Weekly GOP Message From Sen. Colin Bonini

51 Comments on "Weekly GOP Message From Sen. Colin Bonini"

  1. Frank Knotts says:

    I have to say, that the one thing missing from this message from a person who describes himself as a conservative, is the fact that receiving a speeding ticket, no matter the cost, is a personal responsibility.
    I as a motorist have the ability to not get a speeding ticket by not speeding. The state and towns spend a lot of money on signage to make sure we know the speed limits. It is up to the “INDIVIDUAL” motorist to monitor their own vehicle’s speed, and if they break the law, then there are penalties.
    I am not sure what Sen. Bonini’s message was here. Was it that fines are too high for those who break the law? Was it that we should do away with all speed limit laws? Or was this simply low hanging fruit for a lazy gubernatorial candidate?

  2. Pat Fish says:

    He keeps saying “MINOR” traffic violations but doesn’t really say what he means. Speeding is a serious traffic violation as I see it.

    I think it’s kind of a dopey weekly GOP address. I think making Delaware a sanctuary state is a more pressing issue.

  3. Dunleve says:

    You do have the ability to not get traffic violations, but, Bonini is correct. It is just a BS revenue generating scheme.

    Just agreeing with asinine laws is just as bad.

    And Pat it is a minor violation. Speeding violations solve what. Accidents happen at intersections. Do your homework and you will find that 55 became the national maximum speed, not to protect your safety, but to conserve energy. And before the enforcement in Town response comes, why are all the Town police on Rt 13 and 113.

    Failing to yield right of way is a serious violation.

  4. Pat Fish says:

    I’m sorry Dunleve but I mostly don’t understand your response. First, I said speeding was a serious TRAFFIC violation, not a serious violaton. Though I’d argue it’s that too.

    And if I’d done my homework? You’re serious? To respond to this post I should have lookd up and discovered that the 55mph speed limit was to conserve energy. Which is true, btw, as I remember it well. It didn’t work ether. Now speeds are up to 70mps on Interstates because that stupid 55 thing was using MORE energy.

    See, didn’t have to look it up. as is oten the case, I already knew it.

    But I don’t know what this has to do with anything on this post subject.

    First, I am so NOT impressed by Bonini in this statement, though he does okay. Sort of. Second, somebody tell Bonini that the fines on these speed limits increase so that Delaware may draw revenue from the TOURISTS!

    They are the ones who go badaboombadabing through the small towns. Somebody supposedly living in Delaware should know the speed traps and Bonini’s young friends don’t sound too smart.

    And Dunleve….what do speeding violations solve? Good question I suppose, depending on rate of excess speed, locale, that sort of thing.

    But yeah, mostly we have speed limits to maybe slow down the tourists a bit and what the hell, raise a little more money from them. Hell they’re on vacation, they don’t mind.

    I rarely answer comments. Thank me very much.

  5. Frank Knotts says:

    So Dunleve, it may be a BS revenue generator as you say, but unlike licensing fees and registration fees, this is one we as “INDIVIDUALS ” can avoid paying. The same as you can avoid capital punishment by not murdering someone.

  6. Dunleve says:

    Well then let me rephrase my point.

    Speeding has become a revenue generating machine for the State and municipalities in this State. I speed, get caught speeding, and pay the fines; but I detest the BS fees tacked on to each ticket. Victims compensations, and yes EMS service fee, etc. It is a never ending place where budget holes get plugged and no one cries foul.

    And Pat you are correct. Speeding is serious. Serious MONEY.

    128,000 traffic citations written that year. nearly half were for speeding. If true safety were a concern, as is often claimed, then citations would be written at intersections where accidents happen.

    You can’t compare it to Capital offenses, because there has been no harm, only the assumption that your actions could increase the chances of harm happening. I alluded to Town’s earlier, if there was concern for the residents in the 25 MPH and 35 MPH zones, where pedestrians are not expecting 55 MPH, why are speed traps on the highways.

  7. Dunleve says:

    And this isn’t a shot at the officers doing their jobs, they didn’t write the Laws. If someone other than Bonini were making this point it may be received differently.

  8. Frank Knotts says:

    Dunleve, you say, ” I speed, get caught speeding, and pay the fines”. That is the end of your statement as being relevant.
    Are you saying that you are ok with paying the “fine” for speeding if it is only $29.00, but you have a problem with the “tacked” on fees?
    If you are so bothered by it, then don’t speed! It sounds like you are making the case, that if the fees were not added to make the fines sooooooooo! high, you would speed more.
    What if the fees were removed, but the $29.00 fine was raised to $190.00 straight out, would that be ok?
    Just lift your foot and leave five minutes sooner and avoid the fines, and stop supporting ” never ending place where budget holes get plugged and no one cries foul.”
    The real point here, is not about the fines, it is that another of the two, so called GOP candidates for Governor, is wasting time talking about surface issues, instead of anything substantial.
    Now all we need is another gun video from Lacey Lafferty, and maybe Sen. Bonini could talk about how the state is wasting it’s time stopping drunk drivers.

  9. waterpirate says:

    This is not new news. Delaware has a loooong history of the so called ” sin taxes “. Breaking the law being a sin in the states eye. We have a full blown budget shortfall crisis again, so tell me if we eliminate the BS fees, where will that money come from to fund and help other things?

  10. fightingbluehen says:

    I wish the police would start enforcing the law on people who don’t know that impeding traffic in the left lane is illegal. Anyway, the cops know that speeding tickets are mostly for revenue. That’s why, thankfully, they mostly target out of state license plates.

  11. Harry Whittington says:

    The government taxed cigarettes for revenue because “people shouldn’t smoke” and then people stopped smoking and it created a budget gap. The government taxed gas because “people need to reduce their gas consumption” and now people are driving cars that use less gas so now they need either to raise the gas tax or tax people based on mileage (see Oregon) because it is causing a budget gap. The government taxed the casinos “because we really don’t want to get into this business but people are going to gamble so let’s make the most of it,” but now people are gambling less and it created a budget gap along with the need to bail out the casinos with millions. Now the government is overtaxing tickets for minor traffic violations to generate revenue, so if people listen to Frank and stop speeding, there’s going to be a budget gap and the government will have to devise another remedy to fill the gap.

    There’s only one remedy for budget gaps: job creation.

  12. Dunleve says:

    Leave 5 minutes sooner?

    That defeats the purpose of trying to gain 5 minutes extra.

  13. Harry Whittington says:

    Frank, people should have to pay 4x the cost of a speeding ticket so a crony can get a state job created for them at 4x what they were making at their last crony state job, or so some crony’s company can get a no bid state contract and charge 4x what a low bidder would have charged.

  14. mouse says:

    And most of the middle and lower middle class jobs have been outsourced to child labor in China so the CEO can get a 10 figure bonus and make millions on stock options while avoiding taxes

  15. Frank Knotts says:

    So stop cronyism by stopping speeding.

  16. delacrat says:

    “… the one thing missing from” Frank’s comment” from a person who describes himself as a conservative,” is that these additional onerous fees constitute a “perverse incentive structure” as described by Sen. Bonini, where program funding is dependent on “citizens violating the law.”

  17. Harry Whittington says:

    So stop cronyism by stopping speeding.

    The government will just lower the speed limits to catch more speeders to continue the cronyism. That’s how it works.

  18. Frank Knotts says:

    A conservative’s first principle in my opinion is personal responsibility! If I don’t speed, I don’t pay a fine, or the onerous fees. You speed , you pay the fines and fees, that is your responsibility, and choice. And choice is liberty. So feel free to speed and fund the big government you demand, I choose not to.

  19. Geezer says:

    “Now speeds are up to 70mps on Interstates because that stupid 55 thing was using MORE energy.

    See, didn’t have to look it up. as is oten the case, I already knew it.”

    Jesus H. Christ in a Prius, but you’re stupid. It did not use more energy. As is often the case, you are wrong.

  20. Dunleve says:

    Failure to obey a stop sign is $25 and 9 MPH over is $29. Which one causes more accidents?

  21. delacrat says:

    “A conservative’s first principle in my opinion is personal responsibility!” – Frank

    Well, Sandra Bland was held so “personally responsible” for not signaling a lane change she wound up dead in jail.

    Maybe Sen. Bonini does not want that happening in here in Delaware as a consequence of cops shaking down citizens to fund routine government programs.

  22. Frank Knotts says:

    Dunleve, to stay on point, the question about the weekly message should be, “Failure to obey a stop sign is $25 and 9 MPH over is $29”, which one creates more jobs? The point here is that the message was superficial and weak.
    Delacrat, I usually try to stay away from statements like this, but to bring that case into this discussion is moronic.

  23. delacrat says:

    Frank,

    What’s moronic is denying the obvious relevance of Sandra Bland to what Sen. Bonini is saying.

  24. Frank Knotts says:

    No Delacrat, what is moronic is attempting to say that the officer in the Bland case was incentivized to pull her over to raise revenue, since the officer had issued her a warning, no fine, no revenue. If his only reason for stopping her was to raise revenue , then how come no fine was issued?

  25. Pat Fish says:

    So you got Geezer jumping in with Jesus in a Prius and just saying I am wrong.

    Is that how it works? Your argument is simply that a commenter is wrong so that’s it?

    Heh.

    Well I happened to be alive and driving during the great reduction to 55 mph and I remember it well.

    But Geezer, well he says you are wrong, Jesus in a Prius, so that’s it.

    I didn’t launch into grand detail about that crap turd of public policy that occurred during the Carter years I believe, because that’s not the purpose of this thread. Though Geezer, he says you’re wrong and that’s his argument. Heh.

    It was because of the gas lines of the Carter years. The mileage on the Interstates was 60mph with some up to 65 mph. Obviously the liberals didn’t like this cause they think we all should be riding trains and packed buses so they jumped like howling monkeys and next thing you know the speed limits on Interstates was reduced to 55mph and it just did not work.

    The argument was that the extra time the reduction in speed limit was causing air conditioners and various machines to run longer, truck drivers that made a living from driving were paying more for food and various for their longer trips…..basically the country hated the 55mph and the arguments were weak but the people of this country did not like the 55mph a single bit.

    Now the Interstate speeds are at least 60….often up to 70 in certain spots. For sure there are no 55mph on Interstates cept maybe round major cities.

    The 55mph didn’t save energy on its surface and hey, even the arguments against were lame but true, in a fashion. The 55mph was a bad idea and the people rose up.

    But if the wonderful an very smart Geezer says I am wrong so I must be.

    And it doesn’t matter how the wonderful Geezer responds….I am outta here.

    I got better thins to do than deal with such moronic commentary.

  26. Dunleve says:

    “””The point here is that the message was superficial and weak.””””

    Paid for by the Delaware Republican Party.

    Takes hard work, a regulatory friendly environment, and risk to bring even a single job to any State.

    The State can’t help the first one, can certainly address the second one, and shouldn’t be in the business in choosing the winners and losers in limiting risk.

  27. delacrat says:

    Frank,

    Places like Prairie View, TX, Ferguson, MO and the former slave states generally, are notorious for money grubbing traffic stops and, more seriously, billing persons for their own stays in the local jails. Anyone who’s lived in any of those places, as I have, knows that went through Sandra Bland’s mind when she saw the flashing lights.

    As Dunleve said “It is just a BS revenue generating scheme.’

    But then, perverse incentives and BS revenue generating schemes are your idea of “personal responsibility” and “moving Delaware forward”.

  28. Frank Knotts says:

    Dunleve, agreed.
    Delacrat, I notice you fail to acknowledge the fact that your original point that Sandra Bland was pulled over due to incentivized police officers, yet no fine was issued for the offense she was pulled over for.
    Instead you double down to play on emotions of a topic that is not relevant to the video message or the point of this post.
    Please turn the page in that well worn progressive playbook, that is if the pages are not stuck together.

  29. Geezer says:

    Well, Pat, since you’ve never responded before I didn’t bother to provide you with a link.

    Your claim was that the 55 mph speed limit did NOT save gas, and you knew it already so you didn’t look it up. Had you bothered looking it up, you would have seen literally millions of articles showing that you are wrong. Here’s one:

    http://acrosstheboard.blogspot.com/2005/10/driving-55-mph-does-save-gas-mileage.html

    It has nothing to do with my intelligence, or even your lack of same. It has to do with your laziness. If you weren’t lazy, you wouldn’t be a conservative in the first place.

    And, just to boot, you’re an a$$hole, too.

  30. Frank Knotts says:

    Geezer, not to get into the middle of you and Pat, but the link you provided actually states that exactly what Pat stated in her last comment. From your link,
    “There are costs the slower you go, however. It took 49 minutes longer to make the trip at 55 mph — three hours and 36 minutes total — but it seemed like forever. Sitting in the slow lane on the highway, tapping the gas pedal to maintain a steady speed of 55 makes the car felt like it was traveling at 25.”
    And since the link also said that most of the fuel use by your car is from sources other than movement, it would seem that if the car is on the road longer it may actually use as much fuel as at higher speeds.

  31. mouse says:

    I almost got nailed the other morning on Rehoboth ave where the cops sit before the circle like a snake in the grass where the speed limit drops quickly to 20 mph. It’s a revenue too, plain and simple. When I see a cop, I figure he is out to raise funds. Not a good situation for the cops to have average citizen feel such contempt

  32. Frank Knotts says:

    Okay, so I guess I owe Sen. Bonini an apology. I thought his message was superficial and lazy. But considering the lack of focus and the superficial comments here, I guess he is a political genius, because it is obvious that voters cannot look past whatever shiny object a candidate throws in front of them to see the deeper meaning and more important issues.
    Obviously voters care only about blaming government fro something they have within their power to avoid.
    The comments here sound just like a 912 Patriot meeting.

  33. mouse says:

    Maybe I should go to one of those meetings lol

  34. Frank Knotts says:

    Wear Kevlar!

  35. delacrat says:

    Frank,

    Sen Bonini wants to dial back the police state. Just what exactly has “deeper meaning and [a] more important issue” than that?

  36. waterpirate says:

    How will you replace the revenue that is lost by ” dialing back the enforcement of posted speed limits” ??????

  37. Frank Knotts says:

    Delacrat is channeling Jeff Christopher now!

  38. Frank Knotts says:

    Next we’ll be hearing about tyranny!?

  39. Geezer says:

    Frank: Gas use is not measured by hours of engine use, but by miles traveled. So no, that’s not what it says.

    I thought you were a truck driver. Do you really think your gas mileage improves as your speed increases?

  40. Geezer says:

    And I’m only commenting because Pat Fish would have to study for several years to make it up to imbecile. My take on Bonini’s position on this incredibly petty issue is that it shows how fundamentally unserious he is. Does he really think the speeding-ticket-paying vote is ripe for the plucking? Does he really have nothing better to pontificate about? He’s a clown.

  41. Frank Knotts says:

    Geezer, in delivery use, the trucks idle and pump half of the time they are in use, so to measure energy usage by miles per gallon would never be accurate. Also, engines use is measured in hours. Are you saying that if an engine is running for 49 more minutes more for the same miles, energy savings wouldn’t be offset?
    And when we are talking about Diesel engines, they actually operate at a higher rate of efficiency at higher speeds than they do at lower speeds, and as for pollution, they also burn cleaner at higher RPMs than at lower RPMs.

  42. mouse says:

    Do conservative republicans agree that CO2 is what keeps Earth warm enough to sustain life, i.e., that CO2 reflects infrared back to Earth and that doubling the CO2 in the atmosphere has reflected more heat back down to earth? Or are the properties of physics liberal biased

  43. mouse says:

    I’m running for party leader

  44. Dunleve says:

    Mouse,

    Who needs to worry about CO2 and its impacts when NOAA just fabricates global warming statistics.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/environment/10916086/The-scandal-of-fiddled-global-warming-data.html

  45. mouse says:

    Ibid.

  46. mouse says:

    CO2 levels in the atmosphere is easy to verify

  47. mouse says:

    The problem is that your dogma and ideology is more important to you than reality. Same with most right wing republicans who get every thought from talk radio or some blow hard bellicose bully on Fix news

  48. Dunleve says:

    Population control to save the planet. Is that how you justify selling baby parts for profit?

  49. Dunleve says:

    My link isn’t a Murdoch company, so you can’t blame the most watched news network.

  50. Dunleve says:

    Reality? If the government is being proven to alter the truth to fit a certain narrative, what reality are you in. You are being folled with your own tax dollars.

  51. mouse says:

    I would recommend reading What we know about climate change by Kerry Emanuel and then re-evaluate the the denier mentality propagated on all the right wing propaganda sources that have no science behind them

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