Reply #34: We can't even get a texting ban before the Idaho governor

[jmowreader]

In the 2010 session the Legislature produced a good solid texting-while-driving ban. The Senate wanted to declare texting-while-driving a misdemeanor offense. Okay, that's a LITTLE harsh, so the House wrote a nice bill that said texting while driving was going to be a civil infraction--$50 plus court costs for the first offense, $100 plus costs for the second. So far so good. The Senate amended the bill to create a misdemeanor offense for causing damage while texting. The bill went back to the House, where one Raul Labrador killed it because he wasn't happy with the misdemeanor provisions of the bill. (And then the stupid fuck got elected to Congress. We were better off with Walt Minnick.)

The 2011 session produced a bill that was stupendous in its idiocy: Texting while driving would only be illegal if it distracted the driver. That one died a well-deserved death.

What I cannot understand is, this is 2011. There is Internet connectivity in this state. There are computers in this state. How fucking hard would it be to use one of these computers and some of this Internet connectivity to go to some other state's Senate website, download a texting-while-driving ban law that another governor has already signed, change the name of that state to "Idaho" everywhere it appears, and drop the damn thing into the hopper?