But the new news is that you can watch this flick for free now via the NetFlix.
It’s just released. See?
“This movie is: Exciting”
(But, sorry streamer-only NetFlix people, right now you can only have them mail you the DVD or the Blu-Ray – you can’t just stream this to your device.)
And no, I don’t think Vietnam Tom Bruso, or anyone else on the bus that day…
“The Subway to Nowhere. House Chamber, Washington, D.C. June 27, 2012. Remarks by Congressman Tom McClintock (R-CA).”
“Mr. Chairman:
This amendment forbids further federal expenditures for the Central Subway project in San Francisco.
The project is a 1.7 mile subway that is estimated to cost $1.6 billion –– and those cost estimates continue to rise. Its baseline budget has more than doubled in nine years and shows no signs of slowing. The current estimate brings the cost to nearly $1 billion per mile. That’s five times the cost per lane mile of Boston’s scandalous “Big Dig.”
It was supposed to link local light rail and bus lines with CalTrain and Bay Area Rapid Transit, but it’s so badly designed that it bypasses 25 of the 30 light rail and bus lines that it crosses. To add insult to insanity, it dismantles the seamless light-rail to BART connection currently available to passengers at Market Street, requiring them instead to walk nearly a quarter mile to make the new connection. Experts estimate it will cost commuters between five and ten minutes of additional commuting time on every segment of the route.
Even the sponsors estimate that it will increase ridership by less than one percent, and there is vigorous debate that this projection is far too optimistic.
I think Margaret Okuzumi, the Executive Director of the Bay Rail Alliance put it best when she said,
This administration is attempting to put federal taxpayers – our constituents — on the hook for nearly a billion dollars of the cost of this folly through the “New Starts” program – or more than 60 percent. We have already squandered $123 million on it. This amendment forbids another dime of our constituents’ money being wasted on this boondoggle.
Now here is an important question that members may wish to ponder: “Why should your constituents pay nearly a billion dollars for a purely local transportation project in San Francisco that is opposed by a broad, bi-partisan coalition of San Franciscans, including the Sierra Club, Save Muni (a grassroots organization of Muni Riders), the Coalition of San Francisco Neighborhoods, and three of the four local newspapers serving San Francisco?
Why, indeed.
I’m sorry, I don’t have a good answer to that question. But those who vote against this amendment had better have one when their constituents ask, “What in the world were you thinking?”
# # #
This amendment to the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Act (HR 5972) was approved by the House on June 29th. The legislation next goes to the Senate.
So, BART, do you think there’s a chance in Hell that you did a proper job of TASER implementation the past several years? Have you apologized for that?
Here’s more. Remember this, from back in the day?
“The BART Police Department stripped its officers of Tasers on Thursday, days after a sergeant fired the electric darts of his stun gun at a 13-year-old boy fleeing from police in Richmond on his bicycle, sources told The Chronicle.”
Anyway, here’s the latest – the next protest at the downtown stations of the Bay Area Rapid Transit will be during the evening drive on Monday, August 22, 2011. (Personally, I think this one will be smaller than the one we had on Monday, August 15th, but who’s to say?)
That’s right, it’s OpBART 2, BARTWRAITH 2011, betwixt ANONYMOUS and BART PR hack Linton Johnson, who costs the taxpayers $170k(!) per year.
“The mission of BART, according to BART’s statement, “is to provide, safe, secure, efficient, reliable, and clean transportation services.” So there was the municipal transit agency, exercising its powers to shut down a protest. It’s possible that BART had the legal right to cut off communications inside its stations. It can be argued that the inside of a transit station is an unsuitable place for a mass demonstration.
But the point of the would-be demonstrations was to challenge BART’s judgment in how it used its powers. The protesters were protesting a shooting by transit police. BART’s response showed that it couldn’t even grasp that premise.
What about ordinary commuters, entering the zone of conflict with no access to their own mobile communications? “BART Police officers and other BART personnel with radios were present during the planned protest, and train intercoms and white courtesy telephones remained available for customers seeking assistance or reporting suspicious activity.” The authorities were in charge. The authorities and no one else.
For a day, the measures worked—or in the unknowable world of security counterfactuals, they didn’t not work. There were no disruptive protests during that commute. But BART’s vision of tech dystopia was self-fulfilling. In response to the news of the phone shutdown, the vigilante hackers of Anonymous retaliated by breaking into its database of commuters’ private information and launching a new round of demonstrations, teaming up with the original aggrieved parties. Technology was a dangerous thing after all.”
“Update on potential interruption to BART’s website and other online services
BART’s online services including web, mobile web, email and SMS are used by nearly 2 million customers every month. We’re disappointed to announce that the BART website may be subject to an online attack today, Sunday August 14, between noon and 6 pm, because this action will directly affect those customers who depend upon our site, as well as the developers who use BART’s open data services to serve BART customers.
We’re doing what we can to defend against any attack on the BART website. BART’s website infrastructure is wholly separate from any computer network involved in the operation of BART service. In the event that bart.gov is not available or working as you’d expect, we encourage you to use the 511.org website for alternative transit information.
“Sooner or later the people in this country gotta realize the government
does not give a fuck about them. The government doesn’t care about you, or your children,
or your rights, or your welfare, or your safety, it simply doesn’t give a fuck about you.
It’s interested in its own power, that’s the only thing, keeping it and expanding it wherever possible.”
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
### #OpBart #Bart-Action #FREETOPIARY #FREEMERCEDES #FREEBRADLEYMANNING #Justice for Oscar Grant ###
### No Justice, No Bart ### UA In The Bay ### Bay Of Rage ### Anti-sec #Justice for Charles Hill ###
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
### Your Website has been hacked and database has been leaked by: ###
### #t0nicwater #Bl4ckAbby #NaDa #Tanko #Anonymous #hackers ###
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Dear Bay Area Rapid Transit, The People and All Government Agencies,
We are Anonymous, we are your citizens, we are the people, WE DO NOT TOLERATE OPPRESSION FROM ANY GOVERNMENT AGENCY.
BART has proved multiple times that they have no problem exploiting and abusing the people.
First they displayed this by the two recent killings by BART police. Under no circumstance, unless police are shot at,
make police killings acceptable. Non-lethal weapons were available to use during both incidents,
providing even that was necessary, but instead they shot to kill. Next they violated the people’s right to assembly and prevented
other bystanders from using emergency services by blocking cell phone signals in order to stop a protest against the BART police murders.
Lastly, they set up this website called mybart.gov and they stored their members information with virtually no security.
The data was stored and easily obtainable via basic sqli. Any 8 year old with a internet connection
could have done what we did to find it. On top of that none of the info, including the passwords,
was encrypted. It is obvious BART does no give a fuck about its customers, funders and tax payers,THE PEOPLE.
The governments and government agencies of the world are becoming tyrannical and oppressive,
and the people are responding and will not take your shit for much longer. The people will fight
this oppression with protests, demonstrations, riots, hacking, ddos, online attacks and by any other means.
We will not allow ourselves to be killed, exploited, or get shitted on. From the streets of Chile,
England, Portland, San Francisco, Oakland, the people are rising up and we will support each other and
stand in solidarity against any injustice. Worldwide resistance is happening,
we will participate in solidarity against oppression. SOLIDARITY IS OUR WEAPON.
Thus below we are releasing the User Info Database of MyBart.gov, to show that BART doesn’t give a shit about it’s customers and riders and to show that the people will not allow you to kill us and censor us. This is but the one of many actions to come. We apologize to any citizen that has his information published, but you should go to BART and ask them why your information wasn’t secure with them. Also do not worry, probably the only information that will be abused from this database is that of BART employees.
Greetz to TeaMp0ison, lulzsec, anti-sec, anarchists, anon, bay of rage, No Justice, No BART, UA in the bay,
your anon news, anonymous irc.”
Speaking of which, comes now the BART Police, reminding us to protect our coveted shinies when we’re on Bay Area Rapid Transit trains. Check it out, below.
BART police taking care of bidness near Civic Center Station. Is the TASER on the other side of the belt? No se:
Here it is, with more typos than an average post from this blog. Stay safe!
The Apple iPad was just released this past weekend, and commuters already are toting the tablet computers along on BART – prompting lots of riders to report their first sightings of iPads “in the wild” on BART.
Along with attracting attention from curious commuters, the iPad — like other easily portable and expensive electronic devices — may also be a new target for potential thieves. BART Police are using the occasion as a reminder of general safety tips for protecting your personal property while on BART.
Stay alert and pay close attention to your surroundings. Those who “zone out” listening to music on their iPods, texting on their phones, playing video games or working on laptop computers make themselves easier targets.
Hold on to your belongings – do not leave them lying out of your reach on the seat next to you or on the floor.
Keep purses or backpacks close to the front of your body. On a crowded train, something hanging behind you might create a crime of opportunity for a thief.
If it is possible, don’t stand directly by the train doors with your electronic device, because that could give a thief an easier exit to “grab and go” as the door is closing.
Be the eyes and ears for others around you to help create a safer community for everyone.
If you observe suspicious activity or a possible crime there are many ways to report it; visit the BART Safety Guidelines for more detail on what to do on a train or in a station.
“I’m going to wear a powder blue fucking suit, and a white shirt and a red tie and a fucking breast cancer pin…”
Comes now the fight loser “Michael” (who appears to be on a first-name-only basis with DJ “JV“):
“First of all, I’d like to aPOlogize to AC Transit…”
It goes on and on, Black History Month, 5150, bygones, veterans, arthritis, murder, parole, apologies, brothers, stolen money, leaking, ass kicking, Strike Force(?) Showtime TV, 10,000 kids, cocaine - it goes on and on.
Can’t remember which morning-zoo / dawg-pound joint this screengrab came from. Oh yes, it was from WILD 94.9 FM:
Now-famous 62-year-old Bay Arean Thomas Bruso (akaEpic Beard Man, Tom Swift, and Tom Vietnam) picks fights as he rides AC Transit in the East Bay, of course, (incident video now available in high def) but he also has been known to take BART to visit San Francisco from time to time. For example, here he is near Market Street back when he was just 48, as seen by Caliber photographer Troy Holden:
“Back in 1996, I was working at the intersection of 2nd & Market. Each and every day the man pictured above would walk by my shop, wave a loaf of sourdough in my face, and scream obscenities about the San Francisco 49′ers.”
Let’s find out, courtesy of footage of Tom at an Oakland A’s game last year. Is this a proper use of a Taser? I don’t know. It ended up being a time-saver for the cops, certainly. Would they have felt justified in shooting Tom with bullets at that moment? Obviously not. The question after any Taser discharge is what would you have done if you didn’t have the Taser, right?
Speaking of Tasers and the East Bay, check out this excellent report from Demian Bulwa about how the BART Police Department ran the initial stages of its Taser program.
That’s a poorly-run operation. What about the California Highway Patrol? They seem to do be doing better with Tasers these days. For them, a Taser is just another arrow in the quiver. Check it, a CHP officer on San Francisco’s Octavia Boulevard with his two primary weapons, a Smith & Wesson Model 4006 semi-automatic and a TASER International X26:
So why shouldn’t the SFPD have Tasers? We already trust them with handguns and assault rifles, right? We’ll end up with a few more lawsuits but with fewer dead civilians. Sounds like a win, overall.
And finally, let’s hear from the RAND Coporation. They pondered the use of Conducted Energy Devices (CEDs) for the NYPD and had this to say:
“Our key less-than-lethal force recommendations:
We reviewed reports of about 455 NYPD shootings from 2004 to 2006 and identified 25 cases where we judged that had a less-lethal weapon been available, officers may have used it to subdue suspects instead of using their handguns.
We also note that when other departments have deployed Conducted Energy Devices or CEDs, commonly known by the brand name TASER, injuries to both suspects and officers have declined.
We recognize that some groups have criticized the deployment of CEDs, raising issues of safety, overuse, and misuse. As such we recommend that the NYPD undertake a pilot program for the deployment of CEDs.
Such a program should allow patrol officers in selected precincts to be trained and equipped with CEDs that can incapacitate suspects from a distance. We believe there is evidence that if NYPD officers had access to this device, some number of officer-involved shootings could be avoided, and injuries to both suspects and police officers will decline. A carefully designed pilot program conducted over six to 12 months in a few select precincts would give the department enough information to determine whether the devices would alter the way the NYPD officers apply force and whether the weapons could be used properly.”
It felt like a quick initial jolt followed up by three seconds of shaking to those of us in San Francisco. See what people thought about the latest rumblings of our San Andreas Fault over at SFist.com.
A light earthquake occurred at 10:09:35 AM (PST) on Thursday, January 7, 2010.
The magnitude 4.2 event occurred 10 km (6 miles) ENE of Milpitas, CA.
The hypocentral depth is 9 km ( 6 miles).
Milpitas, CA – 10 km (6 miles) ENE (62 degrees) Alum Rock, CA – 12 km (8 miles) NNE (12 degrees) Sunol, CA – 16 km (10 miles) SSE (150 degrees) San Jose City Hall, CA – 17 km (11 miles) NNE (29 degrees)
