tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19100630342312381732009-07-01T14:52:57.679-04:00From the Progressive Review, a report on civil liberties, justice and the creeping coup.TPRnoreply@blogger.comBlogger630125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910063034231238173.post-53433189830443588262009-07-01T14:51:00.001-04:002009-07-01T14:52:57.686-04:00

Kansas City Star - The year is 2020 and the gasoline tax is history. In its place you get a monthly tax bill based on each mile you drove . . . tracked by a Global Positioning System device in your car and uploaded to a billing center. What once was science fiction is being field-tested by the University of Iowa to iron out the wrinkles should a by-the-mile road tax ever be enacted. . . The idea

TPRnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910063034231238173.post-22769253581140471492009-07-01T14:44:00.001-04:002009-07-01T14:44:38.177-04:00

Jeff Stein, CQ - A veteran American journalist returning from Latin America on Saturday was closely questioned by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent about where he went and whom he talked to. John Dinges, a former NPR managing editor for news and currently professor at Columbia University's School of Journalism, landed at Miami International Airport June 27 after visiting Venezuela and

TPRnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910063034231238173.post-15313354286345831012009-06-30T14:24:00.001-04:002009-06-30T14:24:30.398-04:00

Press Association, UK - British citizens will never be forced to carry ID cards, Home Secretary Alan Johnson said. today. In his first major policy announcement as Home Secretary, Mr Johnson ditched a trial scheme that would have required some airport staff and pilots to carry the controversial cards. . . He also ruled out ever requiring the public to own a card. Previously, ministers said ID

TPRnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910063034231238173.post-30161146828063259492009-06-29T13:49:00.001-04:002009-06-29T14:19:41.575-04:00

AMY GOODMAN: The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against Attorney General Eric Holder and the Federal Bureau of Prisons challenging the legality of two secretive prison units in Indiana and Illinois. The prisons, known as Communication Management Units, are designed to severely restrict prisoner communication with family members, the media and the outside world.The prisons were

TPRnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910063034231238173.post-13315245565449280882009-06-28T00:27:00.001-04:002009-06-28T00:27:42.921-04:00

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TPRnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910063034231238173.post-41636765697919935472009-06-28T00:05:00.001-04:002009-06-28T00:08:28.389-04:00

Pro Publica - The Obama administration, fearing a battle with Congress that could stall plans to close Guantanamo, is drafting an executive order that would reassert presidential authority to incarcerate suspected terrorists indefinitely, according to three senior government officials with knowledge of White House deliberations.Such an order would embrace claims by former President George W. Bush

TPRnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910063034231238173.post-79870860125228878172009-06-24T17:16:00.001-04:002009-06-24T17:25:27.675-04:00

David Price, Counterpunch - Four years ago I wrote a series of CounterPunch exposes on the Pat Roberts Intelligence Scholars Program, then a pilot project funded under the 2004 Intelligence Authorization Act. PRISP links undergraduate and graduate students with US security and intelligence agencies like the NSA or CIA, and unannounced to universities, professors or fellow-students, PRISP-students

TPRnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910063034231238173.post-35823376098379138862009-06-22T14:43:00.000-04:002009-06-22T14:44:34.524-04:00

LA Times - Some 165 closed-circuit TV cameras soon will provide live, round-the-clock scrutiny of nearly every street, park and other public space used by the 55,000 residents and [Lancaster PA's] many tourists. That's more outdoor cameras than are used by many major cities, including San Francisco and Boston.Unlike anywhere else, cash-strapped Lancaster outsourced its surveillance to a private

TPRnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910063034231238173.post-87756241248720809182009-06-21T23:38:00.000-04:002009-06-21T23:39:05.450-04:00

Fox News - A flood of criticism has prompted a Montana city to drop its request that government job applicants turn over their user names and passwords to Internet social networking and Web groups. The city of Bozeman abruptly suspended the practice Friday, saying it "appears to have exceeded that which is acceptable to our community.". . . "I liken it to them saying they want to look at your

TPRnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910063034231238173.post-26706572122954943332009-06-21T23:22:00.001-04:002009-06-21T23:23:38.799-04:00

WAVY, VA - Dozens of Gloucester County residents face a hefty fine after petitioning to unseat four of their supervisors. "It's, as far as I know, unprecedented for a court to punish somebody for exercising their right to petition the government for redress of grievances. We all have that. It's in the Bill of Rights," says Steven Emmert. Emmert is the attorney for the 40 Gloucester County

TPRnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910063034231238173.post-79294949020046434992009-06-20T22:32:00.001-04:002009-06-20T22:38:09.476-04:00

Washington Post - The Obama administration has proposed the creation of an intelligence officer training program in colleges and universities that would function much like the Reserve Officers' Training Corps run by the military services. The idea is to create a stream "of first- and second-generation Americans, who already have critical language and cultural knowledge, and prepare them for

TPRnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910063034231238173.post-1312241663039276742009-06-20T22:26:00.001-04:002009-06-20T22:26:33.972-04:00

ACLU - The Department of Defense considers protests an example of "low-level terrorism" according to an exam DOD employees were required to take this year. According to a whistleblower that came to the ACLU, a multiple choice question on the 2009 DOD Anti-terrorism Awareness training exam asked which of the following was an example of low-level terrorism:- Attacking the Pentagon - Improvised

TPRnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910063034231238173.post-48224691739804388722009-06-20T22:19:00.001-04:002009-06-20T22:19:53.013-04:00

San Francisco Chronicle - Without fanfare, a federal judge in Oakland on Thursday threw out voter-approved laws in two Northern California cities barring military recruiters from contacting minors.U.S. District Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong ruled that laws passed in the Humboldt County cities of Arcata and Eureka in November were unconstitutional and invalid.The finding was not unexpected by

TPRnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910063034231238173.post-82118969668971760452009-06-19T13:16:00.002-04:002009-06-21T23:40:34.244-04:00

UPDATE: BOZEMAN CUTS BACK ON EMPLOYEE SPYING PLANSFox News - A flood of criticism has prompted a Montana city to drop its request that government job applicants turn over their user names and passwords to Internet social networking and Web groups. The city of Bozeman abruptly suspended the practice Friday, saying it "appears to have exceeded that which is acceptable to our community.". . . "I

TPRnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910063034231238173.post-61070773185671808492009-06-16T10:43:00.001-04:002009-06-16T10:43:29.985-04:00

Don Hazen, AlterNet - Recent polling by Zogby in May demonstrated that a majority of Americans, say it "makes sense to tax and regulate" marijuana. The Zogby poll, commissioned by the conservative-oriented O'Leary Report, found 52 percent in favor of legalization, only 37 percent opposed. As Ryan Grim reports on the Huffington Post , a previous ABC News/Washington Post poll found 46 percent in

TPRnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910063034231238173.post-60718271801590274152009-06-16T10:41:00.001-04:002009-06-16T10:41:31.996-04:00

Sidney Morning Herald - The Australian communications regulator says it will fine people who hyperlink to sites on its blacklist, which has been further expanded to include several pages on the anonymous whistleblower site Wikileaks.Wikileaks was added to the blacklist for publishing a leaked document containing Denmark's list of banned websites.The move by the Australian Communications and Media

TPRnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910063034231238173.post-20326634803110040412009-06-16T10:28:00.001-04:002009-06-16T10:28:57.206-04:00

Washington Times - A new Montana gun law puts the state at the forefront of a national bid to restore states' rights by attacking up to a century of federal court decisions on Washington's power.Two other states - Alaska and Texas - have had favorable votes on laws similar to Montana's, declaring that guns that stay within the state are none of the feds' business. More than a dozen others are

TPRnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910063034231238173.post-1209922949148108012009-06-13T20:19:00.000-04:002009-06-13T20:20:04.976-04:00

NY Times - A plan to create a new Pentagon cybercommand is raising significant privacy and diplomatic concerns, as the Obama administration moves ahead on efforts to protect the nation from cyberattack and to prepare for possible offensive operations against adversaries' computer networks. President Obama has said that the new cyberdefense strategy he unveiled last month will provide protections

TPRnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910063034231238173.post-77947470142322296762009-06-13T20:09:00.000-04:002009-06-13T20:10:45.924-04:00

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TPRnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910063034231238173.post-73907991880543937932009-06-08T15:20:00.001-04:002009-06-08T15:20:55.148-04:00

CNN - A former Army captain who was dismissed under a federal law dealing with gays and lesbians in the military lost his appeal at the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to intervene in the challenge to the "don't ask/don't tell" law. . . The Obama administration had asked the high court not to take the case, and White House officials had said they would not object to

TPRnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910063034231238173.post-40161191737397768552009-06-04T23:50:00.000-04:002009-06-04T23:51:08.000-04:00

Buffalo News - It is legally permissible for police to zap a suspect with a Taser to obtain a DNA sample, as long as it’s not done “maliciously, or to an excessive extent, or with resulting injury,” a county judge has ruled in the first case of its kind in New York State, and possibly the nation.Niagara County Judge Sara Sheldon Sperrazza decided that the DNA sample obtained Sept. 29 from Ryan S.

TPRnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910063034231238173.post-86450153602520909442009-06-03T18:17:00.001-04:002009-06-03T18:17:30.407-04:00

Wired - A federal judge dismissed lawsuits targeting the nation's telecommunication companies for their participation in President George W. Bush's once-secret electronic eavesdropping program.In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker upheld summer legislation protecting the companies from the lawsuits. The legislation, which then-Sen. Barack Obama voted for, also granted the government

TPRnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910063034231238173.post-49266365823384809652009-06-03T11:07:00.001-04:002009-06-03T11:07:35.402-04:00

This raises a point we have noted from time to time, namely that since almost all opposition to gay marriage is based on religious principles, any laws supporting that view are essentially engaged in the unconstitutional act of establishing religion - favoring one group over, say, the 130 clergy in this caseWashington Blade - More than 130 clergy representing dozens of churches and at least two

TPRnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910063034231238173.post-63206062065599512392009-06-03T08:34:00.001-04:002009-06-03T08:34:40.809-04:00

CNET - In the first case of its type, a federal judge in California has ruled that police can forcibly take DNA samples, including drawing blood with a needle, from Americans who have been arrested but not convicted of a crime.U.S. Magistrate Judge Gregory Hollows ruled that a federal law allowing DNA samples upon arrest for a felony was constitutional and did not violate the Fourth Amendment's

TPRnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910063034231238173.post-35942438756541880602009-06-02T14:09:00.001-04:002009-06-02T14:09:16.995-04:00

Glen Greenwald, Salon - It was one thing when President Obama reversed himself last month by announcing that he would appeal the Second Circuit's ruling that the Freedom of Information Act compelled disclosure of various photographs of detainee abuse sought by the ACLU. Agree or disagree with Obama's decision, at least the basic legal framework of transparency was being respected, since Obama's

TPRnoreply@blogger.com