tintedpane.com

First time since I started keeping track of my scores that I failed to score at least 150 in any game for the night. Must mean my nerves are not made of steel as I got a traffic citation on the way to the bowling alley.

Two officers cited me for 15mph over in a 40mph zone as well as a “failure to pull over” violation. Anyone know what the requirement is when they start flashing lights? One friend says I’m supposed to slow down and then pull over when I find a location that I feel safe in. I’m trying to find evidence to support that claim right now. I did slow down when I saw the strobes but did not pull over immediately as I was on the bike and didn’t want to stop on the street or in a side street that wasn’t lit. My goal was to get to a convenience store about ½ mile up the road so I signaled and got into the left lane where I trudged along at 25mph. The cop decided I wasn’t cooperative and pulled up alongside and in front and forced me into the left turn lane that was coming up. Almost dropped the bike when I saw them use the car in such a way. Then both guys jumped out and one of them grabbed at my throttle grip and tried to push the bike into the lane (which caused the engine to immediately rev) while the other (who was probably the more senior cop shadowing the younger guy) turned the ignition off and took the keys. The younger cop was yelling expletives at me telling me how I should’ve pull the **** over when I saw the lights. The other guy was pretty huffed up but didn’t lose his cool like the younger guy. They had me walk the bike forward into the left turn lane and I almost dropped it again cause I forgot the kickstand wasn’t down. Got my license and insurance and saw that they couldn’t pin anything on me beside my alleged speeding since the bike was registered, inspected, insured, and I was a licensed rider. When the older cop came to give me the citation he said under his breath that I was going faster but he only cited me for 55. What crap is that? Another friend said I was profiled cause I was on the bike hunched over since it was a brisk evening out and I was wearing a mesh jacket. Gonna fight this one. Looking for lawyers you can recommend.

On the way back from the alley, I saw 4-5 other motorists pulled over by cops. Must be a Easter quota thing.

Some further thoughts:

• Why didn’t the cops use their megaphone to tell me to stop if they wanted me to pull over immediately? They could’ve made me drop the bike or worse, ran me over with their tactics. I wonder who’d pay for the bill if the bike dropped or if they hit me.
• Do all cops get a power kick when they pull people over? I tried to stay as calm as possible while they were the ones screaming and yelling. These guys didn’t seem like they knew what they were doing. Didn’t even tell me to pull my helmet off. Wonder if that could be useful. How do you ID someone when they’re face isn’t even fully exposed.
• Are there any consequences for me posting this? Could this be used in a court proceeding?

Findings after speaking with a lawyer:

• There is no “feel free to stop wherever you feel.” You gotta stop immediately.
• They don’t have to warn you when they pull the “power move” to try to get you off the road.
• Since I gave them my license, it’ll be worse to try and pull a “that wasn’t me” argument in court.
• In Dallas county, it’s almost always best to go to court since they’ll almost always cut you a deal with deferred adjudication if the verdict doesn’t go your way.
• So it looks like I’ll take this to court and leave defensive driving for last resort case.
• The advice was free, but even with a car club discount, this particular incident will cost $200 if I retain his services. Granted, it’s for two items, but it’s still quite a pricy penny.

According to ars, states are starting to enact laws that limit or ban the national ID system that’s supposed to come into effect in 2008 if there is no opposition. I for one, am very glad to hear this. Give the gov’t an inch, and they’ll take a foot, just like how they said SSN’s weren’t for identification purposes…

Additionally, anyone ever heard of free speech zones? I never knew the gov’t enforce such a constraint.

The House of Representatives has just approved the Electronic Surveillance Modernization Act, a bill that would legitimize warrantless electronic surveillance of people within the US who are suspected of having “foreign intelligence information.”

But that’s not all. The president may also authorize surveillance without an order of any kind for 90 days following an armed assault on the US or a terrorist attack. He (or, someday, she) may also authorize surveillance for 90 days in situations where “there exists an imminent threat of attack.” Who determines if there’s an imminent threat of attack? The president.

more at ars.

And down the drain goes more of our rights. Bye-bye 4th amendment. I want my limited government back. Oh the irony:

The story of America is the story of expanding liberty: an ever-widening circle, constantly growing to reach further and include more. Our nation’s founding commitment is still our deepest commitment: In our world, and here at home, we will extend the frontiers of freedom.

G.W. Bush actually said that back in 2004 at the RNC. Now where’s my tin-foil hat gone to?

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060817-7533.html

John Gilmore will have his day in the Supreme Court. The court will argue about the secret directive that requires having ID when travelling on a plane. I’ve been following this for a few years now and it’s good to see that it’s finally moving somewhere, whatever the outcome.

Got my first whiff of them today. Put up a new page under Politics.

The line-item veto was ruled unconstitutional in 1998. Nothing was said about Signing Statements which are basically amendments that the president adds before signing a bill into a law. What I found out was that Bush (and many of his predecessors) have been adding such statements to the text from congress before signing. So this is why he’s never vetoed anything. He just reinterprets them on the fly.

There are some links under the politics page.

Can border agents search your laptop. Yes. And at airports too…

It’s nice to see that even judges will use wikipedia to quickly get up to speed on previously unknown subjects:

This theory appears to conflate two quite different early video games, one called “Breakout” and another called “Asteroids.” Descriptions of the two games in an online encyclopedia reveal no common features beyond their roughly comparable vintage. (See Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakout>; cf. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroids_%28game%29> (as of May 23, 2006).) The author of the theory may have confused Asteroids with Arkanoid, a “clone” of Breakout. (See Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkanoid> (as of May 23, 2006).)

—From the ruling of Apple vs. Jason O Grady (the people who published inside info on Apple products)