You may recall how, back in April, Tennessee state Sen. Jon Lundberg bestowed upon himself a resolution declaring Tennessee state Sen. Jon Lundberg the kindest bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being in the history of EVER. This week, Sen. Lundberg, recognizing that he'll never match his confrere Stacy Campfield in the sheer asshattery needed to win Wonkette's coveted Legislative Shitmuffin of the Year Award, made a clever play for recognition in the still-prestigious subcategory of Outstanding Achievement in Vanity Legislation: He co-sponsored a bill to take down a traffic camera that issued him a speeding ticket in 2010. Take that, roadside robot tyrants!
Lundberg received a ticket in 2010 when the camera caught his Ford doing 60 miles per hour in a 45 zone in Bluff City. The traffic camera does not capture images of the driver's face, and Lundberg insisted that, like everyone who's ever gotten a traffic-cam ticket, that he happened to not be driving his vehicle that day, since it was being driven by an employee of his public relations firm, or maybe his mother, who was feeling poorly at the time, and finds that a little recreational speeding lifts her spirits. Or it could have been teenaged gangster-bangers out for a joyride, you never know.
According to the Nashville City Paper, the bill is "[n]arrowly written to apply only in Bluff City," and would make "the two traffic cameras in the city illegal once its contract with the provider expire[s] in late 2014."
Asked about the seeming vendetta against the radar camera what done him wrong, Lundberg insisted that personal animus against the inanimate object was the farthest thing from his mind:
The traffic camera speeding ticket “has absolutely zero effect” on his decision to sponsor the bill, Lundberg told The City Paper. “In fact, until you said that, I completely forgot about that.”
Rumors that Lundberg was drafting a bill to have the Nashville City Paper's offices seized under eminent domain, to be replaced with an Exploding Foamy Pigshit Research Institute, could not be confirmed at press time.
[ Gawker / Nashville City Paper ]
Even more amazing is that his fellow fuckwads would vote for his bill. They must all have personal-enrichment and fuck-my-enemies bills, for which they trade their votes like baseball cards.
It's the hick one-cop towns with the $400 pay-now-or-go-to-jail fines that take the shine off of what would otherwise be a sensible form of enforcement.
Fortunately (inevitably), <a href="http:\/\/www.trapster.com\/" target="_blank">there&#039;s an app for that. </a>