Blowing smoke

Chet Culver wants to raise Iowa cigarette tax by $1 a pack. He claims this will raise $130 million in new taxes annually which he would use to insure children. Excuse me; does Iowa have that many children who smoke? Why should we smokers be taxed at a much higher rate than we already are? Last time I checked drunk drivers killed more people on our roads than smokers. Last time I checked cigarettes are legal. Even if taxes increase by the 64 cents per pack that is being mentioned, Iowa will not see a jump in revenues. If anything there could be a decrease in revenue depending on how steep the tax is.

As someone who likes to cruise, if the tax went up by the 64 cents, I would cruise to Wisconsin and save $2.30 a carton. Or better yet, I would get the 40′ Plymouth out and cruise to Missouri and save $8.30 a carton and be grinning the whole drive. If you think I am alone in my thinking Governor, you better think again. If the $1 tax increase was passed, Illinois would be $3.80 a carton cheaper and a lot closer.
Convience store owners in towns that border higher taxed states would lose 34% of their non-gas revenues. Talk about a business friendly plan. I’m getting tired of being told how smokers are a burden to society. We pay our own higher insurance premiums, most of us do not litter, and some of us even ask before we light up. If you say ‘I’d rather you didn’t smoke’, I just go outside when the urge hits. So until someone makes it illegal, get off my back. Enacting tax hikes and spending non-existant windfalls are not going to help anyone.

Here’s a link to the QC Times story about it.

—–Addendum—-

I have done some thinking and came to the conclusion I would accept a 25 cent a pack tax hike if; all monies raised from this tax went to building more prisons. I would support a $1 per butt fine for all litterers with the same conditions attached. Then the judges wouldn’t have an excuse to let the punks loose on our streets, and maybe each smoker could sponser a felon. The State could send us a picture of ‘our’ sponsered felon so we knew where our money was going.

Camera tricks part II

The red light/speed camera debate is getting a little crazy. Chief Bladel says accidents are down at the intersections where cameras are installed. I have nothing against Chief Bladel, he’s just doing his job for a department that could really use extra funds. In talking to him I think he is a nice guy. I also think he believes the cameras are for safety. It’s just that myself, and others, do not. According to the Iowa DOT, accidents are down state wide. In most cases, from fatalities to property damage, the numbers have been going down for a decade. But what about other parts of the city? We just had a pretty bad wreck on Jersey Ridge; was that because they don’t have cameras in the area, or was it driver error? These things are called accidents, not assault by distracted driver.

With the fewer accident defense comes the question of traffic flow. If the Iowa DOT was complaining that when gas went up people bought less gas; how can they drive more? Also, alot of the cameras are located on highways that truckers and others that have to drive use. While I believe traffic flow actually went down, it could also have gone up. But not by much. If people from out of town, and out of state, aren’t visiting Davenport because of these cameras, it just doesn’t make sense that traffic flow is up. Also working against the fewer accident defense is the weather. We haven’t had any bad hail storms, freezing rain storms, snow storms, or other adverse weather that affects the accident rate.

Another snag is these people complaining they’ve gotten 5 or 6 of these tickets. If they were true tickets, turned into the state, they wouldn’t have a license either. If the lawbreakers aren’t learning from their mistakes, and the law abiding people aren’t getting caught, it’s not really safer.

If my wife takes our new car to the dealer, and the mechanic blows through a light test driving it, giving the car a ticket; you’ll be hearing from me. How it can be legal to give the owner a ticket, without proving guilt, is beyond me. Until I get a day in court, with someone proving I broke the law, not just my vehicle, I cannot back these cameras. My wife and I haven’t got a ticket because we don’t speed and we don’t blow through red lights. That’s what tells me it’s not about safety, it’s about the money.

Drive up Brady south of the cameras, and you feel like you’re at Daytona. Get within a block of the cameras and the brake lights come on. Get through the camera range and it’s Daytona again. So it may be safer at these intersections, but until someone comes up with data that says it’s keeping the whole city safer, no sale; it’s about the money.

E-85 and Flex-fuel vehicles myth

Consumer Reports magazine has an excellent article on E-85 and flexible fuel vehicles, in the October 2006 issue. The article is called ‘The ethanol myth’ and brought up some things I didn’t know, and some things I hadn’t considered.

I knew ethanol lowered gas mileage. I didn’t know E-85 lowers gas mileage over regular fuel by 27%. This is because achohol has lower BTU’s than regular gasoline. Add to this the fact that if you leave the midwest you can’t find E-85; why is the government pushing this snake oil? While it is true that it lowers emissions, it’s just not worth the trade off of lousy mileage.

CR claims the Government support for flexible-fuel vehicles is indirectly causing more consumption rather than less. It’s also widely known that less than 1% of fuel sold is E-85. If you travel; they have NO E-85 in Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Deleware, Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana or Mississippi. California, Arizona, Utah, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Florida have 5 or less E-85 stations open to the public.

So, if you’re lucky enough to find the fuel, you are rewarded with really lousy gas mileage and the feeling that you are helping keep the world green. But if you are using more fuel, at a higher price, with the only real emissions drop seen with Nitrogen oxide, while adding acetaldhyde to our breathing air; where is the real benefit to anyone?

ICE

April 13, 2005 the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims, of the Committee on the Judiciary House of Representatives, 109th Conress. There is a link to the webpage at the end of this post. The following is some excerpts taken from testimony before this committee-

Over 631 gang-related homicides occurred in 2001, and by 2003 the number of gang killings had jumped to 819. In addition to homicide, gang members have been directly linked to the narcotics trade, human trafficking, document fraud, and violent assaults.

The majority of MS-13 (Mara Salvatrucha) members are foreign nationals in this country illegally. Newsweek has called this gang, the most dangerous gang in America. It has even been alleged to be negotiating with al Qaeda to smuggle terrorists into our country. Let’s get them out. The problem? Some critics have complained, that flaws in our current immigration system hinder efforts to use the current immigration laws to curtail the alien gang epidemic. For example, some have pointed to the so-called ’sanctuary’ laws that prohibit State and local law enforcement officers from contacting immigration aauthorities about illegal aliens, even if they are previously deported criminals. Such laws require the police to wait until those illegal aliens prey on the public before they can act. Some have asserted that temporary protected status, or TPS, has also protected alien gang members who would have otherwise been deportable. Gang members cannot be deported just for being gang members.

In 2003, ICE conducted a comprehensive threat assessment on violent street gang activity in the United States. The threat assessment identified MS-13 as having a presence across the nation, a significant foreign-born membership, and a history of violence.

The Law Enforcement Support Center checks MS-13 gang membe data provided by State and local authorities against DHS and other databases to locate gang members. In a cooperative effore, ICE and Bureau of Prisons identitied 102 records of MS-13 gang member in the Federal prison system database.

If you wish to find out more, the entire testimonial is on this page. It is a lengthy document.

Recent City actions

Recent actions by our City Council reminded of a joke I recieved by email yesterday. Here it is-

Five surgeons are discussing who makes the best patients to operate on.
The first surgeon says, “I like to see accountants on my operating table because when you open them up, everything inside is numbered.”
The second responds, “Yeah, but you should try electricians! Everything inside them is color coded.”
The third surgeon says, “No, I really think librarians are the best, everything inside them is in alphabetical order.”
The fourth surgeon chimes in: “You know, I like construction workers. Those guys always understand when you have a few parts left over at the end, and when the job takes longer than you said it would.”
But the fifth surgeon shut them all up when he observed: “You’re all wrong. Politicians are the easiest to operate on.
There’s no guts, no heart, no brains and no spine, and the head and the rear end are interchangeable.”

Now fearless City Leaders, get some guts, use some brains and stop all this nonsense before you end up costing us tax payers millions. With elections coming later this year someone should start using some common sense, or pick out your rocking chair.

—–Addendum—–
While I’m on the subject I also find it amusing that some City Council members, and others are trying to take credit for the Freight House, but neither Ahrens, Malin, or Winborm know the details of the deal worked out by Mr. Whitty and the owner of Penguin’s.

Buchwald dies and ethanol

Art Buchwald, Washington’s columnist, died Wednesday at 81 years of age.

The colonel posted a piece entitled ‘Redmond Jones, Ethanol, & The “WRONG” Editorial’ on his blog. I’d like to take a moment and comment on the Ethanol statement. Scientists have been saying that even if we used all corn grown in America, the Ethanol output produced would only around 10% of the total fuel used. Politicians have been told that Ethanol is NOT a replacement for gas. It can be added to gas, at up to 85%, but cannot replace it entirely. To use E-85 you need a vehicle specially built to run the mixture. The cost to retrofit an older vehicle to run on E-85 is very costly. If an Ethanol crash happens it will be because of poor government planning, not lack of corn. Instead of backing Butanol development, which CAN replace gasoline enitrely, the government continues to go with Ethanol. Either product can be made with corn, and both cost about the same to make a gallon of finished product. Butanol can also be made with certain grasses or beets. The big thing, I think, is that with Butanol, you can run it 100% in an older vehicle with no modifications, and testing shows no adverse affects on new cars either. The icing on the cake is testing showed that Butanol also increased gas mileage by 15% over Ethanol, it burns hotter than Ethanol, and has lower emissions. Get ready kids about 4 years from now, if not sooner, you’ll be hearing alot more about this real replacement fuel. It’s just too bad research and development is going to be done in England instead of here. Oh yeah, Ethanol plants can be converted to make Butanol when the time comes.

Camera tricks

All this talk about red light/speed cameras got me thinking. It’s supposed to be about safety. Bull! In 2004 we had 6 murders in Davenport. Even before the cameras I don’t remember that many traffic fatalities in town. In 2004 we had 997 violent assaults; I don’t remember that many serious accidents.

So now the City Council wants to change the wording so it closer resembles the State code. I believe the new wording is more controversial than the old. Extortion comes to mind. Collection agencies and threats doesn’t sound like safety to me. Fight the ticket, and we’ll turn your violation into the state. It sounds like the city wants to bully citizens into paying up. I would almost be willing to bet that if the City Council passes this it will be contested before the ink is dry. It would be different if someone would admit that’s it all about the money. Greed is pretty easy to understand, stupidity is not.

But let’s remember this kids; while everybody is talking about these stupid cameras, they’re not talking about the shootings, stabbings, vandalism and other crime that is a safety issue. And no, I haven’t gotten a ticket of any kind in at least 10 years.

Nascar great dies

Benny Parsons died this morning of complications from his lung cancer. He was 65. For the entire story go to MSN.

When is enough, enough?

Since the first of the year, we have had two murders, a non-fatal, but serious stabbing, a non-fatal, but very serious shooting, and a disturbance involving a gun and a group of about 60 at a dance club, and vandalism. What’s February going to be like? If things keep up at this rate we will easily break last year’s record of highest murder/crime rate in the state. While the speed cameras are keeping us safe on the road; what’s being done about the number of violent assaults? It would seem, to a casual observer like myself, that even buglary and auto thefts are on the rise this year.

When we live in an area that is losing population, or at the very least showing little signs of growth; wouldn’t the safety of the citizens be a priority? Unless we bring in more illegal immigrants or homeless we may be paying higher taxes to offset the loss. Granted, the body found in the farm field may have been killed last year, or even somewhere else, but some as yet unknown woman is still dead. We should start a zero tolerance policy on violent crime. I think it is way past the time city leaders, the Police department, and the citizens should take a stance. We do not condone sex offenders, murderers, rapists, gangs, or any other of the various deviants who have invaded our community. We want them gone, we want our city back, and we want it done yesterday.

Good and bad

In the January 14, 2207, issue of Parade magazine there is an article by David Wallechinsky about where America leads the world and where it doesn’t. It’s interesting that we lead the world in Billionaires, Olympic medals, internet users, Nobel prize winners, Military abroad, roads, Airports, and Gold reserves.

We are lacking in some areas that surprised me. Out of 172 nations, 43 countries have more physicians than we do. 33 countries have a lower infant death rate. 27 countries have a longer male life expectancy, and 29 countries have a longer female life expectancy. We have the 15th highest murder rate, and the highest per capita rate of people in prison. 71 countries have more women in national legislatures. And on voting, we are 139th. out of 172 on eligible citizens who vote.

If you don’t get a Sunday newspaper, I would like to cite some other figures from this article. We spend more money per person on health care a year ($5,700) than any country, and a greater percentage of of gross domestic product (more than 15%) goes to health care. 33 nations, including Cuba, have a lower infant death rate and 28 have a lower maternal death rate. We consume more calories per capita than the citizens of any other nation, and we lead the world in the prevalence of obesity.

We have a greater rate of incarceration and we perform the fourth-highest number of executions. And we have an unusually high rate of violent crime. Of the 53 countries for which there are reliable statistics, only South Africa and Canada have higher rape rates. The U.S. also has the third-highest rate of major assaults and the 15th-highest murder rate.
For the entire article on the web go to Parade magazine.

You can draw your own conclusions, as I have.