ROBY, ILLINOIS (October 14, 1997)-- Jack McLamb, the hero who walked Randy Weaver out of his Ruby Ridge, Idaho home, joined J.J. Johnson to address hundreds of concerned citizens during a rally today in front of the Christian County Courthouse in Taylorville, Illinois today. The meeting was an attempt to free the widow, 51-year-old Shirley Allen, who has been holed up for 23 days for refusing to comply with a court order (not even a warrant) for her "psychiatric evaluation."
A second rally/news conference was conducted at 5:00 p.m. on the south side of the Illinois State Capitol Building in Springfield that was sponsored by WMAY Radio and featured well known radio talk show personality Jack "One-Eyed Jack" Jackson, who was the first person to break the Roby siege story in September.
Ironically, the crowd did not embrace Jack McLamb during his discourse. Some observers speculated that the cool reception could probably be attributed to one commission and another omission of McLamb. The commission was thought to be his tendering of too many compliments to the Illinois State Police for their conduct in the stand-off. The perceived omission was his lack of a call to direct action. Admittedly, crowds are often a tough thing to please. One spectator concluded that the important thing is to preserve the health and life of Mrs. Allen as well as the health and life of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights that have been all but trampled by various government agents during the siege. Nevertheless, picket signs at the Courthouse rally spoke loudly enough for those who wish former police officer McLamb would have focused more on police abuses. Placard slogans included such sentiments as: "Free Shirley Allen," "What Happened to Due Process?" and "Judge Slater: Rescind the Order!"
Thus far police have not allowed Shirley Allen to have an attorney. McLamb intends to continue negotiations with police to allow an attorney to accompany him during a proposed private visit with Mrs. Allen in her home.
Should McLamb succeed, Allen could possibly be allowed to either have her own psychiatrist conduct her evaluation or at least have an attorney of her choosing present during a state ordered exam.
In addition to being one of two citizens (Bo Gritz was the other) who successfully drawing Randy Weaver from his Idaho cabin, McLamb has been recognized two years in a row as "national policeman of the year" and was the originator of the nationally known "officer friendly" program.
Radio talk show hosts were quick to pick-up on the "Roby Ridge" label for the stand-off due to many similarities to the well known Randy Weaver siege in "Ruby Ridge" Idaho. Numerous organizations and individuals from across the country are planning to be in Roby, Illinois throughout the week of McLambs arrival.
Although it is too early to tell, Illinois State Police may allow McLamb to approach Mrs. Allen. The precedent has already been set by the FBI who allowed he and Bo Gritz to be hostage negotiators with Randy Weaver. Who are Illinois police to refuse such a calm, experienced and successful arbitrator? Perhaps a bit too calm according to the more hawkish Shirley Allen supporters on the scene.
Americans for Responsible Media, an Arlington Heights, Illinois based media watchdog group, has sponsored Mr. McLamb to make the visit with the hope that he can open persuade police to allow Shirley Allen to communicate with members of the news media. Thomas R. Wayne, a media monitor sent to the Roby scene by ARM last week, reported that police have effectively barred all communication between Mrs. Allen and the news media and called police actions unconstitutional. Wayne contends that since virtually every effort the police have made thus far has failed, that the besieged widow should be allowed to tell her side of the story during a live radio interview that she can conduct via telephone from the privacy of her own home. Illinois Police do not share the same enthusiasm about Wayne's proposal.
In detailing the proposal being given to police today Tom Wayne stated, "Police have cut off Shirley Allen from the outside world. They have isolated her depriving her of a lawyer, electricity, water and a telephone. They played good cop, bad cop. Figuratively speaking first they tried to 'kill her' filling her home with tear gas and sinking bagged metal balls into her chest. That didn't work. Next they tried to 'kill her with kindness' by piping Barry Manilow music into her house. That didn't work either. Why can't the police simply rehook her phone to call a lawyer or a friend or order a pizza or maybe even be a call-in guest on the radio and let everyone know what's on her mind?"
State Police backed off to some degree last week and acknowledged that their funding of the siege had been $15,000 per day.
The siege began September 22 when the widow Allen refused to leave when deputy sheriffs came to her door with a court order (not even a warrant) for her involuntary "psychological evaluation." As the story goes Mrs. Allen had relatives who complained that she didn't invite them into her home on Labor Day. The relatives found that and other behavior strange and secured a court order for commitment. Speculation has abounded on the Internet about any possible tie-ins between Mrs. Allen's $120,000 in CD's, her 47 acre farm and her actively producing oil well on her property and any potential financial custody of assets should Mrs. Allen bee deemed mentally incompetent.
The Roby, Illinois stand-off has become known as "Roby Ridge," named after the deadly confrontation between the Randy Weaver family and federal law enforcement officials in Ruby Ridge, Idaho). Many similarities exist including the fact that police have banned media for an entire half mile from the home, in essence giving government the monopoly on the media coverage making them the only (defacto) "reporters" close enough to "cover the story."
ARM has publicly contended that not only Mrs. Allen's rights have been grossly violated but that the rights of the news media have been flagrantly violated as well. Wayne stated, "The First Amendment of our constitution clearly protects free speech and freedom of the press. It's high time our leaders should apologize to both Mrs. Allen and the news media and allow them to communicate with each other and with the citizens at large. The question we ask the police is: Can we talk here in Roby?"
About the proposal Jack Jackson, Springfield, Illinois talk host turned mediator stated, "It's obvious Mrs. Allen hasn't been interested in coming out of her home for the past 12 days, and that is certainly understandable considering her home has been turned into a veritable battle zone. But she should at least be allowed the opportunity to talk. However if she doesn't accept our offer and she doesn't want to talk, that's her decision and that's her right. We're not about to force her and we're certainly not going to be spoil sports and force her to listen to my talk show at 180 decibels for a week as retribution. But we must at least try. Who knows, maybe she will say yes."
During a recent news conference Illinois State Police Director Terry Gainer admitted that during the siege Mrs. Allen was never offered a legal counsel.
Wayne, who credits radio talk show hosts for helping diffuse the siege, stated, "We applaud everyone involved in talk radio across the nation who exposed what was happening to Shirley Allen." Prior to Gainer's news conference Wayne stated in an ARM news release dispatched to local and national news media, "Government officials claim that this 51-year-old woman Shirley Allen may be a danger to the community or to herself and that she needs to be protected. We ask protected from whom? It's obviously this remarkable widow has a strong will to live. Police have already filled her home with tear gas, shot her in the chest with bagged metal projectiles, and tormented her with loud music and bullhorns night and day. How much more will it take for them to figure out that this widow is not a danger to herself and that the real danger is from state agencies that have already decided that not taking Prozac for a year makes a person unstable."
Wayne's statement in the news release continued, "This could set a precedent that can be used against anybody-- the crime of wanting to be left alone. Her neighbors who know her best say Mrs. Allen is neither crazy nor a danger to anyone. She has no criminal record or assaults or any other anti-social behavior other than she wants to be left alone on her property as guaranteed by the constitution. Even if she does have an aversion to helicopters and planes flying overhead as alleged, does this constitute insanity? But since when is it a crime to hold such beliefs? There also is the question of the formidable assets owned by Mrs. Allen, including the mortgage free 47 acres of land and an oil well on her property."
ARM has in the past successfully deferred license renewal of two television network affiliates in Chicago for alleged irresponsible broadcasting of the Chicago Bulls riots.
Here is a sobering quote by Abe Lincoln: "I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . . corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed." -- U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864 (letter to Col. William F. Elkins)
Ref: The Lincoln Encyclopedia, Archer H. Shaw (Macmillan, 1950, NY) Some people expressed doubts about its authenticity, given Lincoln's work as an attorney for railroad corporations! It was an interesting job tracking it down and verifying its authenticity. The first ref I heard for this quote was Jack London's 1908 Iron Heel. And although the quote indeed appears there (near p. 100), Jack London offered neither context nor source.
More recently, David Korten's book, When Corporations Rule the World (1995, Kumarian Press), sources the quote to Harvey Wasserman (America Born and Reborn, Macmillan, 1983, p. 89-90, 313), who in turn sources it to Paha Sapa Reports, the newspaper of the Black Hills Alliance, Rapid City, South Dakota, 4 March 1982. But given Wasserman's ties to Howard Zinn, and his status as co-founder (?) of the Liberation News Service, citing that kind of trail is like waving a red flag for the skeptics.
Fortunately, after some burrowing in the univ. library, I was able to confirm its authenticity. Here it is, with more surrounding context: "We may congratulate ourselves that this cruel war is nearing its end. It has cost a vast amount of treasure and blood. . . . It has indeed been a trying hour for the Republic; but I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless." [The passage appears in a letter from Lincoln to (Col.) William F. Elkins, Nov. 21, 1864. ]
For a reliable pedigree, cite p. 40 of The Lincoln Encyclopedia, by Archer H. Shaw (Macmillan, 1950, NY). That traces the quote's lineage to p. 954 of Abraham Lincoln: A New Portrait, (Vol. 2) by Emanuel Hertz (Horace Liveright Inc, 1931, NY).
Based on about 3 hrs of research, it appears Lincoln has been extensively SANITIZED FOR OUR PROTECTION. The Hidden Lincoln; from the Letters and Papers of William H. Herndon, by Emanuel Hertz (Viking Press, 1938, NY), details how Herndon (Lincoln's lifelong law partner) collected an extensive oral history and aggregated much of Lincoln's writings into a collection that served as the basis for many "authoritative" books on Lincoln.
By all accounts, Herndon was scrupulously honest and plainspoken. Hertz quotes Herndon's characterization of the various "big-name" authors who relied on his collection for primary source materials: "They are aiming, first, to do a superb piece of literary work; second, to make the story WITH THE CLASSES AS AGAINST THE MASSES. [my emphasis added] It will result in delineating the real Lincoln about as well as does a wax figure in the museum." In several books, I found numerous places where Lincoln spoke about Capital and Labor ("Workingmen"). Lincoln re-used his own material frequently, and virtually identical passages appear in several places. Lincoln praises the moral rightness of both Capital and Labor, but this is invariably in the context of a nation where NO MORE THAN ONE MAN IN EIGHTis a Capitalist or a Laborer, ie, where 7/8 of the population are "self-employed" on their own farms and homesteads.
This social context of general self-sufficiency would explain how Lincoln could serve for years as a railroad corporation lawyer with (apparently) no qualms, yet pen the "corporations enthroned" passage to Elkins.
A final Lincoln tidbit, although it pertains to one very specific case: "These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert to fleece the people, and now that they have got into a quarrel with themselves, we are called upon to appropriate the people's money to settle the quarrel."
[speech to Illinois legislature, Jan. 1837. See Vol. 1, p. 24 of Lincoln's Complete Works, ed. by Nicolay and Hay, 1905) ]
"If I were the devil... if I were the prince of darkness -- I'd want to engulf the whole world in darkness; and I'd have a third of its real estate and four fifths of its population -- but I wouldn't be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree -- thee.
So I'd set about however necessary to take over the United States. I'd subvert the churches first. I'd begin with a campaign of whispers. With the wisdom of a serpent I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve -- do as you please. To the young I would whisper that the Bible is a myth; I would convince them that man created God instead of the other way around. I would confide that what's bad is good and what's good is... square. And the old I would teach to pray after me: our Father, which art in Washington.
And then I'd get organized! I'd educate authors in how to make lurid literature exciting so that anything else would appear dull and uninteresting. I'd threaten TV with dirtier movies and vice versa. I'd peddle narcotics to whom I could, I'd sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction, and I'd tranquilize the rest with pills.
If I were the devil, I'd soon have families at war with themselves, churches at war themselves and nations at war with themselves -- until each in its turn was consumed; and with promises of higher ratings, I'd have mesmerizing media fanning the flames. If I were the devil, I would encourage schools to refine young intellects but neglect to discipline emotions -- just let those run wild until before you knew it, you'd have to have drug sniffing dogs and metal detectors at every schoolhouse door. Within a decade I'd have prisons overflowing; I'd have judges promoting pornography. Soon I could evict God from the courthouse, then from the school house and then from the houses of Congress. And in His own churches I would substitute psychology for religion and deify science. I would lure priests and pastors into misusing boys and girls and church money.
If I were the devil I'd make the symbol of Easter an egg and the symbol of Christmas a bottle. If I were the devil, I'd take from those who have and give to those who want it until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious. What'll you bet, I could get whole states to promote gambling as the way to get rich. I would caution against extremes in hard work, in patriotism, in moral conduct. I would convince the young that marriage is old-fashioned, that swinging is more fun, that what you see on TV is the way to be. And thus I could undress you in public, and I could lure you into bed with diseases for which there is no cure.
In other words, if I were the devil, I'd just keep on doing what he's doing."
This question is asked annually at the Environmental Law Conference by Richard Grossman, co-director of the Legal Analysis and Action Project on Corporations, and author of a pamphlet titled Taking Care of Business: Citizenship and the Charter of Incorporation.
Probably the most important question asked, it has yet to be answered. But the fact that Grossman did not attend the conference this year did not deter him from asking it again. He sent a 14-page letter to keynote speaker, David Brower, for distribution.
"The largest 100 corporations have incomes greater than half the member countries of the U.N.," Grossman writes. "70% of all international trade is directed by 500 corporations. Global corporations enter and leave communities at will, shaping the future of people, thought, ecosystems, and the Earth. . . Leaders of these fictions exercise what amounts to sovereign control over vast lands, over education and information, over jobs and income, over our governments."
The power of corporations arose from drastic alterations in our original incorporation laws, which law students are simply trained to accept, rather than challenge.
(Originally) "Corporations were obligated "to obey all laws, to serve the common good, and to cause no harm."
Calling regulatory and administrative laws a stacked deck -- the National Environmental Policy Act does not mention corporations or require anything of them; the Taft-Hartley Act was written by corporate lawyers -- Grossman asserts that our time, energy and resources are funneled into these arenas where even if we "win," we don't win much. We get strategies that legalize the poisoning of the air and water, legalize clearcutting, set compensation amounts for corporate harms, and concentrate power in the hands of appointed regulators and administrators insulated from our reach. Strategies are developed to aid corporations reap greater profits as a bribe to act more responsibly, while the privileges and immunities corporations have usurped are left unchallenged.
Grossman quotes a letter from battle-weary activists to the nation's 15 leading environmental groups: "We believe that it is too late to counter corporate power environmental law-by-environmental law, regulatory struggle-by-struggle. We don't have sufficient time or resources to organize chemical-by-chemical, forest-by-forest, river-by-river, permit-by-permit, technology-by-technology, product-by-product, corporate disaster by corporate disaster. But if we curb or cut off corporate power at its source, all our work will become easier." In Taking Care of Business, Grossman quotes former Supreme Court justice Felix Frankfurter: "the history of constitutional law is the history of the impact of the modern corporation upon the American scene."
Early citizens, fresh from European oppression, were extremely leery of corporations; charters were granted carefully with many restrictions and requirements for periodic review. Corporations were obligated "to obey all laws, to serve the common good, and to cause no harm." States could -- and did -- revoke charters. Prior to 1870, the corporation was a subordinate institution and the use of natural resources, the realm of public decisions.
Then corporations began a campaign to take control. Citizen groups fought a losing battle as wealthy corporations enlisted the power of the courts to reinterpret the laws. The courts ruled that huge, wealthy corporations [could] compete on equal terms with neighborhood businesses and individuals; they were granted the status of personhood, but with more legal rights than people. The "common good" became corporate use of humans and the earth for maximum production and profit.
Traditionally, the burden of damage had been on the business causing the harm; lack of intent was not an acceptable excuse, nor would "good works" get them off the hook. The penalty was not a slap on the wrist or a fine; it was dissolution. This tradition has been totally reversed.
Today corporate owners claim "legal authority over what to make and how to make it, to move money and mountains, to influence elections and bend governments to their will. They insist that once formed, they may operate forever." They enjoy limited liability and freedom from community or worker interference with business judgments, corporate contracts, rate of return on investment. Such decisions are how beyond the reach of democracy, as was exemplified locally in the negotiations between Sony and the City of Springfield to open a Sony plant. Sony insisted the negotiations be secret, and that they would cease if word got out to the public. $12 million in subsidies were granted with no input from the taxpayers.
So, Grossman challenged budding lawyers again: "Can we take away the designation that corporations are "persons" under law, and end corporate "free speech?" Can we stop corporations from interfering in public policy debate and discussion? Can we revoke the charters of multinational corporations? Can we prohibit them from owning other corporations? Can we put corporate officials responsible for murder, mayhem and subversion in jail?" Can we take back our power? Richard Grossman may be contacted at
211.5 Bradford St
Provincetown, MA 02657
508/487-3151
The New Car Emissions Testing Program: An Update
For most New Jersey residents, news of the state's enhanced emission testing program first appeared in October 1995 in the form of a single page anonymous flier. Significantly, neither Governor Whitman, your own state legislators, nor the media, publicized or even acknowledged the new testing program prior to that date.
While somewhat sensationalist by its written approach, and slightly exaggerated in some claims, the anonymous "Vehicle Confiscation Law" flier very accurately stated the core content and impact of the new emissions legislation signed by the Governor in June 1995 - now familiar to millions as SCS-1700.
SCS-1700 - The Facts
New Jersey's new motor vehicle inspection law essentially authorizes the state to hire a private agency to build and operate approximately 45 new inspection stations statewide. Rather than the idle speed tailpipe emissions test currently in use, each vehicle will instead be driven on a set of stationary rollers at varying speeds and engine loads - a dynamometer. Added to the current emissions checked, a new test for oxides of nitrogen will be performed as the vehicle is operated by test personnel at simulated road conditions.
More intensive physical examination for tampering will be performed, as well as a new under hood check for any signs of engine modification. The gas tank and all emissions related equipment will be pressurized to identify leaks.
Due to the combination of highly intensive testing under more stressful engine conditions, virtually all authorities agree that the new failure rate for emissions will increase from the current level of 12%. Documentation from EPA shows a designed test failure rate of 60%. Testing in California using the same type of equipment scheduled for installation here (ASM-5015) recently yielded an overall failure rate of 63% for a sampling of 4,572 vehicles; with a skyrocketing failure rate of 72% for vehicles over 10 years old.
***
"We'll have everyone either leasing their cars for two years or less, or they'll be driving alternate fuel vehicles"
--- DMV Director C. Richard Kamin, Exxon, Linden, N.J., 11/94
***
Vehicles passing this new emissions test will benefit in not being required to return to inspection for another two years. For those that fail, the owner will have one opportunity to repair the vehicle and pass a follow-up test. In order to attempt another re-inspection, a formal written application must be made to DMV detailing the repair work already performed.
While motorists now take their vehicles to inspection in the same month in which their registration is renewed, this new program will require motorists to successfully pass the enhanced inspection PRIOR to registration renewal. Vehicles which, for whatever reason, cannot pass inspection, will have their registrations automatically revoked according to SCS-1700, page 22, line 29, which states: "The director shall deny registration to any motor vehicle that has failed to comply with applicable inspection requirements."
Built into the new inspection program is a waiver system whereby some motorists unable to pass the new enhanced emission test can apply to DMV for permission to drive their vehicle for another two years. That maximum number of waivers which can be issued is set by federal and state law at 3% of total failures. Qualification standards for receiving a waiver have not been established except for the federal requirement that a motorist first spend a minimum of $650 on DMV approved, emissions related repairs.
SCS-1700 currently specifies that no emission failed vehicle can be driven, parked nor operated on any New Jersey road. Following the enactment of SCS-1700, that restriction was quietly extended to all private driveways and parking areas by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. One year later, due to exposure of this fact by the anonymous flier and resulting public outcry, authorities abandoned their control over private property rights and rescinded that specific section of the law - at least for now.
Regardless, most local municipalities already have statutes which prohibit the storage of an unregistered motor vehicle on private property. Many, in fact, permit the seizure of such vehicles from those failing to comply.
To those municipalities not already aggressively enforcing such statutes, the state has created a new bounty on emission failed vehicles by authorizing local police to levy huge fines and seize the license plates of offending vehicles - even offering a 50% kickback. As stated in SCS-1700, page 19, line 40: "An order of license plate confiscation issued by the director shall include an order imposing a civil penalty of $200 on the owner. This civil penalty shall be paid to the State Treasurer, who shall deposit one-half of the amount in the 'Motor Vehicle Inspection Fund'. . . and pay the remaining one half to any municipality or county whose law enforcement, police or peace officers confiscated the plates in accordance with the order of the director."
In addition to the principal sections of SCS-1700, there are many additional aspects to this new law which have also raised concern by motorists and civil liberties activists alike.
Testing at the new inspection stations will be augmented by a series of automatic roadside monitoring stations which will measure tailpipe emissions as a vehicle passes through its detector beam. These devices, now being field tested throughout the state, will report back to DMV any vehicle exceeding a set emissions standard, and include a photograph of the vehicle's license plate for verification. Offending vehicles will then be summoned by DMV to return to an official inspection station for re-testing, or risk additional fines and loss of registration.
In short, the state has enacted legislation which, through a series of events and actions, will ultimately remove a very conservative estimate of 1.4 million cars from the roads and highways of New Jersey!
Legislative Reaction
Legislative response to the public's criticism over SCS-1700 has basically taken the form of total denial. While the facts are explicitly cited in the actual text of the law, Governor Whitman and most legislators have stubbornly held to the claim that such sections will simply be ignored.
Much of the state's rebuttal to the charges that this new inspection program will fail far more motor vehicles than the current test is based upon their substitution of the ASM-5015 test for the I/M-240 test originally specified by EPA. However, the ASM-5015 differs from the I/M-240 only by the speed at which the vehicle is tested, and remains a dynamometer engine stress test having an equal failure rate.
Two independent scientific evaluations of the ASM-5015 test have shown it to be both mechanically flawed and highly unreliable - reports the state tried to suppress. Its false failure rate actually exceeds 50% of all cars tested; meaning that those failing the test will be forced to pay for unnecessary and costly repairs. All evidence shows it flat out does not work, nor will it aid in cleaning up the air! Yet, as stated by EPA and DMV officials, it will help "to get the people out of their cars into mass transit."
Initial claims by DMV that the new testing program will fail only "a few more" cars has since been replaced by the latest failure estimate of 30%, and the unofficial assurance that they will not let the failure rate exceed 45%. State officials have also claimed they will violate federal law, and provide waivers far in excess of the federal 3% limit. They have flatly denied that SCS-1700 will result in the confiscation of any motor vehicles simply because such actions would be taken by local municipalities rather than the state. While special application can be made to DMV to exempt most older collector and historic cars, tough new restrictions will govern their use.
***
"To put it in my assessment of it - - - only in America could a program like this be designed, 'cause they used to come up with ideas like this in the Soviet Union."
---DMV Director C. Richard Kamin, Exxon, Linden, N.J., 11/94
***
This entire controversy originated in 1990 with the Federal Clean Air Act, and with the unconstitutional demand by the U.S. Congress that individual states comply with an enhanced emissions testing program - blackmailing New Jersey and other states by threatening to withhold millions of dollars in critically needed highway funds unless they complied.
While N.J. state legislators are correct in the argument that they are being forced to pursue such a program, it is also true that they have avoided every single opportunity to oppose such federal blackmail - recently refusing to join with other states in opposition to EPA.
Governor Whitman originally strong-armed the legislature into passing SCS-1700 into law in 1995, and continues to be the primary supporter of this program. Whitman has opposed pending legislation to both fully repeal this new emission testing program, as well as legislation to prevent the EPA from withholding federal highway funds.
Media Endorsement
To those individuals distrustful of the generally unfair and biased reporting of the news, coverage of this issue has provided unlimited evidence of the fraud, manipulation and cowardice which exists in the media today.
While noted authorities such as the Wall Street Journal correctly assessed the N.J. legislation in their 6/6/96 feature editorial entitled "Coming Soon: A Plan To Confiscate Your Car," statewide media outlets have supported the program.
Following the anonymous flier, newspapers throughout the state simultaneously ran front page stories in their attempt to calm an angry public - printing blatantly false claims by state officials that no cause for concern existed. Governor Whitman and the legislature reacted by unanimously voting to ban anonymous fliers - an act that should have invoked a massive outcry from the media of First Amendment violations, but did not. Amazingly, the Newark Star-Ledger, in their 4/17/96 editorial, even called for the Attorney General to investigate those involved in the "conspiracy" of handing out literature opposing the program.
For many, revelation that the very same high powered lobbyist hired to promote the state's enhanced emissions program was also a Whitman confidant and lobbyist for the New Jersey Press Association, quickly explained the media's censorship and deliberate manipulation of this issue.
Economic Impact
SCS-1700 will clearly impact black, Hispanic, senior citizens, and lower to moderate income motorists the greatest. Residents losing the use of their only car for work or school will find themselves wholly dependent upon public transportation. Used car dealers will clearly be affected, as will private inspection stations required to purchase expensive new testing equipment. The auto parts business will suffer since only after market parts approved by California's emission control board will be legal for sale or use.
Currently estimated at over $1 billion, state officials continue to insist there will be no cost to New Jersey residents, and no new inspection fees. In virtually every other state where it has been tried, enhanced testing has created widespread public agony and inspection fees as high as $75; the entire test ultimately being thrown out after wasting hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars.
Unfortunately, your legislators are determined to install this program. Falsely reportedly as postponed in their attempt to squelch growing public opposition, the state has quietly solicited bids to build and operate the new testing stations - tentatively scheduled to begin soon after the November elections. Whether they succeed, and whether you lose your car, will be entirely up to you and the action you take!
Sound just too hard to believe? You can get all the facts behind this controversy and learn first hand what Governor Whitman and others intend to do to you beginning right after the November elections by calling the State Office of Legislative Services at 800-792-8630 and requesting a free copy of SCS-1700. Order your copy today! Get Involved! Stand up for your rights and your freedom! VOTE!
For further information on this issue, you can call our 24 hour hotline number at:
908-277-1028. Callers can listen to the above quoted excerpts of the Director of Motor Vehicles describing the state's "Soviet" style new emissions testing program, find out how to reach their legislators and state officials, join our fax network, as well as receive a free trial issue of The Classic Vehicle Advocate Newsletter. Callers can also receive a free trial issue of The Patriot, New Jersey's fastest growing newspaper.
You can also directly access the WEB site of The Classic Vehicle Advocate by going to the following link: http://www.tek5mall.com/index3.html This site contains volumes of documentation regarding enhanced emissions testing, scrappage of older cars, emissions credit training and much, much more. A must for anyone interested in cars, their right to freely travel, and their freedom. It also contains the actual wav sound files of DMV Director Dick Kamin candidly discussing the dangers of the new program, and of what the state intends to do to you.
You can help repeal this dangerous legislation by informing other of the facts surrounding this issue and by asking them to get involved. Forward this HTML file to your friends, relatives and business associates. Post it on newsgroups, or on your own WEB page. Ask others to spread the word. And burn into your brain the words of DMV Director Dick Kamin, when he said:
"Federal EPA wants to come in and take away your Weber cooker in your back yard."
"They are looking at (going after) everything ... that's why they took away your guns first."
e-mail us at: stellacapp@juno.com
New Jersey Freedoms Network
P.O. Box 8513 * Landing, N.J. 07850 * 908-277-1028
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