In local news from Phoenix, Arizona some rather ingenious rebels have taken to fighting traffic cameras.

Well, no one’s cutting the heads off the stationary cameras DPS (Department of Public Safety) has rigged around the state to catch you going 10mph over the speed limit or more, but someone is sabotaging these sinister speed traps in a most ingenious way — by blocking the window in front of the camera with yellow Post-it notes.

I am rather amused by this protest in some ways.  As a guy who drives the speed limit because he believes in following the law and someone who lost way to many friends to traffic accidents, the notion of speeding pisses me off.  Stupid law or not the speed limit isn’t a mere suggestion for drivers it is the law. When we as citizens won’t follow the law, we have very little right to get pissed off at politicians who don’t either.  Frankly I would much rather going the speed limit than give up my righteous anger at W for ass fucking  America the last eight years.

DPS flack Lt. James Warriner, and he confirmed that Post-it note ninjas are at work in the Valley, with at least five incidents having occurred over the last few days on SR 51, I-10, and the Loop 101. Warriner says DPS has an investigator assigned to catch the plucky roadside rebels, though DPS isn’t exactly sure what the Post-it note perps would be prosecuted for, if and when they’re nabbed.

There are probably plenty of charges that could be leveled, but finding the right one is always a good idea before going forward with these sorts of things.  While I don’t like Big Brother anymore than any other Liberal the feds no doubt have an interest in keeping an eye on, I actually like traffic cameras.  That could be because I don’t speed and have good driving habits.

Warriner related that DPS may have to stake out the cameras’ locations, which are listed on DPS’ Web site, here. Perhaps even install hidden cameras to watch the devices. That’s right, cameras to watch the cameras.

This notion however, I don’t like.  It is a little too Big Brother for me.  Who is watching the watchmen?  A camera that catches someone for speeding is one thing.  Those cameras provide scientifically measured data and a photo of a scene where sticking a human being in a cruiser would be dangerous and disruptive.  Placing a camera to watch what can likely be watched by a human seems to devalue the notion we need police officers in the field.

Update:

I saw a really cool idea that might actually make people like traffic cameras a bit more.  What if good drivers were paid an incentive, out of the fines bad drivers pay.  It couldn’t be the entire fine, but what if you received a discount on your car registration or drivers license fee, or if the DMV sent a voucher that could be redeemed by your insurance carrier, for say $25.00 to $50.00 towards your payment.  Better yet what if good drivers were randomly sent $20.00 checks paid for by 60% of the fines.

Related posts:

1. Big Brother in Washington Post 66 of 100 of Brad’s Tiny World Scribefire...
2. Are You A Criminal It is most certainly election season again and the...
3. Post 54 of Today In posting the previous 53 articles today as part...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

The meaning of a human life doesn’t seem to have the same meaning it used to for people.  We all want revenge, it is part of human nature, but that is why we have laws that don’t let victims of crime pick the sentence of the guilty.  Of course when we do give a sentence of life, something I think should mean a lot more, we end up meaning in ten years or so we will think about letting you out.  That is all well and good, but it is hardly a life sentence.

The Modesto Bee | Modesto woman sentenced to life in prison for kidnap, torture of teen

Modesto woman sentenced to life in prison for kidnap, torture of teen

By Emilie Raguso , eraguso@modbee.com

A Modesto woman was sentenced to life in prison today for torturing a teenage girl after the teenager stole the woman’s truck, the district attorney’s office said.

After being held for two nights in June 2007, the girl escaped as her captors were driving her to Stockton where they said she would be forced to perform sex acts for money, officials said.

According to authorities, Graciela Elmira Cervantes, 27, was “bent on revenge” after the girl, described as a runaway, took the woman’s truck without permission.

The Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department reported that Cervantes held the victim captive for two days, starting June 24, at Cervantes’ home in the 2300 block of La Paz Court near Memorial Medical Center. Sheriff’s spokesman deputy Royjindar Singh said last year that Cervantes stabbed the victim several times before locking her in a bedroom closet.

Cervantes, prosecutors said, held the teenager for two nights, subjecting her to a range of torture: beating her; cutting her long hair to her scalp; burning her with cigarettes; cutting the web of her hand with scissors; and making her lick her own blood from the floor.

On June 26, Cervantes and her boyfriend put the victim in a car to drive her to Stockton, “where they told her she would be prostituted out for money,” according to the district attorney’s office.

During the ride, the driver pulled over near Gallo Glass, 605 South Santa Cruz Ave., and the girl jumped out of the car and ran toward the guard station, authorities said. Security personnel called law enforcement as Cervantes and her driver sped off.

Several members of Cervantes’ household, present during the torture, testified at the preliminary hearing, which spanned three days over two months, according to the district attorney’s office. Cervantes also pleaded to a robbery in September 2006 where, officials said, she held a knife to the victim’s neck and demanded her bank card and PIN.

“Both charges are serious and violent felonies which require the defendant to serve 85 percent of her time in prison,” according to information released by the district attorney’s office.

Cervantes will not be eligible for a parole hearing for 10 years.

Bee staff writer Emilie Raguso can be reached at eraguso@modbee.com or 578-2235.

Related posts:

1. Man Charged With Having Sex With New Mexico Teen Post 49 of 100 of Brad’s Tiny World Scribefire...
2. So what have you been doing with your life? or Why I write. I ran across an old friend today and that...
3. Voter Fraud in California Surprise! Surprise! In the hotly contest state of California...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Post 66 of 100 of Brad’s Tiny World Scribefire Challenge.

SR.com: Police log 450 red light violations

Police log 450 red light violations

Jody Lawrence-Turner
Staff writer
October 17, 2008

Spokane’s red-light cameras have captured nearly 450 violations since activated Oct. 1, police officials said.

About 95 percent of those will result in warnings being sent to the drivers, said Spokane Police Officer Teresa Fuller.

A majority of the violations have occurred at Division Street and Francis Avenue, where cameras are trained on both northbound and southbound traffic. The six lanes of traffic and 35 mph speed limit at that intersection are key reasons violations are higher, Fuller believes.

The next intersection with the most violations is Browne and Sprague, Fuller said.

Police are reviewing the violations – both videos and snapshots of vehicles running light – and sending out warnings. Fuller said it takes one to two minutes to process each one.

After Nov. 1, violations will become citations with a fine of $124.

Related posts:

1. The Post-It Speed Limit In local news from Phoenix, Arizona some rather ingenious...
2. Washington Puts Rush Job on Killing Endagered Species In a rush job to get through all the...
3. Cut Needless Spending and Washington Waste If you want to cut out needless wasteful spending...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Post 53 of 100 of Brad’s Tiny World Scribefire Challenge.

Women looking to buy marijuana asked for their shirts | Dayton area crime

Women looking to buy marijuana asked for their shirts

By Lucas Sullivan | Friday, October 17, 2008, 09:58 AM

DAYTON - Two women looking to buy some weed from a dealer they knew as “Mike” arrived in the 3900 block of Nicholas Road on Wednesday, Oct. 15, and were told to surrender their shirts, according to a police report.

A 27-year-old woman who was named in the report said Mike told her to go into a house she had never been inside about 6:30 p.m. and have a seat, the report stated. That woman said her friend was there to tag along. The friend was not named in the police report.

As the women sat down, Mike ran upstairs and a man wearing a hooded sweatshirt and holding a gun came into the room. The hood was pulled tight around his face, the report stated.

The hooded gunman said “Give me your shirts,” but 27-year-old woman hesitated, the report stated. That’s when the man hit her in the face with the gun, reached inside her bra and pulled out $450, according to police report.

The gunman also took a necklace the woman was wearing and rummaged through her friend’s purse, the report stated.

The gunman then told the women to leave. When they went outside, the 27-year-old’s car had been ransacked, the report stated.

Police are still looking for the men involved. The women were not charged or harmed because of the incident.

Related posts:

1. Ohio Loses Advocate US Rep. Tubbs Jones of Ohio in critical condition...
2. Big Brother in Washington Post 66 of 100 of Brad’s Tiny World Scribefire...
3. Are You A Criminal It is most certainly election season again and the...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Just A Sarah Palin couldn’t tell you where she got her news from she also can’t even name a Supreme Court decision other than Roe v Wade. you would have thought that the McCain camp would have at the very least prepped her for this question. Let’s here the queen of the non answer in her own words. (Joe Biden responds firsts to the question)

Watch CBS Videos Online

To be perfectly fair, she actually can’t name any she disagrees with. That however does say a lot right there, since I can’t imagine how many times the Supreme Court has ruled against Bush recently on the the matter of presidential powers. Even if she couldn’t name them by name I would have thought she could have at the very least said that recent one that did this. Maybe a little honesty about blanking on the name was a little much to ask for from the GOP firecracker. Maybe if her energy was spent being being humble rather flashy she wouldn’t come off looking like such an idiot. Of course to be fair she might really be as dopey as she sounds.

How many of you can name more than Roe v Wade? if you graduated from high school you should at the very least know the following even if you don’t know the significance of the case.

Dred Scott v. Sandford
Brown v. Board of Education
Plessy v. Ferguson
Schenck v. United States
Miranda v. Arizona

Anyone who wants to be President of The United States or VP should at the very least know Korematsu vs. United States concerning the executive orders.

Last but not least you would have thought someone so strong in their pro-life stance would also be able to tell you about Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, Stenberg v. Carhart, or Gonzales v. Carhart all of which deal with abortion. No, Sarah Palin couldn’t even tell you about these. She doesn’t have to be a legal scholar to be the vice president, but you most certainly should know about the cases important to any cause you claim to hold as dearly as she does pro-life. As it stands she doesn’t know enough to graduate from most high school government classes, and probably not even the eight grade or fifth grade levels of US history, yet she claims to be ready to be our Vice President.

Related posts:

1. Sarah Palin Pre Debate Update Sarah Palin takes the day again with political blunder...
2. Newsweek Under Fire For Not Touching Up Palin Cover Photo Newsweek Under Fire For Not Touching Up Palin Cover...
3. Mock Elections Give Deleware to Democrats How students vote in mock elections is often seen...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

With the presidential debates quick at hand I find myself with questions I need to know the answers too. The first of many and maybe the most important of all is how will the next president deal with all the allegations of war crimes the current president has been accused of. Will the next president direct his attorney general to investigate those claims. Will he ignore them? Will he in Gerald Ford style simply pardon President Bush and his cronies in the name of healing? We claim to want this war to come to an end, but so long as these questions go unanswered this war will remain an ongoing event.

Related posts:

1. Presidential Questions Watch CBS Videos Online I am providing the full...
2. Critical Questions Critical questions about our politicians must be asked. For...
3. Experience or Flash Sarah Palin is once again on the flip side...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

The point of prison isn’t to find out why they call it the pokey.  Susan Atkins, a former Manson Family member, is wasting away in prison with cancer, amputations, and generally at death’s door step.  She applied for parole because of these conditions and was flatly denied.  This was as much a political decision as anything,simply because of how famous her crimes were.  This however violates professional ethics, common sense, and probably good economic policy.

The point of prison is not to punish criminals for their crimes, it is to keep society safe from them while we supposedly rehabilitate them.  We give out life sentences and order the death penalty because we believe they can not be redeemed and society will not be safe if they walk the streets.  Such is the case of Susan Atkins.  At least it was the point of Susan Atkins incarceration.

Let us flash forward three and a half decades.  Susan Atkins is dying.  She has terminal brain cancer.  She has had a leg amputated, and from some accounts suffering mental problems.  The parole board said no to her request for release, why?  Does she continue to pose a threat to society?  No.  Will releasing her jeopardize the political careers of some people?  Quite possibly.  So rather than doing their job the board members chose to save their own ass and not follow the basic tenants of incarceration.

Not only was that decision against any sort of professional ethics, it doesn’t make for good common sense either.  California prisons are already overcrowded and underfunded, removing those that are no longer a threat to society from this system is the easiest way to fix the problem.  They do not have to be let to roam the streets without supervision, but neither should the be kept in prison past the point of it being useful.  Secondly hers and others illnesses is hitting this system hard financially.  Medical care in prison is very costly, just the guards used when she was transported off site has run the system over three hundred thousand dollars, let alone the nearly two million her care has cost.  This is care that would have cost ten percent of that outside of the prison system.  This is a stupid waste of money and resources.

No matter what happens we can’t bring back Sharron Tate or the others Susan Atkins had a part in killing.  I am not saying we should forgive those crimes either.  I am however saying we should release her to her husbands care, because there is no valid reason to keep her incarcerated.  She might enjoy that last bit of freedom, but so what, the point of prison was never to punish her.

Related posts:

1. Fugitive War Criminal Arrested Yes, a war criminal has been arrested, and no...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

(CNN) — For nearly two years, the South Florida middle school art teacher forced the boy to have sex in a classroom supply closet… But a year later, Mohanlal has yet to spend a day in prison.

I personally am shocked and horrified by this. At first reading I wanted to rage and scream. Then I wanted to know why. Wanting to know why, left me with the unmistakable need to blame someone.

In asking myself how this could possibly happen, I didn’t like the answer I found. This judge is known for being a conservative, in a place where they steal elections for republicans, ban adults from paying to hear 2Live Crew from saying “Fuck”, and think anyone who advocates teaching evolution as an alternative theory to creationism in public schools is a dangerous liberal. It is a place where teachers on summer who go to the beach in modest bikinis have lost their jobs for showing too much skin. If the bible belt runs through Ohio, then Broward County Florida is the tip of the dick. If a conservative judge in a place like that can give a post trial bond to a child molester, it can only mean one thing. The prosecutor fucked up so magnificently that this case will be over turned, and this judge is playing CYA, for himself, the county and the state.

I shudder to think what the prosecutor must have done. Simple mistakes are one thing, people aren’t perfect. But if you do something so blatantly illegal that a child molester will have to be kept out on bond while they wait to hand you your ass, I get far more than angry. I hate prosecutorial misconduct almost as much as I hate child molesters. I just can’t fathom how you can go forward with a case that leaves little doubt, and then deliberately do something illegal to let him walk free. There days when I think Lennin was right and we should should all the lawyers.

Related posts:

1. Florida nudist community wants clothing-optional polling site Right On!  This is the second local news and...
2. Florida - The Great American WTF The land of sunshine, sharks and sermons we once...
3. Friday Night Lights In Florida Trinity set to welcome 5A power Mainland | Ocala.com...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

The Supreme Court has finally ruled on the Second Amendment case they have been mulling over for months now. They have in fact ruled as I thought they would in favor of gun owners over the District of Columbia’s ban. This is no big shock considering the makeup of the current court. What may come as a shock to those of you, who know me a liberal, is I am in favor of their ruling.

The Second Amendment doesn’t exist so people can hunt. It doesn’t even exist so you can protect your home and property. The Second Amendment was written and has remained in the US Constitution for one reason alone. The Second Amendment is the reasoning by which the revolutionaries justified their war of independence. The Second Amendment only protects our right of rebellion.

If you don’t think we have the right to rebel, let me point out the Civil War. Had we not the protected right of rebellion every member of the Confederate Army would have been guilty of treason. Not a single person involved in the Civil War was ever tried much less convicted of it. The right of the people to rebel remains intact to this day. Before you go out and decide to take on the government remember they reserve the right to put down any rebellion.

What chaps my hide though was driving home today I was listening to radio when a fear monger was on the radio saying how this was going to make his job harder. While I generally agree with the goals of PeaceOholics, when it comes to learning to live together, they are dead wrong with this stance. Doing what is right should never enter into the picture when talking about how hard or easy your job is.
We have given up way too many of our liberties of late in the name of making security easier. I am glad the court has gone against recent precedence putting freedom head of so called security. Of course they might have thought differently had the remembered rebellions and revolutions aren’t started by the conservative members of society, but rather us radical liberals.

Related posts:

1. Justices hear Second Amendment case Yesterday the justices heard and had many apparent opinions...
2. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Get Over It “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” may soon go the way...
3. Where Does It End We have already had a call on the floor...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

It is most certainly election season again and the right wing is up to its I am tough on crime bullshit.  I just saw my first ad campaign proclaiming how a republican is going to be tough on criminals and save the world for middle class law abiding white folk.  Bullshit is all I have to say.

I have to question how many of those middle class white folk the commercial showed as victims are criminals themselves.  I am sure most people of any race or class never think of themselves as criminals.  I am also pretty sure most of them willingly participate in crime, making them part of the criminal element.  So what crime do I accuse all these fine people of?  Speeding…

That’s right speeding.  I am not talking about doing fifty five out in front of a grade school, those that think the post speed limit is a mere suggestion, or even ten miles an hour over on the freeway.  I am talking about the vast hordes of people who think that they can get away with a mere five miles an hour over.  Most people have done and a huge number do it regularly.  Why because we are in a hurry to get someplace and know that most cops aren’t going to bust you for five over.  Just because no one is going to bust you, doesn’t mean you aren’t willfully violating a law and thus participating in a criminal act.

I am sure most of you are still saying what is the big deal.  The big deal is you have gone out of your way to commit a crime and then turn around and say the justice system should be tough on criminals.  The big deal is that makes you a hypocrite.  I am sure most of you still can’t get it through your heads that following the law isn’t optional for anyone.  If you can justify 40mph in 35mph zone because it is only a bit over then you can justify a grown man having sex with a fourteen year old when the legal age of consent is sixteen.  The percentage is the same, so why should the punishment or severity of the crime be any different?

Related posts:

1. Fugitive War Criminal Arrested Yes, a war criminal has been arrested, and no...
2. The Miscarriage of Justice There comes a time when we as a public...
3. Girl Gets Ass Kicked For Running Her Mouth Why is it everyone thinks free speech is truly...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.