Have I mentioned how proud I am of Tracy?  I have been on the road for a month and have not gotten my official announcement out, but if you haven’t noticed the WAVES OF LIBERTY rippling through KC this past month, you must be blind.  Tracy has stepped up as the new KC area director and is going 90 mph.  I am so proud of her.  I’ll do the formal announcement when I’m off the road for a bit

Tracy, LRP KC, I love ya’ll!

Tony, THANK YOU FOR COVERING THE REAL NEWS!

<3 Catherine

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Saturday, January 23, 2010

THE TKC SATURDAY NIGHT PLAYLIST!!! GRASSROOTS PROTEST AND THE FUTURE OF LOCAL POLITICS!!!

Today I stopped by the Liberty Restoration Project Red Light Camera Protest and I was impressed.

Over the past few years I’ve noticed a lot more people organizing through the Internets and even old school grass roots methods because local politicos haven’t offered much in the way of leadership. This dedicated group is a great example of a few pissed off locals rallying on a subject that is evoking the ire of quite a few locals.

More importantly, I think grass roots organizing via the Internet is only going to grow more important as (by and large) the current crop of politicos in power (still) seem to be disconnected with what the vast majority of people on the street are thinking. I was talking with a rather well-connected professional working for a bit of change in his community today and he spoke of his efforts to simply, “bypass the leadership and go straight to the people.” That’s a sentiment I’m hearing more often nowadays and I can’t help but think that the local Internet is going to play some role . . . Don’t get me wrong, it’s not going to be all sunshine and flowers . . . Local politics moving to the Internets definitely means more fighting, nastiness and divisive content online but it also puts more hands into individuals and small time operators who also want to aggregate and congregate online like so many recent political campaigns.

via Tony’s Kansas City.

LRP getting coverage on Tony’s KC blog.  Check it out!  Thank him for spreading the word!

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Friday, January 22, 2010

KANSAS CITY RED LIGHT CAMERA PROTEST THIS SATURDAY!!!

Interesting . . . The Liberty Restoration Project takes on Kansas City’s Red Light Cameras this weekend.

This group has a pretty solid list of complaints with local Red-Light Camera efforts.

Protest Details:

Date: Saturday, January 23, 2010

Time: 11:30am – 3:00pm

Location: 39th and Southwest Trafficway, Kansas City, MO

Protesters are encouraged to meet first at Westport Coffee House to distribute supplies among the group, the group will then move to 39th and Southwest Trafficway.

Double Bonus Points, the group will have fliers available to educate drivers on how to fight their tickets.

via Tony’s Kansas City: KANSAS CITY RED LIGHT CAMERA PROTEST THIS SATURDAY!!!.

1. No clear proof that red light cameras reduce accidents or save lives (but they usually do generate lots of revenue for the city!).

source- http://www.motorists.org/photoenforce/home/nma-objections-to-photoenforcement/#nosafety

2. Red light cameras might actually cause more rear end collisions, because people brake suddenly at yellow lights to avoid red light camera tickets.

3. The red light camera system might not be functioning properly, or might not be properly calibrated, and you could get stuck with a bogus ticket as a result.

4. If somebody else is driving your car and runs a light, YOU are responsible for the ticket.

5. You might have a bunch of red light cameras along your daily route, and thus be unfairly targeted.

6. Most of the Kansas City red light cameras are located in areas with higher minority populations and lower income populations.

7. Cities and red light camera companies often reduce the green->yellow->red light cycle time (aka “signal timing”) at intersections so more people will run the light, and get a ticket, and pay the $100+ fine and consequently increase revenue for the city and/or red light camera company that shares in ticket fine proceeds. An unfortunate side effect of this practice is an increase in accidents and injuries.

8. Steve Worley, the city traffic engineer who pushed for the red light camera system use, quit his job and went to work for the company that got the contract to supply red light cameras to the city.

source-http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/17/1733.asp

9. City employees and other people with connections in city hall often get their tickets dismissed. But YOU still have to pay your fine.

10. Red light camera tickets are a bogus revenue generator for the city that ultimately comes out of YOUR paycheck.

11. If you supposedly run a red light and get issued a ticket, the ticket is mailed to you. What happens if the ticket gets lost in the mail? You’ll probably never know about the ticket until you’re arrested for failure to pay the fine.

12. Hearsay (i.e. there is no certifiable witness to the alleged violation). “Ordinarily, if you wish to use a document or letter as evidence in court, you need to bring in a live person to testify as to its authenticity and accuracy (and he can be cross-examined about the same, by your opponent). Without that ‘live’ authentication, the document would be ruled to be ‘hearsay,’ and it would be excluded from evidence.  There is an exception to the hearsay rule, for documents created by a government employee – but many of the documents the police present in court have been created by a private company’s employees, who have no official duty to report accurately.” In other words, if you want to contest the ticket in court, you most likely would not win your case.

source one- http://www.highwayrobbery.net/

source two-http://www.motorists.org/photoenforce/

13. This type of enforcement emphasizes ticket volume.

source-http://www.motorists.org/photoenforce/home/nma-objections-to-photo-enforcement/#volume

14. Red light cameras encourage artificially low speed limits, and adversely affect traffic flow.

source – http://www.motorists.org/photoenforce/home/nma-objections-to-photo-enforcement/#artificiallylow

15. There are better alternatives to red light cameras.

source- http://www.motorists.org/photoenforce/home/nma-objections-to-photo-enforcement/#alternatives

What: EDUCATE – ACTIVATE – LIBERATE – A Day of Activist Empowerment!

When: January 3^rd from 1-6pm

Where: Brave New Books ( 1904 Guadelupe St . Austin , TX 78705 )

This January 3^rd from 1 – 6pm, Texans for Accountable Government and Brave New Books Are Proud to Present…..

EDUCATE – ACTIVATE – LIBERATE – A Day of Activist Empowerment!

Join TAG and BNB for a day of enlightenment and brotherhood.  This event will be the first of many “mini-seminars” on liberty and action that will take place regularly at Brave New Books.    We believe that by creating a venue for activists to share strategies and best practices we will be able to further our ability to bring about positive change here in Central Texas .

Agenda

1:00 – 1:15pm:  Intro – Like Peas and Carrots: The Bookstore and Austin Liberty Activism

1:15 – 2:00 pm: Robert Butler – (Director of Texas Libertarian Party) – Crafting a Marketable Liberty Message

2:15 – 3:00 pm: Deborah Stevens and Randy Kelton – (Hosts of Rule of Law Radio/Judicial Activists) – The Joys of Judicial Activism

3:15 – 4:00pm: John Bush – (Director of Texans for Accountable Government) – Localism and City Government: The Prospects for Liberty

4:15 – 5:00pm: Catherine Bliesh – (Director of Liberty Restoration Project MO ) – Understanding the Mechanics of the Police State and the Art of Guerilla Activism

5:00 – 6:00pm: Action Items/Networking/Shop!

We are suggesting a $5 donation.  Proceeds will be split between Brave New Books http://www.bravenewbookstore.com/ and Operation Defuse http://operationdefuse.com/. (ODF is a joint TAG and LRP nationwide effort exposing Fusion Centers and the police state and providing activists with the tools and resources necessary to combat them.)

So C’mon down to Brave New Books from 1-6pm on January 3^rd and Educate, Activate, and Liberate with some of Austin’s finest Activists and liberty defenders!

We’ll be expecting ya.

John Bush

Executive Director

Texans for Accountable Government