At the senate hearing on the helmet bill 1368 on Wednesday it became very plain that Senator Carona was going to do everything possible to make his bill look good. After the first pro witness testified they limited time of testimony to two minutes. Sputnik told the committee that he knew exactly who introduced the bill and why, and that the two minute time limit was so that the truth could not be heard. I have never heard so much miss-representation of the truth from “expert” witnesses in my life. Unfortunately for Senator Carona that crafty ol’ bastard that we lovingly call Sputnik had his staff ready, and proceeded to promptly shove the truth up Carona’s ass. Eric Story pounded Carona about this being just another revenue producing bill. I spoke on how it discriminated against a select group of people, and for them to claim that the state having to spend 1.6 million taking care of some bikers with head trauma, was nothing compared to Harris County Medical District spending 100 million on medical care on illegal aliens in 2005, this fact raised some eyebrows. I wish I had been more prepared and al little more eloquent because I was unable to get in some key pieces of evidence. In a face saving statement Carona had said he and tried to work with us in the past and would be happy to do so in the future, he then turned around and said that the $150 thousand medical was not negotiable. The bill was left pending in committee; Sputnik said that he was sure that we could get our helmet bill passed through the house but that Wentworth and Carona would kill it in the senate. The big thing for me was that some of the senators on the committee quickly realized that this hearing was a setup and not designed to seek the truth and was nothing but a vendetta by Carona the lapdog of the insurance companies, against bikers. Land commissioner Jerry Patterson told the committee that if this $150 thousand was good for bikers then put it on everyone.
Dana Young
Southern Raiders West Houston
Chairman, Houston Region Confederation of Clubs
