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State looks to pull anti-Bush license plate

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by TheForce, May 5, 2007.

  1. TheForce

    TheForce Stop War! Lets Rave! Make Love!

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    Heather Moriah loves the personalized license plates on her silver Prius encouraging the impeachment of President George W. Bush.

    But somebody doesn’t agree. And that somebody complained to the state. Now, the South Dakota Division of Motor Vehicles is trying to recall the plates -- which read MPEACHW. And if Moriah doesn’t turn them in voluntarily, the state might send law-enforcement officers to pick them up.

    More...

    http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2..._bush_plate.txt


    So do you think this would have happed if it were say on an ordinary car? I don't think so.

    I think this is BS. One person complains and you get your plates removed. This is just like the FCC BS. One person sees a tit or heard a "bad word" on TV and complains and that instantly makes it one billion people that were offended. <_<
     
  2. hill

    hill High Fiber Member

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    I smell a FHOP discussion
     
  3. Godiva

    Godiva AmeriKan Citizen

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(theforce @ May 5 2007, 11:19 AM) [snapback]436041[/snapback]</div>
    I think it would have happened no matter what car they are on. I also think the complaintant knows Heather and that Heather is an organizer for the Sierra Club. I think it's personal and I hope she fights.

    But....

    It's an indication of the decline in this country of free speech and our rapid advance toward Fascism.
     
  4. fshagan

    fshagan Senior Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(theforce @ May 5 2007, 08:19 AM) [snapback]436041[/snapback]</div>
    Does the state allow political statements on personalized plates? If they don't, she has no right to them, and as long as the law is administered fairly to all statements, it isn't a violation of her free speech rights. There is plenty of room on the car, I'm sure, for bumper stickers with the same message.

    Usually, the states won't allow political expression as it conveys that the state agrees with it (also the reason they usually won't allow religious sentiments in personalized plates.)
     
  5. priussoris

    priussoris New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Godiva @ May 5 2007, 10:49 AM) [snapback]436050[/snapback]</div>

    I agree it would have happened on any car, But what happened to our Freedom of SPEECH is this not AMERICA

    SHE better fight this

    I think he should be thrown out of office also started a war under false pretense
     
  6. TNPapa

    TNPapa Junior Member

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    You have the right of free speech, but it also has consequences. If you do not like the present administration in 2008 vote for change. I don't hear anyone calling for Ted Kennedy to be removed from office for killing someone while drunk.
     
  7. Charles Suitt

    Charles Suitt Senior Member

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    :eek: MOERATOR.... MODERATOR...

    This is in the wrong forum. Please move it to FHOP ASAP. Gross political statements and opinions are more appropriate there.
     
  8. finman

    finman Senior Member

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    Hey, I know her! And just for the record I had the 1st set of IMPCH W plates from 2005 to 2006. Heather's my sig other and we are moving to PA...in fact, I'm already here and had to get PA plates...still have the IMPCH W plates. Maybe an ebay item?? Hmmm,

    Overall the response has been HUGE. And overly positive and supporting...

    And the whole year I had mine, only a handful of negativity, with many more supporters.
     
  9. larkinmj

    larkinmj New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(finman @ May 5 2007, 03:35 PM) [snapback]436110[/snapback]</div>
    Tell Heather I said she rocks! :)
    And I'm glad I saw this item today- the notice to renew my Sierra Club membership was sitting on my desk. I'll take care of that today!
     
  10. TheForce

    TheForce Stop War! Lets Rave! Make Love!

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    Guess I was in the wrong forum. I swear I was in FHOP when I started a new topic.

    Any way I just think its BS if the state gives you plates or lets you get plates with something on them and then they take them away.

    I do think impeach bush would be better off on a bumper sticker.

    I remember reading a while back that there was an older lady that had her farms name on her plate. She had them for a long time. I forget what it said but it was a computer acronym something like RTFM. I cant find the story now but I think she had hers taken away because someone thought it was offensive.

    I don't really care about the impeach bush part but more on the "this is offensive to me so remove it" part. Impeaching bush NOW would too late to fix anything anyway. Thank God we only have a little more than a year left.

    Penn and Teller had a good episode about a similar subject a few weeks ago. The whole point of their episode was if you find something is offensive to you DON'T LOOK AT IT or DON'T LISTEN TO IT! Its that simple.

    Oh and finman I support you and your SO. :)
     
  11. rudiger

    rudiger Active Member

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    Here's the really pertinent passage in the article:

    <blockquote>Rapid City lawyer Patrick Duffy said there’s plenty of reason to complain. Duffy, who has worked on key civil rights cases involving American Indian voting issues, said action by the state means that any personalized plate must be recalled because of a single complaint, no matter what the message.

    “What this means is that every atheist can now wipe out anything that seems to refer to God,†Duffy said. “Will vanity plates for members of the armed forces suddenly be declared offensive if they offend a single pacifist? It’s absolutely preposterous.â€

    Even obscenity must be judged by the mores and standards of a community, not just one offended individual, Duffy said.

    “Here, all we need is one lone citizen who is apparently invested with the complete authority to determine what is good taste and decency for all the rest of us,†he said. “It seems a little tyrannical to me.â€</blockquote>
    If it were me, and they actually sent LE types to remove my plate, believe me, I'd be calling in every personalized plate I saw as 'offensive', then I'd be suing the state's nice person off when they weren't all recalled in the same manner mine had been yanked.
     
  12. larkinmj

    larkinmj New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(rudiger @ May 5 2007, 04:43 PM) [snapback]436136[/snapback]</div>
    This is precisely what is wrong with their "law". It's vague and subject to whim, and one person can call and have your license plates taken away. In Utah, a person had a license plate that read "Merlot" which was revoked because someone complained. What about all the Prius owners who have personalized license plates that boast of their low gas consumption. If some SUV owner complains, that's the end!
    I'd do the same thing if it happened to me, and in Rhode Island, where it seems every other car has vanity plates, you have have a full time job calling in complaints!
     
  13. priussoris

    priussoris New Member

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    DONT blink your eyes too long, we will lose all out rights remember the FREEDOM OF SPEECH it is on the way to the crapper.
    and for the lawyer to think only religion, he is way off. it was a right that was fought for now we just give them away.

    here take it
     
  14. fshagan

    fshagan Senior Member

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    This really isn't a speech issue.

    The plates don't belong to her, they belong to the state, and the state can disallow any plate for any reason. If the plate offends someone, they pull it. They also will use their own rules, which they don't publish as far as I can tell, to deny a plate that someone would find offensive.
     
  15. jimmyrose

    jimmyrose Member

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    This is crap. They ISSUED the plates - don't they check what's being submitted?

    As far as someone being offended, that's easily handled - look somewhere else - this is a dangerous slope they're on...
     
  16. burritos

    burritos Senior Member

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    I don't think it's a free speech issue. The plates to belong to the state. If they want to pull them, she's more than free to put whatever sticker she wants. Why pay the state 100 bucks a year to make your point.
     
  17. larkinmj

    larkinmj New Member

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    Just because the state will take away a plate it deems offensive does not mean that they won't force you to accept a plate that YOU find offenssive. When I was in high school in New Jersey, a friend of mine's father went to register a car. In NJ, at least back then, they issued plates with three letters followed by three numbers. They handed him a set of plates that began with "GAY". My friend's father demanded another registration number. I don't know that he was particularly anti-gay; he just didn't want it on his license plates. I'm sure that a lot of gay people might not want to advertise it on their license plate. At the registry, he was told that if he refused the plates he was issued, he would have to pay extra for vanity plates. He did eventually get another set of plates, but only after a lot of yelling.
     
  18. TheForce

    TheForce Stop War! Lets Rave! Make Love!

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(larkinmj @ May 5 2007, 11:18 PM) [snapback]436232[/snapback]</div>
    What he could have done is put them on the car for a week or so and write a letter to the the DMV saying he was offended by the plates he seen on a car on the highway or something. Then the DMV would send him a letter to turn in his plates because of a complaint. :lol: :D
     
  19. rudiger

    rudiger Active Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(larkinmj @ May 5 2007, 05:13 PM) [snapback]436142[/snapback]</div>
    It wouldn't be so bad. You could use a standard form letter addressed to the DMV and just change the vanity plate information for each complaint.

    The biggest problem would be the expense of sending an individual certified letter with a return receipt everytime (I'm guessing it's probably around $3) so you had a record to take to your lawyer if the state failed to remove each and every vanity plate that was complained about. Maybe it would be possible to send a single letter listing all of the vanity plates that were offensive. That would be interesting to see if it worked because some states have websites where you can look up vanity plate availability. It would then be possible to simply go to the website, look up and record every vanity plate, then just list them all at once.

    Of course, judging from the kangaroo court that state's justice systems have become, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if the case was summarily thrown out as 'frivolous', probably using the argument that the complaintant wasn't specifically complaining about individual plates but about vanity plates as a whole. IOW, everyone gets a chance to complain about and have one vanity plate removed, but that's it.

    Regardless, whoever embarked on such a legal journey should probably have deep pockets because there'd likely be a lengthy and expensive appeals process involved to be able to ultimately prevail.
     
  20. Godiva

    Godiva AmeriKan Citizen

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(rudiger @ May 6 2007, 08:12 AM) [snapback]436317[/snapback]</div>
    Well, if the complaints that were ignored were in any way public record or something Heather's lawyer could access, it could help her case that the state isn't consistent and she is being singled out.