From: fnorky@geocities.com (Douglas L. Peterson)
Date: Sat, 21 Feb 1998 10:59:32 -0800 (PST)
To: Ken Williams <jkwilli2@unity.ncsu.edu>
Subject: Re: Fwd: Big Brother Sees through walls (from the spyking list)
In-Reply-To: <Pine.SOL.3.96.980221065336.5774A-100000@c00954-100lez.eos.ncsu.edu>
Message-ID: <34f12039.131228245@smtp.ix.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


On Sat, 21 Feb 1998 07:45:20 -0500 (EST), you wrote:

>
>On Fri, 20 Feb 1998, Information Security wrote:
>
>>   >   From: sunder <sunder@brainlink.com>
>>   >   
>>   >   1)From: "George Martin" <gmartin@kic.or.jp>
>>   >   Subject: News Release: High-Tech Surveillance
>>   >   
>>   >   Here's a sampling of how state and federal agencies are using this
>>   >   terrifying technology to spy on Americans:
>>   >   
>>   >   * In North Carolina, county governments use high-resolution spy satellite
>>   >   photographs to search for property improvements that might increase
>>   >   property tax assessments.
>>
>>Was this cost authorized by taxpayers?
>>
>
>I have lived in Raleigh, North Carolina my entire life (over 30 yrs).
>County governments consist of an elected board of commissioners who have
>the power to make such decisions and expenditures without holding public
>hearings on these matters.  Unless the local media jumps on one of these
>proposals weeks in advance, nobody will even know about it or have an
>opportunity to petition for a public hearing.  Once the county
>commisioners vote on and approve it, our money is spent and the public has
>no recourse (until the next election).  Here in Raleigh, Wake County, NC,
>for instance, we have a Republican county commissioner and a board of
>members.  When I heard from his daughter, a personal friend, about his
>plans to cut funding to drug education and rehab programs and redirect all
>of those funds to the county prison system, I decided to act.  I contacted
>the commissioner himself, his office, and even had lunch with his wife and
>daughter to discuss this issue.  As a family friend, I thought I would at
>least be able to get a friendly, receptive ear.  His wife and daughter
>were in full agreement with me, but the commissioner dismissed all of my
>suggestions and pleas.  In fact, he told me that I was "high on crack" for
>even suggesting that he *not* cut spending to drug education and rehab
>programs.  i then appealed to the media, the public, and various county
>drug rehab and education facilities and tried to petition for public
>hearings on the issue.  After getting stonewalled by the GOP-controlled
>county board of commissioners, funding to drug rehab and education
>programs was cut by over 50%.  Since that time (two years ago), drug
>arrests and convictions, violent crime, murder, non-violent crimes,
>and admissions to treatment centers have all risen, in all of the basic
>statistical measurement categories.
>
>Wake county taxes have increased dramatically (almost 50%), and we have
>just completed building a new county jail and several county jail annex
>facilities.  In both percentage and numbers, our county jail population is
>at the highest rate it has ever been.
>
>On a related note, seven of the Wake county sherriff's deputies, who all
>had laptop computers (with Internet access) in their cruisers, were
>recently busted for spending all of their time on the clock surfing the
>web and going to porno websites and adult chatrooms.  One of the deputies
>has been arrested for using a sherriff's department scanner to scan in a
>picture of his genitals which he then sent to a young girl, a minor, from
>his cruiser while on duty.
>
>Additionally, the officer in charge of the weapons armory for the
>sherriff's department, which contains full-auto weapons such as the HK MP5
>and the M16, was recently dismissed because it was discovered that he had
>been spending all of his time on the clock in another section of the
>building surfing adult sites on the web.  Meanwhile, the armory was left
>unlocked, deputies were unable to get their weapons serviced within a
>reasonable period of time, and an M16 "disappeared".
>
>My tax dollars at work...

May I suggest trying what we did here in Colorado.  Take a look at our
Taxpayers Bill of Rights.  No government in Colorado (state, county or
local) can raise taxes without putting the measure before the public
for a vote.  We have, for the time being, tied the hands of the
government.  They can't just spend money and expect to raise taxes to
cover the short fall.

It took 5 state wide elections to amend the constitution, but the
public finely wised up.  Each election, the State would promise to
change their spending habits.  They broke that promise every time,
once within days of the election.

We have also, on a few occasions, amended our state constitution to
force the government to fund specific items (Education for one) before
any other items may be funded.

If your North Carolina allows the public to patition to have a measure
put before the public in an election, try doing it.  It's not perfect,
but it might send a clear message to the government.

-Doug

p.s.
  Please forgive the grammar errors.  I suffer from using a Microsoft
spelling checker that likes to change the meaning of my words.
-------------------
Douglas L. Peterson
mailto:fnorky@geocities.com
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Heights/1271/