Common Sense

Arthur Anderson goes down. Enron goes down. Big CEOs in jail. The nation woke up one day and said enough is enough. Don't tell us that just because you hire the best accounting firm you can create your own tax breaks by creating sham companies; just because the SEC in the past has winked at insider trading we are going to continue to allow the big CEOs to get rich because they know when to trade or sell (even going after small trades like the Martha Stewart case). Whether or not all those involved in the crackdown were deserving (in the Anderson case apparently one nose bleed CPA type brought the whole firm down due to bad ethics) I cannot say but what it obvious is that the press through the nation got the legislators and judges concerned and the rest is history. The same needs to happen for DWI. Bad ass lawyers have a job to do but we don't serve as the press. Some of the 1.4 million DWI arrestees (this statistic in contrast to NHTSAs approx. 17k alcohol related deaths) need to stand up and cry foul !! This country has a huge embarrasing problem when we are arresting 99 people for the one idiot who drank too much and killed someone. I WILL BE THE ONE TO SAY IT AND CALL A SPADE A SPADE: BASICALLY ANYONE WHO GETS PULLED OVER WITH ALCOHOL ON THEIR BREATH IS GOING TO JAIL. The field sobriety tests are designed for failure and are ridiculous (this country would go into fullscale war if we made people do these tests to get their driver's licenses on the same NHTSA grading scales). Why the hell do we use breath test technology for evidentiary purposes when for all practical purposes you cannot retest the samples and the tolerance between two samples is so damn high that the body cannot even physically metabolize the difference (.02) within the 2 required minutes ?!? Give me a break why don't ya ?! Now we have a MINIMUM $3k surcharge from Texas DPS you have to pay once you get convicted on top of fines, court costs and court related expenses ?! That is double punishment (OR DOUBLE JEOPARDY FOR YOU JUDGES AND LEGISLATORS READING THIS BLOG AND CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT) and serves NO purpose except for people like me to say "Texas DPS is in the business of making money." This is no different than in the wild west days the local powers that be (the women's Temperance unions because you know the sheriff's were enjoying some drinks at the local saloon) would tax the hell out of liquor establishments to try to get rid of them. Women would parade around town with sign that said something to the effect of: "No lips that have touched liquor will touch mine" (the pics one can find are hilarious !). Yet history repeats itself - the women's temperance union of the 1800s have now turned into MADD. MADD is not about helping victims anymore (even their founder claims this and has left the organization: Candy Lightner whose daughter was killed in a DWI) they are about creating victims: the responsible social drinker into an undeserved criminal. Mend need to quit being impotent and stand up to this nonsense- pillowtalk aside, geez ! Women need to quite lumping everybody together in blind distraction of the real victims out there. Common sense which is not so common anymore......... QUOTE ME, BRAND ME, MAKE ME THE WHIPPING BOY (girl that is) I DON'T CARE. I CONSIDER IT AN HONOR. I AM NOT IMPOTENT, POWERLESS. I HAVE COMMON SENSE AND I AM NOT AFRAID. I AM A PROUD AMERICAN AND AMERICA NEEDS ME AND YOU RIGHT NOW ! HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF.... 100, 200 YEARS FROM NOW SOMEONE WILL REMEMBER AND CALL A SPADE A SPADE. I WILL BE ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THIS WAR. Now everyone: if you do drink, go forth and drink responsibly. Mimi Coffey