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Latest Articles: Dead Constitution
SENATE TO AMERICA: "SHUT UP!"
Post Date: 2007-01-16 09:35:30 by DeaconBenjamin
10 Comments
I write this as a former Capitol Hill staffer. I have been there, done that. I am reporting on this matter because, if Democrats (and Trent Lott and Mitch McConnell) in the United States Senate get their way, it may be illegal for me to say this or anything like this beginning on January 1, 2008. If you want to know what is the highest priority of the new Congress, don't watch TV. Don't listen to the posturing of politicians in high places regarding the war in Iraq, the safety of Americans from terror, and the plight of the poor. As Attorney General John Mitchell said, before he went to jail: "Watch what we do, not what we say." I can tell you what the highest ...
Couple can argue tax stance
Post Date: 2007-01-15 23:03:00 by rack42
2 Comments
A Plainfield couple facing federal tax evasion charges should be free to explain their unconventional legal views in front of the jury, the judge ruled yesterday before the second day of trial testimony began. Assistant U.S. attorney Bill Morse had argued that Elaine and Ed Brown, who are representing themselves in the case, could confuse the jury by repeating baseless assertions about tax law, and tried to persuade the judge to instruct the couple not to mention their theories. But Judge Steven McAuliffe said that showing the jury that they truly misunderstood the law could be the Browns' best chance at an acquittal. McAuliffe summarized his understanding of the Browns' strategy ...
Will Plainfield Be Another Waco?
Post Date: 2007-01-15 19:21:57 by christine
28 Comments
In defending themselves against a federal government they claim is operating outside the government's jurisdiction, Ed and Elaine Brown have filed 42 motions in Concord, New Hampshire's, US District Court and had every one denied. The couple then spent three days in court last week listening to the federal government try to build an income tax case against them. "Of course the government failed. They didn't prove a thing. There's nothing to prove. We didn't violate a statute because there is no statute, and they don't even have jurisdiction. In fact, the court is operating out of a building that New Hampshire never ceded to the federal government--as the law ...
"For in a Republic, who is 'the country?'
Post Date: 2007-01-15 11:17:53 by richard9151
0 Comments
"For in a Republic, who is 'the country?' Is it the Government which is for the moment in the saddle? Why, the Government is merely a servant -- merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn't. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them." -- Mark Twain [Samuel Langhornne Clemens] (1835-1910) And what is happening to America WILL NOT AND CAN NOT CHANGE until the people learn, once again, the dangers of contracting into the jurisdiction of their servant, thus giving up all of their rights for a bowl of porrige. I did a post some time ago titled, The government is not ...
Prison Time For Viewing Porn?
Post Date: 2007-01-14 18:41:30 by Brian S
22 Comments
A Teenage Boy Faces Decades in Prison For Visiting Sexually Explicit Web Sites -- But Was It Really Someone Else? Jan. 12, 2007— - Sixteen-year-old Matthew Bandy was about as normal a teenager as you could find. He actually liked hanging out with his family. "He was a happy-go-lucky kid," said his mother, Jeannie Bandy. "Very personable, and big-hearted. I sound like a boastful mom, but I guess the biggest thing is that he could always make me laugh." "We went on vacations and had a lot of fun together," Matthew said. "I just enjoyed the life I was living. But after I was accused, everything changed." What was Matthew Bandy accused of? ...
Cheney admits expanded military spying role inside US
Post Date: 2007-01-14 13:58:43 by Brian S
2 Comments
Sun Jan 14, 10:38 AM ET US Vice-President Dick Cheney has admitted that the US military and CIA have been spying on the financial dealings of Americans -- intelligence gathering normally authorized only by civilian policing agencies. The New York Times broke the story overnight, reporting that the Department of Defense and Central Intelligence Agency had been using "national security letters" to obtain the banking and credit records of Americans and foreigners suspected of terrorist activities in the United States. The US military and the CIA have long been restricted in their spying activities inside the United States and are barred from conducting traditional domestic law ...
H.R. 1 Puts America In A Giant Bird Cage
Post Date: 2007-01-14 11:04:02 by DeaconBenjamin
3 Comments
The very first bill passed by the House of Representatives this year was H.R. 1 named, "Implementing the 9/11 Commission Recommendations Act." The vote was 299 Ayes, with 68 Republicans voting with the majority, and 128 Noes. Drafted by the 9/11 Commission following the terrorist attacks on Washington, D.C., and New York City, the report proffered 41 recommendations to the federal government ostensibly for the purpose of making the United States more secure against future terrorist attack. The implementation of this report was new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s first priority for the 110th Congress. She succeeded. The House of Representatives easily passed it. The Senate is ...
Military Is Expanding Its Intelligence Role in U.S.
Post Date: 2007-01-14 00:38:57 by robin
0 Comments
January 14, 2007Military Is Expanding Its Intelligence Role in U.S. By ERIC LICHTBLAU and MARK MAZZETTI Chris Hondros/Getty Images James J. Yee, a former Muslim chaplain at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, was suspected in 2003 of aiding terror suspects imprisoned at the facility, but the military’s espionage case against him soon collapsed. WASHINGTON, Jan. 13 — The Pentagon has been using a little-known power to obtain banking and credit records of hundreds of Americans and others suspected of terrorism or espionage inside the United States, part of an aggressive expansion by the military into domestic intelligence gathering. The C.I.A. has also been issuing what are known as ...
Colbert Debates Gitmo on 5 Year Anniversary
Post Date: 2007-01-13 20:40:54 by Zipporah
2 Comments
Since this week marked the 5 year anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo Bay, Stephen invited the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, on to the show to discuss the legal ramifications of the detention center and his work at the organization dedicated to defending human rights worldwide. Download (775) | Play (521) Download (288) | Play (373) Colbert: These aren't American citizens. They're not on American soil. Why should the Constitution protect them? Roth: Well, human rights are basically the Constitution for the world. And just like Americans dont like to be locked up without a trial — the same is true of everybody else..
In their own words: some of the promoters of so-called free trade agreements such as the FTAA have, at times, acknowledged that their purpose is to create supranational governments.(
Post Date: 2007-01-13 18:27:02 by Jethro Tull
3 Comments
In their own words: some of the promoters of so-called free trade agreements, acknowledged that their purpose is to create supranational governments.(Premeditated Merger) From: The New American | Date: September 6, 2004 | More results for: intergration of north america In 1994, President Clinton convened the Summit of the Americas.... As president, I will build on that spirit and help forge a new and broader "Community of the Americas." -- Senator John Kerry Interview in Poder magazine, August 2004 We cannot leap into world government in one quick step.... [This objective] requires a process of gradually expanding the range ...
Beware the Rove "Stalkers" and dirty tricksters.
Post Date: 2007-01-11 12:53:46 by robin
0 Comments
January 11, 2007 -- Rove dirty tricksters operating on Capitol Hill and within the Washington press corps. Democratic Party officials should be wary of attempts by Bush's White House "Svengali" to use political operatives to disrupt certain targeted members of Congress. Even particular members of the Washington press corps are not immune to the machinations of Rove's cadre of dirty tricksters. In fact, Rove got his start in GOP politics by conducting dirty tricks against 1972 Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern and, later, Texas Governor Mark White and Illinois Senator Alan Dixon.It now appears that one particular operative, who this reporter will refer to ...
Support is strong for gov't use of biometric IDs
Post Date: 2007-01-11 00:14:28 by Ferret Mike
5 Comments
Overwhelming number of Americans favor biometrics use in passports, driver's licenses, Social Security cards. Despite some misgivings, an overwhelming number of Americans favor the use of biometric identifiers in passports, driver's licenses and Social Security cards, according to a new survey by Truste, a non-profit online privacy certification organization based in San Francisco. The same is true when it comes to the use of biometric IDs in credit and debit cards, although most of those who responded to the survey appear to be reluctant to share biometric data with retailers because of privacy concerns. The e-mail survey of 1,025 U.S. consumers, conducted by Truste and ...
CIA Defends Document Secrecy at Trial; cannot reveal "alternative interrogation methods" used on terrorists...
Post Date: 2007-01-10 22:23:20 by Brian S
0 Comments
(01-10) 18:42 PST NEW YORK, (AP) -- The CIA cannot reveal "alternative interrogation methods" used on terrorists because doing so would cause exceptionally grave damage to national security by telling enemies how the agency gathers intelligence, the government has told a judge. In a document dated Friday and filed in U.S. District Court in New York, the CIA said it cannot reveal more than what President Bush said last summer about the detention and questioning of terrorism suspects. The American Civil Liberties Union had asked the court to require the CIA to turn over two Justice Department memos discussing interrogation methods and a presidential order concerning the ...
Satan Hatin' General Gets Bounced (GEN. BOYKIN)
Post Date: 2007-01-10 17:30:54 by aristeides
18 Comments
Satan Hatin' General Gets Bounced By Justin Rood - January 10, 2007, 1:49 PM Evangelical conservative William Boykin is set to be bounced from his Pentagon gig as a senior intelligence official, Newsweek reports. Boykin became known for his violent Christian rhetoric, like when he asserted America’s enemy is “a spiritual enemy ... called Satan” who could only be defeated “if we come against them in the name of Jesus.” His detractors have noted that his position should have required him to oversee the conduct of military interrogators, including those who have been found to abuse their subjects. In 2004, Boykin was ordered to investigate claims of prisoner ...
Murtha plans hearings to close Guantanamo prison
Post Date: 2007-01-10 16:55:55 by aristeides
8 Comments
Murtha plans hearings to close Guantanamo prison WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Rep. John Murtha said Tuesday that he planned to hold hearings on closing down the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and threatened to "cut off the money" to make it happen. "This is an eyesore to the country," the veteran congressman, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee's defense subcommittee, said of the facility, where about 400 detainees from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are kept. Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat, said Congress could easily effect the change he seeks. "We just cut off the money," he said. The congressman did not give a date for the ...
Senate Panel Takes Another Look at Privacy, Data Collection
Post Date: 2007-01-10 12:39:41 by Brian S
0 Comments
Wednesday, January 10, 2007 WASHINGTON — The government's ability to use computers to gather personal information about citizens and act on it has far outstripped the federal laws designed to protect them from secret federal dossiers, a privacy advocate told Congress on Wednesday. Leslie Harris, executive director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to update the Privacy Act and other laws to keep pace with the Digital Age. She was among a handful of think-tank scholars and privacy advocates who testified Wednesday about government data-mining — the computerized searching of large banks of information for clues to the identity of ...
Proposal to send drones over Idaho raises hackles
Post Date: 2007-01-10 12:26:46 by noone222
4 Comments
SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - A U.S. government agency is considering using unmanned surveillance planes, or drones, to help oversee remote areas of eastern Idaho, raising concerns in a region deeply wary of outside interference. Officials the Bureau of Land Management office responsible for most of eastern Idaho may initially buy one hand-launched drone for an estimated $15,000 to help keep track of the vast, thinly populated area. They said the unpiloted aircraft, with a wingspan of about 4 feet, would monitor vegetation and streams in areas used largely for grazing and recreation and there were no immediate plans to use them for law enforcement. But with Americans already concerned over ...
Supremes Won't Hear Secret Law Challenge/Travel Restrictions (shut up and like it).
Post Date: 2007-01-10 07:00:07 by noone222
2 Comments
Monday, 8 January 2007 Supremes Won't Hear Secret Law Challenge The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from online civil liberties pioneer John Gilmore who was contesting a Ninth Circuit decision which held that the government did not have to make public its rules about requiring airlines to ask passengers for identification. The Transportation Security Administration argued that publicizing the rules would endanger national security and that passengers were informed of the rules. However, they did show the rule to the judges, who then publicized in the decision that, in fact, passengers are NOT required to show identification to enter an airport security checkpoint. Instead, ...
Checkpoints to Combat New Orleans Crime
Post Date: 2007-01-09 23:06:28 by Brian S
12 Comments
(01-09) 19:46 PST NEW ORLEANS, (AP) -- Police plan to set up checkpoints beginning Wednesday to help curb a crime wave that has claimed nine lives since the start of 2007, Mayor Ray Nagin said, stopping short of imposing a curfew on this tourism-dependent city. The checkpoints will operate between 2 a.m. and 6 p.m., when about a third of the city's violent crime occurs, and will target drug and alcohol violations as well as motorist insurance. The first one was to be held in a crime-ridden area of the city. Nagin said the police force would also increase foot patrols, sheriff deputies would supplement the force, and authorities would increase the number of surveillance cameras in ...
Ford: A Lincoln and an Imperial(ist)
Post Date: 2007-01-09 12:48:05 by PnbC
0 Comments
Ford: A Lincoln and an Imperial(ist) David R. Henderson One of the late Gerald Ford's favorite sayings during his first few weeks of office was that he was "a Ford, not a Lincoln." Ford meant it as a statement of his humility. Ford's humility was, in fact, one of his best character traits. But in pardoning Richard Nixon a month after becoming president, Ford showed himself to be very much like Lincoln. And in doing so, Ford set a bad precedent, making it easier for future presidents to break the law and to abuse the power of the presidency because he had increased the probability that they would not be held to account. The first day of my ...
KSFO radio personalities Lee Rodgers and Melanie Morgan, with commentary and information on how ABC/Disney is trying to step on our rights
Post Date: 2007-01-08 21:15:11 by Zipporah
0 Comments
A video featuring some clips by KSFO radio personalities Lee Rodgers and Melanie Morgan, with commentary and information on how ABC/Disney is trying to step on our rights. I apologize for some small grammar errors here and there. This was very hastily assembled! ... (more) (
Supreme Court declines challenge to airport ID policy
Post Date: 2007-01-08 11:27:10 by Brian S
0 Comments
(01-08) 07:41 PST WASHINGTON, (AP) -- The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a challenge to federal airport regulations requiring passengers to show identification before they board planes. The justices, without comment, let stand an appeals court ruling against Libertarian activist and millionaire John Gilmore. Gilmore wanted the court to force the federal government to disclose the policy that requires passengers to produce identification. Unless the regulations are made public, air travelers have no way to determine if the regulations call for impermissible searches, Gilmore said in court papers. The Justice Department has said that demanding ID protects passengers' safety. The ...
Bob Barr Slams Bush Signing Statement on Sneak Peaks at Americans’ Mail
Post Date: 2007-01-07 21:56:11 by Brian S
3 Comments
Washington, D.C., – Former Congressman Bob Barr, chairman of Patriots to Restore Checks and Balances (PRCB), today denounced President Bush’s authorization for the federal government to open Americans’ mail without a court warrant. “President Bush’s wish to read people’s mail without court approval could be a gross violation of the fourth amendment. This administration blatantly disregards the most basic freedoms established in our constitution to protect against unreasonable search and seizure by the government. Allowing federal agents to open ordinary Americans’ mail is highly intrusive and drives us down a slippery slope towards a big brother ...
White House pact cloaked visits amid scandal
Post Date: 2007-01-06 13:04:55 by Eoghan
0 Comments
Accord with Secret Service locked up records during Abramoff imbroglio The White House and the Secret Service quietly signed an agreement last spring in the midst of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal declaring that records identifying visitors to the White House are not open to the public. The Bush administration didn’t reveal the existence of the memorandum of understanding until last fall. The White House is using it to deal with a legal problem on a separate front, a ruling by a federal judge ordering the production of Secret Service logs identifying visitors to the office of Vice President Dick Cheney. In a federal appeals court filing three weeks ago, the administration’s ...
Lawsuit Against CIA Dismissed on State Secrets Grounds
Post Date: 2007-01-06 12:24:49 by robin
0 Comments
Lawsuit Against CIA Dismissed on State Secrets Grounds Declaring that the need to protect government secrets overrides all other considerations, a federal court yesterday dismissed (pdf) a lawsuit against the Central Intelligence Agency filed by family members of a former CIA clandestine officer who alleged injuries that are largely classified. The CIA invoked the state secrets privilege in its motion for dismissal, and the court said it had no choice but to grant the Agency's motion. Relatively little about the case -- captioned Jane Doe, et al v. Central Intelligence Agency -- is on the public record. The plaintiffs are the wife and children of a former CIA officer who remains under ...
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