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Latest Articles: Dead Constitution
John Donne and the Outlawing of Torture
Post Date: 2007-08-15 17:32:27 by aristeides
4 Comments
John Donne and the Outlawing of Torture Recently I asked a clerical friend whether, considering the persistence of torture as a moral issue, he had thought of giving a sermon on the subject? He looked very uncomfortable and responded saying that his congregation was bipartisan and that he would be loathe to introduce a political issue as a sermon topic. It would fragment the congregation, he thought. Really? I reject the notion that torture is a political issue of any sort. It is a great moral issue. And when those who have a clerical vocation fail to understand it and address it in those terms, they do their flock and themselves a great disservice. Consider John Donne’s sermon of ...
Mine Safety Czar Richard Stickler: Another Bush Fox Guarding the Henhouse
Post Date: 2007-08-15 16:01:37 by aristeides
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Mine Safety Czar Richard Stickler: Another Bush Fox Guarding the Henhouse Huffington Post | Max Follmer | August 15, 2007 02:28 PM The man who will oversee the federal government's investigation into the disaster that has trapped six workers in a Utah coal mine for over a week was twice rejected for his current job by senators concerned about his own safety record when he managed mines in the private sector. President George W. Bush resorted to a recess appointment in October 2006 to anoint Richard Stickler as the nation's mine safety czar after it became clear he could not receive enough support even in a GOP-controlled Senate. In the wake of the January 2006 Sago mine disaster ...
UPDATED Utah Mine Owner Used Repub Political Clout To Get Rid Of MHSA
Post Date: 2007-08-15 15:53:13 by aristeides
6 Comments
UPDATED Utah Mine Owner Used Repub Political Clout To Get Rid Of MHSA by DJShay [Subscribe] Wed Aug 15, 2007 at 06:42:36 AM PDT It's been more than a week since the cave in at the Utah mine and still no sign of the 6 workers that are trapped. While the story in the MSM continues to be the slim hope of rescuing the workers, new stories are coming to light concerning how the mine owner Bob Murray used his political connections to threaten Mine Safety and Health Adminitration with their jobs for reporting safety violations. This is from a report filed by a reporter for West Virginia Public Radio: Greg Collard: In 2001, a belt foreman named Tom Ciszewski had his arm ripped off by a ...
American Spy Satellites To Snoop On U.S.; Chertoff, McConnell OKs Expanded Domestic Use Of Spies In The Sky
Post Date: 2007-08-15 11:18:40 by Brian S
3 Comments
The Wall Street Journal reports that the Department of Homeland Security has approved a measure to allow federal civilian agencies and law enforcement to turn American spy satellites on their own citizens for the first time. Until now, the highly sensitive satellites were aimed mostly at other countries, usually ones we didn't really trust. Occasionally, geologists and NASA scientists got to use them to make things like topographical maps. Letting domestic security folks use them to spy is, the Journal says, "uncharted territory." Officials have been mulling the plan for a couple years, but often bumped up against questions about whether this kind of snooping would violate ...
New Spy Law Broader Than Thought
Post Date: 2007-08-14 21:30:56 by kiki
1 Comments
Before the Democratic-controlled Congress caved in on George W. Bush’s warrantless-wiretapping powers, White House lawyers slipped in two provisions to give the President even more authority – and less accountability – than he claimed on his own. And the U.S. press corps largely missed that part of the story. U.S. news reports mostly parroted the White House claim that the law “modernizes” the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance of 1978 and “narrowly” targets overseas terror suspects who call or e-mail their contacts in the United States. But the “Protect America Act of 2007” actually casts the wiretapping net much wider. The law applies not just ...
5 Reporters Ordered to Testify About Government Sources (IN HATFILL SUIT)
Post Date: 2007-08-14 19:20:57 by aristeides
9 Comments
5 Reporters Ordered to Testify About Government Sources By ADAM LIPTAK Published: August 14, 2007 Five reporters must testify about their law enforcement sources in a former Army scientist’s lawsuit against the Justice Department, a federal judge in Washington ruled yesterday. The suit, filed by Steven J. Hatfill, a bioterrorism expert, contends that the government violated the federal Privacy Act by providing journalists with information about him in the F.B.I.’s investigation of the deadly anthrax mailings in 2001. The reporters — Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman of Newsweek; Allan Lengel of The Washington Post; Toni Locy, formerly of USA Today; and James Stewart, ...
Congress's Busted September: Disingenuous Gestures Amid Catastrophe
Post Date: 2007-08-14 17:03:56 by aristeides
1 Comments
Congress's Busted September Disingenuous Gestures Amid Catastrophe By WINSLOW T. WHEELER Having lectured the Iraqi parliament for its adjournment despite piles of undone work, the American Congress has skulked out of town with at least as much unaccomplished. One difference between the two national legislatures is the supposition that when the American Congress returns in September the undone work will be attended to. In any fundamental sense, that's baloney. Two core issues were left unresolved by our Congress when it traipsed out of town earlier this month, runaway federal spending and Iraq. Like so many before it, the 110th Congress is on course to fail to pass all twelve ...
When Will Americans Have Had Enough (excellent youtube rant)
Post Date: 2007-08-14 14:03:10 by Pinguinite
4 Comments
Poster Comment:Excellent rant
Diebold, CIA edit wiki entries
Post Date: 2007-08-14 11:44:45 by aristeides
3 Comments
Diebold, CIA edit wiki entries by winstnsmth [Subscribe] Tue Aug 14, 2007 at 05:08:59 AM PDT Wikipedia has launched a new feature that tracks back anonymous edits to the IP from which they came. Wikipedia Scanner -- the brainchild of CalTech computation and neural-systems graduate student Virgil Griffith -- offers users a searchable database that ties millions of anonymous Wikipedia edits to organizations where those edits apparently originated, by cross-referencing the edits with data on who owns the associated block of internet IP addresses. /snip Voting-machine company Diebold provides a good example... with someone at the company's IP address apparently deleting long ...
Breaking Bush's Resistance
Post Date: 2007-08-14 06:14:10 by Ada
3 Comments
A pending court case could expose the administration’s torture regime. From the first days after the Abu Ghraib photos hit the airwaves, the torture scandal has epitomized the worst of the Bush presidency. A timid media, a cowardly opposition party, and a refusal by most Americans to face the grisly facts has contained the damage since 2004. But the web of lies and lawlessness is rapidly unraveling. Leaks, foreign challenges, military officers revolting, and a pending Supreme Court case could set off a tidal wave of revulsion against the administration’s barbaric policies. When President Bush was pressed by NBC’s Matt Lauer last September about the use of brutal ...
How AT&T fought for privacy -- 80 years ago
Post Date: 2007-08-13 20:50:54 by Zipporah
6 Comments
How AT&T fought for privacy -- 80 years ago Derek Slater of the Electronic Frontier Foundation sez, Since its participation in the president's illegal wiretapping program came to light in late 2005, AT&T has desperately tried to avoid accountability. But, once upon a time, nearly eighty years ago, AT&T fought at the Supreme Court to stop the government's warrantless surveillance of Americans' private communications. In Olmstead v. USA, AT&T co-authored an amicus brief that outspokenly defended its customers' privacy: "The telephone has become part and parcel of the social and business intercourse of the people of the United States, and this ...
Government Says Secrecy May Protect Wiretapping Program From Constitutional Scrutiny
Post Date: 2007-08-13 19:40:25 by Brian S
2 Comments
WASHINGTON – The Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program has a built-in feature the Justice Department believes may shield it from ever being challenged as unconstitutional: secrecy. The administration has acknowledged it intercepted some U.S. telephone conversations without warrants as it hunted for terrorists. Whose calls? The government isn't saying. And since only those who were spied on have grounds to sue, it's almost impossible to mount a successful legal challenge. A federal appeals court in Ohio dismissed one such challenge last month because the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups could not prove the government had listened to their ...
Cheney Statue Toppled by his Neighbors~!
Post Date: 2007-08-13 19:10:27 by aristeides
9 Comments
Cheney Statue Toppled by his Neighbors~! by DiAnne [Subscribe] Mon Aug 13, 2007 at 04:01:32 PM PDT Yesterday the Cheney video du jour was the 1994 one where he warned against invading and occupying Iraq. Today he's in the YouTube universe again, and this may go viral too! Amazingly, a rowdy group of Jackson Hole Citizens toppled a statue of Cheney while shouting "Impeach Cheney first" and the Sheriff drove by and appeared not to mind! It's gotten some notice on YouTube and we like helping it along. You can see it at http://www.silencedmajority.blogs.com.
1776; A Revolution of Elites? My ass it was.
Post Date: 2007-08-13 15:31:50 by ghostdogtxn
21 Comments
OWNERS OF THE PRISON SYSTEM IN AMERICA
Post Date: 2007-08-12 17:13:22 by richard9151
0 Comments
Frankly, I have no idea if any of this is true, but it does seem reasonable knowing what I do about the prison system, and how it is used to milk the tax payer. Judge for yourself, and any comments are encourged. From: "Lynn Schmaltz" Sent: Friday, September 24, 2004 8:46 AM Subject: Re: Paine Webber "OWNERS OF THE PRISON SYSTEM IN AMERICA" *Owners of the Prison Systems in America* CORRECTION CORP OF AMERICA headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee owns all private prison systems in AMERICA and are selling the commercial paper. How it Works: A bid bond is done on Form 24, which comes out of the GSA Office (General Services Administration which is out of GAO (General ...
Warlike America
Post Date: 2007-08-12 00:20:10 by richard9151
3 Comments
"It seems that 'we have never gone to war for conquest, for exploitation, nor for territory'; we have the word of a president [McKinley] for that. Observe, now, how Providence overrules the intentions of the truly good for their advantage. We went to war with Mexico for peace, humanity and honor, yet emerged from the contest with an extension of territory beyond the dreams of political avarice. We went to war with Spain for relief of an oppressed people [the Cubans], and at the close found ourselves in possession of vast and rich insular dependencies [primarily the Philippines] and with a pretty tight grasp upon the country for relief of whose oppressed people we took up arms. ...
Cheney's Integrity and The Accountability of the American Press
Post Date: 2007-08-11 22:33:36 by tom007
2 Comments
Kent Man Faces Fine For 'Impeach Bush' Sign
Post Date: 2007-08-11 17:28:32 by Zipporah
7 Comments
KENT, Ohio -- A northeast Ohio man is in trouble for displaying his thoughts on President George W. Bush. The Kent homeowner wants the president impeached, but how he voiced that opinion could cost him $125 and possible hundreds more, reported NewsChannel5's Pete Kenworthy. "I was charged with advertising on public property, a violation of Kent city ordinance 503.02," said Kevin Egler. Egler maintains that the ordinance doesn't cover what he did, placing a sign saying "Impeach Bush" on public property. While the sign was on city land, he claims that so are many other signs around Kent, some of which are advertising that allows businesses to benefit -- a ...
BREAKING: Citing Four-Day Old Surveillance Law, Bush Seeks Dismissal of Lawsuit Challenging NSA Spying
Post Date: 2007-08-11 08:05:59 by Zipporah
13 Comments
Four days after President Bush signed controversial legislation legalizing some warrantless surveillance of Americans, the administration is citing the law in a surprise motion today urging a federal judge to dismisss a lawsuit challenging the NSA spy program. The lawsuit was brought by lawyers defending Guantanamo Bay prisoners. The lawyers and others alleged the threat of surveillance is chilling their First Amendment rights of speech, and their clients' right to legal representation. Justice Department lawyers are asking (.pdf) U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker to toss the case, citing the new law -- which says warrantless surveillance can continue for up to a year so ...
Court Says Travelers Can't Avoid Airport Searches
Post Date: 2007-08-11 07:25:18 by Zipporah
5 Comments
Court Says Travelers Can't Avoid Airport Searches By David Kravets August 10, 2007 | 5:42:37 PMCategories: PrivacyU.S. airline passengers near the security checkpoint can be searched any time and no longer can refuse consent by leaving the airport, the nation's largest federal appeals court ruled Friday. The decision (.pdf) by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the circuit's 34-year-old precedent that over time was evolving toward limiting when passengers could refuse a search and leave the airport after they had checked their bags or placed items on the security screening X-ray machine. Citing threats of terrorism, the court ruled passengers give up all ...
Canadian Government Releases Previously Redacted Information Revealing CIA Involvement In CCR Client Maher Arar's Rendition
Post Date: 2007-08-11 06:31:09 by noone222
0 Comments
Canadian Government Releases Previously Redacted Information Revealing CIA Involvement In CCR Client Maher Arar's Rendition Submitted by davidswanson on Fri, 2007-08-10 19:19. Evidence Information Kept Secret for “National Security” Reasons Was to Hide CIA Involvement By Center for Constitutional Rights WASHINGTON - AUGUST 9 - Today, Canadian government released new information regarding the rendition of Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) client Maher Arar that it had previously redacted due to "national security" concerns. The information exposes the CIA's role in Mr. Arar's rendition. "Once again, Canada has shown its willingness to bring to ...
Earlier Terrorist Screening to Begin for Flights Into U.S.
Post Date: 2007-08-10 20:20:36 by Zipporah
3 Comments
Earlier Terrorist Screening to Begin for Flights Into U.S. By ERIC LIPTON WASHINGTON, Aug. 9 — By early next year, passengers on flights bound for the United States will have their names checked against terrorist watch lists before departure, instead of after takeoff, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced Thursday. The change is part of a slowly unfolding shift to put the Department of Homeland Security in charge of the watch-list screening for all commercial flights, foreign and domestic. Last year alone, 87 million passengers flew into the United States from abroad. Airlines do not have to transmit final passenger manifests on foreign flights until after ...
Ex-Bush speechwriter's article raises questions about selective assertions of 'executive privilege'
Post Date: 2007-08-10 17:08:51 by robin
5 Comments
A former top White House staff member published an article in The Atlantic Monthly's September edition that provided a rare glimpse into the internal deliberations of President George W. Bush's speechwriting team. At the same time, the extensive details that Matthew Scully revealed appear comparable to the internal communications that the White House has sought to protect from view through assertions of 'executive privilege' as it is investigated by Congressional committees for the firing of a group of US Attorneys. "The administration's 'internal deliberations' claims are so all-encompassing that they could surely cover conversations or written notes ...
Judge rules it's too hot to play(for the children including ADULT college students)
Post Date: 2007-08-10 14:38:58 by freepatriot32
2 Comments
In a move with wide-ranging implications, a North Mississippi judge Thursday banned outdoor school activities in DeSoto and five other counties in his district because of the searing heat.
The order by Chancellor Mitchell Lundy of Grenada County -- a decision that a legal expert called unusual -- halted outdoor football practices as schools gear up for the start of the prep season the end of this month.
Also affected until the heat relents are volleyball and band practice, recesses for elementary school students and outdoor activities for community college students.
"It is our duty to protect the minors from harm when at all possible," Lundy said in his two-page order banning ...
HOW TO CATCH A WILD HOG
Post Date: 2007-08-10 00:54:44 by richard9151
1 Comments
HOW TO CATCH A WILD HOG* True and frightening are the best adjectives to explain my concern about the new congress's agenda, by using this analogy given to me by a former student of mine. Several years ago I was supervising a beginning teacher in a city school system. One day during our end-of-the-day feedback conference, the young man gave a facial grimace and began to rub his back. I asked him if he had strained his back in the school lab. After a long period of silence, he sat down at his desk and explained that he had immigrated to the United States because of political problems in his native country. The discomfort in his back was caused by a bullet wound he had received while ...
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