ABATE of Florida finally sees the light HB 137 is very Bad law.

Mike "Radar" Price State Legislative Director of ABATE of Florida, Inc. statelegislative@abateflorida.com  Has put out a one page document dated 9-16-08 that is probably as close to an admission of "whoops we screwed up" that will ever come out of ABATE of Florida.The report details just how bad the law that resulted from passage of HB137 is. At one point he states,

"This comes as a complete surprise and is being dealt with as rapidly as possible. Unfortunately, it will take the next legislative session to get this corrected."

As many know, getting a law undone is a whole heap harder than stopping it to begin with. Which is what we tried to do despite the constant protestations from the President of ABATE of Florida, that the "bill is Dead".  "Do not write your representatives."

You can see Mike Prices report here. I suggest it be read for it's educational value.

That ABATE of Florida has moved into damage control mode is evidenced by the following statement from the report:

"I have discussed my findings with Doc (our Lobbyist) Note: and (Florida ABATE President) and we have already begun a level of communication to correct this situation. It is important to understand that virtually no one with certainty has interpreted this law the correct way until the Clerk of Courts offered an "official" position. While there have been questions and confusion, that I have tried to address myself, it is the court system that ultimately has defined the position and has distributed the answer."

The problem is, the damage has been done.

There were a number of people that saw the egregiousness of this bill and fought against it. Including the AMA (American Motorcycle Association), members of B.O.L.T. , contributors to this site and others and probably more  "independent" Bikers from the erst of the country than from Florida. All of whom were demonized and vilified by the one person who played a major role in allowing this bill to pass. The President of ABATE of Florida himself, who did his best to exclude everybody but himself from participating in the legislative process.

Rather than seek help in the form of unifying Florida Bikers he alienated many by by perpetuating his own view that nobody knows anything but him.

Our first post on HB137 was on 9-27-09. From that date on contributors on this site, Bruce and Ray's forum and others began asking questions.

As a result the constant permutations of facts being thrown about by the ABATE of Florida oresident on 1-12-08 we posted the following:

"A brief chronology of FL HB137 and the duplicity of ABATE of Florida". It can be found here:
http://www.bigbendbikersforfreedom.com/2008/01/brief-chronology-of-fl-hb137-and.html

Wherein we documented a blow by blow history of the bill to that point.

Three pages of links to subsequent posts we made documenting the the continuing history of HB137 and the bizarre actions of the President of ABATE of Florida can be found here:

Many people dismissed many of our postings as "sour grapes" and/or "personal vendetta's" against the President of ABATE of Florida. When the truth is, we told the truth and the facts bear that out.

Now this "we" looks for no validation from those who engaged in contempt prior to investigation. Our concern is, and has been, the preservation and protection of  Bikers rights and freedoms (and by extension the rights and freedoms of all). Including protection from those within our own camp that would seek to control us our shut us up. Which of course is not going to happen.

The passage of HB137 into law has implications far beyond the severity of it's contents. It clearly demonstrated to the Florida legislature that the Motorcycle Rights Movement in Florida is broken, has little support or power.

As much as I would like to lay the blame for this at the feet of the President of ABATE of Florida, I can't.

The blame lies with every Florida biker who sat on their ass and let somebody else do "their" work for them without question. The sad thing is that this is not just endemic to the Bikers rights movement. It is a microcosm of the state of the country as a whole.Add to Technorati Favorites

Allowing politico's to rob and control you

The rest of the story. O.K. a few posts down we said we was gonna tie this together for you.  We just have to figure out how. So lets try this. If you read the links in the red light posts you saw how cities were manipulating the law and devices in order to rape your wallet.  We progressed from that to how they can use some of the same means to track your ass (see they want to make sure you go to work and make them some mo money).

But see they have to do that. That way the money that trickles  back and forth between states and the Fed enables YOU to buy 80 percent of a company that has already lost YOU a heap of money. 

What you say? You don't even know who AIG is?  Guess what? YOUR pensions plans, retirement funds, 401k's etc., know who they are.  If you are lucky enough to have one of those things then you have also been lucky enough to lose money as a result of this debacle that didn't start with, and won't end with, AIG.  

Yes it is convoluted but it don't worry because it does get worse. Follow along now:

American International Group will get an $85 billion loan from the federal government in exchange for an 80 percent stake in itself. CNBC

Read that to be 85 billion of our tax dollars. Yes they say it is a loan but shortly we are going to tell you how it isn't. first off,

Ron Shelp, a former AIG vice president and one of Greenberg's lieutenants who has written a book about AIG, called it a "culture of influence." "It was a belief that you can bring most government officials around to your view," he said. For instance, AIG worried about whether countries would try to nationalize its insurance subsidiaries.  AIG lobbyists worked to persuade U.S. lawmakers to impose tariffs or cut off other countries' exports if they acted against the interest of U.S. corporations operating subsidiaries overseas, Shelp said.

O.K. so whats new about having a company with a culture of inflluencing the government. Hell they all  know how to manipulate the greedy bastards (read that to mean "our elected representatives) that turned a blind eye while this mess developed.  Problem is, since they know they can do it, and they been doing it, does anybody believe that they are now going to stop doing it? Not I. Heres why.

They named former Allstate CEO  Edward Liddy  as the new AIG CEO.  Liddys total compensation from Allsate last year  $23.98 million Now you think he is going to take on this mess for much less?

But then what does it matter. Cause he just joined a firm that has a culture of screwing the government (and us) by leaving the firm he headed up that has a documented history of screwing over its customers!

Allstate Accused of "Bad Faith" in Hurricane Katrina Payouts

In a statement released Monday, Public Justice, a national public interest law firm headquartered in Washington, D.C., and the California-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR), said they are requesting a New Orleans federal court to keep public key documents relating to a lawsuit stemming from Hurricane Katrina. The lawsuit is being brought against Allstate Insurance Company on the grounds of "bad faith", the failure to pay a legitimate claim on inauthentic grounds of denial.

Allstate has asked the court to keep the documents sealed.

This is not the first time that Allstate has had itself targeted for lawsuits because of a failure to pay claims. A federal court is still waiting for that insurance company to turn over and make public over 12,000 PowerPoint slides made for it by a management consulting firm that started working with the insurer in the early 1990s. The court order was given to Allstate in 2004, and it is amazing that a large corporation is not complying with that order; non-compliance like that is rare.

The company says that it is engaging in "civil disobedience" by denying the order, refusing to let its proprietary secrets and management techniques be stolen by competitors.

But the reason for the court order centers on the claim made by one lawyer in a well-researched book that the management consultant was brought in to show Allstate how to re-structure its claims paying policies and train its claims adjusters in such a way as to be able to avoid paying on a lot of claims by its policy holders.

Allstate also attempted to block the publication of that lawyer's book, which was released in 2006. The insurer says that it was using the management training to be able to better protect itself against insurance fraud.

This journalist had Allstate auto insurance in the later 1990s for one year. Although I had a perfect driving record when I bought the insurance, I was the victim of a four-car accident on a fast-moving New Jersey highway that. No one was injured and I was the only one of the four drivers found faultless While Allstate paid my claim expediently, I was summarily dropped by the insurer months later for unstated grounds. The company informed me that it had chosen to exercise its "two percent rule" option, under which it is permitted by law to drop two percent of its policy holders in any given year for any reason the company finds to be a good one.

My settlement amount for the accident exceeded the amount of premiums that I paid to Allstate in that year's time.

"It appears that Allstate devised its claims-handling process to avoid paying claims to homeowners and did so at the very same time homeowners were, quite literally, stranded and desperate due to the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. These records shed light on Allstate's behavior after Hurricane Katrina and Allstate is afraid of the public scrutiny," said Michael Lucas, a Public Justice attorney.

Source:
Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (PR Newswire), "Consumer Advocates Oppose Allstate Insurance Company's Efforts to Hide Its Post-Katrina Pay-Out Procedures"

 Pervasive Corruption in Russia Is 'Just Called Business' " With greater urgency than ever, anticorruption campaigners and even some government officials warn that the government has become so ensnared by corruption that it threatens to undo Russia's progress since the dismantling of the Soviet Union 14 years ago."

 Wave of Corruption Tarnishes China's Extraordinary Growth China has been shaken by a series of large-scale bank robberies in recent years, but they are not the Bonnie-and-Clyde type. These are inside jobs: top executives, branch managers, loan officers and thousands of everyday employees have been running off with billions in customers' money. Consider what has happened in just the first two months of 2005. First, a branch manager at the Bank of China disappeared with more than $100 million in cash. A few weeks later, dozens of employees of another commercial bank were arrested for conspiring to steal nearly $1 billion. And then midlevel officials of the China Construction Bank fled with about $8 million.

There is no word yet whether any of the money has been recovered. But the chain of events underlines an ugly byproduct of China's aggressive embrace of a freewheeling, get-rich-quick form of capitalism: a long-running wave of corporate and government corruption scandals. The financial scandal watch gained new prominence last week with news reports that Zhang Enzhao, the head of the China Construction Bank, resigned after a lawsuit accused him of having accepted a $1 million bribe from an American company, Alltel Information Services. The bank later issued a statement saying he resigned for "personal reasons."

The scandals are by no means limited to banks. Since the early 1990's, China's modern robber barons have focused on all manner of state-run companies. Brokerage houses, government-controlled investment management firms and dozens of state-owned companies have been looted of billions, according to government investigators. The official media are filled with accounts of executives and public employees accused of embezzling money and sometimes gambling away those funds at border casinos.

People, is this what our forefathers wanted for America?  Is this what you want for America?  We argue over political parties. Which one is right or wrong.  It is any one political party that is to blame.
It is us, you and I for not holding those whom we elect to represent us accountable irregardless of party affiliation.

"It is not only what we do,
but also what we do not do,
for which we are accountable."
MoliereAdd to Technorati Favorites