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FCC Proposes Rules Prohibiting Any Speech That Criticizes Bush
The Republican National Committee is pressing the Federal Election Commission ("FEC") to issue new rules that would cripple groups that dare to communicate with the public in any way critical of President Bush or members of Congress. Incredibly, the FEC has just issued -- for public comment -- proposed rules that would do just that. Any kind of non-profit -- conservative, progressive, labor, religious, secular, social service, charitable, educational, civic participation, issue-oriented, large, and small -- could be affected by these rules. . . . Operatives in Washington are displaying a terrifying disregard for the values of free speech and openness which underlie our democracy. Essentially, they are willing to pay any price to stop criticism of Bush administration policy. . . . We've attached materials below to help you make a public comment to the FEC before the comment period ends on APRIL 9th. Your comment could be very important, because normally the FEC doesn't get much public feedback.

Public comments to the FEC are encouraged by email at

politicalcommitteestatus@fec.gov

Comments should be addressed to Ms. Mai T. Dinh, Acting Assistant General Counsel, and must include the full name, electronic mail address, and postal service address of the commenter.

More details can be found at:

http://www.fec.gov/press/press2004/20040312rulemaking.html

Some key points:

- Campaign finance reform was not meant to gag public interest organizations.
- Political operatives are trying to silence opposition to Bush policy.
- The Federal Election Commission has no legal right to treat non-profit interest groups as political committees. Congress and the courts have specifically considered and rejected such regulation.

. . . Read more!

posted by LoZo 5:20 PM

 

Court Opens Door To Searches Without Warrants
(TheNewOrleansChannel, March 29, 2004)
In case there was any doubt about the direction of the courts and the increasing possibility of a police state in America, fasten your seatbelts, campers. The New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has broken down the door and gutted the 4th Amendment by allowing that police officers in Louisiana no longer need a search or arrest warrant to conduct a brief search of your home or business. Naturally, law enforcement states that this "keep officers safe," but former U.S. Attorney Julian Murray said the ruling is problematic as searches can be performed "if an officer fears for his safety" - a purely subjective justification. Two of the dissenting judges called the ruling the "road to Hell."

. . . Read more!

posted by A Curmudgeon 8:12 AM

 

LET THE SUN SET ON PATRIOT
EFF.org
Welcome to "Let the Sun Set on PATRIOT," a new EFFector series on the battle to let some of the most troubling provisions in the USA PATRIOT Act expire, or "sunset." Each week, we'll profile one of the 13 provisions set to expire in December of 2005 and explain in plain language what's wrong with the provision and why Congress should allow it to sunset.

. . . Read more!

posted by A Curmudgeon 4:33 PM

 

Something to think about
The neo-fascist Republican party (the 'less government' people) are up to their eyeballs in violently locking down the planet. They are the very ones who are clamping down a computerized, incredibly violent, totalitarian social control system the likes of which this planet has never seen. And they are moving quickly -- with great military force and massive national and international bureaucratic coordination. . . . Is this why the Bush regime is running up a stratospheric national debt? - now over seven TRILLION dollars and growing by leaps and bounds. Is this unprecedented deficit spending intended to fund the imposition of a totalitarian regime that will then turn around and violently suppress the people when they realize the trap that has been sprung on them?
-- Richard Sauder, PhD

. . . Read more!

posted by LoZo 11:52 AM

 

Big Brother Expands to Wisconsin
(Ryan Singel, WiredNews, Mar 9 ,2004)
Even as states retreat from participating in a controversial interstate antiterrorism database that holds billions of records of ordinary Americans' activities, Wisconsin has decided to join the program. . . . The head of Wisconsin's division of criminal investigation, James R. Warren, signed on to join the Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange, or Matrix, on Feb. 11 . . . With access to the Matrix database, Wisconsin law enforcement officials can look up vast amounts of personal information culled from government and commercial databases. The information includes driver's license pictures, addresses, professional licenses, names of neighbors and relatives, and even domain-name registration filings and hunting licenses. . . . Originally, 13 states were involved in the information-sharing initiative, but only six of those states remain -- Michigan, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Florida. States joining the effort agree to regularly upload driver's license pictures and vehicle registrations to a central server in Florida, which is managed by Seisint, a private data-aggregation firm based in Boca Raton. . . . Originally, 13 states were involved in the information-sharing initiative, but only six of those states remain -- Michigan, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Florida. States joining the effort agree to regularly upload driver's license pictures and vehicle registrations to a central server in Florida, which is managed by Seisint, a private data-aggregation firm based in Boca Raton. . . . In return, state law enforcement agents are granted a number of licenses to query the system. Officers also get access to information derived from Seisint's proprietary database, which includes voter rolls, property records, website registrations, civil and criminal court records, phone number directories and financial filings. . . . Privacy advocates have criticized the system, saying it enables law enforcement officials to conduct electronic searches of citizens without any evidence of wrongdoing. . . . As the public sees what's going on, they realize this is an another incarnation of -- or at least something that smells like -- Total Information Awareness." . . . Total Information Awareness was an experimental program by an arm of the Pentagon that sought to create a massive government database that tapped into thousands of smaller databases run by government agencies and private companies. . . . Other states, including Iowa and North Carolina, are also said to be looking into joining the Matrix.

[COMMENT: Please use our "Search This Site" feature to find more stories about Pentagon's Total Information Awareness (TIPS) program.]

. . . Read more!

posted by LoZo 1:49 PM