With less than 5 hours to go, bids for the Harry Reid/Rush Limbaugh Smear Letter were at $2,100,000.00 . How high will it go?

The Senate, under Harry Reid's direction sent a letter to Clear Channel's CEO Mark Mays, trying to get him to repudiate Rush for the comments. The letter was signed by 41 sissies in the Senate who have nothing better to do than bully a private citizen for his political beliefs, which were taken out of context in the first place.

Clear Channel did not comply, and now Rush has the original letter up for auction on EBAY. You can actually copy and print out the letter. Link to story.

Here is the link to the ebay auction item.

"Ted Nugent: I'd rather she was alive and the car jacker was dead".

There has been much speculation whether or not there should be restrictions on teen drivers. The California High School Conservative has a post on this very topic.

So the real question. should teen drivers have limitations?

Restricting teen drivers may reduce deaths

By KEN THOMAS
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Laws that set numerous strict conditions before teenagers can get a license can reduce fatal crashes involving 16-year-old drivers by up to 21 percent, public health researchers say.

The more restrictions imposed, the greater the reduction.

Examples include a waiting period before a young driver is eligible to move from a learner's permit to an intermediate license, restrictions on driving at night, required hours of supervision by an adult driver and limits on the number of passengers a teenage driver can have.

States with such restrictions as part of strong graduated driver's licensing programs showed declines in fatal crashes involving 16-year-olds, according to a study being released Monday by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.

"We already knew that the programs reduced crash rates of young drivers, but we didn't know which programs were most effective in reducing risk," said Susan P. Baker, a professor at the school. From the study, "it is clear that more comprehensive programs have the greatest effect," she said.

Traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for teenagers. Federal figures show that 16-year-old drivers were involved in 957 fatal crashes that killed 1,111 people in 2004. Those crashes resulted in the deaths of 399 16-year-old drivers and 385 16-year-old passengers.

States put limits on new drivers, but the rules vary. Researchers said that by the end of 2004, 41 states and the District of Columbia had programs that included a learner's permit with supervised training, an intermediate period with a limited amount of unsupervised driving and a final stage without restrictions.

The study based its analysis on programs with these requirements:

-a minimum age of 15 1/2 for earning a learner's permit.

-a waiting period of at least three months after getting a learner's permit before applying for an intermediate license.

-a minimum of 30 hours of supervised driving.

-a minimum age of 16 for obtaining an intermediate state license.

-a minimum age of 17 for full licensing.

-driving restrictions at night.

-a restriction on carrying passengers.

The study found that such programs reduced fatal crashes for 16-year-old drivers by an average of 11 percent.

When the researchers compared states with five program components to states without a program, they found an 18 percent reduction in fatal crashes involving 16-year-old drivers.

Programs with six or seven components were linked to a 21 percent reduction, showing the added benefit.

Researchers found a 16 percent to 21 percent reduction in fatal crashes when the programs included an age requirement, a 3-month wait before applying for an intermediate license, nighttime driving restrictions and either 30 hours of supervised driving or passenger restrictions.

"This study strongly underscores the effectiveness of graduated licensing laws," said Nicole Nason, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. "To states searching for solutions to the tragic problem of fatal crashes involving teenagers, it provides extremely valuable new information."

Researchers used data from 1994-2004 collected by the agency and the Census Bureau. They evaluated graduated licensing programs and fatal crashes in 36 states with the licensing programs and seven without the restrictions.

The Anniston Star

A local Sacramento school is recommending that children walk to school.  Regency Park Elementary which is part of the Rio Linda Union School District, is asking parents NOT to drive their kids to school.  In an effort to keep children away from moving cars, the school is redesigning it's drop off and pick up policy.

In a letter sent home to parents, it starts off with the following paragraph:

  We are encouraging all families living in the Regency Park Community to allow their students to walk to and from school each day.  Kids today don't have as many opportunities to be as physically active as they once did.  At school, physical education time is just 200 minutes every two weeks and is not conducted by a specialist.  Today's children have a wider variety of television programs and video games to entertain them.  These realities are keeping kids from getting regular phyisical activity and may be contributing to a growing number of overweight children, which has increased by 63% over the past 30 years.

We received a seven page handout outlining the schools plan.  You can view it here in .PDF format.

Ok, so it sounds like I am complaining about something good the school is attempting to do.  Wrong!  That's not it at all.  I am all for the fact that the school wants to implement an enviroment that is more safe for our children. 

What I am against is the fact that the school is pushing us to have our children walk to school.  This program needs to be thought out further before they implement it.  Children who are in the First, Second, or even Third grade should not be left alone to walk to school unless it is absolutely necessary.  It is a parents choice and NOT the schools.  Are they going to provide security or protection for my children as they walk to school?  No. 

There are dangerous and vile people out there who prey on kids walking alone.  I went to Megan's Law website and put in the two zip codes that cover my general area and the area my children would have to pass through to get to school.  The database located three individuals that my kids would have to go right by twice a day.  Uh, I don't think so! 

This blog called both Regency Park Elementary School as well as Rio Linda Union School District for comment.  Both declined.  One cited that they were looking in to the matter due to the influx of telephone calls. 

In closing, I am in no way against our children getting additional excercise.  Nor am I against a safer enviroment around vehicles.  I am against the school trying to persuade parents to have their children walk to school so they have less vehicles to deal with. 

On the "Driving Around the School" map on the PDF, they make a statement,  Driving around the school, "IF YOU MUST", follow this path.  "IF I MUST", you're damn skippy I must...

Tonight civil rights pioneer, Rosa Parks passed away. Mrs. Parks was 42 when she committed an act of defiance in 1955 that was to change the course of American history and earn her the title "Mother of the civiuses, restaurants and public accommodations" throughout the South, while legally sanctioned racial discrimination kept blacks out of many jobs and neighborhoods in the North.

Mrs. Parks died at her home of natural causes, said Karen Morgan, a spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. John Conyers (search), D-Mich.