TAG Pushes City to Keep Fusion Center Tamed
The Austin Regional Intelligence Center (our “fusion center”), is due to go online very soon – the City Council vote is currently scheduled for 5/27. We’ve been very busy working through the various documents put forward by Federal (DoJ) contractors that will supposedly keep these things in line. We’ve also been lobbying select members of the Council as well as the Public Safety Commission, in addition to working with other allied activist groups.
Would it surprise you that as currently constituted, there are NO controls on the gathering of private, personally identifiable information by this Orwellian monstrosity? In fact, criminals are more protected than the general public! And this despite repeated meetings with APD.
Videos of past meetings:
TAG Executive Director – John Bush
TAG Founder and Treasurer – Chuck Young
Please come out to the next Public Safety Commission meeting – we expect the media to be there in some force. We aren’t at liberty to disclose everything that’s being planned, but it should be quite a “show”.
What: Public Safety Commission
Where: Austin City Hall
When: 5/3/2010, 4 pm
TAG LiberTEA Party – April 15, 2010
“Putting the Freedom Back in the Tea Party”
Texans for Accountable Government is hosting a TAG LiberTEA Party on the South Steps of the Texas State Capitol on Tax Day – Thursday, April 15, 2010 from 5:45-7:45PM.
We will be gathering in unity to voice our discontent with our current tax structure and out-of-control Big Government spending. Bring your friends, family, and neighbors for an inspiring evening with solutions where you can make a difference! This will be a TRANS-PARTISAN TEA PARTY!
Master of Ceremonies: John Bush, Executive Director of TAG (http://tagtexas.org)
Speakers:
- Jack Blood, radio talk show host (http://deadlinelive.info)
- Devvy Kidd - lecturer, author, and founder and director of POWER, the Project On Winning Economic Reform (www.devvy.com)
- Sean Rima, BIG Talker 98.9 radio host (http://www.989bigtalker.com/shows/rima.php)
- Debra Medina, Texas business owner and former Republican candidate for governor (http://medinafortexas.com)
- AND MORE!
Bring your Anti-Left/Right Paradigm signs!
Then we’ll have a LiberTEA AFTER PARTY at Hickory Street Grill, just three blocks down from the capitol at 800 Congress. We have menu and drink specials just for us. Come have a Texas Tito’s TAGTEAni, Texas beer, and Jeremiah’s Sweet TEA!
Come protest with us like we our taxes are too high, then
COME PARTY WITH US LIKE WE DONT PAY TAXES!
Meeting Summary – 3/29/2010
The TAG meeting was fun and informative as always.
We began the meeting with an introduction to Holly Turner who has a runoff election in the
Republican Primary for Texas House District 47. After her speech she fielded some questions and we chose with a voice vote to endorse her. The runoff election will be April 13th but early voting begins April 5th (more info here -
http://www.co.travis.tx.us/county_clerk/election/20100413/early.asp )
http://www.hollyfortexas.com
We had a special election to the Steering Committee to fill the position vacated by Erica
Grignon. The members present voted and chose Heather Fazio by simple majority.
The Garko Factor announced some plans for action in the near future that some TAG members might be interested in – especially those who don’t mind a little confrontation. To find out more contact We Are Change Austin – http://www.wearechangeaustin.org/
http://www.meetup.com/WeAreChangeAustin/
In attendance also was Executive Director for TAG John Bush and Executive Director of Liberty Restoration Project Catherine Bleish. These two gave us insights to threats to liberty beyond the borders of Texas with their ongoing project Operation Defuse.
Chuck spoke about the long-term goals for the upcoming Texas Legislature session. We will have LOTS of work for anyone who wishes to help out. In the last session we were successful in stopping sobriety checkpoints through our efforts and we plan to be even more effective this time around.
If you did not attend the meeting please consider doing so next time (April 26th – 7 PM at Bagpipes Pub). Far more gets covered than we can sum up online.
TAG Monthly Meeting Tonight – electing a new steering committee member
Tonight! 7pm – TAG monthly meeting at Bagpipes Pub and Brewery (9070 Research Blvd.)
One of our Steering Committee members resigned last month and we will be electing someone new. This is an exciting time for TAG, we are regrouping and identifying our goals. Now is the perfect time to get involved for the first time or to rededicate yourself to trans-partisan LOCAL activism.
35 cent wing…, $2 domestic, this is a low pressure environment, come meet some people!!
STOP Vaccination Registration!
As described here:
“[T]he executive director of the Texas-based Immunization Partnership, … and [their] allies are asking lawmakers to include all Texans in the [immunization] registry. They’ll make their case before an influential Senate committee this month.”
If you can find time this Wednesday the 24th, please show up here:
When: Wednesday, Feb 24th, 9 AM to Noon
Where: State Capitol, Senate Chambers
For additional details click HERE .
To read TAG’s position paper delivered in committee, click here
Also, if you’re planning to attend and/or if you’d like to give testimony please contact Heather Fazio @ 512-825-9142
TAG Releases Fusion Center Report
Texans for Accountable Government has released a report highlighting our concerns about fusion centers and our recommendations for protecting the privacy and rights of citizens in the Austin area. The coming Austin Regional Intelligence Center (ARIC) will be operated by the Austin PD and will coordinate intelligence for the surrounding counties. We have an opportunity to make ARIC a national model for how to run a fusion center that does not infringe on the rights of the citizens it is supposed to serve. The report (found here) will be presented to the Austin Public Safety Committee at their next meeting.
TAG, ACLU, and Community Await City Recommendations on Blood Draws
In October of 2009, Texans for Accountable Government brought a resolution before the City Council which would have put a stop to Austin’s “no-refusal” weekends and prevent Austin police officers from ever being trained as phlebotomists. While we managed to garner the support of the Travis County, Democratic Party, Republican Party, Libertarian Party, Green Party, NAACP, LULAC and many others, we were met with much resistance from the city establishment.
At the 11th hour our community-supported resolution was nixed and instead the council voted on a substitute resolution which merely called on the City Manager to come up with guidelines on how blood collection should occur on no-refusal weekends. The guidelines were supposed to be presented to the Public Safety Commission by the 29th of January however the City Bureaucracy, as usual, is behind schedule. The findings should be presented before the Commission on Monday March 1st at City Hall. We’ll be there!
You can view a KVUE interview on the matter here.
The original TAG community supported resolution can be viewed here.
The resolution introduced by Councilman Spelman can be viewed here.
And the final watered down bureaucracy version can be found here.
TAG apologizes for Alex Jones
As is now well known, local radio “shock jock” Alex Jones crashed TAG’s protest rally at APD HQ. We have apologized to APD Chiefs Acevedo and Carter for his behavior; you can read the apology here. He did irreparable damage to this particular cause, both with his incredibly sloppy “journalism”, and his totally self serving, immature, and inciteful actions at the rally. I’ll be commenting further in the coming weeks on my own personal blog about my views on people like Alex Jones.
Public Safety Commission Meeting @ Austin City Hall
The Public Safety Commission is set to have their next meeting this coming Monday. APD Chief of Staff David Carter will be giving an update on the Fusion Center @ 4:45PM. This is an excellent opportunity to ask questions and get the facts about the Fusion Center.
When: Monday, February 1, 2010 at 4:00 pm
Where: City Hall, Boards and Commissions Room 1101 (301 West 2nd St)
Austin Police Department Protest!
This is it people! This is GUN CONTROL in TEXAS. It is starting! And WE THE PEOPLE are the only ones who are going to do anything about it! Not the sold out NRA, not our sold out elected officials, IT’S UP TO US!
This Monday, January 25th @ the Austin Police Department’s HQ @ 5PM, Texans for Accountable Government will show APD and BATF that we will NOT bury our head in the sand as they try to bully gun show promoters and vendors and cut off public access to purchasing a fire arm here in Austin! DO NOT BRING ARMS – this MUST be a PEACEFUL demonstration. Please DO bring your holsters and wear them on your hip/shoulder – but instead of a weapon, place a Constitution in it! The media will eat this up! Bring extras for others to borrow if you have them!
When: Monday, January 25th from 5-7pm
Where: Austin Police Department 715 East 8th Street
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