(Hat tip to Dustin!)

"These new plates, in the official colors of the State of New York, will help maintain highway safety, reduce the number of unregistered and uninsured vehicles on our roads, and generate $129 million in General Fund revenue over two years, which will help address the State's financial crisis," said State Commissioner of Motor Vehicles David J. Swarts yesterday. It's that $129 million that people are taking issue with.

Where most private owners will only be responsible for one or two cars' worth of $25 fees, small business owners fear the "plate tax" unfairly targets them. It's hard to understand the kerfuffle over a $25 fee, but multiply that by a fleet of, say, 300 vehicles and you begin to understand the objection. An anti-new NY plate site has already sprung up, NoNewPlates.com, where over 57,000 people have already signed a petition opposing the plate's implementation.

Rather than simply representing a permanent increase to registration fees, the new plates are controversial because they're being added as an additional one-off cost for all motorists. Albany is perceived to have manufactured the need for them, suddenly citing visibility concerns with the old plates seemingly out of the blue (and white).

The plates will begin rolling out in March next year, and will be mandatory with all new vehicle registrations and renewals. The state already raised general license and registration fees 25% in September.

[Imgur via Reddit]

And when you're done enjoying the twenty hilarious vanity plates here, head over to the 50 Plates That Slipped By The DMV, and then go to the Michigan Plate It Your Way site and try your own, which we invite you to add to the comments below.

Car: Bentley Continental GTC
State: Arizona
Statement: FMADOFF
Meaning: Seriously, we hate that Madoff guy. We were going to buy a Bugatti but were forced to settle for this.

Car: Uncertain
State: Virginia
Statement: TIMMAY
Meaning: Someone really likes South Park...

Photo Credit: DirtGetsWet

Car: M3 Convertible
State: Uncertain
Statement: MMMOVIT
Meaning: I love my M3. You should also check out my Audi A6: AAAAAA.

Car: Chrysler Sebring
State: Uncertain
Statement: 693-WAY
Meaning: Someone is double-jointed

Car: Jeep XJ
State: New York
Statement: MMMBACON
Meaning: Either he thinks he has an M3, or he loves bacon.

Photo Credit: Topcultured

Car: Datsun B210
State: California
Statement: SLO POS
Meaning: Since this was taken from Craigslist it's clear this seller is being completely honest about the slow nature of the car.

Car: Lincoln Town Car
State: California
Statement: 420LIMO
Meaning: "No, Mr. Officer, we always light incense in the car."

Car: Scion xB
State: Virginia
Statement: RIAASUX
Meaning: Who knew the Swedish Pirate Party had a base in Virginia?

Car: Mercedes AMG S63
State: New Jersey
Statement: WAS87K
Meaning: U R TCKY

Car: Mercedes E-Class
State: New York
Statement: GMAIL
Meaning: The rest of the license plate was supposed to read "Franklin@."

(Hat tip to Ivan!)

Car: Unknown
State: Virginia
Statement: JK MEOFF
Meaning: "This is Moe's Tavern. Hold on. Is there a Mr. Meoff here? A Mr. Jack Meoff?"

Photo Credit JK MEOFF

Car: Honda CRV
State: California
Statement: Foreign Organization: 420
Meaning: So there's the official vehicle of the L.A. branch of the Jamaican Growers Association.

(Hat tip to drew!)

Car: Ferrari 360 Spyder
State: Ohio
Statement: UNWED
Meaning: WE KNOW WHY

(Hat tip to James!)

Car: Toyota Prius
State: Tennessee
Statement: N2ANIME
Meaning: We think you and UNWED guy should hang out.

(Hat tip to Doug!)

Car: Ford Edge
State: Unclear
Statement: OHSHIT
Meaning: We think the meaning is pretty clear — this person does not like Ohio.

Car: Porsche 911 Turbo
State: Washington
Statement: TRB0N8R
Meaning: I'm in the middle of a midlife crisis. Help!

(Hat tip to HammSammich!)

Car: Honda Accord
State: Connecticut
Statement: POOP
Meaning: This person sells Port-a-Johns.

(Hat tip to the Comedian!)

Car: Corvette LT1
State: Massachusetts
Statement: BLOGGR
Meaning: Alone.

Photo Credit: NetworkWorld</em.

Car: Hyundai Tiburon
State: Virginia
Statement:2PWN JOO
Meaning: Oh no, he's going to PWN us in his FWD crapbox!

Car: Lexus ES350
State: Florida
Statement: FNGRS EM
Meaning: This guy washes his hands, a lot.

It's Jalopnik! Include your hilarious vanity plate below using the Plate It Your Way site.

If you’re well-versed in license plate speak, you won’t need more than a couple of seconds to realize that Wilkins’s work is the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America, rendered with a plate from every state of the union. Translated from platespeak, it reads as follows:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

America has certainly come a long way since this document was written by the delegates of the Philadelphia Convention in 1787. Delegates who inhabited a world of zero states in the Union, a number which would still be 41 short of the current 50 at the time of the Constitution’s ratification on June 21, 1788.

A world of no paved roads, no internal combustion engines and—if rumors are to be believed—no Corvette Sting Rays.

You can see Wilkins’s original at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. If you’d like to hang a copy in your living room, AllPosters.com has 24"×36" prints available for 20 bucks.

Source: Ordinary finds

(Hat tip to Julia!)

On a very early morning in July 2007, I was fiddling with my camera gear in front of a boutique hotel in the Italian resort town of Rimini, waiting for a van to pick me up and drive me to Misano World Circuit, a nearby motorcycle racetrack. Waiting with me was a laconic Serbian cameraman, who told me about his days in Belgrade in the spring of 1999, as NATO planes were bombing the city during Operation Noble Anvil (you’ve got to love that name):

“I woke up during the middle of the night to realize I was flying across my apartment. A rocket had hit a nearby house and the shockwave had knocked me out of my bed. I hit the far wall and escaped without major injuries.”

Sturdy Serbians! He decided to bet against lightning striking twice and didn’t move out of his place—and was proved wrong: another rocket hit his block soon afterwards. He survived yet again.

The NATO planes were flying in support of Kosovo, a breakaway Albanian province of Yugoslavia where the Serb-dominated Yugoslav military had had a campaign of ethnic cleansing in operation. The Kosovar resistance was led by the Kosovo Liberation Army, a guerrilla group which later became a civilian emergency services organisation.

And just who is Ramush Haradinaj, you may ask. He was one of the commanders of the Kosovo Liberation Army. He went on to become prime minister after Kosovo’s independence. He was later charged for war crimes by the United Nations tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and acquitted of them last spring. As you would expect from a man who had commanded soldiers in the Balkans and survived not only to tell the tale but to serve as a politican later on, he is a bad motherfucker. This is clearly evident in William Langewiesche’s profile of Haradinaj in the December 2008 issue of Vanity Fair:

After a one-year stint in the Yugoslav Army, he joined the diaspora in Switzerland and France, where he worked as a manual laborer and nightclub bouncer. During that time he trained for war, competing in marathons, developing contacts, and learning martial arts. He claims to have swum once for 27 hours in the open sea just to prove that he could. Upon his return to the Balkans, around 1995, he began systematically to run guns across the mountains from Albania into Kosovo. After the war started in earnest, he earned the name Rambo for his stubbornness in battle against the Serbs. Picture a blood-drenched fighter holding his ground with a machine gun in each hand. He was wounded many times. He killed a lot of people.

I do not know whether Haradinaj maintains a residence or an automobile in London. But this black-on-black Audi A4 photographed in the UK capital would probably serve him well. It is fast, it is discreet and it’s a world removed from thuggish A8’s. Perfect for a soldier who’s won his war.

Photo Credit: Máté Petrány, Ermal Meta/AFP/Getty Images, Armend Nimani/AFP/Getty Images

These limited edition Obama license plates are just $50! You heard me right, just $50 and you too can be rolling in true 'Bama style. Even though these plates are only good for 60 days beginning February 17th and ending April 17th, the memories will last forever.

But wait! There's more! All of your plate-purchasing dollars will be given straight to Illinois libraries. Not only do you get a stunning pair of Obama plates, but you'll also get that warm feeling that usually only comes from our other great seller, delicious Breakfast Scotch®. Call Now!

[CBN]

[via Flickr]

[Motivated Photos]

Well I know this guy that has this plate making machine, uses original plates, has authentic registration stickers, and with one phone call can make up a few for you!

Each license plate is available for $40, and you can even purchase a mounting bracket to slap it on your vehicle. The available countries include Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. [Product Page via BoJ]

The Department was alerted by a 60-year-old woman whose grandkids clued her into the hidden no-no word on her plate (probably while snickering uncontrollably). She, in turn, ruined everybody's fun by telling the DMV. Letters have gone out to all WTF plate-holders and a free replacement is being made available. (Thanks wookie1901) [WXII12]