BTC DIGEST: TX DHS Conference, Bailout Questioned and RFID news

SAN ANTONIO DHS CONFERENCE COVERS TEXAS FUSION CENTERS

Forums and discussions of the Texas Department of Public Safety's incremental plan for information nexus accounts will take place Tuesday and Thursday during the Texas Homeland Security Conference in San Antonio.

NO TEXAS APPROPRIATION NOTES FOR REAL ID COMPLIANCE
THREAT OF FEDERAL BAILOUT FINANCE LOOMS

BTC FISCAL REPORT - The Texas appropriations notes to move forward database regulation fulfillments are non-existent according to sources at the Texas capitol. However, concerns voiced about resources available from the federal bailout increase the demand for government accountability. Amid the AIG debacle reports have unearthed that bailout finance has serviced ailing banks outside of the U.S. We will keep you updated on any fiscal movement toward DHS finance.



USA TODAY: More Gate Searches for Flyers; TSA

By Thomas Frank, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — A new, more aggressive effort by airport screeners aims to halt randomly selected passengers for a security check just before they step onto their departing plane, according to a government memo obtained by USA TODAY.

Scores of passengers have already been pulled aside for searches as they waited in line at airport gates for boarding calls. Each of the passengers had already passed through security checkpoints when a uniformed Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officer asked them to step out of line to check their IDs or search their carry-on bags.

Passengers can be selected at random or for suspicious behavior, according to a TSA memo dated last Thursday. The program primarily targets riskier flights, according to the memo, which doesn't specify how flights are singled out.

The TSA says it has done occasional checks of passengers at airport gates and that the new stepped-up effort has nothing to do with any particular threat. Rather, the effort is focused on the notion that mixing up tactics makes it harder for terrorists to monitor how security works, said TSA spokesman Greg Soule.

OHIO Organizes Against Real ID with the Ohio Freedom Alliance ....
Check out their action forum here.

Canada Next to Suffer Under RFID Enhanced Drivers Licenses c/o RFID News

Canada’s Province of Quebec has unveiled its Enhanced Driver’s License. The license, which includes both a bar code and an embedded RFID chip, is approved for use as a passport alternative in crossing the U.S. land border.

The enhanced license will cost Quebecers $40 (Canadian) more than a standard license. Provincial officials believe it will be useful for residents who live near the U.S. border and cross it frequently, eliminating the need to carry a passport on a daily basis.

Texas Legislature Voting in Action

Identity That Just Sucks In Texas

It's been a hard week for identity in Texas.

For more of my libertarian readers, we don't want or need more governed identity. So for all my liberal homies, my civil libertarians, my brown people, my grandmas and grandpas with no birth certificate, I'm drinking one for you. Because the likelihood that ID is required to vote makes voting now a suspicious activity where they need to know who you are.

Thank you Kirk Watson; you absolutely suck for attempting to hitch Real ID to this to get the GOP to kill it. May you never sleep again for all the babies you eat in your basement. You are not a good guy.

And here's the bad news:

Texas Senate Passes Voter ID

c/o NorthTexas E- News

Austin - The Texas Senate gave final approval to Senate Bill 362 Joint-Authored by State Senator Craig Estes (R-Wichita Falls) to require voters to present proof of their identity when casting ballots during Early Voting or on Election Day.

"Voter ID is an important step toward preventing voter fraud," said Estes. "Voter fraud is a very real threat to the legitimacy of our electoral system, and in a close election could very well compromise the results of what voters would rightly expect to be a fair and honest election."

Meh, it could be worse, right? Yeah... and it is.

In the last to know stack was, Yours Truly, who found out about HB 4036 filed by Texas House Public Safety Chairman, Tommy Merritt, among 4,244 bills filed in the House and 2,203 bills filed in the Senate by 3/13 last Friday. Merritt's staffers had good manners and were very efficient in explaining to me why the Chairman would not be able to author legislation against or opposed to the Real ID. It was simply becuase he had signed on to represent the wishes of DPS baddies who wanted the federal cheddar - possibly even more than he did by filing their bill in favor of the federal ID. We understand. It's not personal. DPS can't let a thing like the Constitution and the 10th Amendment get in the way of servicing the Gods of globalized business, especially when the withdrawls are so painful.

Which inspires me to create a very large pacifier made from chedda(R) endorsed by WIC programs and drop it right on their big fat Republican doorstep. WAY TO GO MEN - YOU ARE ROCKING THE BASE BIG GOVERNMENT STYLE. Hope you get a love note from Janet N. & Obama - BECAUSE WE THINK YOU SUCK!!!

NEWSMAX: TWIC seen as Threat to Identity

NEWSMAX.com

TWIC is more than just another pretty ID card. Pictures and thumbprints are just the ante.

Sure it will be used for visual identity checks. Card holders will have to present their cards to authorized personnel, who will check the photo, inspect security features on the TWIC and look for signs of tampering. But it gets better (and more efficient): The Coast Guard will conduct vessel and facility inspections and use hand-held readers during spot checks to ensure credentials are valid and identity is verified. A second rulemaking will establish access control requirements, including the use of electronic readers by certain vessel and facility owners and operators. [MORE]

TX IDENTIX PROTEST CANCELLED

Special Thanks to Erica Grignon, for her time and effort to promote her liberty candidacy and leadership in Round Rock/Pflugerville.

The Identix Protest has been cancelled. It was in fact the correct L-1 subsidiaries vendor. However, we need to announce that the shop is so small, that it's a home based business. Apparently, the biometrics industry in Texas is not all that happening; at least where the federal vendor is concerned.

It was hard news for all the spending and planning. People took off from work, set aside time and drove over an hour to be in the remote area of Round Rock. For salt: Identix did get a knock on the door from the 5-11 Campaign to let them know we oppose what they are doing for a living.

The homewoner, whose name will stay omitted for privacy, was accompanied by a wife, kids and household pet. It was a very domestic situation. We felt pretty bad for them. Everyone has a right to privacy. Unfortunately, that also includes biometrics salespeople.

Irony of ironies:

We left a sign in the neighorhood on a federal mailbox that read :

"Protest Cancelled Due to Privacy Concerns - Thanks, The 5-11 Campaign"

Remote Neural Monitoring & EMF

This was sent by a friend watching the 9-11 threads and he picked this up. Thanks, Tim.
Yes, it's a paranoid read. Yes, it's possible. And yes, the digerati know about it and are running four to one in feigning disgust over the awesomeness of this technology.

REMOTE NEURAL MONITORING & THE NSA "For Your Security"

How The NSA Illegally And Unconstitutionally Harasses
Law-Abiding Americans Everyday -

How, you ask? Quite simply, actually. It's done by EMF or ELF Radio Waves,
and a technology known as "Remote Neural Monitoring".
Haven't you ever wondered about that ringing in your left
ear? Well, here are the reason(s). And just why should the
NSA do this, you ask? To silence any who who dare to speak
out against them or any other agency, or the Government
or simply to think for themselves, and "outside the box",
if you will. Think not? Then, read on..........

Gary Franchi on Database Abuse and Real ID

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oELV35omv-0

OTHER DATABASE ABUSES IN PUBLIC HEALTHCARE

Five parents this week filed a federal lawsuit in San Antonio U.S. District Court against the Texas Department of State Health Services (TDSHS), Commissioner David Lakey, M.D., Texas A&M, and Texas A&M Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs Nancy Dickey, M.D., claiming they have unlawfully and deceptively collected blood samples from their children at time of birth and stored those samples indefinitely for undisclosed research purposes, without plaintiffs' knowledge or consent. - Texas Civil Rights Project

State sued over babies' blood:
Parents say storing samples without consent is illegal

By Mary Ann Roser
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Four parents and a pregnant woman sued the state health department Thursday, claiming that its policy of storing infants' blood indefinitely for possible medical research is unconstitutional.

The nonprofit Texas Civil Rights Project in Austin filed the suit on the parents' behalf in U.S. District Court in San Antonio. The suit also names Texas A&M University, which stores the blood for the Department of State Health Services.

The suit claims the state is violating constitutional protections against unlawful searches and seizures as well as state privacy laws. It seeks to stop storage of blood samples without parental consent and asks that samples be destroyed unless the state gets parents' consent.

Since 1965, the state health department has been tasked with screening newborns for birth defects and other disorders under a law that does not require parental consent. In 2002, the health department decided to store the blood samples, so they could be used for possible research and other purposes, such as calibrating lab equipment, department spokesman Doug McBride said.

The state has since amassed 4.2 million samples at the A&M School of Rural Public Health in Bryan.

After the American-Statesman wrote about the practice Feb. 22, some parents said they were angry that their child's blood was now state property without their consent and wanted it returned or destroyed. They feared the blood spots might be used someday to discriminate against their child.

"The screening (for disorders) is fine," said James Harrington, director of the Texas Civil Rights Project. "It's what they're doing afterwards."

The state health department has said the samples could one day help scientists find causes or cures for diseases, adding that infant's identities are not on the paper cards holding the blood spots.

Earlier this month, it said it would consider destroying samples from parents who sent letters, provided it could find a legal way to do so. Harrington called the response inadequate.

"If you want to talk about Big Brother, this is one of its worst incarnations," Harrington said at a news conference while flanked by three of the plaintiffs.

McBride declined to comment on the suit, and officials at Texas A&M could not be reached for comment — although the school was experiencing power outages Thursday, according to a message on one official's voice mail.

Andrea Beleno, 33, of Austin said when her son was born Nov. 4 at Seton Medical Center, she had no idea that blood was drawn, much less stored.

"I think the screening program is good. They test for things that can make babies really sick initially," she said, holding her son.

"And if they'd asked me if I would consent for this blood to be used for specific medical research, ... I would have probably said yes."

But Beleno said she would have said no to storing his blood indefinitely, just as she would refuse to let her own be stored "forever and ever."