THE NOOSE TIGHTENS

The government slowly and methodically tightens the noose around our throats and no one notices or cares. Do you feel safer than you did in 2000? The Federal government was spending $1.8 trillion per year in 2000. Today they are spending $3.8 trillion, a 111% increase in 12 years. The GDP has risen from $10 trillion to $15.6 trillion over this same time frame, a 56% increase. Do you think the Federal government is twice as good as it was in 2000? Total government spending in the country (Federal, State & Local) has gone from $3.2 trillion in 2000 to $6.3 trillion today. Government spending was 32% of GDP in 2000. Today it is 40% of GDP. Has this been beneficial to the country or your life? We need to open our eyes and realize what is happening before it’s too late.

 

 

Your license plate may be an open book

Monday, October 1,2012

A CAR SAYS a lot about its owner, perhaps a lot more than the owner might suspect.

In an extensive examination of automated license-plate tracking technology, The Wall Street Journal reports that the new tracking devices have the capacity to do more than a one-shot confirmation whether a car is legally registered but over time build a picture of the driver’s habits, travel routes and destinations.

And there is now the capacity to store the information cheaply and in huge quantities. One plate-tracking company, according to the Journal, has 700 million scans on record.

As the cost of plate-tracking technology has dropped, more and more police departments are acquiring the devices — more than one-third of large U.S. police agencies in 2012 by one estimate — many of them paid for by the Department of Homeland Security.

Meanwhile, the camera and software technology to photograph and read license plates has improved dramatically.

Law enforcement agencies say they use the devices to identify stolen cars, ticket scofflaws and track the vehicles of suspected criminals.

THE PRIVACY implications are chilling, especially to the International Association of Chiefs of Police that cautioned the devices can record “vehicles parked at addiction counseling meetings, doctors’ offices, health clinics or even staging areas for protests.”

In the course of their analysis, Journal reporters Julia Angwin and Jennifer Valentino-DeVries found that data about a typical American is collected in more than 20 different ways during everyday activities.

And there is a growing capacity to match this data with credit card, cellphone location, online searches and social network databases.

The early entrant firms to the field of tag tracking were typically started by “repo men,” specialists in retrieving vehicles from deadbeats. Scott Jackson, founder of MVConnect, tells the Journal he would never sell the data his firm collects to marketers or the general public.

THAT’S NOT to say someone else won’t. One firm, Baltimore-based Final Notice Location & Recovery LLC, tells the Journal that it has amassed a database of 19 million plates in locations in Maryland and Washington, D.C. The information is given free to police, but the company tells the newspaper that it soon hopes to sell the information to jail bondsmen, process servers, insurance companies and private investigators.

Privacy stands little chance where there is an economic incentive to intrude upon it. Indeed, privacy seems more and more like a quaint notion left over from the 20th century.

— Scripps Howard News Service

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32 Comments
bluestem
bluestem
October 2, 2012 9:49 am

Already too late. John

Stucky
Stucky
October 2, 2012 9:54 am

You wanna know what really amazes me? Of course you do.

The Progressive Insurance Company spy device …. Snapshot.

Imagine that. Allowing a big insurance company to fucking spy on your driving habits; how fast you drive, distance you drive, when you drive, even your braking habits …. all put in a database. And stupid fucking asshole Americans sign up for thisspy shit …. to save a few bucks.

AKAnon
AKAnon
October 2, 2012 10:24 am

If you don’t have anything to hide, why do you care? (sarc off). I am so sick of hearing that line.

DaveL
DaveL
October 2, 2012 12:16 pm

Stucky says: “Imagine that. Allowing a big insurance company to fucking spy on your driving habits; how fast you drive, distance you drive, when you drive, even your braking habits …. all put in a database..”

Wait until they get your DNA data and then decide whether you will get health insurance, life insurance, even whether you will be born or allowed to survive for a few years. GATTACA is coming.

Colma Rising
Colma Rising
October 2, 2012 1:08 pm

It’s time to sag my pants, and at red lights hop out and do a dance, maybe the hokey-pokey…. for no reason, in the intersection…. on the highway… at the 7-11.

They want to know what I’m all about? There…. that’s what I’m all about.

sangell
sangell
October 2, 2012 1:47 pm

Presumably the license plate itself will soon be replaced by a more ‘surveillance’ friendly RFID device built into the car. I’m really surprised the government hasn’t already insisted this be done so, of course, as to facilitate toll collections, reduce trips to the DMV, locating accidents, helping stranded drivers and other valuable services your highway patrol and state governments offer.

My county just voted to install redlight cameras and, while I am not an aggressive driver and have never been ticketed for running a redlight these things also ticket you for not coming to a complete
stop if you are turning right at an intersection. I was thinking about how hard it would be to install a dash operated ‘shutter’ to shield a license plate or simply rotate the license plate 45 degrees briefly to hide the numbers. I’m sure someone will if they have not already start marketing an easy to install ‘beat the camera system’.

Maddie's Mom
Maddie's Mom
October 2, 2012 3:23 pm

Do it Colma.

And we want video.

ecliptix543
ecliptix543
October 2, 2012 3:26 pm

For those of you with front and rear license plates, my apologies. For the rest of us with only the asstag, just reverse into your parking spaces. Then the little piggies have to actually waddle their fat asses around the car to see the number. If, like me, you’re a paranoid psychotic, then you’ll have parked where you can maintain vision of your vehicle and can thus identify the cop car number and physical description of the Piggie doing the spying. Nothing really to do with that info at the moment, but once the collapse kicks off, you’ll have a nice Christmas List for when you decide to go ‘shopping for cards’.

Seriously, what do the piggies hate the most? When the peasants surveil them and record it. Maybe WE should have some cameras put up around town and use them to get piggies fired or arrested for all the illegal shit they do every day.

JT
JT
October 2, 2012 3:43 pm

This will get you going too, though old news really like this.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/49200378

TPC
TPC
October 2, 2012 3:48 pm

“If you don’t have anything to hide, why do you care? (sarc off). I am so sick of hearing that line.”

Likewise.

Of course, the funny thing here is that the cops get really pissed when WE record THEM (as ecliptix pointed out).

Hypocrites much?

Stucky
Stucky
October 2, 2012 4:40 pm

Admin

Do what I do when I see those cameras …. roll down your window and give them the Big Middle Finger.

Yeah … I’m immature as shit. But, I gotta tell ya … it makes me feel sooooo good!

Corlione M
Corlione M
October 2, 2012 4:50 pm

You want to get really spooked and pissed: TSA had a page up on their website until yesterday saying it was perfectly okay to videotape and take pictures of TSA security checkpoints. Here’s where the page was and here’s what it said:

http://web.archive.org/web/20100211213010/http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/taking_pictures.shtm

Alex Jones launched a campaign yesterday urging travelers to do exactly that — exercise their constitutional rights to photograph public servants in the carrying out of their duties (serving the taxpayers, the folks who pay their fucking salaries.) What did the TSA do? They took down the page:

http://www.tsa.gov/travelvers/airtravel/taking_pictures.shtm

So essentially TSA is telling the taxpayers who pay their salaries to piss off. They don’t work for us. We work for them.

It’s now okay for governments to photograph us and invade our privacy, but apparently we can’t photograph them. Get out while you still can.

TeresaE
TeresaE
October 2, 2012 5:16 pm

If you videotape cops in Illinois (I believe Virginia too, may be others), it is a crime. There is/was a guy in Illinois that was facing a $75,000 fine and years in prison for daring to capture cops on tape, and at his own home. Michigan used to be a “one-party notification” state, which means that only one person needs to know things are being recorded. Granbitch changed that to a “two-party” which means you can’t secretly record anything. But, of course, we still have the “public concent” laws that say if you are in public, you are consenting to being recorded. Cops in public have not (yet) been deemed sacred like they have in Illinois (and other) states.

The laws/regulations are being stacked against us. Resistance is futile and most think it is for the best anyway.

What a wild, wild, world we live in.

JT
JT
October 2, 2012 5:34 pm

I agree 100% with you Admin, it is about $$$$$$ which is a revenue stream for further government spending. They do this all the time with utility rates,fees, and fines too to pay for spending. It is a revenue stream plain and simple. The fact that it may or may not serve a public safety needs is how they sell it. Not new. Managed to keep them out of our town but difficult when a lot of others around us have them and took heat from some because of it. They never report a breakdown of citations issued for what most would assume the purpose of them is, stopping people from blowing thru the intersection vs. a california right on red. Guess you can tell I don’t support these either?

Kill Bill
Kill Bill
October 2, 2012 5:59 pm

I have read many a judge state that in public you have no reason to expect privacy.

Fine.If thats the case our congress, executive office, judges and police do alot of things behind closed doors on public property that have much to do with public policy.

DaveL
DaveL
October 2, 2012 6:39 pm

KB says:

“I have read many a judge state that in public you have no reason to expect privacy.”

DaveL: So Judge if I go into a “public” toilet, I have no right to privacy?

Judge: No you do not.

DaveL: Ok, how about I just take a dump on the sidewalk?

DaveL
DaveL
October 2, 2012 7:00 pm

im puttin all my assets into a blind trust

llpoh
llpoh
October 2, 2012 7:57 pm

Traffic cameras can rake in the dough. Hugely profitable. A revenue stream extraordinaire. God’s gift to tax revenue. They will be everywhere soon enough.

ron
ron
October 2, 2012 8:25 pm

Well when it all starts breaking down and the riots start the police state well come on full steam.
The government seems to be getting ready for it.The average sheep of course dont have a clue.
They all still think the government well take care of them.Mabe in a camp.
Its just something waiting for it.Wondering when and what well bring it on.

Nathan
Nathan
October 2, 2012 10:39 pm

Wow, imagine what it would be like to be so well liked, so well loved, that you could literally do or say ANYTHING and they still adore you! Imagine the long vacations you could take, imagine the free perks you could shower your friends with at someone else’s expense, imagine the money you could make trading the markets that you control, imagine the book deals, the movie deals, the speaking engagements! Imagine the laws you could enact that benefit your position at the expense of the other side. You could do everything wrong and ruin the nation, but in their eyes, you can do NO wrong.

Kind of makes me wonder though. They treat this guy like he is their messiah. But when the real Messiah came once, he did everything RIGHT, but they crucified him. He healed their sick, made the blind see, made the lame walk, raised the dead, fed the multitudes with only one small pouch of food, walked on the water, taught them the mind of God, forgave them of their sins, and empowered them with the Spirit of God. The crowd wanted Barrabas instead: the lying, cheating, killer who felt no remorse and offered no repentance.

Seems as if nothing changes. The crowd chants:

Give us Barrabas. Barrabas Obama. Give us Barrabas. Barrabas Obama. Give us Barrabas. Barrabas Obama.
Give us Barrabas. Barrabas Obama. Give us Barrabas. Barrabas Obama. Give us Barrabas. Barrabas Obama………………………………

Stucky
Stucky
October 2, 2012 10:53 pm

Nathan

Nice “Barrabas” comparison.

The crowd that day also chanted something else. “Crucify Him!! Crucify Him!!”

Crucify Obama!! Crucify Obama!! Crucify Obama! (Let him die for HIS sins, I say!!)

SSS
SSS
October 3, 2012 12:59 am

“Traffic cameras can rake in the dough. Hugely profitable. A revenue stream extraordinaire. God’s gift to tax revenue. They will be everywhere soon enough.”
—-llpoh

Not so. Traffic cameras are expensive to install and maintain, which is usually done through a municipal contract with a private corporation. Once installed, the revenue initially may be attractive, but almost always falls off a cliff once people know that they’re there and either avoid them or slow down in the area. Then there’s the huge problem of people like me who simply throw the fucking ticket away and say, “Catch me if you can.”

So what to do once that attractive revenue comes WAY in under expectations? Why, propose to install MORE fucking cameras, of course. Won’t work. Even in hyper-liberal Tucson, there’s a breaking point at which the uber liberals on the city council finally decide that they may be screwing too much with their base of support and back the fuck off.

llpoh
llpoh
October 3, 2012 1:17 am

SSS – beg to differ. Red light cameras raised $60 millions in Chicago in 2010, perhaps into the 100’s if speed cameras are added:

Revenue From Speed Cameras Could Dwarf Chicago’s Red Light Camera Program

Another article says the revenue stayed the same the following year. DC is making $23 million a year on them with a population of 600k.

llpoh
llpoh
October 3, 2012 1:19 am

“In 2010 a campaign was set up against a speed camera on a dual carriageway in Poole, Dorset in a 30 mph area in the United Kingdom. which had generated £1.3m of fines every year since 1999.”

Ummm – seems people do not get too smart to them.

llpoh
llpoh
October 3, 2012 1:23 am

Quick research seems to say a speed/traffic camera costs around $50k per year to maintain. So the profitability is determined by location, I suppose.

llpoh
llpoh
October 3, 2012 1:36 am

Always wanting to give a balanced view, this article supports SSS:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23710970/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/t/red-light-cameras-too-good-their-own-good/#.UGvN3K680qM

It seems the location of the cameras are important as to whether they make a lot of money.

Interestingly, it says insurers make the MOST money. I think that infringement notices fromthe cameras drives up the cost of insurance to the driver, generating huge premium increases without adding any additional risk to the insurer.

Imagine that, government making laws that help insurers make more money.

Noel Falconer
Noel Falconer
October 3, 2012 9:59 am

Surprise, surprise!

Pray note the similarities between your Homeland Security Act and the Enabling Act that underpinned the Nazi usurpation of total and permanent power in Germany.

While Hitler affirmed and extended this, it derives from Article 48 of the German Constitution of 1920 (in which the meddling fingers of US President Woodrow Wilson can be discerned): ‘In cases where public security or order are seriously disturbed or threatened in the Reich, its President is empowered to take the measures necessary for restoring these.’ More worryingly yet, Hitler was not the first to implement it, that was done by a previous Chancellor, Brüning, much as Bush the Second with the HSA. And, similarly again , both the Bs used these with a discretion their successors did not attempt to match.

America is degenerating into the Fourth Reich.

Brandt Hardin
Brandt Hardin
October 5, 2012 8:54 pm

Traffic cameras are just another form of Policing for Profit as Capitalism distorts our Justice System. These companies are bottom-feeders and take a 40% cut of the tickets while creating MORE dangerous intersections by fixing the lengths of yellow lights to entrap drivers. You can read about how private companies and crooked politicians have turned our Police forces on their ear in every attempt to squeeze money out of the general public at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-privatized-police-state.html