Cuccinelli and Drunk Driving Laws
Oct/090
Drunk driving laws don’t often come up as a campaign issue, but when they do my reaction isn’t always what the person who brings them up in a campaign usually intends. DUI law in our country is chock full of gross violations of Constitutional rights, so I find myself impulsively sympathetic to the candidate accused of being ”weak on drunk driving.”
This is because being “weak on drunk driving” inevitably refers to an apparent unwillingness to further demolish the rights of citizens who might be accused of drunk driving.
This is playing out in Virginia where Republican Attorney General candidate Ken Cuccinelli is being attacked by his Democratic opponent for “consistently voted against tougher penalties for drunk drivers.” I’m sure I disagree with Cuccinelli on some issues, but if he has consistently opposed new DUI laws then he’s to be applauded.
I could write an entire essay about how DUI laws violate the Constitution, but that essay has already been written by DUI lawyer Lawrence Taylor. In “The DUI Exception to the Constitution” Taylor explains how nearly every Constitutional protection designed to protect the rights of the accused, most notably the Fourth and Fifth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, has been utterly destroyed by the way our criminal justice system pursues the legitimate goal of prosecuting dangerous drunk driving.
In other words, if for no other reason than having “consistently voted against tougher penalties for drunk drivers” consider me pro-Cuccinelli.
Criminalizing Everything: Garage Sales Under Attack
Oct/090
Garage Sales Under Attack”
by Erin Rhodes
The yard sale at 722 Center Ave. has been canceled. That much is clear.
The rest of the story, including allegations that police threatened to arrest the 80-year-old homeowner because she didn’t have a permit? Not so much.
The facts are these: After 60 years in Holly Hill, Pauline Liles is moving to Tennessee to live with her daughter’s family. Her husband, Jack, is already there, having suffered a stroke that has immobilized him. Pauline, an old hand at yard sales, was hoping to sell most of their stuff before joining him next week.
She advertised the three-day sale in the newspaper, but when she went to the city first thing Wednesday to purchase the $5 permit, it was denied. The city currently allows just two such sales in a year, and city officials said Liles had already met her limit.
Read the rest of the story here:
http://www.news-journalon…
The story continues on, Mayor Roland Via said “rules are necessary to protect neighborhoods from anyone trying to run a business out of their house.” So here we have another ‘we are just trying to protect you.’ Um, So now we can’t sell our old stuff on our property because we might be trying to run a business… I have several problems with stories such as these:
Jive Dadson: EMERGENCY! Ron Paul’s Audit the Fed Bill in Trouble
Oct/090
Bloomberg: Federal Reserve Policy Audit Legislation ‘Gutted,’ Paul Says
