SC lawmakers bash Congress to gain voter favor

COLUMBIA, S.C. — With tax collections tanking and jobless rates at record highs, state legislators hundreds of miles from Washington have found an easy way to appeal to conservative voters: Bash the federal government.

Lawmakers in 44 states have introduced measures warning Congress not to trample states' rights and dozens of other resolutions opposing the government on issues including gun control and health care.

Their efforts play to people angry with the status quo. A recent Pew Research Center poll found high anti-incumbent sentiment among voters ahead of the November congressional elections.

"The closer you are to elections, you see legislators with more backbone," said Michael Boldin of the California-based Tenth Amendment Center, a nonpartisan think tank named for the constitutional amendment that specifies any power not granted to the federal government is reserved for the states. "I'm sure there's a lot of grandstanding."

No states are likely to secede from the union, but they could derail or delay federal legislation the way they have by balking at a national identification program billed as a way to fight terrorism and identity theft. Most states still aren't complying with the Real ID law passed in 2005.

In conservative South Carolina, Republican House Majority Leader Kenny Bingham said his caucus made standing up to the federal government a top priority this year.

"I hear it at church, at the barber shop: 'You guys need to stand up.' The issue of federal intrusion is a John Doe issue," he said. "This is a yes-point for us. They're mad. They're upset. They expect us to respond."

That response included passing a resolution to assert the state's rights under several constitutional amendments. It says South Carolina's attorney general will sue if Congress passes mandates the state deems unconstitutional, and that no state agency will follow them while a decision is pending.

"To say public reaction and being vocal doesn't have any influence is ludicrous," Bingham said. "That's how you enact change in a civilized society." :::MORE HERE:::


Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/nation/dont-tread-on-me-state-lawmakers-curry-conservative-favor-with-anti-washington-measures-84717827.html#ixzz0fxwGwaqY

Utah House votes to not comply with Real ID Act

Associated Press - February 18, 2010 7:45 PM ET

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - State agencies would be forbidden from complying any further with the federal Real ID Act under a measure the Utah House has approved.

The move could mean that the state's residents won't be able to board airplanes or enter federal buildings in the future.

The Real ID Act was launched after the 2001 terror attacks to make driver's licenses more secure, so that eventually all driver's licenses would have several layers of security features to prevent forgery.

Rep. Stephen Sandstrom, an Orem Republican, contends those security features could eventually lead to the government tracking its citizens.

House Bill 234 was approved 68-3 on Thursday. It now advances to the Senate.

Real ID in Nevada proposes radical changes to identity

c/o Las Vegas Review Journal ROAD WARRIOR

Ready or not, Real IDs eventually will replace all drivers licenses

As we have mentioned previously, the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles will be introducing the new Advanced Secure Issuance cards throughout the Las Vegas Valley later this month.

Real IDs will be available at the DMV office on West Flamingo Road beginning Monday, followed by the North Las Vegas office on Donovan Way on Feb. 23, the Henderson office on American Pacific Drive on Feb. 24, the North Las Vegas facility on Decatur Boulevard on Feb. 25 and the East Sahara Avenue office on Feb. 26.

Below, I have tried to address questions raised by readers and concerns aired by folks in Northern Nevada, where the DMV began issuing the cards earlier this month.

Our old driver's licenses were just fine. Why are they pushing these new Advanced Secure Issuance IDs on us?

In 2005, the 9/11 Commission recommended that states improve the security of their driver's licenses and identification cards to prevent identity theft and thwart terrorism. This is a voluntary program, but 45 states, including Nevada, have chosen to endorse it. Because of the new card's security features, it will be far more difficult for criminals to obtain counterfeit driver's licenses.

What exactly are these security features?

Actually, there are 15 security features on the card, but only a few of them will be made public: the background on the card, the gold star on the upper right corner, the micro-laser cut of the shape of the state, the bar code and the overprint of some of the text. These make it extremely difficult to counterfeit and show that the applicant has provided all of the proper documents and that the Department of Homeland Security has approved the issuance of the card for federal use, such as boarding an aircraft or entering a federal building where identification is required.

OK, when do I need to get one of these Real IDs?

This program will be phased in over the next seven years. If you were born before Dec. 1, 1964, the standard license in your wallet will be good until December 2017. If your birthday is after Dec. 1, 1964, you have until December 2014. Depending on where your birthday falls, your standard driver's license will be accepted to board airplanes and access federal buildings until the 2014 or 2017 deadline.

I don't want one of these funky licenses. Do I have to get one?

After 2014, the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles will cease issuing the standard license, so, yes, eventually you will need one.

What do I need to bring to the DMV when I apply for this secure issuance card?

You will need two documents to prove your identity and two to prove your residency, the most notable change in requirements.

For identification purposes, you may bring a U.S. passport or a certified birth certificate and your Social Security card.

This is where it gets sticky: If you're married or have changed your name, you need to bring the documentation, such as a marriage certificate or adoption papers, to show this change.

If you've been married multiple times, you need to document each name change.

To prove residency, the DMV will accept a utility bill, mortgage statement, phone bill or rental agreement.

Other forms of accepted identification can be found on the DMV's Web site at dmvnv.com

Will my military identification card work as a form of ID?

No. And this is where this seems strange: The DMV will not accept a military card because it can't electronically verify Department of Defense documents, but the airlines will continue to accept the card as a form of identification to board an airplane.

I no longer drive but still travel. Do I need to get one of these new ID's?

If you do not have a passport and wish to use a Nevada license, yes. You will need to get one before December 2014.

What if I have a teenager who has none of the residency documents required?

There is a declaration form that can be downloaded from the DMV Web site and notarized.

Is there some sort of radio frequency and identification chip embedded in the card?

No. The bar code only allows a law enforcement officer to check your information more efficiently and make sure it matches that listed on the front of the card.

I heard that these cards are the first step in creating a national data base for driver's license information. Is that true?

No. The information is used only by the state where the cards are issued.

ROAD WORK AHEAD ■ The intersection of Tee Pee Lane and Grand Teton Drive is expected to be closed for the next two weeks as gas lines are installed.

■ Ackerman Avenue will be closed between Durango Drive and El Capitan Way until Monday as the storm drain is repaired.

■ Main Street between Las Vegas Boulevard and Owens Avenue in North Las Vegas will be closed until the end of the month.

■ Watch for lane restrictions on Durango Drive between Cheyenne Avenue and Alexander Road as the city repairs the asphalt. The restrictions will be in effect on weekdays for the next five months. Lane restrictions will also be in place on Alexander between Cimarron Road and U.S. Highway 95.

■ Lane restrictions are in place on Village Center Circle, on Hills Center Drive between Village Center and Lake Mead Boulevard, and on Town Center Drive between Village Center and Summerlin Parkway.

■ Expect lane closures and shifting on Craig Road for the next seven weeks as North Las Vegas starts converting the Craig Ranch Golf Course into a regional park.

■ Work continues on Neon Boneyard Park. During construction hours, which are between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m., expect road closures on parts of McWilliams Avenue, Ninth Street and Encanto Drive.

■ Construction continues on Flamingo Road between Interstate 15 and Audrie Street. Flamingo is reduced to one lane at the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard.

Las Vegas Review-Journal

If you have a question, tip or tirade, call Adrienne Packer at (702) 387-2904, or send an e-mail to roadwarrior@reviewjournal.com. Include your phone number.

DIGEST: Valentines Day SCAMERA Protests

BTC - Coaltioned protests occurred nationally to recuse local and national governments for playing a role in objectifying citizens with "soft surveillance" or "corporate voyeurism". This is the term to describe indirect surveillance of persons doing what they do as a byproduct of having a camera on site for other reasons (i.e. to control people who run red lights or to watch for afterhours intruders with intent to steal or malign property).

Camera Fraud, Liberty Restoration Project and others worked together to form a more prolific dissent over the use and abuse of surveillance today.

News Digest Updates on the protests below:

PHOENIX CAMERAFRAUD PROTEST, PHOENIX ARIZONA
Date: Sunday, February 14, Noon
Location: American Traffic Solutions HQ in Ahwatukee
9801 S 51st Phoenix, AZ 85044

CHICAGO RED LIGHT CAMERA PROTEST - CHICAGO, IL
Date: Sunday, February 14th, Noon to 3 pm CT
Location: Intersection of Addison & Western

PHILADELPHIA RED LIGHT CAMERA PROTEST - PHILADELPHIA, PA
Date: Sunday, February 14, Noon
Location: S Broad St & S Penn Square

ST. LOUIS RED LIGHT CAMERA PROTEST - St. Louis, MO
Date: Sunday, February 14th, Noon to 3 pm CT
Location: Intersection of Clayton and Hanley Road

KANSAS CITY RED LIGHT CAMERA PROTEST - KANSAS CITY, MO
Date: Sunday, February 14, Noon - 3pm
Location: 39th and Southwest Trafficway

COLUMBIA RED LIGHT CAMERA PROTEST - COLUMBIA, MO
Date: Sunday, February 14, Noon
Location: Intersection Broadway and Providence Road

SPRINGFIELD RED LIGHT CAMERA PROTEST - SPRINGFIELD, MO
Date: Sunday, February 14, Noon
Location: Intersection of Glenstone and Sunshine

LOW COUNTY RED LIGHT CAMERA PROTEST - SAVANNAH, GA
Date: Sunday, February 14, Noon
Location: Intersection of Derrene and Abercorn

AUSTIN RED LIGHT CAMERA PROTEST - AUSTIN, TX
Date: Sunday, February 14th, Noon
Location: TBA

SANTA MARIA RED LIGHT CAMERA PROTEST - Santa Maria, California
Date: Sunday, February 14, 2pm
Location: TBA

LOS ANGELES RED LIGHT CAMERA PROTEST - LOS ANGELES, CA
Date: Sunday, February 14, Noon
Location: Santa Monica Boulevard and La Brea Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90069

Setting the Stage: The tactics of Surveillance Camera Theater

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY FROM BEAT THE CHIP

(Big love to Surveillance Camera Theater, all Camera Fraud supporters, Rep. Carl Isett and South San Francisco Mayor Mark Addiego)

• VIDEO: WATCH HERE TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU TRY TO INTERRUPT CORPORATE VOYEURISM

• HERES WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE WHEN YOU FOLLOW THROUGH

• CLICK HERE:::SEE WHO ELSE IS PROTESTING CAMERA SURVEILLANCE IN AMERICA

How to Stage Your Own "Surveillance Camera Theater"

In 10 Easy-to-Follow Steps!

c/o Surveillance Camera Players

1. Find out exactly where the surveillance cameras are. If you haven't seen any as you've walked around your town or city, check the archives of the local newspaper for announcements of installations of closed-circuit TV systems. Surveillance cameras can be: A) operated in public places by the police or other "public" authorities; B) operated in public places by private authorities; C) operated in private by private authorities; or D) operated in private by public authorities. (To date, the SCP have performed in front of A and B, but not in front of C and D.)

2. Unless you live in the United Kingdom, it is unlikely that you'll ever be able to get a copy of the surveillance footage in which you appear, so forget about it, and concentrate on using your own cameras to document your performances. Be advised that this means having "an extra person," that is, someone other than the performers to shoot the film or video. (In the UK, citizens may request copies of CCTV footage under the Data Protection Act, which went into effect in October 2000. If you obtain such footage, use it to publicize your performance(s). See Step #9.)

3. Map the exact location of the cameras you've located in Step #1 and incorporate this information into your flyers (see Step #7).

4. Plan out as best you can the "play" you are going to perform. The action or message of this play should be clear, intelligible and relevant. Short is good; shorter is better. (Most SCP plays are around two minutes long.)

Your play can be original material or it can be an adaptation of someone else's work. (If it's the latter, choose a work that is as widely known and easily recognized as possible.) Your play doesn't have to concern surveillance cameras. But if it does, you'll have less to explain to people. If your play doesn't explicitly concern surveillance cameras, you'll have more to explain. But this isn't necessarily a bad thing, for it gives you an opportunity to say that you're using the cameras as if they were part of your own TV station and that your play is your idea of "must see TV," or you can say that you're giving the police officers and security guards who watch the cameras something really interesting to watch.

Don't know exactly what you want to perform? Come up with the location of your performance first, and then think what play would go over best in that particular place. Know what you want to perform? Then perform it in a place that best fits the subject matter.

Don't forget that the cameras don't pick up sound. This means that your performance will be silent. All characters, settings and action must be able to be conveyed by pantomime, costuming, scenery, words and/or pictures on poster boards, etc. etc. Get the poster boards in the discard bin of an art supplies store, and use big black magic markers to form the words and draw the images. Sketch out everything in pencil twice: first on a sketch pad and then on the board itself. When you're satisfied that you've gotten it right on the board, go over the pencil lines with magic marker.

5. How many people do you need to perform? You'll need at least two, not including your photographer/video person: one to hand out flyers, one to perform. Three people is good: two performers and one flyer-person. If you can get four or more people involved, more power to you. You're rollin' full on when you've got four or five performers, two flyer handlers and two photo or videographers!

6. Schedule your performance for a memorable day: the anniversary of an important historical event, an annual ritual (paying taxes, voting, worshipping Santa), or the day something important is happening elsewhere. If possible, match the time, place and subject matter of your play as best you can.

7. Prepare an informational flyer that will be handed-out while the performance is going on. The flyer should explain who you are and why you're performing in that particular location and, if you're rollin' full on, why you're performing on that particular day. Include the map you made in Step #3. Attribute your action and flyer to a group with a catchy name, even if one doesn't exist. Use the name "Surveillance Camera Players" if you can't come up with anything better.

8. When you finally perform your play, perform it over and over again for a total of 30 to 60 minutes. Marvel at how much fun this kind of protest is!

Before, during and after your performance, don't be afraid of the police or security guards. If someone threatens to call the police, let them, and continue with the performance. If and when the police come, approach them or let them come to you confident in the knowledge that you're doing nothing illegal. If and when the cops ask/order you to stop and leave the vicinity, do so, especially if you've been at it for a while and have made contact with and given flyers to a good number of people. Hit it and quit it! Your quarrel isn't with the police, but with the people who employ the police. Only get arrested (disobey an order to disperse) when you want to get arrested.

9. Write up the performance and publish it in a zine, on a Web site, or as a photocopied pamphlet that includes your original flyer, the map and whatever photographs you have from the performance.

10. Go back to Steps #1 or #4, and start again.

"Don't pay" says San Francisco Mayor over red light cameras

VIDEO & Reporting c/o Camera Fraud>>KGO ABC7

For information about obtaining a refund,

call the red light ticket hotline at (650) 829-3777.

:::SEE WHO ELSE IN AMERICA

IS PROTESTING RED LIGHT CAMERAS:::

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY to THE NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA (KGO) -- The mayor of South San Francisco's message to those captured on red light cameras at two heavily traveled intersections in the city before Jan. 27 is this: Don't pay your ticket!

"We don't want any more money to refund, so please don't pay your ticket." That is South San Francisco Mayor Mark Addiego's answer to drivers who were nabbed by red light cameras in the city between Aug. 15 and Jan. 27. If you have already paid your ticket, the mayor says you will be reimbursed.

It all stems from one big snafu in which the City Council failed to seal the deal with the manufacturer of the cameras.

Related STORY: Technicality leads to refunds for red light runners

"The ratification of the contract somehow fell off the radar," Addiego said.

City officials believe some 3,000 drivers were ticketed, amounting to more than a million dollars in citations. They occurred at El Camino and Westborough, and El Camino and Hickey. Fixing the mistake will be costly for this small city, especially during lean times.

"It could range up to $50,000 to undo it, just administratively with manpower," Addiego said.

Not to mention all the money the city would have received from those huge fines.

Annalyn Chacon was caught on camera twice just one month after she moved to the area. Both times Chacon was making what is called a "California stop," a rolling stop as you make a right against a red light. The tickets have cost her almost $900.

Almost all of the many e-mails we received since we broke the story last week were from motorists who made those California stops.

Paul Ault was cited in September making the same kind of stop as Chacon did.

"I know it's a big revenue line for the city, but it doesn't seem responsible," Ault said.

Believe it or not, the mayor seems to agree.

"I don't think they rise to the same level as someone who blows a red light, so I think we need to look at the red light cameras for right turns versus through the intersection," Addiego said.

The mayor says a letter will be sent in two weeks to all those cited explaining how they can obtain a refund.

For information about obtaining a refund, call the red light ticket hotline at (650) 829-3777.

Utah opts out to beat the chip

c/o Salt Lake Tribune

UTAH - House committee approved legislation Friday that would prohibit the state from complying with provisions of the federal REAL ID Act, a measure supported by both the American Civil Liberties Union and the Utah Eagle Forum.

"What [REAL ID] could ultimately lead to is a national ID card that could lead to all sorts of government tyranny if it goes too far," said Rep. Stephen Sandstrom, R-Orem.

The worrisome provisions include the addition of radio frequency chips set into the state's driver licenses that Sandstrom said "could lead to tracking of movements of individuals and could be used to track the purchases of things such as ammunition and guns."

Congress passed the REAL ID Act after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to impose uniform standards on state identification cards. The bill would not repeal the portions of the REAL ID Act that have already been enacted, including the requirement that residents provide a birth certificate to get a driver license.