Friday 12-28-12

It is amazing how they can selectively inforce the law.  If i was riding around in DC and got pulled over and they found a mag like that in my car, i would still be in jail.  But i guess Mr. Gregory curried enough favor with the dems while he was the white house correspondant and railed on Mr. Bush every shance he got or could make up.  I guess that allows you special perks.  If it would have been a conservative that did it, he would be infront of senate and house panels when they allowed him out of jail.

Media Pulling Strings with Administration Officials

It seems that NBC contacted the DC police about having David Gregory use a 30-round-magazine on Meet the Press and was told that they could not violate the law. However, TMZ reports that NBC appears to have gone to the ATF and they contacted the DC police about the issue. It seems to me that permission to violate the law was suddenly granted once the federal agency stepped into the situation.

http://www.pagunblog.com/2012/12/26/media-pulling-strings-with-administration-officials/

More from the religon of peace

Christian Convert From Islam Beheaded in SomaliaIslamic extremists from Somalia's rebel al Shabaab militants killed a Christian in Somalia's coastal city of Barawa on Nov. 16, accusing him of being a spy and leaving Islam, Morning Star News reports. The extremists beheaded 25-year-old Farhan Haji Mose after monitoring his movements for six months, underground Christians in Somalia said. Mose drew suspicion when he returned to Barawa in December 2011 after spending time in Kenya, which is nearly 83 percent Christian, opposed to Somalia, which is close to 100 percent Muslim. Mose had converted to Christianity in 2010 while in Kenya. Sources said a crowd assembled in Barawa to watch the slaughter of Mose. "His body was split into two, then carried away, only to be dumped near the beach of Barawa city," a Christian who witnessed the murder said. Other Muslim witnesses independently described the same scene, saying the extremists accused Mose of being a spy for foreigners and of embracing the "foreign religion of Christianity." Al Shabaab rebels have killed dozens of Christian converts from Islam since embarking on a campaign to rid Somalia of Christianity. The extremists, variously estimated at 3,000 to 7,000, seek to impose a stricter version of sharia (Islamic law) on Somalia.

District traffic cameras to more than double amid record revenues

City's take skyrockets at start of 2013 fiscal year
Traffic camera fines are poised to dip in the District, but one aspect of the controversial program is set to surge in 2013: the number of the devices that generate tickets for common traffic offenses like speeding and running stoplights.

Over the course of 2013, the District government will add 134 traffic cameras to its network, more than doubling the size of a system that generated $85 million in revenues for the city in its last fiscal year.

Police spokeswoman Gwendolyn Crump told The Washington Examiner that the city will intensify its camera-based efforts to cite motorists for speeding and stoplight violations while also adding cameras to detect other moving violations.

Cameras add heft to Maryland budgets
Although the District has the region's most profitable -- and frequently vilified -- traffic camera program, Maryland counties have also found the cameras to be lucrative traffic safety tools.

Authorities in Prince George's County forecasted a surge in revenue in its 2013 fiscal year, which began July 1 and will conclude next June.

The county budgeted for $4.3 million in ticket revenue in 2012, but that figure climbed nearly fourfold to $16.8 million in 2013.

And statistics from Montgomery County show the county took in $15.8 million in its 2012 fiscal year from speed and stoplight cameras. Most of the money -- $13.9 million -- came from nearly 331,000 speeding tickets.

The county's 2012 take was far from a record, though: In the 2009 fiscal year, the county collected $20.7 million from camera-snagged speeders.

Virginia has a far more limited automated enforcement program and only allows stoplight cameras - Alan Blinder and Kate Jacobson

The District's plans for the new devices, Crump said,
include 32 cameras that will produce tickets for drivers who blow through stop signs and 16 to monitor crosswalks.
Supporters of the cameras -- like Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice Paul Quander -- say they are vital to protecting lives on the roadways.
"They save lives because people slow down, and the reason people slow down is they don't want to pay a penalty," Quander told The Examiner. "If ever there was a model for a public policy event that has changed behavior for the betterment of overall society, this is it."

And District officials say raw numbers back up their assertion that the program has been successful: Although the city recorded 72 traffic fatalities in 2001, that number fell to 32 in 2011.

But the cameras have vocal detractors, many of whom point to the revenues they've brought into the District's coffers.

In the 2012 fiscal year, which ended in September, the city collected more than $85 million from its cameras. That haul easily topped the record set in 2011: $55 million.
And the new budget cycle is already proving lucrative for the city. Recent figures
 show D.C. collected about 2,000 percent more in camera revenue in the first two months of the 2013 fiscal year than it did in the same stretch in the 2012 budget year.

"It should be about traffic safety, but at what cost?" asked John Townsend, a spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic. "Our concern is the city will get a reputation as being more interested in generating revenue than in traffic safety, despite whatever they say."
Quander dismissed such criticisms.

"People get fixated that it's about the money," he said. "Money is generated, but if people would slow down, then it wouldn't be generating as much money."
Although the District has operated ticket-giving cameras since the late 1990s, the surge in revenues suddenly made the system a political football this year. The ensuing battle pitted Mayor Vincent Gray, who portrayed himself as a champion of public safety, against lawmakers, who said the city appeared hungry for cash.
By the time the gavel dropped during the final D.C. Council session of the year, lawmakers had made a point of taking a vote to thwart Gray's proposal to stem public outcry and voting again to enact their own strategy.

Ward 6 Councilman Tommy Wells said the size of the program's impending expansion showed why the legislation was critical to residents.

"It underscores the importance of getting the fine amount correct, or people are going to be owing so much money," Wells said.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/district-traffic-cameras-to-more-than-double-amid-record-revenues/article/2516807#.UNsrBm_AexU