent veterans’ interests, but no one from Irvine’s ad hoc committee except for Irvine Mayor Steven Choi. Spitzer had previously criticized Irvine’s ad hoc committee meeting for being too formal and too tied to Brown Act restrictions on meeting open to the public.
Spitzer said he had a “gut feeling” from the first meeting of Irvine’s ad hoc committee that a cemetery at the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro base, now the Great Park, “is such a long shot, honestly.
“Is it impossible? No. Do I think we need to have an alternative? Yes,” he said.
He said he’s not aiming to stymie Irvine’s ad hoc committee, but do what Irvine is less apt to do, which is look at other areas of Orange County not within its city boundaries.
“It’s going to take a lot of dedicated smart people to come up with a solution for this,” he said.
Back at the ad hoc committee meeting, Jorgensen also said the community would need to decide if the cemetery should include in-ground casket or cremated burials or operate only through columbariums, essentially walls with cremated remains inside.
The latter is much more feasible, financially, as Jergensen said he and others discovered when they were designing the California Central Coast Veterans Cemetery. If they had allowed in-ground casket burials plus cremations, the cost of operations would have been $20 million a year for less than 1,000 annual burials.
Columbarium-only took the cost down to $2,200 annually for the first 10 years, a cost easily covered by revenues, he said. Costs would likely increase incrementally after the first 10 years because the numbers of burials would slow, Jergenson said.
Contact the writer: 949-864-6371 or kpierceall@ocregister.com
Please come to the Irvine City Council meeting starting at 1700 on July 22, next Tuesday.
The CEMETERY SITE will be on the agenda. Read the attached resolution and memo for detail.
Come early an get a hot dog from our pals at the Orange County Employees Association. Free to the first 200.
Re-circulate this to all you know, and all who support their Veterans and want to see a Veterans Cemetery at El Toro.
Semper Fi
Bill Cook 949-697-0123
Commander 29th District Dept. of California
THE AMERICAN LEGION
For God and Country since 1919
1944-2014 70th Anniversary of the ‘GI Bill’
SAN DIEGO STRIPPERS SAY COPS PHOTOGRAPHER THEM IN THE NUDE– SAN DIEGO (Reuters) – Thirty strippers in the San Diego area filed a lawsuit against the San Diego Police Department on Wednesday, saying they were forced to be photographed while nude or nearly nude while officers claimed to be inspecting the clubs where they worked.
The lawsuit is the latest in a series of sexually tinged scandals involving the department.
In the strippers’ case, attorney Dan Gilleon said officers made “arrogant and demeaning comments and ordered them to expose body parts to ostensibly photograph their tattoos.
“The police officers had no legitimate safety concerns, nor were the manner of the detentions commensurate with any articulatable threat,” he said.
Since 2012, four San Diego police officers have been charged with sexual assaults – two against more than five victims each. One was convicted at trial, another pleaded no contest, and two others are fighting the criminal charges filed against them.
Two more San Diego police officers, husband and wife, were arrested and charged with dealing prescription painkillers in June.
The strippers’ complaint, filed in San Diego Superior Court, alleges that police officers violated the women’s constitutional right to be protected from unreasonable searches in the three incidents at Cheetah’s and Expose clubs in March 2014 and in June 2013.
The suit also alleges that the incidents show that officers have been improperly trained.
In March, five officers showed up at Expose while 10 simultaneously arrived at Cheetah’s and went in the dressing rooms, where they required the women to remain “nearly nude,” the complaint said.
They were not allowed to leave the dressing rooms except to go to the locker room to have the pictures taken, the complaint states. It details a similar inspection at Cheetah’s by 15 officers in June of 2013.
After the raids, the American Civil Liberties Union San Diego and Imperial County Chapter warned the police department that the legal business inspections ended at the dressing room door and that detaining the women and photographing them violated their constitutional rights.
The lawsuit asks for an unspecified amount of money for damages. On Wednesday, the department declined to comment, citing an ongoing internal investigation.
(Editing by Sharon Bernstein; Editing by Ken Wills)
I Like The Fact They Are Suing The Cops. Hopefully Others Will Do The Same Thing.
–Rogue
BRAND New Bikernet Reader Comment!– Sam Chopper Orwell Chapter One
My very first published story touches on this subject:
Note: You gave me my first “Readers Rides” assignments just three months later, which pretty much changed the course of my life. I thank you, I am in your debt.
–Trash
Kagel Canyon, CA
MORE VA ISSUES–Acting Secretary Gibson Outlines Problems, Actions Taken, and Budget Resources Needed to Ensure Access to Care– In testimony before the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, Acting Secretary of Veterans Affairs Sloan D. Gibson outlined serious problems regarding access to healthcare and key actions the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has taken to get Veterans off wait lists and into clinics.
“The trust that is the foundation of all we do – the trust of the Veterans we serve and the trust of the American people and their elected representatives –has eroded,” said Acting Secretary Gibson. “We have to earn that trust back through deliberate and decisive action, and by creating an open and transparent approach for dealing with our stakeholders to better serve Veterans.”
Gibson discussed six key priorities to begin restoring trust:
Get Veterans off wait lists and into clinics;
Fix systemic scheduling problems;
Address cultural issues;
Hold people accountable where willful misconduct or management negligence are documented;
Establish regular and ongoing disclosures of information; and,
Quantify the resources needed to consistently deliver timely, high-quality healthcare.
Gibson testified that VA needs approximately $17.6 billion in additional resources to meet current demand for the remainder of FY 2014 through FY 2017. This funding would address challenges such as clinical staff, space, information technology, and benefits processing necessary to provide timely, high-quality care and benefits.
“We understand the seriousness of the problems we face. We own them. We are taking decisive action to begin to resolve them,” said Gibson. “We can turn these challenges into the greatest opportunity for improvement in the history of the department.”
Gibson also outlined actions that VA is taking now in order to address problems with access to VA healthcare, including:
The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) has reached out to over 160,000 Veterans to get them off wait lists and into clinics. VHA has also made over 543,000 referrals for Veterans to receive care in the private sector – 91,000 more than in the comparable period a year ago.
VHA facilities are adding more clinic hours, aggressively recruiting to fill physician vacancies, deploying mobile medical units, using temporary staffing resources, and expanding the use of private sector care.
VA is moving rapidly to augment and improve its existing scheduling system while simultaneously pursuing the purchase of a “commercial off-the-shelf” state-of-the-art system.
Gibson has directed Medical Center and Network Directors to conduct monthly inspections, in person, of their clinics to assess the state of scheduling practices and to identify any related obstacles to timely care for Veterans. To date, over 1,100 of these visits have been conducted.
Gibson has directed a comprehensive external audit of scheduling practices across the entire VHA system.
Gibson has personally visited ten VA Medical Centers in the last six weeks to hear directly from the field on the actions being taken to get Veterans off wait lists and into clinics, and he will continue to make site visits.
The inappropriate 14-day access measure has been removed from all individual employee performance plans to eliminate any motive for inappropriate scheduling practices. In the course of completing this task, over 13,000 performance plans were amended.
Where willful misconduct or management negligence is documented, appropriate personnel actions will be taken, including cases of whistleblower retaliation.
Gibson froze VHA Central Office and VISN Office headquarters hiring – as a first step to ensure all employees are working to support those delivering care directly to Veterans.
VHA has dispatched teams to provide direct assistance to facilities requiring the most improvement, including a large team on the ground, right now, in Phoenix.
All VHA senior executive performance awards for fiscal year 2014 have been suspended.
VHA is expanding use of private-sector care to improve access.
Gibson sent a message to all 341,000 VA employees – and has reiterated during every visit to VA facilities – that whistleblowers will be protected, and that he will not tolerate retaliation against whistleblowers.
Gibson has conducted over a dozen meetings and calls with senior representatives of Veteran and Military Service Organizations (VSOs/MSOs) and other stakeholder groups to solicit their ideas for improving access and restoring trust.
Gibson has made a number of personnel announcements in recent weeks, including: Dr. Carolyn Clancy as interim Under Secretary for Health; Dr. Jonathan Perlin, a former Under Secretary for Health, on temporary assignment as Senior Advisor to the Secretary; Dr. Gerard Cox as Interim Director of the Office of Medical Inspector (OMI); and Ms. Leigh Bradley as Special Counsel to the Secretary.
As VA completes reviews, fact-finding, and other investigations, the department is beginning to initiate personnel actions to hold those accountable who committed wrongdoing or were negligent in discharging their management responsibilities.
SWEDE RUN SPONSORED BY BIKERNET—Another challenge is being faced by biker brotherhoods everywhere. Some diehard bikers fought for our rights to ride free all of their adult lives. Suddenly they find themselves aging, unhealthy (that damn biker lifestyle), and living on limit funds.
This also applies to club guys who were hardcore to the end. Unfortunately the end comes when they are asked to retire from the club, but there were no retirement plans.
One particular biker rights advocate, Swede, may not be as healthy as he would like, and he’s currently living in terrible conditions. The former Amy Wheeler in Washington state became aware of Swede’s condition and alerted the Bikernet Peformance Editor, Ray C. Wheeler who immediately jumped to action and contacted the Bikernet Bagger Editor, Richard Kranzler, also hiding in the hill of Tacoma.
The ball is now rolling to created a fundraiser to help Swede live out in life in clean surroundings and perhaps raise a few funds for medical assistance. Swede was instrumental in the growth of bikers’ rights in the state of Washington.
NMA E-Newsletter #288: A Horse of a Different Color
AAA, formerly known as the American Automobile Association, was founded in 1901 to lobby for driver and passenger rights, fair laws, and safer vehicles. It has long since morphed into an insurance and financial services giant. If there is any doubt about that, check out its profile at Hoovers.com where AAA’s primary competitors are listed as American Express, Allstate and State Farm. Need further proof? By its own reckoning, AAA collects $8.5 billion in insurance premiums annually from its 50+ million members.
Nowhere is the difference between the interests of the driving public and the insurance industry better illustrated than by examining AAA public statements. The overall organization consists of several dozen semi-autonomous regional motor clubs that voice positions on key issues such as ticket cameras—mostly in favor of—and speed limit reform where their pronouncements are typically along the lines of slower is safer.
This was illustrated again recently when AAA Idaho released a statement that in effect said “not so fast” to the Idaho Transportation Department when the ITD announced, backed by a bill passed by the legislature and by its own traffic engineering studies, that it planned to raise the posted speed limits of stretches of Interstates 15, 84 and 86 from 75 to 80 mph on July 1st.
Such is the influence of AAA that the ITD backed off of its earlier commitment and said it would need more time to review the planned speed limit increase after AAA Idaho’s statements were released to the press.
[page break]
NEW TECH Bikernet Reader Comment!– Electronic Engine Control and Throttle-by-Wire
http://www.bikernetbaggers.com/pages/story_detail.aspx?id=10386
Awesome article. I had exactly the same thought about the use of these systems after failure of my TBW on a 2008 Harley Street Glide. I was lucky to not be in traffic the THREE times this happened, but wondered what would had happened if it had occurred as I needed to accelerate out of a turn or through an intersection.
The more integrated systems on other bikes is even more alarming as the author points out so well. I hope all the manufacturers have read this and think hard about the safety issues for their customers.
–Phil Smith
Nashville, TN
BIKERNET UNIVERSITY TARDY ENGLISH STUDENT SUNDAY VOCABULARY LESSON–moniker MON-i-ker , noun;
The moniker caught fire, and cultural shorthand would never be the same.
Or maybe the Iranians had finally heard the old seaman’s moniker for submarines and decided not to touch their new naval vessels again—they’d once been known as “pigboats,” after all.
Moniker is derived from the Shelta word munnik meaning “name.” It entered English in the mid-1800s. Shelta is an argot used in parts of the British Isles based in part on Irish.
GO SEE S&S IN STURGIS–If you’re going to be in South Dakota THE WEEK OF August 1st through the 9th, you won’t want to miss the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally
Where:
Sturgis, South Dakota
1535 Lazelle Street
Sturgis, SD
When:
Autust 1st – August 9th
Semi truck display hours:
9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Visit the S&S Cycle Semi Truck display at 1535 Lazelle Street Sturgis, SD
And don’t miss the S&S T124 Demo Days! Ride a bike with an S&S T124 engine down the drag strip at Sturgis Dragway, Aug. 5th and 6th from 10:00 am to noon both days!
Come and experience the S&S line of Proven Performance parts and quality service parts for Harley-Davidson big twin and Sportster® models, as well as for vintage bikes. Whether you want to go fast or just keep going, S&S has the parts and supplies to make it easy. Is restoration your thing? Be sure to ask about S&S Cycle’s line of hard to find service parts for old iron.
You can see this stuff on our website at www.sscycle.com, but there’s nothing like the hands on personal experience of seeing it in the real world. There’s also nothing like chatting face-to-face with our knowledgeable S&S show staff about your bike and how we can make it fast and make it last!
To find out where you can visit with S&S Cycle at an event near you, click here
JOHNNY WINTER PASSES–Johnny Winter, 1944-2014
Ed Vulliamy remembers the guitarist who proved that white men could play the blues
Through the rain of summer in Somerset came a sound the likes of which I had never heard before, from a long-haired albino with a limp and squint, and his guitar: “Two, three, fah,” he had mumbled, before unleashing a vortex of electric blues. This was Johnny Winter’s first gig in the UK, the 1970 Bath festival, and I was mindful to catch his second, at the Albert Hall, supporting Santana.
These were the days when the blues were an infinite adventure – I had seen the masters play: Son House, Bukka White. The discourse was why these Delta legends could get gigs in England, worshipped by John Mayall and Eric Clapton, while back home they barely played beyond the shotgun shacks of Mississippi. There were, however, three disciple exceptions to this British reinvention of the blues: Elvin Bishop, Michael Bloomfield – and Johnny Winter.
There was nonsense about who was “the best” of the white bluesmen; it was a question of whose records one played most, whose bootlegs one amassed, who one saw at every half-opportunity – in my case, that was Johnny Winter.
Much was written about Johnny playing “heavy blues”, but this derided his genius. What enthralled me at Bath were the constant key shifts and phrasing that stopped the heart, whether at amphetamine velocity or a searing dirge.
Film-maker Jon Brewer describes an interview with Johnny for his masterly film about BB King: “When we arrived with the crew, he was there in Texas, in a pair of underpants, chaos in the house. His wife insisted: ‘Johnny, you must change for the film.’ He disappeared reluctantly and came back in a pair of trackies.”
I submitted a review, dumbstruck by the increased intensity of Johnny’s performance – but also by the encore: not the usual Highway 61 Revisited or It’s All Over Now, but Elmore James’s Dust My Broom and its now poignant line: “I believe my time ain’t long.” I’ve felt a chill ever since, waiting for last week’s news and listening as I do – now, for ever more on LP only – to Johnny Winter’s cyclone in blue.
–Ed Vulliamy
the Observer
THE WRONG CODE– This is in reference to the “Iron Order MC.” A few weeks ago at my job on a Saturday a guys rolls into the shop bike broke down, in a truck. It was about 15 minutes before closing time. The repairs would have taken about 3 hours, if we had all the parts in stock not mention our schedule was about a week out.
I take the bike in and explain it will be next week before we are able to move on it. I roll the bike in the back and about 10 minutes later the guy comes back with three of his buddies (Iron Order) and says he is taking the bike back out.
At the time there were about five people at the counter, so I directed him to where I had parked the bike. Him and his friends rolled the bike out, end of story, so I thought.
Monday morning my manager tells me the guy called the owner, saying I refused to work on the bike and wanted to know if I was affiliated with the Hells Angels? If I was he was going to call corporate headquarters and have me fired because he thought I was affiliated with the Hells Angels?
Don’t know where he got his info but I am not affiliated with any club! After reading other stories concerning the “Iron Order,” I thought this may be of interest?
–Mystery Brother
MCQUISTON’S CUSTOM CYCLES COMES TO BIKERNET—Ryan McQuiston has a small shot on the edge of Long Beach, near the third world country of Wilmington, and the Bikernet Headquarters. He’s the guy folks go to when they don’t have the funds to seek help at dealerships. He’s the guy who works on any bike for anyone, to help any brother fulfill his dream to ride a custom motorcycle.
We will bring you more on the assortment of McQuiston quirky customs. Hang on.
–Bandit
–Kelly Dube
IMPORTANT, New Bikernet Reader Comment!– The First Biker Memorial Wall
http://www.bikernet.com/pages/story_detail.aspx?id=8201
I think this is a great thing to have. I had a good friend just recently pass away from a motorcycle accident. He lived to ride on his HARLEY DAVIDSON SOFTTAIL. We miss him so much and were wondering how we get his name put on the Memorial Wall. Mike Gausser May You Rest In Peace My Dear Friend!!
— Loretta Smith
New Phladelphia, OH
BIKERNET INVESTIGATES, State police now fingerprinting every Texan–
By Jon Cassidy
HOUSTON – The Texas Department of Public Safety has quietly embarked on a project to take the fingerprints of every Texan old enough to drive over the next 12 years, and add them to a statewide criminal history database.
Not only has the department made that momentous decision on its own, it doesn’t even have clear legal authority to do so.
The credit for breaking the news on those two items goes to consumer affairs columnist Dave Lieber of the Dallas Morning News, whose long-running “Watchdog” column often shows up in my Google Alerts, for obvious reasons.
As an old-school columnist, Lieber tends to keep his opinions subdued, and he doesn’t generally call people dishonest. But I have no problem with doing that, so I’d like to point out that the DPS spokesman he quotes at length is less than straightforward about his department’s legal authority.
Last month, Lieber broke the news that DPS had started collecting full sets of fingerprints on everyone who went in to renew their license.
Friday, he followed up with a story on DPS’ dubious legal authority to do so, and then posted lengthy quotations on the issue to his blog.
Lieber quotes an entire email from DPS spokesman Tom Vinger, who quotes Transportation Code Sec. 521.059 at length, including the key phrase, “The department shall establish an image verification system based on the following identifiers collected by the department: ….an applicant’s thumbprints or fingerprints.”
So clearly, the law contemplates the collection of fingerprints under some circumstance, but the passage quoted by Vinger doesn’t mention anything else about it.
You could look up that section of law online, but the sections immediately surrounding it in the Texas Transportation Code don’t clarify the matter.
To get the full context, you’d have to go back to the original bill that was signed into law, and then look up the relevant section of law, which states that an application for a drivers’ license “must include: 1) the thumbprints of the applicant or, if thumbprints cannot be taken, the index fingerprints of the applicant.”
So that’s why the law mentions fingerprints – it’s index fingerprints, not a full set of 10 fingerprints. While the law mentions that those records can be used by law enforcement agencies investigating a crime, it doesn’t say anything about making them generally available in a criminal database.
According to Lieber, a political science professor at Texas Christian University named Donald W. Jackson, who has a new organization called the North Texas Civil Rights Project, is offering legal support if anybody wants to challenge this new policy in court.
Lieber says the solution is for the Legislature to pass a clear law on the matter. I’d add that it throws into question the wisdom of having a law enforcement agency oversee licensing at all. The investigative function will always trump privacy rights.
SUNDAY GUN NUT REPORT–Bloomberg Proxy Releases Anti-Gun Manifesto; Proposes to Ban Cartoon Characters and Colors!
The name of U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) headlines the Kelly Report, a new manifesto identifying a long list of gun control initiatives that anti-gun activists intend to pursue in the near future. However, the document appears to be the handiwork of Michael Bloomberg, whose misleadingly-named Independence USA political action committee contributed $2.1 million to Kelly’s congressional campaign last year. With Bloomberg’s help, Kelly was elected to fill the Chicago-area seat previously held by fellow gun control supporter Jesse Jackson, Jr., who is currently doing time in federal prison.
The Kelly Report consists of essays by gun control supporters, followed by a long list of gun control legislation and other efforts they support. Anti-gun activist groups represented in the “report” include Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns, Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety, the Brady Campaign, the Educational Fund to End Gun Violence, the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, and Americans for Responsible Solutions.
The “report” advocates two gun control restrictions intended to achieve universal gun registration incrementally. They are “universal” background checks, a Bloomberg priority, and repealing the law that limits the amount of time that the FBI can retain records on people who pass background checks to buy guns. Kelly also calls for gun registration outright.
The report also advocates a federal “assault weapon” and “large” magazine ban more severe than the one in effect between 1994 and 2004, gun owner licensing, repealing Stand Your Ground laws, opposing national Right-to-Carry reciprocity, empowering the Consumer Products Safety Commission to regulate the manufacture of firearms, prohibiting unlicensed and mail order ammunition sales, reporting people who purchase 1,000 or more rounds, removing restrictions on public access to BATFE firearm trace data, repealing the federal law that prohibits frivolous lawsuits designed to bankrupt the firearm industry, requiring “ballistic fingerprinting,” pursuing “smart” gun technologies, and using taxpayer funds to pay for “research” that promotes gun control.
There has also been a further development and, no, we are not making this up. On Monday, even though children are already prohibited from buying firearms at retail under federal law and the laws of most states, Kelly introduced H.R. 5093, the Children’s Firearm Marketing Safety Act. This legislation would direct the Federal Trade Commission to prohibit the use of cartoon characters to market guns to children, to prohibit the manufacturing of guns in colors designed to appeal to children, and other such nonsense. As UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh points out, the cartoon character ban would be unconstitutional and the color ban might be as well.
Regardless of who’s behind the “Kelly Report,” it and Kelly’s cartoon character bill remind us of how gun control supporters think and what they intend to do, once they have the votes in Congress and the state legislatures. And that reminds us of what we have to do in the voting booth on Election Day.
Sturgis Buffalo Chip Introduces Sturgis Rider Daily
The Sturgis Buffalo Chip, in partnership with the Rapid City Journal, introduces the brand new Sturgis Rider Daily to provide this year’s Sturgis Rally riders with daily comprehensive news and information. Stepping up to edit the tabloid-sized, full color newspaper is long-time moto-journalist Marilyn Stemp.
Stemp is known in the motorcycle industry for her decades of work with IronWorks Magazine and its digital successor Iron Trader News. But more than that she has been an ambassador for the positive image of motorcycling both in the industry and outside of it.
“Having this opportunity to help create something totally new is exciting,” she said. “And as the epicenter of the Sturgis Rally experience, there’s no better place than the Buffalo Chip as my home base for the Daily.”
When Marilyn Stemp turns up at an event—and that happens often—it’s a good sign to motorcycle industry people. “She’s the ultimate in professionalism, and I have total confidence in the quality of the content,” said Rod Woodruff, President of the Sturgis Buffalo Chip.
Said Rick Fairless, “Only a few times in my life have I met somebody that I instantly clicked with, somebody that I feel a strong kinship with, somebody who makes me feel as if I’ve known them forever.”
And that’s part of the attraction of the Sturgis Rider Daily for Stemp, too, because the Daily will feature up close and personal visits with Rally people—from celebrities, to racers, to legacy rally goers and first time visitors. “This project focuses on my favorite aspect of motorcycling: the people who ride,” said Stemp.
The Daily will also emphasize “what’s happening today,” to provide Chip campers and rally goers alike with the information they need to maximize their vacation time in the Black Hills. Ride suggestions, bike competitions, burnout contests, concerts, racing, celebrity sightings—the Daily will cover it all, and that’s saying something.
The Sturgis Rider Daily runs eight days consecutively from Saturday, August 2 through Saturday, August 9. It will be distributed to more than 70 locations throughout the Black Hills and to Buffalo Chip campers.
— Nyla Griffith
Marketing & Media
QUICK, New Bikernet Reader Comment!– LULL BEFORE THE STORM THURSDAY NEWS FOR July 17th, 2014
http://www.bikernet.com/pages/story_detail.aspx?id=11787
Thanks for your response. Glad to know that you are with many of our people who want this young man Cpl Tahmooressi released and returned to the US. Until that happens, fXXX Mexico!
–James Williamson
Minot, ND
THAT’S IT. I NEED A BREAK—From this cold and into the sun. Next week I’ve got a major CV carb tech brewing and my ride to the Smoke Out on a new Indian.
I’m still trying to decide whether to buy one or not. Rich at Charleston SC Indian has been most helpful, and his shop has devised some very cool modifications.
I need to reach my book publishing guru, prepare for Sturgis and rewrite the last Chance II chapter. Never a dull moment around here.
Ride Free Forever,
–Bandit
