Armed Robbery in Central

Early Monday morning July 7th 2008 around 12:30 am two armed men entered an apartment in Central, South Carolina and robbed two young women who lived there. This happened in the Summit apartment complex in Central SC. The description of the two males was described to me as follows: one was around 5'9" tall around 140 pounds small build and was holding a bandanna over his face. The other was described to me as around 6'1" tall average build , wearing a red hat with white lettering, and had a very defined jaw line. Both of the robbers were black. The gunman was right handed, he cocked the slide on the gun with his left hand. The gun was described as like a glock. It had a greenish color slide. They each had on very baggy clothing. No vehicle was seen leaving after the victims got up off the floor and looked. They either were on foot or lived in the area. They must have known the girls or someone who does, because they knew where to look for money, and I believe called one of the girls by name. The central police were contacted and I hope are at least running fingerprints.
This picture of the guns may not be correct it is just similar to what I think the gun may look like after hearing the description.


The robbers took a paycheck, a money order and I think some cash and other things of value. I know both of the victims and they work hard to earn their money working 11hrs some days and on the weekends. If anyone reads this and has information about this incident please let me know. You can comment on this post if you don't mind the information being public, or you can email me at admin at usapresidentmccain.com . Replace the at with @ and do not include spaces, it is written that way to keep from getting spam. If you would like to arrange another way to communicate email what you would like me to do. You can also contact the Central Police by clicking on the central police link here. I will give anyone with information leading to the arrest or identity of the two thief's a cash reward.

Also the donate link on this blog has been placed at the top right hand corner of the page and titled Donate to Robbery Victims. If anyone would like to donate any money to help these girls I will give every penny of it to them and pay the transaction fees myself. They would never ask for help and probably will be mad at me for doing this, but sometimes everyone needs a little help. Thanks for reading.

Privacy , A Thing of the Past ?

Privacy may be a thing of the past. CNBC's Sunday night show "Big Brother, Big Business" was very educating and scary to me. Some of the information collection companies are tracking your every move. From facial recognition to security camera tracking to help the company sell you things more efficiently, it is all reality! How can you trust the information collectors to get the right information about you to others? You can't, watch the video on the site linked here. A women lost her job because of a background checking agency reporting false information to her new employer. There are a bunch of videos on that link and I suggest taking the time to watch each of them. Your personal phone records are not even safe! Most bloggers and internet savvy people know they are being tracked on the internet, but you might be getting tracked by your boss, rental car company, and by security cameras in your local Home Depot or Target; with out even being told!

It is big business that collects most of the data about us, But increasingly, it is the government that’s using it.
- CNBC

I don't think the guys who wrote this would approve!

Companies helping to Steal, Borrow, or Share your Information.

• VeriChip - "Identify, Locate, and Protect" is what they say they do. VeriChip implants people with small chips. Yea, there may be a few situations this should be used, but I think it should stay outside the skin!

• L-1 Identity Solutions- They do it all from eye and face recognition to finger printing. "Together, our portfolio of companies - Viisage, Identix, Integrated Biometric Technology, SecuriMetrics, Iridian, SpecTal, ComnetiX, McClendon, Advanced Concepts, Inc. and Bioscrypt Inc. - deliver the full range of offerings required for solving the problems associated with managing human identity." Quoted from their website.
  

• Choice Point- A data collection agency based in Athens, Ga. I have dealt with this company before due to them reporting false information about me, affecting my credit to the tune of about a 100 point decrease (a lot). They already lost 163,000 customers information!

• Acxiom- They track your information and sell software to help companies sell things to you and who knows what else. Here's an interesting CNNmoney article about the company.
  

• Big Business tracks you
• Criminals track Big Businesses info, collected about you
• Government tracks everyone to "catch the criminals"
• Criminals track government.

Don't Believe me? Check out the site Who's A Rat?

Summary of the CNBC Show

The documentary takes viewers inside the FBI, the Border Patrol, police departments and schools to see how they are using biometric technologies to establish identity. There is also a rare look inside a little-known division of AOL that works solely with law enforcement requests for information about AOL’s members.

Faber also examines some of the downsides of the new surveillance society: a man whose cell phone records were stolen by his former employer; a women who lost her job due to mistaken identity; a man who discovered his rental car company was tracking his every move.

BIG BROTHER, BIG BUSINESS takes an enlightening and sometimes disturbing look at how the growth of the information society may be eroding the freedoms many people take for granted. -CNBC

I personally use debit or plastic to pay for about everything, but maybe I should rethink that tactic to keep my privacy as intact as possible. I have nothing to hide, but the principle of always being watched and companies collecting information about me quite frankly pisses me off. I believe I should have the right to know when information is being collected about me and for what. Criminals will get a hold of your personal information from these companies sooner then later, if they have not already. I am going to be watching for this issue in future campaigning by each of the candidates.

Blog Legally, Legal Issues 4 Bloggers

Legal issues such as: copyrights, advertiser agreements with affiliates or ad sense, and your privacy are things bloggers should not overlook. 10 Essential Legal Points for Bloggers by the author of DailyBlogTips is a good blog post to read and keep your blog legal and safe. In todays world sneezing in the wrong direction could bring a lawsuit. I am going to change a few things on my blog after reading this post and just wanted to share it with my readers. I am very law conscious, but the internet world and staying legal in it is a whole new ball game to me and many others I assume. Read the fine print on everything because it will come back to haunt you sooner then later if you don't.

This is an actual sign in SC, I found the picture on tigernet and thought it was worth sharing!

Chesterfield High School:Bombing Plot Thwarted

Chesterfield High School is in a little town in northeast South Carolina. A student at the school, Ryan Schallenberger, was planning to bomb the high school with enough ammonium nitrate to level most of the school. He had ten pounds delivered to his house, which his parents found along with his journal luckily! If his parents had not turned him this could have been the worst school tragedy in history. The local rumor is more then just one person was involved in this plot. This student is rumored to be a better candidate then Schallenberger for such a plot, in terms of he was not top in his class and may have had some problems. I have heard this person has not been located yet and has been missing for a couple days.

I am from Cheraw and am very familiar with Chesterfield, because the two towns are only about 15 miles apart. This is especially scary for me because my little brother is in high school still and has friends that go to chesterfield high. I think the Chesterfield county law enforcement has done a good job handling this situation. There are a bunch of good people in this counties law enforcement agency, but I hope this makes them turn more attention to things like this, instead of petty things most teenagers get into at one time or another. If the parents had not have turned their son in, today could have been a lot worse.

Speeding Tickets and Traffic Stops

I am not a lawyer so this is not legal advice, but just the best way to handle traffic tickets from my experience. I have had a "few" tickets and have been given advice from a few good lawyers. I have had lets say more then 10, but less then 50 speeding tickets, I don't want to say the actual number because its ridiculous. I have only been charged with maybe eight of those and they were reduced to much less then the actual violation!

The best thing to do when you get pulled over for a traffic ticket is be calm and cooperative. When you are pulled over two things can happen: you either will get a ticket for the alleged violation or the officer will give you a warning. If you are nice you have a better chance of walking away with a warning. The following is a list of things I recommend doing if you are pulled over. If you do these things the officer will be more likely to cut you a break. Even if you do get a ticket you have improved your ability to negotiate a reduction in points and fines.

* Pull over as far away from traffic as possible
* Pull over in a lite area for your benefit and the officers
* Roll your window down before the officer approaches
* Have your insurance and registartion ready!
* Be polite
* If it is at night turn on your cars dome lights so the officer can see inside


Ask for a jury trial. With any speeding ticket, in SC at least, you have to waive your right to a jury trial before being convicted. I have rarely done this, and would suggest that anyone who gets a traffic ticket use the law to benefit them by asking for a jury trial. Think of it like this, you are getting a $75-400 ticket is it worth that amount of money to the local government to call in a jury and hold a trial? Even before the jury trial their will be a pre-jury trial meeting between you and the prosecution or judge. Usually at this meeting you can work out some terms that save both parties money and time. This is what I will always do, because I feel the system should be used to keep both sides honest!