Home > Political Insider > Archives > 2007 > November > 30 > Entry
The state yanks an anti-Semitic car tag
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The state Department of Revenue is taking out of circulation this automobile license plate: HA8 JWZ.
We learned it from Bill Nigut, the former newsman who is now regional director for Anti-Defamation League. But the Macon Telegraph has a full piece on it today.
Nigut says the plate was issued to Macon resident Frank Gumina, who sought out the ADL for help in getting a new plate.
We haven’t called the revenue department yet, but Nigut’s group is quoting a department spokesman as saying that the plate was randomly generated.
Apparently Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle’s office also got itself involved in the discussion.
The ADL is asking the revenue department to avoid issuing plates that start with H8 or HA8.




DEL.ICIO.US
Comments
By BUSHWACKER
November 30, 2007 12:22 PM | Link to this
Give me a break, most people are too stupid to come up with that one.
YES I SAID IT MOST PEOPLE ARE DUMB AS ROCKS!!!
By Rush
November 30, 2007 1:41 PM | Link to this
Back from lunch, thanks for hanging ‘round folks. You know, I just got off the phone with the folks at Bob Jones U and at the Heritage foundation and we all agreed, the guilty party in this one is Al Queda & it’s evident they’re here and have infiltrated the Georgia dept of Revenue. Hey, maybe we can get 24 to do a show about this?
By This Just In...
November 30, 2007 1:45 PM | Link to this
New Revenue Dept. policy: Tags beginning with HA8 and H8 will only be issued if ending in ‘VOLS’ or ‘GATORS’…
By Dunwoody Dude
November 30, 2007 1:53 PM | Link to this
I guess this means anything with “NGR” is out too? Too racist. You would think that our political leaders would have more important things to worry about, like where the drinking water is going to come from. Heck with the f’in accronyms do your f’in jobs!
By Charles C. Cox
November 30, 2007 2:01 PM | Link to this
Thanks ADL. I never would have noticed. Get serious. Whether is was accidental or intentional, censorship is bad. Biggots have civil rights also!
By BUSHWACKER
November 30, 2007 2:04 PM | Link to this
I guess i can’t have “HA8 ID E ITS”,that would hurt the feelings of 1/2 the people on the road.
By Charles C. Cox
November 30, 2007 2:04 PM | Link to this
Ironically the ACLU, which has a number of Jewish attorneys, would argue against censorship. Bigots have the right of free speech too!
By Pablo
November 30, 2007 2:15 PM | Link to this
Greetings from Macon. Before bashing the dark forces of political correctness, please read the full story in the Macon Telegraph. A man is issued his random antique auto tag and happily puts it on his VW Thing (yes, the one that looks like a German military car). When his mechanic eventaully asks him if hates Jews, the puzzled owner is shown the HA8 JWZ tag and only then realizes why the question came up. He asks the state for a new tag. The state agrees, and to avoid similar incidents, plans to eliminate the HA8 combination from future tags. End of story, let’s move on.
By JRG1705
November 30, 2007 2:16 PM | Link to this
THIS JUST PROVES THAT ANTI-SEMITISM IS ALIVE AND KICKING.
By GatorGuy
November 30, 2007 2:18 PM | Link to this
I think you guys are missing the point. He asked the ACL for help GETTING RID of the plate. Not for help in the defense of it.
By Jim
November 30, 2007 2:21 PM | Link to this
Mr. Cox,
The state doesn’t have to produce something which assists you with your free speech rights, does it? You would probably say they’ll have to stop producing all message license plates if they keep the bigoted messages off. It appears from the report, that the driver wasn’t the culprit, if there even was one. Could have just been a sequential thing that nobody noticed.
By NICK
November 30, 2007 2:28 PM | Link to this
WTF?
Charles is correct about the ACLU having many Jewish lawyers. It is amazing how these Jewish lawyers are all for “freedom of speech” until it happens to offend them……
By Al Gore
November 30, 2007 2:29 PM | Link to this
This is Bush’s fault, it’s becuase of Global Warming!!!! I knew I was right!!!!!!
By Syd
November 30, 2007 2:29 PM | Link to this
Hey Charles Cox. Please explain to us how this has anything to do with free speech, 1st admentment, etc.
By Lee
November 30, 2007 2:30 PM | Link to this
The right to “free speech” does not include the right to INCENDIARY speech or behavior. To quote the bumper sticker: “What if ignorance were painful?” Figure it out.
By Chris 2
November 30, 2007 2:32 PM | Link to this
Hey Chris guess what? Most white americans have black blood (thanks to that forced miscegenation between massa and big mama - you know a lot of the little muts they produced went on to pass as white and married white). So I will just say … Your mama! (cause you know just a drop makes you black according to the nation’s laws).
By Jon
November 30, 2007 2:32 PM | Link to this
GA8 A LIF
By All American Races
November 30, 2007 2:59 PM | Link to this
And Chris, WEH8U.
By Syd
November 30, 2007 3:02 PM | Link to this
Jim…your dead on. Thank you. I hate when people think their rights include requiring/forcing the will of others.
By Big Dad E
November 30, 2007 3:10 PM | Link to this
Not too bright huh Chris?
By mike
November 30, 2007 3:25 PM | Link to this
Can’t anybody read? The tag owner sought out the ADL because he found the tag offensive. No one demanded a H8 tag and was turned down. So where’s the censorship? And for all we know the state probably is “censoring” tag number 123456. And how come you never see any 666 tags around?
By Please Read the Article
November 30, 2007 3:28 PM | Link to this
The organization that got involved, BECAUSE IT WAS ASKED TO BY THE TAG OWNER, is the ADL(Anti-Defamation Leage) not the ACLU. The ADL is a Jewish organization that is focused on supporting Jewish people against anti-semetic activities.
By me
November 30, 2007 3:44 PM | Link to this
Free speech is a bumper sticker on your car that says whatever you want it to say. A plate issued by the state is not.
By MrHughes
November 30, 2007 3:51 PM | Link to this
And, people wonder why Georgia is 49th in education. Reading comprehension is clearly not alive and well unless the article has “Go Dawgs” in the byline.
By Kramer
November 30, 2007 3:58 PM | Link to this
That reminds me of a time when I was living in NYC and the New York Dept. of Revenue sent me the wrong tag for my car. There i was, waiting for my new tags to come in for months and when it finally arrive what does it say, none other than assman. Now this was strange because I had never been a proctologist and would clearly remember requesting such a tag. The lady at the DOR office refused to believe me when I told her this. Well, ironically enough a few day go by and my friend Jerry and I were sitting with our friend George in a proctologist office due to and accident that occured with his father earlier in the day. All of a sudden I notice a picture of a boat on the wall by the name of assman. Long story short, I had found my man, we exchanged tags, and George’s fathers “million to one shot” was rectified with a padded doughnut.
By Lee
November 30, 2007 4:00 PM | Link to this
Hey Meat, I must be retarded because I can’t figure out half of those examples you gave. lol
Talk about sensationalism. When I first read the headline, one would think that some raving lunatic skinhead buying a personalized plate. Then we find out that it was a series of randomly issued letters and numbers that put together, could phonetically be interpreted into a phrase that some people might object to.
Funny that the guy was oblivious to the whole thing. Sorta like the guy going the wrong way down a one way street - “Boy, these people sure are friendly. Everybody’s waving at me.”
Nice touch putting it on a German car though…
By ts
November 30, 2007 4:30 PM | Link to this
The last 3 letters in my license plate is NGR. Now I feel like a racist. I’ve had the same tag for 6 years. I think I am going to sue the Department of Revenue for making me look bad.
By BiteMe
November 30, 2007 4:40 PM | Link to this
Hey Lee, I thought that was ironic as well that it was on a VW (which I am a proud owner of myself!)
This is just silly people, I would never have even noticed, I only try to “read” personalized plates, NOT the ones actually issued by the state.
Once again, the government is going a GREAT JOB.
Kudos, GA…….K U D O S.
By Steve
November 30, 2007 4:56 PM | Link to this
Do you people even know the difference between ACL and ADL?
By BiteMe
November 30, 2007 5:01 PM | Link to this
Opps, I meant DOING a great job.
Kudos to me as well, apparently! :)