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Latest Articles: Dead Constitution
Unelected, Unaccountable, Politically-Connected Lawyers
Post Date: 2007-07-17 07:00:21 by Ada
1 Comments
The Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in the Louisville and Seattle schools cases exposed one of the unspoken truths of American "constitutional law": there is no law in this area. Instead, there are only the justices’ naked political opinions. Since 1954’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education, the Court has taken upon itself the task of superintending school assignment policies touching on race. Yet, as the Court had said before 1954, the Equal Protection Clause was not intended to ban race discrimination in school assignment – even racial segregation of schools. In fact, the Congress that passed the Fourteenth Amendment established segregated schools in ...
The Cheney Affair
Post Date: 2007-07-16 20:40:42 by robin
2 Comments
The Cheney Affair By Ted Lang Exclusive to http://Rense.com 7-16-7 Now that mainstream media bias is an established fact and recognized as such by the mainstream reading and viewing public, the revelation of Vice President Dick Cheney's total unilateral control over all levels and branches of American government has not only raised eyebrows and concerns of dictatorship, but for those politically astute, begs the question as to why theWashington Post would be the journalistic vehicle to publish the four-part June 24 through June 27 series exposing this reality. The Post's publisher, Donald E. Graham, has once again participated in the annual secret Bilderberg conclave, the ...
Justice Department accused of hypocrisy over 'executive privilege'
Post Date: 2007-07-16 20:15:42 by robin
4 Comments
Alberto Gonzales's Justice Department has issued legal opinions in recent weeks seeking to bolster the White House's claims of executive privilege against Congressional investigations. At the same time, a bipartisan group in Congress is fighting what it sees as hostility toward the exercise of attorney-client privilege in federal corporate crime prosecutions. Advocates of new legislation to preserve attorney-client privilege pointed out the contrast between the Justice Department's positions in these two areas. "There's a certain level of hypocrisy in terms of being willing to infringe on an organization's or an individual's right to privilege, but still ...
Congressmembers rule: No calling Bush a liar
Post Date: 2007-07-16 20:12:45 by robin
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Congressmembers rule: No calling Bush a liar07/16/2007 @ 9:02 am Filed by Michael Roston A Congressional Democrat has been reined in for calling President George W. Bush a 'liar' during a Thursday hearing of the House Judiciary Committee, according to the Monday edition of the newspaper Roll Call. "Rep. Mel Watt (D-N.C.) offered a lengthy criticism of Bush’s record toward the end of Thursday’s hearing, which included a statement that Bush lied about the reasons for going to war with Iraq in 2003," writes Susan Davis. "Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah) offered an objection on the grounds that Watt’s words were 'unparliamentary' and violated House rules ...
The Saga of Our Son, Lt. Commander John Sharpe
Post Date: 2007-07-16 16:09:25 by Zipporah
32 Comments
The Saga of Our Son, Lt. Commander John Sharpe By JUDITH and JOHN SHARPE For those of you who have not been aware of this "saga," we thought you might like to know of the U.S. Navy's proceedings against John Sharpe, an active duty Lt. Cmdr. who edited two collections of essays (the "Neo-CONNED" volumes, which include essays by the editors of CounterPunch) condeming the war in Iraq based upon the Christian Just-War Doctrine and the western tradition of domestic and international law. Due to these proceedings, John is facing formal reprimand and possible dismissal from the service. Here's the latest on the Naval investigation. John was notified, on May 2, by ...
D.C. to appeal its right to ban unlicensed handguns to the Supreme Court
Post Date: 2007-07-16 12:32:57 by Brian S
4 Comments
WASHINGTON: Plagued by high homicide rates, city officials in the U.S. capital said Monday they will petition the Supreme Court as they seek to defend Washington's 30-year-old ban on most handguns. A federal appeals court panel struck down the law in March, rejecting the city's argument that the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which upholds people's right to bear arms, applied only to militias. The full appeals court refused to reconsider the decision in May. The law has remained in effect during the appeals process. "We have made the determination that this law can and should be defended," Mayor Adrian M. Fenty said in a statement Monday. ...
The Meaning of July 4, Part 3
Post Date: 2007-07-16 06:00:43 by Ada
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The good news In my previous two articles on July 4th (1, 2), I said that the meaning of that holiday was gradually being lost. But on July 4th of this year, I participated in our local Monterey parade and found that some of it either hadn't been lost or was being rediscovered. My friend Lawrence Samuels, an energetic local libertarian activist, sent out an e-mail asking libertarians to show up at the July 4th parade and march with Libertarians for Peace and Code Pink. The last time I marched in a parade was – never. I'm more into watching parades. In high school, I helped organize our freshie day parade but, because I was an organizer, I got to travel in the RCMP car that ...
RCMP, U.S. Army block public forum on the Security and Prosperity Partnership
Post Date: 2007-07-15 21:08:16 by Red Jones
4 Comments
MEDIA RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 11, 2007 RCMP, U.S. Army block public forum on the Security and Prosperity Partnership The Council of Canadians has been told it will not be allowed to rent a municipal community centre for a public forum it had planned to coincide with the next Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) summit in Montebello, Quebec on August 20 and 21. The Municipality of Papineauville, which is about six kilometres from Montebello, has informed the Council of Canadians that the RCMP, the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) and the U.S. Army will not allow the municipality to rent the Centre Communautaire de Papineauville for a public forum on Sunday ...
Harriet Miers's Contempt of Congress: Are Conservatives About To Neuter Congress, While Claiming Full Legal Justification for this Separation-of-Powers Violation?
Post Date: 2007-07-15 20:32:11 by Zipporah
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----Harriet Miers's Contempt of Congress: Are Conservatives About To Neuter Congress, While Claiming Full Legal Justification for this Separation-of-Powers Violation?By JOHN W. DEAN ---- Friday, Jul. 13, 2007 President George Bush has issued an instruction to his former White House counsel Harriet Miers to defy the House Judiciary Committee's subpoena. The Committee had sought to ask her about her role - and that of others in the White House - in firing a covey of United States Attorneys who were apparently not toeing the political line. Bush's instruction sent a very clear signal: As I wrote earlier, and as has been clear from the outset, he is looking for a ...
Hate Billl Moves Forward In Senate
Post Date: 2007-07-15 18:41:16 by Eoghan
8 Comments
Hoping to avoid detection from opponents in the religious right, Senators Edward Kennedy and Gordon Smith have quietly moved the federal hate crimes bill into the Senate. The Senate will vote, perhaps as early as this Tuesday on whether to include it as a "rider" on the huge federal defense bill, HR 1585. Now designated SA 2067, the new Senate hate bill is about half the length of the House version which passed the House earlier this year. But it gives its primary supporters, the Anti-Defamation League and the homosexual lobby, everything they need to end free speech in America, establishing a mammoth federal "thought crimes" bureaucracy as in Canada. Lovers of free ...
DHS And FEMA Concentration Camps (Where Will You Be Incarcerated?)
Post Date: 2007-07-14 22:16:50 by robin
7 Comments
DHS And FEMA Concentration Camps Where's Your State Homeland Security's Civilian Concentration Camp? Where Will You Be Incarcerated? By Mark Lowry 7-13-7 Will YOU go quietly when they come for you? Will you fight uselessly after it is already too late? Or will you stand up now, and overthrow (via peacefull means) a corrupt and evil government of the elites, for the elites, and by the elites? There is a lot of buzz on the internet about Bushite Coup civilian concentration or internment camps. It is apparent, elaborate plans have been in place for some time for handling domestic crises and need to be able to incarcerate or "house" massive civilian populations in the time ...
GEORGE W BUSH: The Biggest Regulator In The History Of The Republic
Post Date: 2007-07-14 19:48:55 by Uncle Bill
7 Comments
Flying Blind In A Red-Tape Blizzard By Jonathan Rauch, National Journal © National Journal Group Inc. Friday, July 13, 2007 Attention, small-government conservatives: Ever helpful, this column has found yet another reason to be unhappy with President Bush. He appears to be the biggest regulator since the Nixon-Ford years. Last month, George Mason University's Mercatus Center and the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy at Washington University in St. Louis released the latest of their annual reports on regulation in Washington. (The report, by Jerry Brito and Melinda Warren, is available at http://Mercatus.org.) Now, these numbers need to be handled ...
American Citizens Get High Court Kiss-Off
Post Date: 2007-07-13 21:45:04 by BlueEyedGirl
1 Comments
American citizens get a high court kiss-off Jul. 13, 2007 12:00 AM Two recent federal court cases illustrate something I suspect most Americans would find shocking and appalling: A citizen, acting as a citizen, does not have standing to stop unconstitutional action by the federal government. The first case involved a challenge to President Bush's faith-based initiative, which encourages the delivery of governmental services through religious organizations. The Freedom from Religion Foundation and some of its members sued to stop the federal government from spending money to hold conferences promoting the initiative, arguing that this violated the First Amendment's ...
A Firm Bush Tells Congress Not to Dictate War Policy
Post Date: 2007-07-13 18:01:16 by Zipporah
2 Comments
A Firm Bush Tells Congress Not to Dictate War Policy By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and JEFF ZELENY Images of President Bush were fed through an audio-visual console for editing during his White House news conference Thursday on changes in Iraq. WASHINGTON, July 12 — President Bush struck an aggressive new tone on Thursday in his clash with Congress over Iraq, telling lawmakers they had no business trying to manage the war, portraying the conflict as a showdown with Al Qaeda and warning that moving toward withdrawal now would risk “mass killings on a horrific scale.” Hours later, the Democratic-controlled House responded by voting almost totally along party lines to require ...
Bush Urges Patience, Says Congress Can't Run Iraq War
Post Date: 2007-07-13 17:26:51 by Zipporah
13 Comments
Bush Urges Patience, Says Congress Can't Run Iraq War (Update1) By Roger Runningen and Edwin Chen July 12 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush appealed to Americans to be patient with Iraq's effort to achieve a unity government even as a progress report showed the nation's leadership short on key goals to establish democracy. As Republican defections over the war increase in Congress, the president insisted he won't yield to mounting demands to bring troops home. ``I don't think it makes sense'' for Congress to tell ``our military how to conduct operations'' or ``deal with troop strength,'' he said today at a White House press ...
White House, Pentagon cite executive privilege to hold up documents on friendly fire victim Tillman
Post Date: 2007-07-13 17:06:59 by Zipporah
23 Comments
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) revealed on Friday afternoon that the White House and Pentagon were holding up a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee investigation into the friendly fire death of former professional football player and Army Corporal Patrick Tillman. "[T]he Committee wrote to White House Counsel Fred Fielding seeking 'all documents received or generated by any official in the Executive Office of the President' relating to Corporal Tillman's death," noted a press release from the Committee. But the White House has apparently again invoked its executive privilege to hold up the documents sought by Waxman and Ranking Minority member Tom Davis ...
TOMMY CRYER - Local attorney acquitted on federal income tax charges
Post Date: 2007-07-13 03:50:10 by Uncle Bill
4 Comments
Local attorney acquitted on federal income tax charges Cryer stopped filing income taxes more than 10 years ago Shreveport Times July 13, 2007 By Loresha Wilson ljwilson@gannett.com A Shreveport attorney who has challenged the government for years on the legality of filing federal income taxes has been acquitted on charges he failed to file returns. A federal jury unanimously found Tommy Cryer not guilty this week on two misdemeanor counts of failure to file. And according to Cryer, the prosecution dismissed two felony charges of tax evasion prior to trial. Attempts by The Times on Thursday to reach U.S. Attorney Donald Washington or Bill Flanagan, first assistant U.S. attorney, were ...
Congress ignores mayors' appeal on gun trace law
Post Date: 2007-07-12 23:51:42 by Brian S
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A campaign by more than 200 U.S. mayors to repeal an amendment they say makes it harder for police to trace illegal firearms between states was dealt a setback in Congress on Thursday. The House Appropriations Committee voted by 40-26 against removing a provision that dates back to 2003 and imposes confidentiality limits on firearms trace data compiled by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and dozens of other mayors and senior police officers came to Washington this week to press Congress to eliminate the amendment, saying it was designed to appease the powerful gun lobby. The measure has been attached ...
FBI Employees Face Criminal Probe Over Patriot Act Abuse
Post Date: 2007-07-12 20:01:23 by Zipporah
1 Comments
FBI Employees Face Criminal Probe Over Patriot Act Abuse Ryan Singel 07.12.07 | 2:00 AM FBI personnel who used misleading emergency letters to acquire thousands of Americans' phone records are the subject of a criminal investigation, top bureau officials told civil liberties groups Monday. The unprecedented criminal probe, revealed at an outreach meeting led by FBI director Robert Mueller and general counsel Valerie Caproni at FBI headquarters, is looking at the actions of an antiterrorism team known as the Communications ...
Help EFF figure out what's in the FBI's secret docs
Post Date: 2007-07-12 19:54:53 by Zipporah
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Help EFF figure out what's in the FBI's secret docs Last week, I blogged about how the Electronic Frontier Foundation had prised 1,000+ pages' worth of FBI docs loose with a Freedom of Information Act request. These docs document the FBI's abuse of power after the PATRIOT Act. Now, 1,000+ pages is a LOT of material, and EFF needs your help. We've already started scouring newly-released documents relating to the misuse of National Security Letters to collect Americans' private information. But don't let us have all fun — you, too, can dive into the docs and help uncover the truth about the FBI's abuse of power. All 1138 pages are freely downloadable ...
Restoring the People's Power: A Referendum on Bush and Cheney (PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS)
Post Date: 2007-07-12 19:19:50 by aristeides
3 Comments
Restoring the People's Power A Referendum on Bush and Cheney The American political system has failed. The fabled checks and balances of American politics were no match for a neoconservative administration with a secret agenda. The American people were deceived and tricked into supporting two invasions that are war crimes under the Nuremberg standard. US aggression against Afghanistan and Iraq and the indiscriminate slaughter of civilians have radicalized Muslims throughout the world and swelled the ranks of insurgents. Despite the "surge" and an additional 30,000 US troops in Baghdad, the US is unable to protect its own embassy. On July 10, the fortified Green Zone, which ...
Did George Bush knock up a girl and then arrange an abortion?
Post Date: 2007-07-12 13:45:10 by ghostdogtxn
6 Comments
GREAT VICTORY OVER IRS - Tom Cryer - The prosecution could not state any law making the average American liable for the income tax [Full Thread]
Post Date: 2007-07-12 00:17:47 by Uncle Bill
62 Comments
Today at about 5:30 PM Attorney Tom Cryer was found not guilty to all charges of willful failure to file by the jury in Federal District Court, Shreveport LA. I attended the 2-1/2 day trial. The judge assisted the prosecution in every way possible, and the prosecution lied claiming there is a law requiring most Americans to file. However, the jury saw through the lies and believed Tom Cryer. The prosecution could not state any law making the average American liable for the income tax. All the prosecution could point out was rulings by two lower courts. However, as Tom Cryer stated The lower courts cannot overturn the Supreme Court and Tom Cryer stated numerous Supreme Court Ruling that ...
FBI Patriot Act Abuse Documents: What Special Project Lives in FBI HQ Room 4944?
Post Date: 2007-07-11 20:20:20 by Uncle Bill
2 Comments
FBI Patriot Act Abuse Documents: What Special Project Lives in FBI HQ Room 4944? In March, the Justice Department's Inspector General revealed that FBI agents had sent a flurry of fake emergency letters to phone companies, asking them to turn over phone records immediately by promising that the proper papers had been filed with U.S. attorneys, though in many cases this was a complete lie. More than 60 of these letters were made public today as part of a FBI document dump in response to a government sunshine lawsuit centered on the FBI's abuse of a key Patriot Act power. The most striking thing about these expedited letters (.pdf) (made public via the Electronic ...
FBI Would Skirt the Law With Proposed Phone Record Program
Post Date: 2007-07-10 22:17:33 by kiki
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A proposed new FBI program would skirt federal laws by paying private companies to hold millions of phone and Internet records which the bureau is barred from keeping itself, experts say. The $5 million project would apparently pay private firms to store at least two years' worth of telephone and Internet activity by millions of Americans, few of whom would ever be considered a suspect in any terrorism, intelligence or criminal matter. The project would involve "the development of data storage and retrieval systems...for at least two years' worth of network calling records," according to an unclassified budget document posted to the FBI's Web site. The FBI did not ...
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