Schwer Log

Plogress.com

RSS feeds for your favorite politicians. Here are my Federal representatives:

Barbara Boxer
Dianne Feinstein
Lynn C. Woolsey

At least the kids look like they are having fun .

California Governor Elect Schwarzenegger, that just sounds weird. I wish him the best of luck, he and the state are gonna need it. If nothing else, Angela reminded me that our diplomas are signed by the governor, so even if we can’t get jobs in the state with them at least they’ll be worth some money on ebay.

Obtaining a California driver’s license just got a little bit easier. As reported here [pressdemocrat.com] Gov. Davis signed SB 60 into law. Touted by the media as the Illegal Immigrant License bill; SB 60 (which makes no reference to immigrants at all mind you) would make obtaining a license easier for everyone including illegal immigrants. That is because the bill makes it so a social security number is no longer required to obtain a license in California. What is required is a federal taxpayer identification number, a birth certificate, and another form of identification (passport, foreign driver’s license, etc.).

I think the bill is a mistake. I think obtaining a license should be more difficult not less. I think illegal immigrants are hard working people that do all the crap jobs that stuck up U.S. citizens wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole, but it just seems wrong for the state to legitimize such an illegal act.

That being said; Wow! what a great new source of revenue for the state. Seriously; in January of this year the BCIS (Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, remember there is no more INS it changed to BCIS after Sep. 11th to be under the auspice of Homeland Security) reported [.pdf] that there were an estimated 2.2 million illegal immigrants in California. I personally paid $54 this year to register my vehicle if each one of those 2.2 million people pays the same fee the state can expect 100-200 million dollars in new revenue. Local automobile insurance companies should also see similar increases because of this bill.

The bill doesn’t actually go into effect until the 1st of January next year, and some gubernatorial candidates are already vowing to repeal it if they are elected, so the bill may be dead before it even gets going.

It looks like the Recall Davis camp may very well get its chance to recall Gov. Davis, however I agree with David Brooks in this NewsHour interview, that this is not democracy. We just voted this guy in nine months ago, and now they want to vote him out. You can’t just vote out the governor every nine months because you don’t like the way things are going; I mean that would be complete chaos. There also doesn’t seem to be any strong runner to replace Davis, so who knows who would replace him; maybe Arnold…?

today the california senate bill SB 1386 went into effect. the bill (now law) makes businesses that store customer information responsible for safe guarding that information from criminals. the law states that if customers personal information (credit card numbers, names, social security numbers, etc.) that is stored on a computer are acquired by unauthorized persons (criminals), then the company in question is responsible for notifying those customers that their information was stolen.

this all seems like common sense to me. if you are a business and i give you my personal information you are responsible for making sure it doesn’t get stolen or used improperly, and certainly if it does get stolen you should tell me about it. the problem is that most business don’t want to embarrass themselves, or gain the bad P.R. that would come from admitting you lost your customer’s information. so instead of admitting they have lost personal information they usually just cover it up, which of course hurts the consummers involved, and leaves no incentive for the companies to actually enact preventative measures, so that it doesn’t happen again.

now with this law companies better beef up security and protect my information, otherwise they will get caught with their pants down, and everyone will know about it.

i first saw this story in the P.D. and what was most shocking was that california is the only state to have such a law. that may soon change though, as U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) introduced similar legislation to the U.S. Senate a few days ago [press release] , which she is titling the Notification of Risk to Personal Data Act. the bill (S 1350) is similar to the california bill, and would apply to any company involved in interstate commerce, and as most federal laws do, would supersede any inconsistent state laws.

i can see why business or people with business ties would fight this law, i mean it is just bad marketing to announce to everyone that you lost a bunch of sensitive data, but i would have to say tough to those people because this law makes sense, and companies have a responsibility to their customers to inform them of this kind of crime against them.