Do you have a permit for that satire?

Looks like the White House is suing The Onion for the use of the Presidential Seal without "official approval."

Hammer of Truth has come up with their own...umm...use of the the Seal. Wonder how long it'll take to get approval for that. Given how far the Administration has stretched the collective ass of the country, it should be a no-brainer.

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...tee hee...

D.C. Council Fixes Mistake

Props to the D.C. Council for repealing their 'zero-tolerance' DUI law. Too bad it took a lot of people getting arrested for having a single glass of wine to make 'em do it.

"D.C. is once again open for business," said council member Carol Schwartz (R-At Large), principal author of the legislation. She said visitors "can come in and have a glass of wine and not be harassed or intimidated."

The changes would place alcohol levels from .05 to .079 in a "neutral zone" that would require other factors, such as sobriety field tests, to establish a driver's impairment. The changes would bring District law in line with that of Virginia, Maryland and other states.

It still remains to be seen whether Mayor Williams will sign the legislation.

Before yesterday's vote, Williams wrote the council a letter in which he questioned the need to change the law and said police are "not unfairly targeting drivers who have a drink at dinner." After the vote, he issued a statement that criticized the council's action.

Williams noted that six people in the District died last year in alcohol-related crashes in which the driver's blood alcohol level was less than .08.

"The fact that people are dying on the road is reason enough for us to think long and hard about undoing years of federal and local public safety messages that stress: 'Don't Drink and Drive,' " Williams wrote.

How disingenuous can the Mayor be? Six people died last year justifies arresting people who have had one glass of wine? Not hauling people to jail for having one drink is 'undoing years of federal and local public safety messages'? What a tool.

Maybe Mayor Williams just hasn't been teased enough at parties yet.

Members said they are concerned that the story was making headlines across the country and portraying the District as the last refuge of Prohibition. Ambrose said she attended a wedding in Maine this weekend and was teased about it. Council member Vincent B. Orange Sr. (D-Ward 5) said participants at a recent business meeting were jokingly warned not to have a glass of wine lest they be carted away.

"The press is killing us," Orange said.

Note to press: Please keep killing them.

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...drinky drinky...

Irony Translates Well

Check out this post about ambivalent Spanish honoring of George Orwell. I'll bet he's spinning in his grave right now.

Hat tip: Samizdata.

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...who watches the watchers...

Fuck MADD, Fuck 'Zero Tolerance,' and Fuck Asshole Cops

Dear All,
This very special episode of the the Angry Libertarian Alliance is brought to you by the latest abuse of government power by the DC Police (and DMV). As this WaPo story relates, Debra Bolton had a glass of wine with dinner and ended up in jail for blowing a .03. Let me repeat that for emphasis, 'point oh fucking three.' Most of you are probably thinking that that's well below the legal limit, and it is. However,

Bolton, 45, an energy lawyer and single mother of two who lives in Alexandria, had just run into a little-known piece of D.C. law: In the District, a driver can be arrested with as little as .01 blood-alcohol content.

As D.C. police officer Dennis Fair, who arrested Bolton on May 15, put it in an interview recently: "If you get behind the wheel of a car with any measurable amount of alcohol, you will be dealt with in D.C. We have zero tolerance. . . . Anything above .01, we can arrest."

Bolton fought the charges and got them dropped (prosecutors apparently have better things to do). Annoyance over, right? Oh hell no! Time for that bastion of abusive bureaucracy, the DMV, to get involved. Even though the charges were dropped and there was no conviction, the DC DMV "warned that it would suspend her driving privileges at the end of this month unless she went through an alcohol prevention program."

Corey Buffo, the DMV's general counsel, explained that the agency drops its procedures only after a case goes to trial and is dismissed on its merits. "Our burden of proof is lower" than the Superior Court's, he said. "Not enough evidence for them may be enough evidence for us." Yesterday, the DMV decided not to suspend her privileges and issued her a warning instead.

Does anyone else smell a violation of 'due process' rights, because I sure do. Suspending someone's driving privileges based on an arrest alone looks like it's ripe for a Constitutional challenge.

Lesson of the day: Don't drink in DC. At all. Ever.

From today's follow-up story, it looks like MADD, the DC Council member who sponsored the law in the first place, and various other interest groups are backpedalling on this piece-of-shit, nanny state law.

Even D.C. Council member Carol Schwartz (R-At Large), who has sponsored legislation to lower the legal limit for drunken driving, said she was not aware that police officers are arresting drivers who have as little as .01 percent blood alcohol content -- less than from drinking a glass of wine or beer -- in their systems. Nor did she think that such a policy was a good idea.

...

D.C.'s zero-tolerance policy goes back about seven years. In 1998, at the same time Schwartz introduced an amendment to lower the blood alcohol limit for intoxication from .10 to .08 with much media attention, then-Council member Sandy Allen introduced a provision that lowered to .03 the level that a driver could be presumed impaired by alcohol. Both measures passed.

Gee, maybe people should be careful before passing stupid laws. Fuckers.

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...grrr...

UPDATE: If you want to do something about it, then contacting the DC Council would be a good start.

Public Service Announcements We Can Get Behind

The PSAs linked over at mychoice.ca provide some great tips for people who might feel that government has too much control over their lives.

They cover important topics like recycling, water conservation, and the issue that started the ALA, obesity.

"Your government...let us do the choosing."

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...free to choose...

We're down with CLC

Check out College Libertarian Central, another resource for the angry libertarian.

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...keeping it real...