This entry is merely fear-mongering, Amy. The reason being is that they speculate what's being done, but have no evidence that it is.

This entry is merely fear-mongering, Amy. The reason being is that they speculate what's being done, but have no evidence that it is.

Our governments are completely and totally trustworthy, and would never set the IRS on you, or do anything wrong like letting illegally purchased firearms get exported to another country (hello, Fast and Furious and a potential act of war), or otherwise mislead the American public about anything.

No, totally trustworthy. I don't know why we need that silly Constitution that keeps the government down. They could do so much to us if it weren't for those darned Founding Fathers.

Patrick has not read 1984, or much in the way of history, that's all.

Determined to become my personal troll, Rad? You're apt to make Crid jealous, but that's your problem.

Yes, I have read 1984.

And no, I did not say that the government is completely trustworthy. I said, that Amy's original entry offers nothing in the way of evidence. I read that it is a possibility that the government could be doing this now, but no evidence that that's in fact what they were doing, and it's irresponsible.

To carry this to an extreme, I could say to anyone on this forum, "It's possible that you're a child molester," solely on the grounds that your physically capable of performing sexual acts and you're physically capable of overpowering and/or seducing a child.

Would it be responsible or honest of me to accuse someone of child molestation solely on those grounds? No. In fact, it would be downright despicable.

For example, from the article that Amy cites:

As you drive down the highway, a police vehicle coming up behind you can instantly read your license plate and pull up a whole host of information about you.

Now, that's a scary thought. Any proof that they're actually doing this? Well, no...

This happened to me a few years ago. I had pulled on to a very crowded highway in Virginia and within less than a minute a cop car had scanned me and was pulling me over because one of my stickers had expired.

So, the cop was able to find out that your inspection sticker had expired. Of course, this proves that cops are just going around "pulling up a whole host of information about you..." NOT!

And her second citation is even worse, if that's possible. We read that it could be used to reveal where you live, work, who your contacts are, sexual habits, politics, doctor visits, etc.

Well, it could, could it? Well, I'd like to see some evidence first before I run to tell the King that the sky is falling.

Are these being introduced as evidence in a court of law, for example? "Your license plate was scanned at the First National Bank at the time it was robbed. Can you account for your activities at that time?"

Well, you could be an ax-murderer who buries the dismembered remains of your victims beneath your basement, you know.

Do you have a basement? Are you physically strong enough to wield an ax? Or at least a hatchet? I rest my case...

However, Amy's response to my initial complaint did a much better job of providing hard data as to how this was being used, rather than merely opining that it could be used this way. But I will stand by my original statement. The O.P. was shoddy reporting. Kudos to Amy for correcting it.

It was double-plus ungood of you to suggest I haven't read 1984. Keep telling lies about me, and I'll sick Big Brother on you so he skimps on your daily allowance of chocolate.

To carry this to an extreme, I could say to anyone on this forum, "It's possible that you're a child molester,"

Yes, and? when you become the Voice of the Government, then'll worry about you saying this. Until then, that and US$5 can buy me a fancy coffee at Starbucks.

Here's the problem with collecting and storing that data. At some point, someone with too much time and an axe to grind will do something with it.

Surely you remember Joe the Plumber? his crime was to merely ask a presidential candidate an inconvenient set of questions. What happened to his supposedly confidential information that the government had collected on him?

I'll sick Big Brother on you so he skimps on your daily allowance of chocolate

Please, Patrick, we all know that's an increase. I'm sorry, I'll have to report you for your Thought Crime.

Let's see. Tea Party affiliated groups claim the IRS is targeting them. The IRS denies the claim and says the groups are paranoid. Then, lo and behold, the IRS admits to targeting Tea Party groups.

Let's not be so quick to dismiss fears about what the government can do just because we have no evidence the government is doing those things.

A government that can do a thing is a government that will do a thing. That's why the Constitution places limits on the power and reach of the government.

That said, let's also recognize that we need our government to have some advanced capabilities and technologies.

We the people need to be in charge of the government, not the other way around.

That and turning the police into a revenue-generating bureaucracy sets a dangerous precedent.

The laws and the police are (should be) about public safety and a reasonable degree of societal order - not about how much money can be raised for the government through fines and fees.

Shaking down normally law-abiding citizens for committing a minor infraction or raising the fines on minor infractions to extortion levels erodes respect for the law, the police, and eventually society itself.

I R A Darth Aggie:

Please, Patrick, we all know that's an increase. I'm sorry, I'll have to report you for your Thought Crime.

No! Not that! Do it to Julia!

Conan the Grammarian:

The laws and the police are (should be) about public safety and a reasonable degree of societal order - not about how much money can be raised for the government through fines and fees.

Good point. The police have become a lot more strict on jaywalkers in our area now. You realize, of course, some idiots will say, "Well, if you just don't break the law, you won't have to worry about it. Quite forgetting that there are some ridiculous laws on the books.

I wonder what the fine is, for instance, for looking gloomy in Pocatello, Idaho.

Private companies have a ridiculous amount of information on us. I'd be surprised if the government wasn't playing that game, too. I'm less concerned with them simply having the info. It's so easy to get now, and there's no way to close that barn door. I'm more concerned with what they do with it.

The thing that irritates me more about the ticketing is that it can be dangerous. My husband was speeding a few months ago and got a camera ticket. He was guilty, and we knew it, but the camera flashed a bright light in his eyes that made him nearly swerve into the next lane. Nothing like flashing a bright light in someone's eyes, at night, while they're driving too fast.

The police have become a lot more strict on jaywalkers in our area now.

That's easily explained. It's all about the Benjamin's. How much is the jaywalking citation worth to the citing authority?

Private companies have a ridiculous amount of information on us.

True. But for the most part, we give that information up voluntarily. They give us a free app, or web site, or something and we cheerfully say I accept.

Shaking down normally law-abiding citizens for committing a minor infraction or raising the fines on minor infractions to extortion levels erodes respect for the law, the police, and eventually society itself.

Yep, I'll not relate the story of my 'speeding' thru a construction zone in its entirety again.

But I proved the cop was lying, found guilty of a lesser infraction in a seperate category I wasnt even accused of, fined $200 for something I never did and told if I wanted to appeal I'd have to pay a $250 non refundable deposit for a court date, a $75 dollar fee for a copy of the court trascript and video. After the section of time where I showed the cop to be lying was removed as the judge had striken it from the record.

Its not about public saftey, its about tax collecting, and in a long held tradation of the american people, I dont care when tax collecters get killed.

My daily job is being a database administrator (DBA). I have the responsibility of maintaining our own databases as well as the customer's DBs for data integrity, backups, restores and all the rest. Most of my backup plans include a daily, monthly and annual retention plan that covers several years worth of data, no matter how worthless it is.

Any DBA worth their salt does this as well, regardless of the privacy acts and such that are part of government regulations. Sometimes it's by circumstances, such as these 500 customer's data should be purged after seven years. But that 500 is in about 1M rows of data that was dumped to DVD five years ago. So to get rid of it would be restore the DB, delete the data and then make a new backup and replace all the DVD's. The cost-benefit ratio is just not worth it.

That applies to your IRS record, your BATF 4733 NICS checks, your speeding tickets, your misdemeanor other crimes in your county, your pet's licenses, your visa applications, etc.

Then there are special classes of criminals, such as a DUI. You had a simple DUI in 1995 and caught with an open container in 1997. Now you have a DUI in 2013. Because of your dumb action at 21 and 23, they can possibly enhance your penalty 16 years later?

Meanwhile someone can get out jail on armed robbery in about 18 months and not really be tracked and face enhanced penalties.

That kind of thing aside, I know for a fact that my last company (a bank) has copies of databases that are at the seven year mark for destruction that still contain data for every transaction that you closed the account for seven years ago.

So do you think the government couldn't build a "Person of Interest" (TV show) level database by just simply getting a copy of the DVD backup that they send to the GSA/OMB every month? And then the data mining level that you can do with the big three credit bureaus. I just can't wait to see what happens when Obamacare interfaces with the IRS. You think it will get any better?

Call me a conspiracy theorist if you want. That's your opinion. But I have never really trusted the government. And that is steadily declining.

Reading the nearly-unreadable fine print on the back of this ticket I just got, for rolling a stop sign, what becomes screamingly clear is that the courts don't even want to see us.

The courts have forgotten who they serve.

Gone is the presumption of "Innocent-until-proven-guilty". I find it onerous to be given a choice of plea, between "Guilty" or "Not Guilty"... "Not Guilty" may as well be "Not AS guilty". We're INNOCENT, your honor, until proven guilty!

Well, gee, Patrick, count the cases of government abuse. That should open your eyes to the possibility your point is poorly made at best.
Whoops, sorry, that would be thoughtcrime, wouldn't it.

Speculation?

Florida quietly shortened yellow light standards & lengths, resulting in more red light camera tickets for you

http://www.wtsp.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=316418

Have you heard the NTSB wants to lower the BAC to .05. I want to see how many accidents have been caused by people who had a BAC of .05 to point .799?