by Skeptikos | Jul 9, 2011 |
Randolph Holhut in the Windham County Commons reports that U.S. Representative Peter Welch, of Vermont, is cosponsoring a bill which would require law enforcement to obtain a warrant before using a person’s GPS information.
Because it’s easier than trailing someone in person and court approval is unnecessary, the FBI now commonly attaches GPS trackers to people’s cars. According to Wired, “The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in California ruled last year that using a GPS tracker was no different than physically trailing a suspect in public, and that such surveillance was not protected by the Fourth Amendment, even if agents placed the device on a suspect’s car while it was parked in his driveway.” (A dissenting judge argued that it was “straight out of George Orwell’s novel 1984”.) The devices have been found on the cars of environmental activists and college students.
an abandoned GPS tracker, courtesy of John Snyder and Wired.com
(One federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., however, ruled that the tracking is an unconstitutional invasion of privacy. The Obama administration, no friend of civil liberties, has asked the Supreme Court to overturn the decision.)
The bill, the Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance (GPS) Act, would change this. It would also prevent companies, such as cell phone service providers, from sharing GPS data without prior consent. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Representative Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, introduced it last month. (Wired has more.)
Here’s the contact information of our four NH members of Congress, to encourage them to support this legislation:
Kelly Ayotte
Jeanne Shaheen
Charlie Bass (western NH)
Frank Guinta (eastern NH)
PS: Wired has another article explaining how to check a car for a GPS tracker, should you feel so inclined.
by Skeptikos | Jun 17, 2011 |
HB147, which expands the application of the death penalty in New Hampshire, unfortunately passed a few weeks ago— but not without a fight. Representative Steve Vaillancourt, a Republican from Manchester and a self-described “Free Stater before there was a Free State movement,” spoke passionately against the bill. You can see the speech 34 minutes into his latest episode of More Politically Alert:
(Vaillancourt mentions that a bill to abolish the death penalty passed the house during the last session. That bill, HB556, was introduced by Keene representative Steve Lindsey.)
by Skeptikos | Jun 16, 2011 |
The Union Leader reports that New Hampshire officials intend to cooperate with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in their effort to piggyback on the work of local law enforcement.
The initiative, eerily named “Secure Communities,” would check the fingerprints of everyone who is arrested against federal immigration databases. In the case of a match, the ICE is notified and the agency uses its discretion to decide how to respond.
The ICE says that its priority is the removal of convicted felons, but, according to ICE data, 28% of the 49,638 people deported between October 2009 and September 2010 as a result of Secure Communities were convicted of no crime whatsoever. Many others were charged only with misdemeanors. According to the Immigration Policy Center, “Examinations of ICE’s Secure Communities statistics reveals that those identified by Secure Communities include large numbers of individuals with no criminal history, individuals charged with (but not convicted of) crimes, and legal immigrants with prior convictions that make them deportable.”
The program currently operates in 1,315 counties in 42 states, and the ICE plans to have a Secure Communities presence in every state by the end of 2011, with total coverage by 2013. Yet they’ve already been rebuffed by state officials in Washington, D.C., Illinois, Minnesota, Washington, New York, and, just recently, in Massachusetts.
The Pew Research Center estimates that New Hampshire is home to 10 or 20 thousand undocumented immigrants, and the Immigration Policy Center estimates that they pay about $5 million dollars in state taxes every year. So when will New Hampshire join the opposition?
Learn more about the impact of Secure Communities at the Immigration Policy Center, Deportation Nation, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the New York Times.
by Skeptikos | May 13, 2011 |
“I’m officially announcing that I am a candidate for president in the Republican primary“– Ron Paul, earlier today, on Good Morning America.
Shortly thereafter he spoke to a gathering in the town hall of Exeter, NH. The hall was packed and overflowing with energy. (Some of us Keeniacs were in attendance.)
Expect video from the event soon from Dave Ridley, Biker Bill, Judge Napolitano, Megan from Silver Circle Underground, mainstream news networks, and more.
by Skeptikos | May 7, 2011 |
David Eisenstatder elaborates on the new Keene budget proposal in the Sentinel.
A New Hampshire senate committee considered the bill which would remove NH from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a cap and trade program, and deemed it inexpedient to legislate (translation: not a good bill), and the right-to-work bill heads to John Lynch.
Keene Rep. Kris Roberts: “In many ways I like most people in New Hampshire don’t care much which party has control, which people are filling leadership positions, we just want the type of leadership that we can trust to make the right decisions fairly and not for some political agenda or personal status.”
Why I disagree with libertarian activist Denis Goddard about the coming dollar apocalypse.
Milton Gabor, Rush tribute band
Greenfield, Massachusetts Rush tribute band Milton Gabor are playing again after a few years off, according to the Valley Advocate.
Charles Eisentstein, in the Vermont Commons, argues that independence requires economic as well as political sovereignty– that is, local currencies.
