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Latest Articles: Dead Constitution
States quietly buy, mine personal data -- including names of your associates and relatives
Post Date: 2008-04-02 18:12:37 by robin
4 Comments
The government is rounding up your cell phone numbers, insurance claims, credit reports, financial records, and the names of your associates and relatives and sharing them with law enforcement officials nationwide. They may even have your unlisted iPhone number. But it's not President George W. Bush, who's taken fire over his warrantless wiretapping program, or the National Security Agency, which oversaw the interception of Americans' calls overseas. It's your state. So-called "fusion centers" set up after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks collect, store and analyze commercial and public data on unknown millions of Americans. Little is known about the centers, ...
Documents show Pentagon now using FBI to spy on Americans
Post Date: 2008-04-02 17:52:19 by robin
1 Comments
ACLU obtains documents after suit over National Security Letters The military is using the FBI to skirt legal restrictions on domestic surveillance to obtain private records of Americans' Internet service providers, financial institutions and telephone companies, according to Pentagon documents. The American Civil Liberties Union expressed outrage at the new revelations, based its conclusion on a review of more than 1,000 documents turned over by the Defense Department after it sued the agency last year for documents related to national security letters, or NSLs, investigative tools used to compel businesses to turn over customer information without a judge's order or grand jury ...
Pentagon Releases 2003 Memo Approving Harsh Interrogation Tactics
Post Date: 2008-04-02 13:58:51 by nolu_chan
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Pentagon Releases 2003 Memo Approving Harsh Interrogation Tactics LARA JAKES JORDAN | April 1, 2008 11:10 PM EST | AP WASHINGTON — The Pentagon on Tuesday made public a now-defunct legal memo that approved the use of harsh interrogation techniques against terror suspects, saying that President Bush's wartime authority trumps any international ban on torture. The Justice Department memo, dated March 14, 2003, outlines legal justification for military interrogators to use harsh tactics against al-Qaida and Taliban detainees overseas -- so long as they did not specifically intend to torture their captors. Even so, the memo noted, the president's wartime power as commander in ...
The Abandonment of the Rule of Law
Post Date: 2008-04-02 06:06:41 by Ada
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Ahmed Khalfan Ghailana, a citizen of Tanzania, is learning first-hand what it’s like to be the victim of the U.S. government’s post-9/11 regime of the “rule of men,” as compared to the “rule of law.” Some people believe, incorrectly, that the term “rule of law” means that people are expected to obey the law. What it actually means is that people should have to answer to a well-defined law for their conduct rather than the arbitrary whims of government officials. Thus, the “rule of law” is contrary to what is often called “the rule of men.” Let me provide an example. Suppose government officials had the power to define anything ...
Operation FALCON - The USA is turning into a Police State
Post Date: 2008-04-01 23:37:10 by richard9151
1 Comments
On 29th June, 1934, Chancellor Adolph Hitler, accompanied by the Schutzstaffel (SS), arrived at Wiesse, where he personally arrested the leader of the Strum Abteilung (SA), Ernnst Roehm. During the next 24 hours 200 other senior SA officers were arrested on the way to Wiesse. Many were shot as soon as they were captured but Hitler decided to pardon Roehm because of his past service to the movement. However, after much pressure from Hermann Goering and Heinrich Himmler, Hitler agreed that Roehm should die. At first Hitler insisted that Roehm should be allowed to commit suicide but, when he refused, Roehm was shot by two SS men. (Spartacus.schoolnet.co) Later, Hitler delivered a speech at ...
Later May Be Too Late
Post Date: 2008-04-01 06:56:05 by Ada
18 Comments
"Go home and tell your master he has sent you on a fool’s errand and broken the peace of our Sabbath. What, do you think we were born in the woods, to be frightened by owls?" ~ Sarah Tarrant (1775) Sarah Tarrant shouted these words to 240 British troops of the 64th Foot Regiment under the command of Colonel Alexander Leslie as they left Salem, Massachusetts in February 1775 after failing to confiscate cannon and munitions which had been stored in Salem by American rebels. Her caustic words struck a chord because one angered British troop raised his weapon and took aim at Sarah Tarrant. Ms. Tarrant stood her ground and angrily retorted: "Fire, if you have the courage ...
S.C., Maine given Real ID extension
Post Date: 2008-04-01 01:33:59 by bush_is_a_moonie
1 Comments
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The Department of Homeland Security is granting South Carolina an extension to comply with a new federal identification law. Word came Monday in a letter six hours after Gov. Mark Sanford said the state would not comply. Sanford wrote Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and told him the state already does much of what the federal Real ID law requires. Chertoff says the state is getting an extension because it's clear it is on its way to complying. Without the extension, driver's licenses of South Carolina travelers wouldn't have been enough to get them aboard airplanes or into federal facilities beginning May 11. Maine has also been given ...
Doctors support universal health care: survey (Stupid Communists)
Post Date: 2008-03-31 17:55:53 by FOH
17 Comments
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than half of U.S. doctors now favor switching to a national health care plan and fewer than a third oppose the idea, according to a survey published on Monday. The survey suggests that opinions have changed substantially since the last survey in 2002 and as the country debates serious changes to the health care system. Of more than 2,000 doctors surveyed, 59 percent said they support legislation to establish a national health insurance program, while 32 percent said they opposed it, researchers reported in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine. The 2002 survey found that 49 percent of physicians supported national health insurance and 40 percent opposed it. ...
Free Siegelman Fingers Rove
Post Date: 2008-03-28 16:30:50 by aristeides
5 Comments
Free Siegelman Fingers Rove by SmileySam [Subscribe] Fri Mar 28, 2008 at 01:15:41 PM PDT In a telephone interview shortly after he walked out of a federal prison in Oakdale, La., Mr. Siegelman said there had been "abuse of power" in his case, and repeatedly cited the influence of Karl Rove, the former White House political director. "His fingerprints are smeared all over the case," Mr. Siegelman said, a day after a federal appeals court ordered him released on bond and said there were legitimate questions about his case. Many of us hope this will be the case that finally sends Turdblossom to Jail and I'm sure Don wouldn't mind that either. This whole case ...
Former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman leaves federal prison in Louisiana
Post Date: 2008-03-28 15:06:56 by aristeides
3 Comments
Former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman leaves federal prison in Louisiana OAKDALE, La. (AP) Former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman has left a federal prison in Louisiana. He had been in federal custody for nine months after being convicted on bribery and other charges in Alabama. A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that Siegelman should be released on bond pending the appeal of his case.
TSA Forces Woman To Remove Nipple Rings For Flight
Post Date: 2008-03-27 22:51:45 by robin
12 Comments
LOS ANGELES (CBS 5 / AP) 53; A Texas woman who claims she was forced to remove a nipple ring with pliers in order to board an airplane called Thursday for an apology by federal security agents and a civil rights investigation. "I wouldn't wish this experience upon anyone," Mandi Hamlin, 37, said at a news conference in Los Angeles. "My experience with TSA was a nightmare I had to endure. No one deserves to be treated this way." Hamlin said she was trying to board a flight from Lubbock to Dallas on Feb. 24 when she was scanned by a Transportation Security Administration agent after passing through a larger metal detector without problems. The female TSA agent used ...
China's U.S. Envoy: Tibet Riots Meant to Sabotage (Audio)
Post Date: 2008-03-27 20:33:09 by buckeye
4 Comments
Morning Edition, March 27, 2008. The Chinese government says stability has returned to the Tibetan capital, Lhasa. Steve Inskeep talks with China's ambassador to the United States, Zhou Wenzhong about the violence in Tibet, which Zhou says was meant to sabotage China ahead of the Beijing Olympics. He also says the Dalai Lama's vision for Tibet is closer to independence than autonomy, and that talks won't happen until that stance changes. Click for Audio!
Poster Comment:Notice that the Chinese ambassador to the United States refuses to answer the questions. Notice that the interviewer is far more concerned about Tibetan civil rights than we typically hear on mass American media ...
Black Liberation Theology Is Marxist Liberation
Post Date: 2008-03-27 20:07:03 by Jethro Tull
4 Comments
Black Liberation Is Marxist Liberation By Anthony B. Bradley One of the pillars of Obama's home church, Trinity United Church of Christ, is "economic parity." On the website, Trinity claims that God is not pleased with "America's economic mal-distribution." Among all of controversial comments by Jeremiah Wright the idea of massive wealth redistribution is the most alarming. The code language "economic parity" and references to "mal-distribution" is nothing more than channeling the twisted economic views of Karl Marx. Black liberation theologians have explicitly stated a preference for Marxism as an ethical framework for the black church ...
Siegelman To Be Released From Prison Pending Appeal (11TH CIRCUIT SPANKS JUDGE)
Post Date: 2008-03-27 17:21:18 by aristeides
0 Comments
Siegelman To Be Released From Prison Pending Appeal Thursday, Mar 27, 2008 - 04:26 PM By Jon Paepcke ATLANTA, Ga. -- The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has granted former Gov. Don Siegelman's request to be released from prison pending the outcome of his appeal. Siegelman is currently serving a 7 year sentence in the Oakdale Federal Correctional Complex in Louisiana following his 2006 public corruption conviction. Acting U.S. Attorney Louis Franklin confirms the 11th Circuit granted Siegelman's release in a four page order which states Siegelman had raised a "significant question" about his conviction. Siegelman was convicted of accepting $500,000 in campaign ...
Judicial Bamboozlement
Post Date: 2008-03-27 15:16:29 by aristeides
7 Comments
Judicial Bamboozlement In England of the seventeenth century, the Stuart monarchs gradually found the court system to be entirely too much of a bother. Of course, they would pick the judges and keep them in line with promises of royal favor or the reverse, and they developed the cajoling of juries into a high art form, often enough promising retribution against jurors who failed to render the desired verdict. But the bottom line was that this legal system was simply too unpredictable. Why, it actually dispensed justice in some cases. And that was decidedly not what the monarch desired—or to put it more in the framework of the times, it was the King’s justice that they were after, ...
Siegelman Sought for Hill Testimony
Post Date: 2008-03-27 14:35:05 by aristeides
5 Comments
Siegelman Sought for Hill Testimony By BEN EVANS – 42 minutes ago WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Judiciary Committee asked the Justice Department Thursday to temporarily release former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman from prison in early May to testify before Congress about possible political influence over his prosecution. A spokeswoman for the committee said Siegelman, a Democrat serving more than seven years in a Louisiana prison, would travel to Washington under guard of the U.S. Marshals Service. She said Committee Chairman John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, believes Siegelman could provide important information about Justice Department practices under President Bush. "The ...
“I’d like to take our politicians, tie a rock around their necks
Post Date: 2008-03-27 12:09:59 by Jethro Tull
16 Comments
and toss them in a wading pool. If any float to the surface, we’ll know they aren’t witches.”
These are the words of Glen Beck said today at 11:11 AM, EST.
It looks like the 1st amendment is alive and well on syndicated radio.
PS: Beck is the only talk radio available here in East Shitkicker, PA, so please don't make my tuning in as I drive an issue.
The Forever Wartime Powers Coup Against the Constitution
Post Date: 2008-03-26 18:05:54 by ralphlopez
4 Comments
Ralph is the author of a new book "Truth in the Age of Bushism." (Free online) Sometimes I wonder if I'm speaking English. What seems so crystal clear to me, and always did, is not reaching the man or woman on the street, going about shopping, going to work, taking the kids to soccer practice, whatever. George Bush has declared wartime powers in a war he says has "no end." What is it that folks aren't getting about this? I know I'm a political junkie, and follow the game more closely than the average Joe. But you don't need to be a sports nut to know when you've witnessed a history-making grand slam. You don't need to know the game at the level ...
A Political Comeback: Supply-Side Economics
Post Date: 2008-03-26 14:48:00 by richard9151
1 Comments
www.nytimes.com/2008/03/2...dL6ifHvNN9FKQ&oref=slogin When Ronald Reagan ran for president in 1980, he promised to cut taxes in what seemed, at the time, a magical way. Tax revenue would go up, not down, he said, as the economy boomed in response to lower rates. Since then, supply-side economics, as it was called — first with derision but then as a label embraced by its supporters — has become a central tenet of Republican political and economic thinking. That’s despite the fact that the big supply-side tax cuts of the 1980s and the 2000s did not work out as advertised, as even most supporters acknowledge. But advocates see broader economic benefits from lowering tax ...
In the Pursuit of Justice, Do We Need Trials?
Post Date: 2008-03-26 06:40:28 by Ada
3 Comments
The US is the world’s greatest prison state; of that there can be little debate. By any method of counting we incarcerate more of our citizens than any other country in the world. Even China has fewer total prisoners than the US, and China’s per capita rate is also much smaller than the US rate. Yes my friends, even China has less criminals in jail than we do. Surprised? "Statistics released today by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), a branch of the US Department of Justice, show that at the end of 2006, more than 2.25 million persons were incarcerated in US prisons and jails, an all-time high. This number represents an incarceration rate of 751 per 100,000 US ...
Spy-in-the-sky drone sets sights on Miami
Post Date: 2008-03-26 00:35:29 by robin
0 Comments
Spy-in-the-sky drone sets sights on Miami By Tom BrownTue Mar 25, 8:08 PM ET Miami police could soon be the first in the United States to use cutting-edge, spy-in-the-sky technology to beef up their fight against crime. A small pilotless drone manufactured by Honeywell International (HON.N), capable of hovering and "staring" using electro-optic or infrared sensors, is expected to make its debut soon in the skies over the Florida Everglades. If use of the drone wins Federal Aviation Administration approval after tests, the Miami-Dade Police Department will start flying the 14-pound (6.3 kg) drone over urban areas with an eye toward full-fledged employment in crime fighting. ...
Torture in Our Own Backyards -- The Fight Against Supermax Prisons
Post Date: 2008-03-26 00:25:33 by richard9151
6 Comments
In supermax prisons, 23 hours a day of solitary confinement is the norm. How did our prison system become so cruel? 25/03/08 "AlterNet" -- -Imagine living in an 8-by-12 prison cell, in solitary confinement, for eight years straight. Your entire world consists of a dank, cinder block room with a narrow window only three inches high, opening up to an outdoor cement cage, cynically dubbed, "the yard." If you're lucky, you spend one hour five days a week in that outdoor cage, where you gaze up through a wire mesh roof and hope for a glimpse of the sun. If you talk back to the guards or act out in any way, you might only venture outside one precious hour per week. You ...
Government benefit programs in trouble
Post Date: 2008-03-25 23:30:23 by richard9151
3 Comments
21 minutes ago WASHINGTON - Trustees for the government's two biggest benefit programs warned that Social Security and Medicare are facing "enormous challenges" with the threat to Medicare's solvency far more severe. The trustees, issuing their once-a-year analysis, said the resources in the Social Security trust fund will be depleted by 2041. The reserves in the Medicare trust fund that pays hospital benefits were projected to be wiped out by 2019. Both those dates were the same as in last year's report. But the trustees warned that financial pressures will begin much sooner when the programs begin paying out more in benefits each year than they collect in payroll ...
Saint Obama on the 2nd amendment [Full Thread]
Post Date: 2008-03-25 17:19:57 by Jethro Tull
170 Comments
Dear Friend, Thank you for contacting me about gun laws and the Second Amendment. I appreciate hearing from you on this important issue. Americans broadly agree that guns must be kept from those who may pose a threat, and that the rights of legitimate hunters and sportsmen should be protected. We must work to ensure that guns do not fall into the hands of criminals or the mentally ill through an effective background check system. We also have to strike a reasonable balance between public safety and sportsmen's rights. I will continue to work for effective gun laws, including reinstatement of the assault weapons ban that the last Congress allowed to expire, and effective law ...
Justices to hear warrantless search case
Post Date: 2008-03-24 23:03:56 by richard9151
0 Comments
Mon Mar 24, 4:15 PM ET WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court stepped into two criminal cases Monday, one that will help define the limits of warrantless police searches and the other interpreting a law on guns and domestic violence. Five police officers from Utah asked the court to consider whether officers may enter a home without a search warrant when an informant already is inside and sees evidence of a crime. The case against Afton Callahan of Millard County, Utah, will test whether the officers who conducted the warrantless search may be sued by the person they arrest. Six years ago, an informant contacted police to tell them he had arranged to purchase drugs from Callahan at ...
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