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Got pictures from along the Strand you want to share?  Please send them to webmaster@ibiker.org and we will put them in an online album for all to see!

 

(NEW)  The 10th Annual Special Needs Rodeo Poker Run will take place on July 24th, 2010, rain or shine.  FOr details see the flier at right or call Jeff at 246-1285.

 

Farewell U S Marine Bill Johnston...Your job on earth is done...Thank You for your Service.....31 PGR members showed & stood for this Great American's last formation...We had 25 bikes ride in to the church parking lot,,,We had riders from Florence, Charleston & the Myrtle Beach area...Thank you all for coming, you made a difference...To see the red,white & blue makes a difference....The family was very pleased...  Click here to view the photo album.

 

We have posted new pics of the 2010 edition of the RTSC3 Drag Boat!  Click here to view the album.

 

We have posted pics from the installation ceremony of ALR Post 196 in Myrtle Beach on March 13th, 2010.  Click here to view the album.

 

US Sentaor Jim DeMint surprised everyone with a visit to ALR on April 7th.  Click here to see the pics...

 

(NEW) Now playing in POT LUCK, a collection of military bumper stickers.  Maybe you don't agree with 'em, but they sure earned the right to say it!

 

quick hits

 

Adopt A MarineIntrepid Fallen Heroes FundPatriot Guard RidersAmerican LegionRolling Thunder, Chapter 3, South Carolina

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Ghost Town -

Ode to Myrtle Beach

All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent. --- Thomas Jefferson, Author, Declaration of Independence

Quote of the Week

 

Musical Dedication to Mayor & MB City Council

Fast Fred's Motorcycle Rigthts e-zine...Warriors WatchBusiness Owners Organized to Save Tourism

Join us every Wednesday at 7:30 pm for the regularly scheduled iBiker Chat Nite!  Meet your fellow iBikers and discuss the issues of the day.  Enter chat room here...

 

Below The FoldClick here for this week's music dedication...

Somewhere along the way, Mayor Rhodes forgot who he serves, the constitution that protects our rights, and who we have to thank for it.

His brand of facist selectivism will not stand.  DO IT AGAIN IN 2010.

The Mayor Says:

 

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Businesses Try to Pretend Last 2 Years Never Happened

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Your Tax Dollars At Work

 

Those of us who grew up in another era recall how McDonald's fast food restaurants would chronicle on their signage the relentless march of "billions served" of their burgers.  Like watching the national debt clock spinning out of control these days, there was a morbid fascination involved as the numbers climbed skyward.  Brad Dean must remember those days and has picked up on the theme.

 

The Sun News is reporting that the Chamber's update to the city council on sales tax revenue and advertising spending in the last quarter involve some remarkable accounting.  The report states that "... sales tax revenue for the first year -- has collected $9.3 million, and has spent the bulk of it on advertising on TV and the Internet in 69 out-of-area markets, reaching 69 billion households."  69 billion households?  One can only say WOW to such a number.  Consider this...

 

According to the U.S. Census estimates, the population of the United States is about 307 million people.  The average number of people per household is 2.59, which makes for about 118.5 million households in the U.S.  This would require their advertising campaign to be seen by every household in the U.S. an average of 582 times each.  Perhaps Brad meant they have advertised more globally.  Well, the population of the entire planet is 6.7 billion, so their ads would have to be seen by every person on the planet about 26.5 times.   No matter how you slice it, that is some aggressive marketing for an area that, until the last couple of years, practically sold itself. 

 

Let us assume for the moment that the article meant to say "69 million households" rather than billion.  In that instance, this implies that the ads have been seen by roughly 60% of the entire country (or an equivalent amount combined between the U.S. and foreign markets).  This would still make for an interesting conundrum.  After all, if the marketing works and MB gets buried under a tide of new visitors, won't that simply be a return to the noise, congestion, big crowds, and other logistical problems the citizens said they wanted to get rid of?  And if the marketing does not work and does not bring a flood of new dollars to replace those they just got done chasing away,then what is the point of it, except to enrich the people doing the advertising?  We don't pretend to have any answers, but it is certainly interesting to watch.  Read the full story here...

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"We Need Help"

 

So says Mary Frances Tall of the Sea Dip Motel & Condos.  Tall is one of many smaller operations in the MB area forced to engage in drastic cuts in pricing to attract any business at all in the wake of a weak economy, ongoing protest boycott, and the complete failure of new "family friendly festivals" to draw any paying tourists to the beach.  Fred Smith at the Sea Hawk motel said business is down 30 to 50 percent and that no bikers had checked in by Friday afternoon.  Smith said he had tried calling his past customers inviting them down and the general response he gets is "Are you kidding, asking me to come to Myrtle Beach?"  Smith attributes most of the problem to the anti-biker ordinances passed 2 years ago.  Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind.  Read the full story here...

Helmet Ordinance Goes Bye Bye (Along with some others)

 

The South Carolina Supreme Court issued their long anticipated ruling on the legality of the Myrtle Beach Helmet ordinance last Tuesday.  The high court struck down the ordinance stating that the puny little city of Myrtle Beach did not have the authority to supercede state law on this subject.  Additionally, the high court noted that the city itself had effectively nullified the ordinances when they repealed the administrative courts designed to hear the cases.  As a result, a number of other ordinances passed under the same umbrella have likewise been struck down unless the city chooses to reissue them as criminal offences. 

 

The ruling comes as no surprise to those who have been following this topic for two years now.  It does not even come as a surprise to the people who voted for them in the first place.  The goal was to eliminate the rallies, and the illegal ordinances accomplished that because of the long deliberative process of courts.  Those who think this is now a green light to try and reconsitute the rallies in Myrtle Beach would be well served to remember this as well as one other fact.  The mayor and the city council cannot be accused of acting as some sort of rogue element within the city of Myrtle Beach.  The elections last fall were a statement by the citizenry of the city that they fully support the actions of the mayor and council.  The majority of them share the hateful anti-biker attitudes that caused the illegal ordinances to be passed into law in the first place.  The Mayor is still there.  So are most of the council, and so are the citizens who thought it was a good idea to trample upon biker's civil rights.

 

So, to those local businesses who think bikers will come crawling back thankful to get a morsel of respect from the Myrtle Beach scraps table, you may have a long wait to see it happen.  We celebrate the Supreme Court ruling, but we also recognize that it does nothing to change the reality of Myrtle Beach.  Councilman Randal Wallace noted significantly "We knew we would be challenged, and our legal advice at the time was that the court could overturn this.  But it's just one tool in a whole basket of tools to bring the rallies under control. I think the people who wreaked havoc and thought Myrtle Beach was just going to be a big, three-week, nonstop party got the message."  Indeed they did.  Your kind is not welcome in Myrtle Beach, and the Supreme Court ruling does nothing to change that.  Still wanna visit?   Click here to read the full story...

PGR Turns Out for Betty Cotney

 

PGR paid their respects to USMC Cpl Betty Cotney on June 8th, 2010.  Bill Stewart passed along the following...

 

"What a great turn out for Woman Marine Corporal Betty Cotney, we had 30 Patriot Guard Riders stand for Betty today.  Everyone commented on how proud Betty would be.  It was  good feeling to do this for this gracious family.  Semper Fi   Betty.  Thanks to all who came, we had riders from Charleston, Summerville, Florence, Loris, Myrtle Beach & Murrells Inlet."

 

We have posted pictures here.

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world.  But the U.S. ARMED FORCES don't have that problem."  ...Ronald Reagan

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First Take on Ruling

 

64% of respondents to a Sun News online poll (as of 6/13/10) say that bikers will not return to Myrtle Beach despite the Supreme Court Ruling.  NOT A DIME UNTIL THE END OF TIME?    Click here to take the poll...

Round 2

 

Fresh from their recent victory against the helmet ordinance, plaintiffs have marched back into court to file a new lawsuit against the City of Myrtle Beach.  In the crosshairs this time is the muffler ordinance.  The lawsuit alleges that “The Ordinance places an illegal burden on the Plaintiffs to purchase and use equipment not mandated by uniform state law in order to operate their motorcycles within the City of Myrtle Beach" and employs similar reasoning that was successful in the challenge of the helmet ordinance.  Meanwhile back at the ranch City spokesman Mark Kruea said Friday that $13,275 in fines from recently struck down ordinances would be refunded soon.  For those interested in seeing just how ridiculously restrictive the noise ordinance is, click hereClick here to read the full story.
 

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City Spokesman Mark Kruea demonstrates Myrtle Beach test methodology for noise ordinance enforcement.

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