I’ve never cared about what most celebrities believe politically. I usually judge them by their talent and acting ability, and politics doesn’t usually enter in. Of course I make fun of Barbra Streisand, some due to her political views, but mainly because I don’t like anything she’s done. Often topping the list of politically charged celebrities lately are the Dixie Chicks. Now nominated for five Grammy awards, (at the time that I write this, the Grammy Awards have yet to take place) they’ve been catapulted into the limelight again, more for their anti-Bush rhetoric than their music.

Many media outlets have jumped on the chance to once again report on their favorite “bad girls” of country music. Even though they’ve been in the media spotlight for a while, everything has been reignited with their Grammy nomination. While I won’t start throwing well-deserved aspersions about the liberal media, the Dixie Chicks have enjoyed gaining great publicity from their political rantings, while they were supposed to be serious musicians.

The Dixie Chicks threw themselves into the political spotlight in 2003, when on tour in Britain promoting their album “Top of the world,” lead singer Natalie Maines commented to the crowd “Just so you know, we are ashamed the president of the United States is from the state of Texas.” The girls came home to a very unhappy listener base, and were surprised to find their former fans getting rid of their Dixie Chicks merchandise.

After taking three years to formulate and release their first new album after their jump into the partisan side of music, they’ve changed their style quite a bit, moving towards more country-rock to appeal more to the ones that aren’t quite as likely to be offended by their political babblings, even though Maines was quoted as saying “We'd rather be the rock stars of country than the lame-asses of rock.” Yet again, they contradicted themselves “We never in a million years knew people were listening to what we said. Like Emily said, we never use the stage as a place to preach our political beliefs or spiritual beliefs. And we still won't. And that's not what I was doing that night either. It seemed odd to not mention anything about what was going on, granted I mentioned it in the wrong way,” Maines said in 2003.

Despite their claims that they wouldn’t “use the stage as a place to preach our political beliefs or spiritual beliefs,” the Dixie Chicks performed in numerous “Vote for Change” concerts with the likes of Bruce Springsteen, REM, and Dave Matthews. Even though the concerts were attended quite well, they failed to pull the results the performers were hoping for. For instance, they gave six “Vote for Change” concerts in Ohio, which much to the performer’s chagrin, still went to President Bush in 2004.

Mickey Hart, former Grateful Dead member had a few words about politically charged music now. “I think people are paranoid. I think that if they speak out, they think they're gonna get whacked by the government. It's pretty oppressive now. Look at the Dixie Chicks. They got whacked.” There is much evidence that even though they’ve been outspoken against the current administration, the Dixie Chicks are still alive, selling records, and performing at the Grammy Awards show illustrates that they are far from having been “whacked.” Hart also illustrates with his quote that drugs are bad.

When asked about the Dixie Chicks’ commentary, he said “The Dixie Chicks are free to speak their mind. They can say what they want to say. They shouldn't have their feelings hurt just because some people don't want to buy their records when they speak out ... Freedom is a two-way street. I don't really care what the Dixie Chicks said. I want to do what I think is right for the American people, and if some singers or Hollywood stars feel like speaking out, that's fine. That's the great thing about America. It stands in stark contrast to Iraq.”

I’ve never regarded them as good musicians, because I’ve always thought they were terrible. I’ve never liked their songs, I’ve never liked their voices, and I can vaguely remember a time whenever I heard “Goodbye Earl” that my ambitions would turn to making a real-life enactment of Grand Theft Auto 3. The fact remains that even though I regard them going overseas to begin their bashing of our President as cowardly, if I liked their music, I’d likely still listen to it. Luckily for me, that won’t be a problem with the Dixie Chicks anytime soon.

New Decisions in red light cameras still bad.

Lubbock Traffic Engineer Jere Hart and the Lubbock City Council have been under great pressures from citizens and the media since the announcement of red light camera installation. The scrutiny is well placed, because Hart and the Lubbock City Council have chosen to ignore numerous research findings on the effects of red light cameras from different Departments of Transportations from around the world.

There have been many arguments about why the council has chosen to have these cameras installed, and the real intentions finally surfaced late last month. According to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Mayor Pro-Tempore Jim Gilbreath commented on the process of deciding between which companies will supply the city of Lubbock with the red light cameras. “When you get down to the point when you're splitting hairs, money has to come into play.” Councilman Floyd Price didn’t necessarily share the same sentiment. “We are so focused on how much money we're going to make. Are we placing those cameras for the sole purpose of making a dollar or are we doing it for public safety?”

The council has narrowed down the manufacturers of the cameras to two companies. ATS of Scottsdale, Arizona and Redflex, based out of Australia. ATS has promised the city $100,000 more over the five year contract in comparison with Redflex. This extra income is in addition to the 3.3 million dollars the city estimates it will gain during the length of the contract. Gilbreath also added that ATS has connections in the area with a local collection company for collecting fines. If the city implements 12 more cameras from the company in the first year, they would likely be collecting an extra $600,000 over a ten year period.

While I don’t necessarily disagree with Gilbreath’s claim that monetary decisions should be a factor, the fact that this money would come out of our pockets is quite bothersome. It’s been very blatant that the council has been acting purely out of budget concerns instead of concern for the wellbeing of the citizens of Lubbock. They may argue the opposite, but had they heeded the warnings of numerous reports of the detriments of red light cameras, the council would not have given the cameras a second thought.

The Australian Study of Red Light Cameras found that cameras increased accidents. “The results of this study suggest that the installation of the RLC (Red Light Cameras) at these sites did not provide any reduction in accidents, rather there has been increases in rear end and adjacent approaches accidents on a before and after basis and also by comparison with the changes in accidents at intersection signals.” The most extensive American study on red light cameras is the “Burkey-Obeng Study” conducted for the North Carolina Urban Transit Institute found that “The results do not support the view that red light cameras reduce crashes. Instead, we find that RLCs are associated with higher levels of many types and severity categories of crashes.” They go as far to brand red light cameras as a “detriment to safety”.

The Virginia Department of Transportation found that red light cameras increased wrecks overall in Fairfax county by 8-17%, rear endings increased by 50-71%, and overall injury between 7-24%. These numbers are fairly drastic for objects that are supposedly installed for the motorist’s protection.

Most often, the yellow light times are shortened along with the installation of these devices to increase revenue, but KCBD news in Lubbock did a study on how long our yellow times currently are. According to KCBD, Jere Hart was quoted as saying that “A yellow light time is important because it gives people an adequate amount of time to stop before they get to an intersection and gives them adequate time to drive on through the intersection.” The national standard is one second of yellow per 10 miles per hour as designated by the speed limit. KCBD found that many lights in Lubbock were far under this standard, including eight out of the twelve intersections slated to receive red light cameras.

While our local officials may try to feign concern over their constituents’ safety, it’s our job not to believe them when their budgets are at stake. They can’t care much when they’re instituting things that are proven to increase accidents and injury. At least our wallets might be protected in a wreck caused by their decisions, so they can try and strip more money out of them.