May the city of Philadelphia subject tour guides to hundreds of dollars in fines for engaging in unauthorized talking?
This is the question the Institute for Justice (IJ) seeks to answer in a federal lawsuit filed today, two days before Philadelphia celebrates the signing of the Declaration of Independence, in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
The suit is brought on behalf of three Philadelphia tour guidesMike Tait, Josh Silver and Ann Boulaisseeking to overturn a law enacted in April that will make it illegal for anyone like them to give a tour of much of the citys downtown area without first passing a test and obtaining a government licensewithout, in essence, getting the governments permission to speak.
Effective in October, unlicensed tour guides can face fines of up to $300 per violation and have their businesses shut down.
The government cannot be in the business of deciding who may speak and who may not, said Robert McNamara, a staff attorney with the Institute for Justice, a national public interest law firm with a history of defending free speech and the rights of entrepreneurs.
The Constitution protects your right to communicate for a living, whether you are a journalist, a musician or a tour guide. It makes no more sense to let city officials decide who is allowed to talk about history than it would to let them decide who is allowed to talk about sports.
The new law makes it illegal to give a tour for compensation of the citys main tourist area without first submitting a written application, paying a fee, providing proof of insurance and passing a written examination in order to be granted a license to tour.
The program will be administered and the test developed by an administrative agency to be named by the mayors office. No test has been made public.
The law is targeted at speech and applies only to someone who guides or directs people within the city or offers to do so while provid[ing] information on the Citys geography, history, historic sites, historic structures, historic objects or other places of interest.
The program also discriminates against small or independent tour operators. The law gives the administrative agency complete discretion to exempt large operatorswho would be better able to cope with the costs of regulationfrom the testing requirements, provided the companies have training programs that are equivalent.
The irony of forbidding people to talk about Philadelphias historyincluding the history of the Framers enshrining fundamental American liberties in the Constitutionis not lost on Mike Tait, Josh Silver and Ann Boulais, three Philadelphians who make their living by telling visitors and natives about the history, culture and architecture of the place they love.
Mike, Josh and Ann are serious about their citys historythey share a deep commitment to accuracy as well as entertainment in their toursand they are also serious about the liberties protected by the Constitution, which is why they joined together with the Institute for Justice to strike down the Philadelphia tour guide licensing scheme as a violation of their freedom of speech and right to earn an honest living.
It is the right of every American to challenge laws that are unfair and wrong, said Mike Tait. As a matter of fact, that was fundamentally what the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphiaand the birth of our nationwas all about.
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I still find it ironic that the places that were the most radical for democracy and freedom in the 1770s are the most repressive, highest taxation, and socialist today. Oh how John Adams would weep.
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It's high time to see another Whiskey Rebellion.
If Obama wins with a dhimocrat congress, I guarantee you will see a lot of civil unrest, if not outright rebellion. And I can't promise I won't be a part of it.
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REDDIT > VARIOUS THREADS - seems the Gubbermint wants to give anyone and everyone a PERSONAL TASER BARCELET???
Also from REDDIT {paraph] > IT HAS COME TO THE POINT IN US HISTORY WHERE ORDINARY US CITIZENS ARE NOW WILLING TO GIVE UP PERSONAL FREEDOMS OR LIBERTIES THAT WERE TRADITIONALLY PROTECTED IN THE US CONSTITUTION IN FAVOR OF PERSONAL, ECONOMIC, ENVIRONMENTAL, AND OTHER COLLECTIVE SECURITY???
h/t Jammie-Wearing Fool FORMER Gov. Eliot Spitzer, forced to resign when his trysts with a high-priced hooker were exposed, had repeatedly protested that his State Police bodyguards were watching him too closely, a former top aide recalled.
'I've stayed awake at night thinking about it,' former Spitzer Communications Director Darren Dopp told The Post, adding that he now believes the complaints may have been hints at the scandal to come. 'I've thought about it because it didn't seem right to me at the time,' Dopp said.
Dopp, a key figure in the Dirty Tricks Scandal who has only begun to discuss Spitzer in the last two weeks, said that days after taking office on Jan. 1, 2007, the governor started complaining that his State Police security detail was too involved in his day-to-day - not to mention his nighttime - activities.
'Early on, Eliot was saying, 'I don't like these guys tagging after me. They pick up my bags. They're everywhere.'
'He was regularly complaining, to me and to others, that the security detail was being oppressive,' Dopp continued. 'I was very confused by what he was saying. I said, 'Boss, you sound like Mario [Cuomo] 12 years earlier,' ' said Dopp, who also worked for Gov. Cuomo, known for ditching his security detail so he could mix with the public.
'Eliot was overreacting to the security detail when we started the administration. He kept complaining about the security detail being oppressive,' Dopp said.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/07/2008 08:18 ||
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Ironic given that Spitzer is accused of ordering the state police to report on the activities of Republican lawmakers.
Warning of a "severe weather event", the Met Office said as much as 40mm of rain could fall in parts of northern England this morning
Forecasters predicted heavy showers for much of the week, and said these could set the pattern for the rest of the month and beyond.
The Met Office issued severe weather warnings across parts of northern and south eastern England, warning that up to 40mm of rain could fall in some northern areas today...
A housewife received serious burn injuries in an acid attack by unidentified miscreants at Ghachua village in Sakhipur upazila here early on Saturday. The victim was identified as Parul Akhter, 50, wife of Habibur Rahman of the upazila. Sources said the miscreants threw acid on her late at night when she was sleeping at her room, leaving her critically injured.
The reason behind the acid attack could not be known immediately.
Nope, no possible reason could be determined ...
She was first rushed to the Sadar hospital and later shifted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital following the deterioration of her condition. A case was filed with the police.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/07/2008 00:00 ||
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a convenience store was robbed in Wichita. The weapon was acid which was thrown on the clerk. She is in bad shape.
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...wife of Habibur Rahman of the upazila. Sources said the miscreants threw acid on her late at night when she was sleeping at her room, leaving her critically injured.
So I guess the "miscreants" waited til Habibur got up to take a leak or...sumthin
llinois Sen. Barack Obamas presidential run might pay dividends for Deadheads this year.
Three of the Grateful Deads surviving members Bob Weir, Phil Lesh and Mickey Hart who are grateful not to be dead
reunited for a February fundraiser for Obama in San Francisco, and Hart says it could happen again.
Were not making plans, but I think we stand at the ready to be of service, Hart says. Were all deeply into this, into Barack Obama and the thought of taking this country back in some shape or form, whats left of it its probably one thing we can all agree on! So, you bet, I would spend a night with my brothers for that any time, any place.
Hart says that he and the other Dead alumni have exchanged a few friendly e-mails about doing something more for the campaign, but no firm details have been set. Thats all there really needs to be until the moment really comes, he notes. "Jerry Garcia won't be touring with us, but we'll make sure he's registered to vote."
Weir says the Dead men like Obama for different reasons. He's a Democrat from Chicago; of course the dead people vote for him, silly!
Posted by: Mike ||
07/07/2008 17:02 ||
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Police arrested three out of four people allegedly involved in forcing a couple to parade naked in the Jhok Atra area of Dera Gazi Khan, Sammaa television reported on Sunday. According to the channel, the DG Khan police chief formed a police team after learning about the incident on a television channel. The team arrested suspects Ramzan, Khaliq and Khadim and seized weapons and the woman's clothes from their possession. According to the channel, the suspects told police in preliminary investigations that they wanted to "teach a lesson to the couple, who were their tenants just recently, for buying agricultural land near their house".
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2008 00:00 ||
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funny translation.... but despite the humor, in Pakland, more murder could come of it...
/;)
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
FORMER Gov. Eliot Spitzer, forced to resign when his trysts with a high-priced hooker were exposed, had repeatedly protested that his State Police bodyguards were watching him too closely, a former top aide recalled.
A housewife received serious burn injuries in an acid attack by unidentified miscreants at Ghachua village in Sakhipur upazila here early on Saturday. The victim was identified as Parul Akhter, 50, wife of Habibur Rahman of the upazila. Sources said the miscreants threw acid on her late at night when she was sleeping at her room, leaving her critically injured.
Three of the Grateful Deads surviving members Bob Weir, Phil Lesh and Mickey Hart 
