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POPSWhy Does Interpol Need Immunity from American Law? Being constrained by the Fourth Amendment, FOIA, and other limitations of the Constitution and federal law that protect the liberty and privacy of Americans is what prevents law-enforcement and its controlling government authority from becoming tyrannical. On Wednesday, however, for no apparent reason, President Obama issued an executive order removing the Reagan limitations. That is, Interpol's property and assets are no longer subject to search and confiscation, and its archives are now considered inviolable. This international police force (whose U.S. headquarters is in the Justice Department in Washington) will be unrestrained by the U.S. Constitution and American law while it operates in the United States and affects both Americans and American interests outside the United States. by Andy McCarthy
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POPSSupport the JUSTICE Act to Amend PATRIOT ACT Abuses This is about the Constitution and freedom for Americans from government intrusion. Read this and consider contacting your Congressmen immediately. This is a non-partisan issue. If conservative republicans in particular really support the Constitution they need to man-up and support this to really "defend freedom", instead of paying lip service to our liberties! What do you think 1776 was all about anyway? It was about restraining government from tyranny, in particular from the more conservative Tories under King George! Obama wants to continue the same Bush provisions...is that good....to sacrifice your precious liberties for "security"? You ought to know better than that: Those Who Would Sacrifice Liberty for Security Deserve Neither -- Ben Franklin "In short, the JUSTICE Act would give government agents powerful tools to spy on suspected terrorists, while preventing them from spying on YOU."
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POPSJudicial Watch Files Lawsuit Against HUD to Obtain ACORN Documents (These states are California, Texas, Washington, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, and Louisiana.) By law, HUD had 20 days to respond to Judicial Watch's request. Judicial Watch filed its lawsuit on September 23, 2009. Judicial Watch seeks the following records: 1. Any and all documents concerning money given to the ACORN and/or any of its affiliates (since January, 2000). 2. Any and all documents concerning any actions and/or disbarments against ACORN, for reasons including but not limited to abuse of grant money, misconduct, etc. (since January, 2000). Over the last two weeks, the U.S. Senate has voted to deny ACORN access to housing funds, while the House of Representatives voted to deny ACORN all federal funds. The U.S. Census Bureau, meanwhile, has severed its partnership with the organization for the 2010 U.S. Census. The IRS also just severed a program relationship with ACORN.
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POPSOn Facebook, MySpace? Obama's got your e-mail
In fact, according to the Electronic Privacy and Information Center, federal agencies have negotiated agreements and contracts with social networking sites like Google, YouTube, SlideShare, Facebook, AddThis, Blist, Flickr and VIMEO to collect information on visitors for federal websites. All of these private companies are known to have agreements with federal agencies, but the public has never seen them. In public comments submitted to the Office of Management and Budget, EPIC notes it has obtained documents that show federal agencies have negotiated these contracts with the private sector in violation of "existing statutory privacy rights." Those agencies include: Department of Defense, Department of the Treasury, and the National Security Agency. There are suspicions the White House is already involved. According to Obama "technology czar" Vivek Kundra, the "compelling need" driving this major policy reversal is the administration's desire to create "more open" government
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POPSMom says Patriot Act stripped son of due process Passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S., the Patriot Act allows federal agents to investigate suspected cases of terrorism swiftly to better protect the country. In part, it gives the federal government more latitude to search telephone records, e-mails and other records.
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POPSNYT Sues Fed and Treasury The Times accuses the government of violating FOIA by requiring an upfront agreement on fees and by not abiding by the time limits set under the Act.
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POPSObama Exempt's Freddie Mac Records From FOIA The Obama administration rejected a Tribune request under the Freedom of Information Act to review Freddie Mac board minutes and correspondence during Emanuel’s time as a director. The documents, obtained by Falcon for his investigation, were “commercial information” exempt from disclosure, according to a lawyer for the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Bob Secter and Andrew Zajac of the Chicago Tribune report that, while researching what went at Freddie Mac during the period White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel served on the government sponsored enterprise’s board of directors, they were unable to get minutes of board meetings and other information: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/obama/chi-rahm-emanuel-profit-26-mar26,0,5682373.story?page=2 Freddie Mac is by no means a private company anymore
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POPS Cruelty-to-Elephants Case Heads to Trial 
Ringling Bros. and its parent company, Feld Entertainment, have defended themselves aggressively since the suit was filed in 2000, contending their treatment of all circus animals is state-of-the-art. The plaintiffs have asserted that Ringling Bros.' own train records show the elephants are chained in railroad boxcars for an average of more than 26 straight hours, and often 60 to 70 hours at a time, when the circus travels. The circus also defends the use of bullhooks, saying the sharp tools have been used for centuries in Asia to control elephants humanely. Activists say the implements — which resemble long fire pokers — often inflict wounds that leave scars. Michelle Pardo, a lawyer for Feld Entertainment, said the defense will prove that the elephants "are healthy, alert, and thriving." In addition to four animal welfare groups, the plaintiffs include Tom Rider, a former Ringling Bros. employee who alleges that he witnessed abuse of the elephants on numerous occasions.
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POPSObama Opens Up Government UPDATE: President Obama issued two more documents related to government transparency today. A new executive order reverses changes made in recent years to the Presidential Records Act, while a second memorandum provides the Administration's general policy on transparency and open government. 1st memo (on the Freedom of Information Act): http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/foia/2009foia.mem.rel.pdf Executive Order on the Presidential Records Act: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20090121/2009_PRA_EO.pdf 2nd memo (on the Administration's general policy on transparency and open government): http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20090121/2009_transparency_memo.pdf
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POPSWhite House Can't Keep Identities of Visitors Secret, Court Says In a ruling that honors the USA"s Freedom of Information Act, a federal Judge has ruled that the Bush administration has acted illegally in keeping secret the identities of visitors to the White House and deleting computer records about them. The deletions, which to my mind constitute a cover up, seem like a pernicious use of government power and an attempt to obscure the historical record of the real influences on the Bush administration.
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POPSLetter to Obama - Treat White House Computers like a Crime Scene
More - "Loss of these records are clear violations of federal law and important evidence may be found in the White House. This is where it gets really important for you and your team." "A lot happened in 2003. March 2003 is the month in which the U.S. began its invasion of Iraq. In April, U.S. forces seized control of Saddam International Airport and then control of Bagdad. And, in May, President Bush climbed aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln under the banner "Mission Accomplished". Those missing email messages are key windows into a critical portion of recent American history - and may also be key to the cleanup operation your team is likely to have to deal with. If there's any chance those messages can be recovered, they must be. Not only are they history, it's the law." "Under no circumstances should anyone on your team boot up any of those machines or use them. This is critically important and you're going to have only one shot. If you use those machines, you might overwr
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POPS"Court Declares Part of the Patriot Act 'Unconstitutional'" continues: Because of the ruling, the government will now be forced to justify individual gag orders before a court, instead of casually wielding the power of a blanket gag as the Bush administration has done since the blindingly fast passage of the Patriot Act in Oct. 2001.
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POPSWhatWouldMcCain's2005 Mortg.Bill Have Done? McCain managed to predict the entire collapse that has forced the government to eat Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, along with Bear Stearns and AIG. He hammers the falsification of financial records to benefit executives, including Franklin Raines and Jim Johnson, both of whom have worked as advisers to Barack Obama this year. McCain also noted the power of their lobbying efforts to forestall oversight over their business practices. He finishes with the warning that proved all too prescient over the past few days and weeks.
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POPSFederal Court: Ohio Must Check Voter Registrations Ohio Republican Chairman Bob Bennett accused Brunner of pursuing a partisan agenda and said "her delay in providing this matching system leaves little time for election officials to act on questionable registrations." Bennett said Brunner was destroying the public's trust in Ohio's elections system. "Her shameful actions to disenfranchise Republican absentee voters, block the transparency of early voting and refuse the proper verification of newly registered voters have rightfully damaged her credibility as a nonpartisan election administrator," he said.
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POPSWe were warned Despite these warnings, Woodrow Wilson signed the 1913 Federal Reserve Act. A few years later he wrote: I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men. -Woodrow Wilson
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POPSWoman pleads guilty to 1999 eco-terrorism act In her plea agreement, Mason also admits involvement in 12 other acts with property damage pegged at more than $2.5 million. They include the destruction of four homes under construction in Washtenaw and Macomb counties and an attempted arson at an Ice Mountain bottled water pumping station in Mecosta County, all in 2003. Mason will not be charged with those incidents, but they could affect her sentence. The U.S. attorney's office agrees not to seek more than 20 years in prison but could appeal if U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney goes below 15 years.
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POPSAnti-Obama Movie On The Way: Citizens United One prominent Citizens United movie is “Celsius 41.11,” which says it tells the “truth behind the lies” of the Michael Moore movie “Fahrenheit 9/11.” Other Citizens United movies are critical of the United Nations, illegal immigration, and the American Civil Liberties Union, while one movie promotes Newt Gingrich and his ideas. The conservative group is also looking to the U.S. Supreme Court for help in advertising the anti-Hillary movie. It is opposing a federal regulation, under the McCain-Feingold Act, requiring that a disclaimer that identifies the group be placed at the end of television ads promoting the movie and criticizing Mrs. Clinton. It is also arguing that it should not have to disclose how much it spent to produce the movie and the ads, nor who contributed to it. The Supreme Court is scheduled to decide next week whether it will hear the case.
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POPSChrysler, UAW Face Slew of Complaints The winners in these actions are those who watch and learn. Learn to act correctly ( would you be happy for your wife's boss to be...) and learn that these pricks can be said no to or taken to court. Where are worker representative unions? Not that they stop this harassment in Australia
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POPSCourt Ruling Will Expose Viewing Habits of YouTube Users
The Logging database contains: for each instance a video is watched, the unique “login ID” of the user who watched it, the time when the user started to watch the video, the internet protocol address other devices connected to the internet use to identify the user’s computer (“IP address”), and the identifier for the video. In any event, the court ordered production of not just IP addresses, but also all the associated information in the Logging database. Whatever might be said about 'an IP address without additional information,' the the AOL search history leak fiasco shows that the material viewed by a user alone can be sufficient to identify the user, even with neither a login nor an IP address. The Court's erroneous ruling is a set-back to privacy rights, and will allow Viacom to see what you are watching on YouTube. We urge Viacom to back off this overbroad request and Google to take all steps necessary to challenge this order and protect the rights of its users.
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