http://arstechnica.com/…

There are many reasons for Chicagoans to poke fun at the northwest suburb of Schaumburg, but the existence of red light cameras soon won’t be one of them. Officials expect to get rid of Schaumburg’s sole red light camera in July after the local police department has determined that it provides no appreciable safety benefits.

The city originally installed the camera at a busy intersection near the ever-popular Woodfield Mall sometime last year as a testing ground before the city installed more cameras. According to Schaumburg Mayor Al Larson, the city had been sold on pitches from red light camera companies claiming that the devices would help prevent serious accidents.

Like other municipalities, Schaumburg began issuing $100 tickets in November to those found blowing the red light, generating some 7,000 tickets by the end of 2008, according to the Daily Herald. By February, that number climbed to over 10,000 and $1 million in revenue. Apparently very few accidents were prevented, however, and the city got numerous angry phone calls from citizens and tourists alike, resulting in the camera being switched off in February.

“The result is very few crashes at any of our major intersections have been the result of traffic signal violations,” Police Chief Brian Howerton told the Herald. He reiterated that other cities may want to change driver behavior by using tickets to force drivers to stop, but Schaumburg’s goal was always to prevent collisions. As a result, Howerton is recommending the city take down the camera and not install any more. “It was not our intent to use them as a revenue generator,” Mayor Larson added.

Schaumburg’s decision stands in stark contrast with most other municipalities that have installed the devices, including the city of Chicago. In many of these cases, data showing that red light cameras increase safety is conveniently missing, as exemplified by a high-profile case in Denver earlier this year. Instead, cities love raking in the ticket revenue while hiding behind the thin veil of safety, even though it has been argued that the surest way to increase safety at red lights is by extending the yellow period. The state of Mississippi, however, has bucked this trend by banning red light cameras on the state level earlier this year. While we hardly expect the entire state of Illinois to follow suit, it’s nice to see smaller cities like Schaumburg eschew such a lucrative revenue source because the product simply doesn’t do what it claims to do.

Let the veil fall.

http://www.wbbm780.com/…

Illinois could be the first state to require gun owners to take out a million-dollar insurance policy – if a proposal in the state legislature becomes law.

The bill in a state House committee would require any registered gun owner to have $1 million in liability insurance to cover damages due to negligent or willful acts with the weapon.

Kevin Martin, executive director of the Illinois Insurance Association says he’s never seen such a plan like the one sponsored by Rep. Ken Dunkin, a Democrat from Chicago.

Martin says the unprecedented measure seems to be simply a deterrent to gun ownership.

And, he says it would also be a risky policy because there are too many unknown variables in underwriting something like that.

Despite the fact that the bill would mean more business for his clients, Martin says insurers usually have strong reservations about proposals to mandate coverage.

Representative Dunkin did not return WBBM’s calls for comment.

That’s a great trick Rep. Dunkin. By that logic they should also require insurance for all aspects of one’s life. Especially with regard to vehicles. No more requiring insurance just to drive. You must have it to have a car.

http://www.forbes.com/…

Minnesota is deep in the hole financially, but the state still owns a premier golf resort, a sprawling amateur sports complex, a big airport, a major zoo and land holdings the size of the Central American country of Belize.

Valuables like these are in for a closer look as 44 states cope with deficits.

Like families pawning the silver to get through a tight spot, states such as Minnesota, New York, Massachusetts and Illinois are thinking of selling or leasing toll roads, parks, lotteries and other assets to raise desperately needed cash.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has hinted that his January budget proposal will include proposals to privatize some of what the state owns or does. The Republican is looking for cash to help close a $5.27 billion deficit without raising taxes.

GOP lawmakers are pushing to privatize the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and the state lottery. Both steps require a higher authority – federal legislation in the case of the airport, a voter-approved constitutional amendment for the lottery. But one lawmaker estimated an airport deal could bring in at least $2.5 billion, and the lottery $500 million.

Massachusetts lawmakers are considering putting the Massachusetts Turnpike in private hands. That could bring in upfront money to help with a $1.4 billion deficit, while also saving on highway operating costs.

In New York, Democratic Gov. David Paterson appointed a commission to look into leasing state assets, including the Tappan Zee Bridge north of New York City, the lottery, golf courses, toll roads, parks and beaches. Recommendations are expected next month.

Such projects could be attractive to private investors and public pension funds looking for safe places to put their money in this scary economy, said Leonard Gilroy, a privatization expert with the market-oriented Reason Foundation in Los Angeles.

“Infrastructure is more attractive today than ever,” Gilroy said. “It’s tangible. It’s a road. It’s water. It’s an airport. It’s something that is – you know, you hear the term recession-proof.”

Unions don’t like privatization deals out of fear that worker wages and benefits will be squeezed as private operators try to boost their profit by streamlining services.

Taxpayers, too, can lose out if the arrangements don’t work – and sometimes even if they do, said Mark Price, a labor economist with the Keystone Research Center in Harrisburg, Pa. Higher tolls on privatized roads can push drivers onto state-operated roads, wearing them down faster and raising public costs over time.

“You’re privatizing some profits in this process and socializing some losses,” Price said.

This is exactly right. What is being done is not true privatization or marketization. Unfortunately since the State never legitimately owned the resource it’s difficult to release it into the market. Ideally you’d auction it off in a fully open auctioning process and use the money to lower taxes. That however will not happen. In most cases you will have a small auction which favors some cronie of someone in the legislative or executive branch. They socialize the costs and privatize the gains. Fascism, corporatism, cronie capitalism. Call it what you like. What will inevitably occur is that the system fails due to inefficiency or corruption and the statists will blame the free market just as is being done currently with the Wall Street and car manufacturer bailouts. I’d say it’s better to let the state government wallow in their inefficient and tyrannical ways then “privatizing” components. Let the public see the state fail and keep all ideas of the free market out of the picture.

http://www.pic2009.org/…

Facing a nation divided, teetering toward civil war, President Lincoln used his first inaugural address to call for national unity, arguing that our Constitution was created “to form a more perfect Union.“ Now, 147 years later, President-elect Barack Obama is echoing President Lincoln’s call in words and in symbolism.  He will be placing his hand upon the same burgundy velvet-bound Bible that was used by President Lincoln at his first inauguration as he is sworn in as the 44th President of the United States.

Presidential Inaugural Committee Executive Director Emmett Beliveau:

President-elect Obama is deeply honored that the Library of Congress has made the Lincoln Bible available for use during his swearing-in. The President-elect is committed to holding an inauguration that celebrates the unity of America, and the use of this historic Bible will provide a powerful connection to our common past and common heritage.

Since Lincoln’s family Bible was still en route from Springfield, IL, at the time of his inauguration, Supreme Court Clerk William Thomas Carroll purchased a Bible for the swearing-in ceremony in 1861. President-elect Obama will be the first president to be sworn in using this Bible since Abraham Lincoln.

Hopefully Obama is a better follower of Christ then Lincoln was. I’d rather not see 6 million+ people die and liberty decimated on his watch. He’s got a good start unfortunately. Wanting to expand the Afghanistan war and no plans to take US troops out of all the overseas bases and being pro-wiretapping, pro-bailout, pro-Patriot Act, etc.

The fact there is so much pomp and circumstance around the swearing in of the president is disturbing too.

http://www.breitbart.com/…

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/…

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested Tuesday on charges of conspiring to get financial benefits through his authority to appoint a U.S. senator to fill the vacancy left by Barack Obama’s election as president.According to a federal criminal complaint, Blagojevich also was charged with illegally threatening to withhold state assistance to Tribune Co., the owner of the Chicago Tribune, in the sale of Wrigley Field. In return for state assistance, Blagojevich allegedly wanted members of the paper’s editorial board who had been critical of him fired.

A 76-page FBI affidavit said the 51-year-old Democratic governor was intercepted on court-authorized wiretaps over the last month conspiring to sell or trade the vacant Senate seat for personal benefits for himself and his wife, Patti.

The affidavit said Blagojevich discussed getting a substantial salary for himself at a nonprofit foundation or an organization affiliated with labor unions.

It said that Blagojevich also talked about getting his wife placed on corporate boards where she might get $150,000 a year in director’s fees.

He also allegedly discussed getting campaign funds for himself or possibly a post in the president’s cabinet or an ambassadorship once he left the governor’s office.

“I want to make money,” the affidavit quotes him as saying in one conversation.

U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said in a statement that “the breadth of corruption laid out in these charges is staggering.”

“They allege that Blagojevich put a for sale sign on the naming of a United States senator,” Fitzgerald said.”

Among those being considered for the post include U.S. Reps. Danny Davis and Jesse Jackson Jr.

Blagojevich also was charged with using his authority as governor in an attempt to squeeze out campaign contributions.

His chief of staff, John Harris, also was arrested.

One down. 49 to go.

I wonder who he crossed.  Was it just Obama and friends? Perhaps he was just seen as too aggressive. If you’re going to be a crooked politician (did I repeat myself?) you need to be less… truthful… about your desires and intentions.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/…

Starting next year, there will be four new pennies to collect, celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln.

The obverse (or heads) part of the coin will stay the same, showing the 16th president facing to the right.

But the reverse (tails) part of the coin will show different times in the life of Lincoln, who is widely considered to be one of the country’s greatest leaders for freeing the slaves and saving the Union during the Civil War.

The designs for the new pennies were shown for the first time yesterday near the Lincoln Memorial.

The first new penny will be available Feb. 12, Lincoln’s 200th birthday. It will show a log cabin to honor his birth and childhood in Kentucky.

The others will show his life as a young man in Indiana, his professional life in Illinois and his presidential years in Washington (when the U.S. Capitol was being built).

The other side of the penny will continue to show the likeness of Lincoln designed by Victor David Brennan. It was introduced on the Lincoln penny 100 years ago.

A Lincoln commemorative silver dollar also will be issued next year.

Abraham Lincoln did not really free the slaves. The 13th Amendment did. The Emancipation Proclamation said “all persons held as slaves within any States, or designated part of the State, the people whereof shall be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” Only those slaves captured by the North by that point were set free. Maryland and Delaware were both slave states and not on of the supposed rebel states. While not recognized by any other government the Confederate States of America was a separate nation with it’s own government defined by their own (though heavily borrowed from the USA) constitution. Therefore from their perspective the Emancipation Proclamation meant as much as if it had come from England. Lincoln also said this of the Corwin Amendment, “[H]olding such a provision to now be implied Constitutional law, I have no objection to its being made express and irrevocable.” which read:

No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within any State, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State.

As for saving the Union… a highly questionable action. Even if ruled unconstitutional there is plenty of evidence that such a claim is incorrect from a legal standpoint. For example: When ratifying the new constitution, Virginia (1788), New York (1788), and Rhode Island (1790) included clauses indicating they were free to leave the new federal government confederation should it become oppressive. It seems obvious that they would not have joined if they believed it was a one way trip. From a moral standpoint its reprehensible. The Declaration of Independence clearly says:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Lincoln was in no way a great leader but a statist who put his beliefs in keeping together a union of people who did not wish to be under the same government umbrella above the lives of over 600,000 individuals.

For more information read Thomas DiLorenzo’s books Lincoln Unmasked and The Real Lincoln. Many complain his views are one sided but given the works written in excess of Lincoln’s greatness I think that’s excusable. You can also find a decent interview with DiLorenzo on CSPAN’s Q&A at Google video.