Legislation passes to protect your car from prying eyes of Government

"DCCARGEEK" (dccargeek) 06/11/2014 at 11:18 • Filed to: None

0

5

Yesterday the House of Representatives rather quickly (*cough* campaign time) passed the 2015 Transportation-HUD !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The bill, which moves to the Senate where it will likely be rolled into some kind of "emergency" fund-the-government-so-I-can-get-my-campaign-on piece of legislation, included three amendments (above) that I found interesting.

The bill was filled with many other provisions. Provisions related to building things with government monies and carrying oil via rail, but unless Oppo has a large audience of commercial construction managers or railroad operators I didn't see many of those provisions being relevant. There were also provisions against using federal funds to buy Amtrak food and paying for California's high-speed rail, but because we're car people, trains are stupid.

I kid, I kid - trains are great ways to move about…when you're traveling in Europe. LA, not so much.

The theme of the three Republican-sponsored amendments: privacy .

Congress wants to ensure that as you motor about our roads of democracy, through tunnels of freedom and across fields of grain that you are protected from unwarranted government intrusion.

Random traffic stops that randomly target you ; electronic devices that photograph license plates, your license plate; and a device that captures milliseconds of complex, dynamic vehicle information, your information; this bill will put a stop to all of this....just so long as the Senate agrees too.

Sleep easier tonight car-loving America knowing that Congress is working hard to ensure you are safe from large harmful institutions, like Congress The Government and that your vehicular privacy is paramount.

Dukie - Jalopnik Emergency Management Asshole > DCCARGEEK 06/11/2014 at 11:22

0

jariten1781 > DCCARGEEK 06/11/2014 at 11:28

0

I'm kind of surprised the defunding of the Roadside Survey passed by voice. Good. Though I'd have assumed some people would want to be on record to having voted against that amendment. Now expect attack adds to say "Representative X voted to defund a program that would have prevented DUI deaths".

DCCARGEEK > jariten1781 06/11/2014 at 11:34

0

The whole notion of NHTSA's safety efforts (i.e. handouts to states) are an interesting thing. States want them, I mean they're free money. At the same time they can be silly. For example, NHTSA gives money to Florida to buy motorcycle helmets yet Florida won't pass a helmet law. Either way I think members can get conflicted. They want to help their states (read: local law enforcement) by making sure these grants aren't killed, but at the same time they don't want to be a talking point of Tea Party Opposition (see, Cantor vs. Tea Party).

jariten1781 > DCCARGEEK 06/11/2014 at 12:00

0

Yeah, I expected the survey to go since it hit national news about the same time as the NSA stuff did. I just expected it to get a recorded vote so people in contentious races could toss their hat in the Privacy or Anti-DUI bin.

I have no clue what swung the 7th district. Polling going into the primary had Cantor up 10+ points. I can see some of swing on primary day being made up of anti-establishment grass roots rights, but those folks should have shown up in polls. I have a sneaking suspicion that he may have been a victim of non-party members voting in the open primary. That would explain a lot of the massive 20 point swing since pollsters tend to throw those out due to those efforts normally not actually getting disruptive voters to actually show.

DCCARGEEK > jariten1781 06/13/2014 at 08:54

0

If you were in the D camp nothing makes for a more enticing get-out-the-moderate-dems talking point quite like "radical tea party"