The American Legislative Exchange Council: a secretive, corporate-controlled lobby for conservative causes?

"We think Tennessee legislators are being bought and paid for by an exclusive network of corporate lobbyists and special interest groups," said Mary Mancini, executive director of Tennessee Citizen Action.

I think so, too. If the legislature is supposed to be the voice and will of the people, then that ideal has been -- and is being -- perverted and subverted by this organization, which spoon-feeds to state legislators conservative ideological model bills for them to take back to their home states. Tennessee included. You don't think last year's rights restriction law was thought up here in Tennessee, do you?

Overlooking disability insurance can be costly: Worth reading.

Why Has the Social Security Disability Insurance Program Grown So Rapidly? Basically three reasons: (1) The aging of the workforce -- More people are working longer, and older people are more likely to qualify for disability; (2) More women than ever are working and, therefore, potentially eligible for disability, leading to higher numbers of disabled beneficiaries; (3) the 1984 changes in policy expanded the ways in which people could qualify for the disability program. See page 7 of the report.

Note that the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office says nowhere that people are using disability claims as an quasi-unemployment payment. That's because it just ain't so.

Protect Insurance Companies:

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

Sarcasm? Nah.

The dangers of personal watercraft:

On July 4, fellow sophomore and [Duke football] teammate Jamison Crowder collided with Holliday’s vessel while the two were riding personal watercraft on Lake Tillery, about an hour east of Charlotte. Holliday sustained severe head injuries and remains in critical condition at the UNC Hospitals Trauma Center, though he opened his eyes Monday. State authorities said Crowder had not completed a boater education course, and it is unclear whether Holliday had, either.

To paraphrase the late, lamented Sgt. Phil Esterhaus (Hill Street Blues): Let's be careful out there.

This guy really hit the bad luck (and stupidity) DUI trifecta:

The 54-year-old New Mexico resident was booked last month on his seventh -- yes, seventh -- drunk-driving charge. This last one was a real doozy: He injured a local judge who was a passenger in a second car struck in a collision with Yazzie’s vehicle.

It gets worse: Yazzie is suspected of being involved in two hit-and-run accidents that evening before he struck the judge’s car.

And he had two teenage passengers in the car.

You just can't make this kind of stuff up.

This is how it works. First, some blowhard -- in this case, God help us, an elected U.S. Representative -- makes an outrageous and false statement. Then, when he is called on it, he denies he said it, and brands the media -- which simply quoted him -- as an "attack machine."

At sum, what is at work here, especially with the so-called Tea Party, is a variation on the big lie paradigm: prevaricate as loudly and as much as possible; if someone calls the truth of your statement into question, muddy the waters.

Contemptible.

How 1/2 an inch can make all the difference in causing a trip and fall accident:

The Lawyer As Ambulance Chaser:

The real ambulance chasers are not trial lawyers in general, or personal injury lawyers, or even personal injury lawyers that happen to advertise; there’s nothing wrong, unethical, or improper about marketing legal services, about making it known to the public your existence and the nature of what you do. The bulk of their work is nothing more than helping injured people obtain just and fair compensation. Anyone who calls that ambulance chasing is pushing an political agenda.

The real ambulance chasers are the lawyers who see terrible stories in the headlines and either send private investigators or drive out there themselves to solicit, sometimes browbeat, the client into representation by hook or by crook, making guarantees, offering bribes, et cetera. It’s a small fraction of the personal injury world. . . .

Grand Theft Cart? Ted Nugent's Drummer Charged With Golf Cart Theft, DUI

Are Social Security Benefits ‘A Form Of Modern 21st Century Slavery’?

Uh, no. As a Knoxville Social Security Disability lawyer, I get very frustrated when these talking head "pundits" blithely say that when unemployment runs out, then people go and get on Social Security Disability. Believe me, if it was that easy to get approved for Disability, then I would not be getting as many grey hairs as I am.

The fact is that it is damned hard to get approved. It takes an average of 3.5 years to go through the Social Security process. A claimant must have more than a legitimately disabling physical or mental condition even to have chance of getting approved. And even claimants who are obviously incapable of holding a job can, and do, get denied.

Given the delays and uncertainties of seeking Social Security Disability, there is just no way the unemployed are relying on disability to get by. And frankly, the big lie meme tends to make people think any claimant is gaming the system, i.e., that the claimant does not really deserve the disability benefits. The whole approach by these "pundits" is contradictory, anyway. Consider: to collect unemployment, one must certify they are ready, willing and able to work. To get disability, one must prove the obvious -- that there is no job in the national economy for which the claimant is qualified.

This whole argument is just a crock. It's a subterfuge for the real agenda: dismantling the Social Security system, piece by piece.

100 famous guitar riffs in one take. Cool!

Are DUI checkpoints constitutional? This article, from Salt Lake City, suggests that they are not if they are worded so broadly that they are like "throwing out a trawling net to see what you catch." In other words, if the stated purpose of the roadblock is to check for drugs/alcohol, then fine; if it is to check for any criminal activity, then that's impermissibly overbroad.

Which made me wonder. Here in Knoxville:

Officers "issued a total of 1,093 traffic citations during the campaign, including 94 to motorists who were cited for not wearing a seat belt or for violation of the child restraint law, Rausch said in a news release today. Officers also cited 64 motorists for driving on either a suspended or revoked license, or for driving without any license.

Now, it appears true that this Knoxville effort was not in a DUI checkpoint context. But, did the officers really have probable cause to make almost 1,100 stops in an eight hour period? Like I said: makes me wonder.

Drinkers & drivers beware -- DUI tests: Now an offer you can't refuse. I wonder how many times officers sought a search warrant to compel a blood test over the recent holiday?

Man drove through fence, onto Philadelphia runway; charged with DUI. This is a guy who really, really wanted to get out of town, I guess.

If you ever get charged with a Knoxville or East Tennessee DUI after driving onto an airport runway [or for any other reason, for that matter], please give us a call. I think we can help.

Social Security fund running out of money: totally inaccurate. "The author of the Sun Times article and all those who worry about Social Security make a classic mistake: they think the Social Security Trust Fund still exists, that it functions as it did when the program started, and that it could run out of money. That's not been so for more than 40 years."

High times living off Social Security Disability. Not.

'Stella awards' filled with falsehoods: "The 'Stella awards' are ranked lists of personal injury lawsuits that, on their face, are frivolous but resulted in large damage awards. The originators of these lists choose to remain anonymous. The reference to “Stella” comes from Stella Liebeck, now deceased, who in 1992 suffered injuries caused by hot coffee purchased at a McDonald’s restaurant in New Mexico." Here's the takeaway:

For the most part, the Stella awards lawsuits are a complete fiction. In circumstances where there actually was a lawsuit, the description of the lawsuit is incomplete and/or false in important ways. By way of example, the first-place Stella award winner every year is Mrs. Merv Grazinski who, while motoring along in her Winnebago, sets the cruise control, gets up from the driver’s seat to make coffee, has an accident, sues the manufacturer for failure to warn of the risks inherent in this activity and recovers a seven-figure damage award. This story is a fabrication. There never was such a lawsuit.

The article then describes what actually happened in the McDonald's coffee case. I'd almost bet money that the facts are not what you think they are. You, like most other Americans, have been duped by the big lie propaganda from the forces of darkness.

I also recommend the excellent -- and depressing -- documentary, "Hot Coffee," for a more comprehensive look at that Big Insurance and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are doing under the radar screen to usurp your rights in the judicial system. Why is it depressing, you may ask? Because the movie demonstrates convincingly the four-prong strategy to deny you meaningful access to the courts for redress of your legal problems, as well as the unlimited funds the above-named organizations will spend to achieve their goals.

One question I am asked fairly often as a Knoxville Social Security attorney is whether Social Security benefits can be garnished, or otherwise taken away in payment of a legal judgment. The answer is: "maybe." The key seems to be making sure that funds against which a garnishment is attempted are clearly identifiable as Social Security benefit payments. So, the best advice is to make sure the Social Security payments are deposited into their own separate account, and not mixed up with your other cash on hand.

Think you may have a Knoxville Social Security disability claim? Here's a primer on the different kinds of disability options, both public and private.