Another License Plate Change For Texas

I don't think it's been a full three years, but the state of Texas is once again changing the design of their license plates. The plate currently in use is the multi-colored one pictured above (the bottom picture), which has everything on it but the Alamo. It turns out that too many witnesses of crimes and accidents have been unable to get a plate number because the plate is too "busy" (has too many colors and pictures on it). The plate is pretty, but it just doesn't work as intended (since a plate that isn't easy to read is worthless).

This should have been thought of before the plate was put in service, but it wasn't. Now they have gone to the plate above (the top picture). This is what Texas license plates used to look like (back in the sixties and seventies). So after years of many plate changes, they have returned to the old, tried but true design.

They started issuing the new plates this month, so you should be seeing them on cars very soon. Personally, I like the new plate. But then I'm an older guy who never understood why they were changed in the first place. It's a clean design and it works -- and that's all that matters. Beauty was never meant to be an element of license plate design.

Post- Racial ? Not Even Close !

A couple of years ago some people were saying that America had entered its post-racial phase. The ides was that because the United States had elected an African-American as its president, surely we were beginning to get past the terrible racism that has plagued this country since its founding (when slaves were only considered 3/5 of a person).

And that endemic racism has been very hard to get rid of. It took a Civil War costing the lives of many thousands of Americans to end slavery. But even after slavery was abolished and the Fourteenth Amendment was passed, racism did not go away. It just changed forms and assumed the form of segregation, the KKK and other forms of Jim Crowism. It then took another 100 years to outlaw those forms of racism.

After the civil rights battles of the 1950s and 1960s, racism did not disappear but it did go underground so it was not quite as upfront and in-your-face as it had been in the past. Even in the South it was starting to be considered gauche to be overtly racist in public. The war against racism had not been won, but many battles were beginning to be won.

Then we progressed enough to elect Barack Obama as president. But don't think this meant the country was post-racial -- far from it. If anything, having an African-American president seemed to give the racists permission to crawl back out from under the rocks where they had been hiding, and once again make their odious views public. Once again racism became a public menace -- a menace that could now be disguised as conservative politics (which has to be making conservative thinkers like William F. Buckley turn over in their graves).

Politicians have been favoring the rich over everyone else since the Reagan administration, and this has resulted in a very unfair America -- and in the final term of Bush it finally culminated in the current recession. But those were white presidents, and while there was some complaining, poor, working class and middle class whites generally went along with what was happening.

But when Obama was elected that all changed. Now we had the teabaggers complaining loudly about socialism and big government takeovers -- even though the president and his policies were actually center-right on the political scale (and rather embarrassing to real progressives). Even the great socialist eveil health care reform was only a slight reform and strengthening of the prevailing capitalist system -- and most of the reforms had been proposed by Republicans in the past.

Obama's great sin is not in being a socialist or even a liberal -- he's not either. It is the color of his skin. The teabaggers just can't stand having an African-American president (just look at their signs when they rally) and their political views are a thinly-veiled excuse for their racism. The "birthers" are even more obvious about their racism. They never worried about a birth certificate when whites were president (or even when McCain ran for president -- who actually was born in a foreign country).

And its worse than just the teabaggers or the birthers. The KKK and white-only militias are seeing growth once again, after a couple of decades of declining membership. And even some state leaders are once again starting to celebrate white privilege. Some states are celebrating the 150 anniversary of the formation of the Confederacy (an act of treachery by 13 Southern States). And in Mississippi, the state is considering a license plate that would honor the racist hero Nathan Bedford Forrest (pictured above).

I'm sure those wanting to honor the Confederate general with a license plate will say it is just a celebration of "Southern heritage". That's nonsense. It's nothing less than a celebration of racism. And a cursory glance at the life of Forrest will confirm that. During the Civil War, at Fort Pillow, he massacred hundreds of African-American troops -- after they had thrown down their weapons and surrendered! After the war, he was very active in the KKK. Although he did not found the organization, he did centralize the disparate KKK groups under one banner and gave them a recognizable leader after being chosen Grand Wizard.

Honoring Nathan Bedford Forrest isn't a celebration of Southern heritage -- it's a slap in the face not only to minorities, but to all decent Americans. And it's just one more example of racism in America. The election of Barack Obama to be president did not mean America was post-racial. It just showed how racist the country still is. We still have a long way to go before we live up to the dream of equality written in our Constitution.

Teabagger License Plates For Texas ?

Evidently there are people who think Texas hasn't been humiliated enough already by its State Board of Education and its state Republican leadership.   Someone has suggested the state needs official teabagger license plates (see above).

These aren't official yet, but the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles (TDMV) is considering selling them as speciality plates.   I searched their website but couldn't find anything that tells where the extra money will go that is spent on these plates.   For some specialty plates the state gets all the money, while others have much of the money going to a charity, school or other organization.

It brings up the question of whether we want the state to support specific political ideologies (especially nutty ones like this).   I realize the state is scrambling to get new funds any way they can, but these ugly things are downright offensive.   And I would have a real problem if the plates will be funding any teabagger organizations or activities.   The state should remain neutral on political views and organizations.

The TDMV is currently asking the people of Texas to vote on whether to accept these new plates or not over at their website.   Go on over and give them your opinion.   They should be taking votes for a few more days.

Texas House Rejects Fairness

Last week, the Texas Senate approved a new speciality license plate with the words "Choose Life" on it. This week the Texas House took up the measure. But an amendment was offered in the House by Rep. Lon Burnam (D-Fort Worth).

Believing the "Choose Life" plates to be "constitutionally flawed" Burnam said, "If we’re going to start politicizing our license plates, it’s only appropriate that we provide equal access and due process to everyone. All we’re trying to do is give equal opportunity to another perspective."

Burnam's amendment would have added another specialty plate. That plate would say "Pro-Family, Pro-Choice". By adding this plate, both sides of the divisive political and religious issue of abortion would be represented. Burnam (pictured) hoped that being fair to both sides of the issue would keep the matter out of the federal courts.

But as I said last week, the Texas Legislature has no interest in fairness, but only in pandering to the religious right. The House defeated Burnam's amendment on an 86 to 48 vote. Now the state is guaranteed to have to waste a lot of taxpayer money defending the new plate in court.

A little fairness would have avoided a court fight and given the right their precious "Choose Life" plate. But I guess fairness is just too much to ask of the Texas Legislature.

Texas Senate Approves "Choose Life" Plate

The Texas Legislature just couldn't do it. They couldn't finish a whole legislative session without throwing a bone to the religious right.

On Thursday, the Senate passed a bill by Sen. John Carona (R-Dallas) that would create a new license plate that says "Choose Life". The vote was 22-9. The senators who voted for the plate said it was a pro-adoption plate and the funds from the sale of the plate would benefit adoptions.

That's a ridiculous assertion. However they may try to obfuscate the issue, this is political-religious bone thrown to social conservatives who are anti-abortion. I wouldn't have a problem with it if they would also create a "Pro-Choice" plate, but there is little chance of that. This is not about fairness (or adoption). It is about pushing a fundamentalist religious viewpoint.

I think the state can count on having to defend this action in a federal court. I seriously doubt if the Pro-Choice proponents will accept this without a fight.

On Religion And Government

I posted the other day about the state of Washington trying to follow the Constitution regarding religious displays on government property. The state had allowed a christian organization to put up a nativity scene on the grounds of the Legislative Building in Olympia. In order to be constitutionally fair, they also allowed an atheist organization to put up a sign.

It made national news when the atheist sign was stolen, then found in a ditch and re-displayed. But that was only the beginning of Washington's problems. The governor has received over 15,000 phone calls from christians who wanted only a christian display on the government grounds (even though that is unconstitutional). These theocrats are perfectly willing to trash the constitution to further their own religious beliefs.

But the problems didn't stop there. After hearing of the brouhaha created by the competing displays, other groups wanted to put up their own displays. Among the displays requesting space were a Buddhist display, a Festivus display (popularized by the Seinfeld TV series), a "God Hates" display by the Westboro Baptist Church, a display featuring the Flying Spaghetti Monster (pictured above) and a christian goodwill message to atheists, among other display ideas.

The state received more requests than they had space for, so they have now declared a moratorium on any new displays. It looks like the only way out of this mess is to not allow any displays at all on state property next year.

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In other religious/government news, it looks like South Carolina will not be issuing new christian-themed license plates. The state legislature had voted unanimously to issue the plates, even though several members admitted openly that they would not do the same for other religions. The plates contained a cross on a stained glass window and the words "I believe".

Of course, this action made it official that the state of South Carolina had a governmentally-preferred religion -- christianity. But the Americans United for Separation of Church and State didn't think this passed constitutional muster and filed suit on behalf of three ministers, a rabbi, the Hindu American Foundation and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie agreed, and issued an injunction that stops the state from issuing or manufacturing the license plates. She has also ordered the state to remove the plates from the state's web site and tell those who have requested them that the plates will not be available.

Thank goodness there are still judges who follow the Constitution.

WTF ?

Good grief! I think some people just go out of their way to find things to be offended about. The above picture is of part of a North Carolina license plate. It seems that North Carolina officials have just learned that these letters may be offensive to some people.

I guess they've been living in a cave somewhere. I surprised that there's anyone left in America that's not familiar with the phrase these three letters stand for. But evidently these NC officials are just a bit slow.

They were recently informed by a 60 year-old teacher of the meaning the letters have in e-mail and texting. Sadly, she had to be told by her teenage children.

They have now decided that the letters are suddenly "offensive", and they are going to replace up to 10,000 plates free of charge to any offended person.

Personally, I'm offended by the stupidity. Couldn't they find a real problem to spend this money on?

Florida Must Not Have Any Problems

It's nice to know there are no serious problems in the state of Florida. Evidently they have eliminated poverty, covered all their citizens with health insurance, created jobs for the unemployed, eliminated gas and food inflation, assured all workers a decent wage, made sure all students will graduate high school and provided funding for everyone who wants to go to college. Surely they wouldn't be dealing with trifling issues unless these problems had been solved.

But then I forgot that they, like Texas, are a state currently being ruled by the right-wing Republicans. So obviously, they would rather pass ridiculous laws than deal with the real problems their citizens are facing.

Last week, the Florida senate decided they needed to sponsor a religion. They approved the issuance of speciality license plates that would sport a christian emblem -- the cross. Even worse, the money raised by selling these plates would go to support some private religious (christian) schools.

I don't see how this could possibly pass constitutional muster. Can it really be constitutional for a state to pick a single religion to support publically and financially? I think they'll be spending a lot of state money to defend that in the federal courts.

Having picked their official state religion, this week Florida moved on to tackle another matter of public "decency". State Senator Cary Baker decided that the fake plastic bull testicles that can beseen dangling from the backs of many pickups and other vehicles are indecent. He introduced a bill to ban the fake "balls", and the bill actually passed the Florida senate.

I think the fake balls are silly, and I certainly don't want them hanging from the back of my vehicle. But this does strike me as a free speech issue. The balls make be making a silly statement, but aren't silly statements also protected by the first amendment? There goes more public funds to be wasted on another court battle.

What is wrong with these Florida legislators? I can hardly wait to see what basic constitutional right they will attack next week.