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Ohio House Votes Overwhelmingly To Ban Traffic Cameras

"All red light cameras and nearly all speed cameras would be banished from Ohio under a bill that cleared the state House of Representatives Wednesday by a 61-32 vote. State Representatives Ron Maag (R-Lebanon) and Dale Mallory (D-Cincinnati) introduced the measure that would pull the plug on sixteen municipal automated ticketing programs currently in operation. 'Let's be candid about these cameras,' Maag said. 'Their main goal is to generate revenue and this is obvious for several reasons.' So far, residents in seven cities have circulated petitions and succeeded in overturning the decision of their city council to install red light cameras and speed cameras." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingOhio House Votes Overwhelmingly To Ban Traffic Cameras

Judge throws out Abu Ghraib detainees’ torture case citing jurisdiction

"U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee in Alexandria, Virginia said he lacked jurisdiction to hear claims brought by the four Iraqi plaintiffs under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS), and separate claims by one plaintiff that he said were barred under Iraqi law. Lee ruled eight months after Engility Holdings Inc, a spinoff of L-3 Communications Holdings Inc, paid $5.28 million to settle similar claims. Photos depicting abuse of Abu Ghraib detainees emerged in 2004. While no contractors were charged, some detainees accused their workers in lawsuits of physical and sexual abuse, inflicting electric shocks, and conducting mock executions." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJudge throws out Abu Ghraib detainees’ torture case citing jurisdiction

Evidence Snowden is Being Protected By the CIA?

"Apparently the Justice Department sent its documents to Hong Kong with the WRONG MIDDLE NAME for Snowden. I know government bureaucrats have little motivation to do their jobs well, but give me a break. It very well could be that they purposefully submitted incorrect documents to delay the process and allow him to get out. Perhaps more evidence that he's under CIA protection and is part of a turf war." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingEvidence Snowden is Being Protected By the CIA?

The new-found desire for privacy is what’s driving all of this new business activity.

"Thankfully, there are companies, like those I’ve mentioned, providing private sector responses to these blatant affronts of our basic freedoms. And more have entered the fray, including TextSecure, a mobile app encryption service, and SpiderOak, a DropBox-like service that can’t see the content of user files. I hope that we will let our elected leaders know that spying on its citizens is not acceptable… and that it is no different than what the German government did post-World War II. I’m proud to say that we’ve been way ahead of the curve on matters of liberty, privacy and encroaching government tyranny." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe new-found desire for privacy is what’s driving all of this new business activity.

Don’t Leave Home Without This

"Since 1986, the U.S. State Department has been informing the IRS of all persons who renew their U.S. passports using a foreign address. Since passport renewals require an applicant’s Social Security number, this information is also used by the IRS to see if applicants have filed income tax returns. An IRS official speaking in Zurich said a special effort was being made by the agency to track all U.S. citizens who’ve renewed U.S. passports while living in Switzerland. So, now we have two out of control U.S. government agencies that have the ability to track your private financial activity and revoke your ability to travel freely through your U.S. passport." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDon’t Leave Home Without This

Right-wing bloggers denied entry to UK for rally with anti-Muslim group

"Two prominent US bloggers who were due to speak at a far-right rally in Woolwich on Saturday have been banned from entering the UK, the Home Office has said. Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, who set up Stop Islamization of America, and run the website Jihad Watch, have been forbidden from entering the country on the grounds their presence would 'not be conducive to the public good'. Matthew Collins, from anti-extremism group Hope Not Hate, which campaigned for Geller and Spencer’s exclusion, said the organisation was 'absolutely delighted' by the decision." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingRight-wing bloggers denied entry to UK for rally with anti-Muslim group

Here Come The “National Service” Peddlers

"WaPo's Michael Gerson feels a little edgy about Americans 'criticizing the National Security Agency as though it were enforcing the Alien and Sedition Acts.' You see, the serfs are not supposed to question, let alone have a problem with, having their every move monitored and watched by the State. So Gerson, looking for a panacea to this individualistic disease, suggests that 'National service can heal a divided nation.' Adding to Gerson's plea, there's also HuffPo who says 'That a year of full-time national service should become a civic rite of passage for all young Americans.' One must ask: Are the government schools not enough anymore?" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHere Come The “National Service” Peddlers

Steve Wozniak: Snowden ‘Is a Hero Because This Came From His Heart’

"Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is more than a little distressed that the technology he helped develop nearly four decades ago is being used on a massive scale to invade people’s privacy. 'I think he’s a hero,' said the 62-year-old Wozniak, who co-founded Apple Computer with Steve Jobs and invented the Apple I and Apple II personal computers that launched a technological revolution. 'He’s a hero to my beliefs about how the Constitution should work. I don’t think the NSA has done one thing valuable for us, in this whole ‘Prism’ regard, that couldn’t have been done by following the Constitution and doing it the old way.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSteve Wozniak: Snowden ‘Is a Hero Because This Came From His Heart’

In WikiLeaks Probe, Feds Used a Secret Search Warrant to Get Volunteer’s Gmail

"The Justice Department used a secret search warrant to obtain the entire contents of a Gmail account used by a former WikiLeaks volunteer in Iceland, according to court records released to the volunteer this week. The warrant ordered Google to turn over 'the contents of all e-mails associated with the account, including stored or preserved copies of e-mails sent to and from the account, draft e-mails, deleted e-mails [...] the source and destination addresses associated with each e-mail, the date and time at which each e-mail was sent, and the size and length of each e-mail.' The warrant also ordered Google not to disclose the search to anyone." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIn WikiLeaks Probe, Feds Used a Secret Search Warrant to Get Volunteer’s Gmail

WikiLeaks Volunteer Was a Paid Informant for the FBI

"In 2011, a cherubic 18-year-old Icelandic man named Sigurdur 'Siggi' Thordarson walked through the stately doors of the U.S. embassy in Reykjavík, his jacket pocket concealing his calling card: a crumpled photocopy of an Australian passport, a man with a unruly shock of platinum blonde hair and the name Julian Paul Assange. Thordarson was long time volunteer for WikiLeaks with direct access to Assange and a key position as an organizer in the group. Thordarson served two masters, working for the secret-spilling website and simultaneously spilling its secrets to the U.S. government in exchange, he says, for a total of about $5,000." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWikiLeaks Volunteer Was a Paid Informant for the FBI