Free Republic

The Christian Defense Coalition Director says in many cases "national security" has become more important than protecting the First Amendment and civil liberties. Coalition especially concerned about the Patriot Act defining terrorism as "... .to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion." Those definitions are so broad it is an open invitation for the government to harass and attack any groups who use public demonstrations or peaceful civil disobedience to "influence" government policy. Organization cites the improper use of the federal RICO laws against non-violent pro-life activists as a clear example of how the Patriot Act could...

From slashdot.org article:"SysInternals.com guru Mark Russinovich has a detailed investigation of a rootkit from Sony Music. It's installed with a DRM-encumbered music CD, Van Zant's "Get Right with the Man". (Mmmm, delicious irony!) The rootkit introduces several security holes into the system that could be exploited by others, such as hiding any executable file that starts with '$sys$'. Russinovich also identifies several programming bugs in the method it uses to hook system calls, and chronicles the painful steps he had to take to 'exorcise the daemon' from his system." Last week when I was testing the latest version of RootkitRevealer...

Surveillance bill also makes it easier for police to get warrants Police and security agencies would be able to surreptitiously track unwitting Canadians via their cellphones, BlackBerries and laptop computers, even when the devices are turned off or their location features are disabled, under a "creepy" measure contemplated as part of the federal government's planned electronic surveillance bill.The government made the proposal during consultations this year on a legislative package that is anticipated to be unveiled in the fall. The proposal, which was raised by justice officials with groups consulted by the government, would amend the Criminal Code to expand...

Gov't. collected airline passenger data LESLIE MILLER Associated Press WASHINGTON - The federal agency in charge of aviation security collected extensive personal information about airline passengers even though Congress forbade it and officials said they wouldn't do it, according to documents obtained Monday by The Associated Press. The Transportation Security Administration bought and is storing details about U.S. citizens who flew on commercial airlines in June 2004 as part of a test of a terrorist screening program called Secure Flight, the documents indicate. "TSA is losing the public's trust," said Tim Sparapani, a privacy lawyer with the American Civil Liberties...

Internet censorship is increasingly common, says technology commentator Bill Thompson, but making small gains in freedom may be enough. "We shouldn't be surprised to learn that the Chinese authorities have finally turned their attention to weblogs and decided that they have to be censored. After all, a government that has put so much effort into controlling the free flow of information was hardly going to ignore a publishing tool that is easily accessible by 78 million net users. Now anyone in China who wants to blog has until 30 June to register or face criminal sanctions, and according to the...

A clerk at a Blockbuster video store near Dupont Circle stole credit card numbers from about 60 customers in 2003, charging to his victims $117,000 in illegal purchases, according to an indictment unsealed in federal court yesterday. Miles N. Holloman, 25, stole the names, birth dates, credit card numbers and expiration dates, Social Security numbers, and addresses from customers who applied for Blockbuster accounts at the chain's store at 1639 P St. NW, where he worked from February to September 2003, according to prosecutors. Mr. Holloman and his accomplices used the stolen data to order replacement cards, clothing and other...

You Must Be Over 21 to Drink in This Living Room A crackdown on house parties stirs up a debate about privacy Officials in Stratford, Conn., convened a group of middle and high school students last year to quiz them on their attitudes toward alcohol. The officials were dismayed, if not surprised, when the teens reported that they thought alcohol, unlike tobacco and other drugs, was largely harmless, that binge drinking among their peers was habitual, and that drinking enough to pass out was funny. But the officials were perhaps most displeased to hear that the place kids most often...

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration's two top law enforcement officials on Tuesday urged Congress to renew every provision of the anti-terror Patriot Act. FBI Director Robert Mueller also asked lawmakers to expand the bureau's ability to obtain records without first asking a judge. "Now is not the time for us to be engaging in unilateral disarmament" on the legal weapons now available for fighting terrorism, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said. He said that some of the most controversial provisions of the Patriot Act have proven invaluable in fighting terrorism and aiding other investigations. "It's important that these authorities remain available,"...

States Mull Taxing Drivers By Mile CORVALLIS, Ore., Feb. 14, 2005 (CBS) College student Jayson Just commutes an odometer-spinning 2,000 miles a month. As CBS News Correspondent Sandra Hughes reports, his monthly gas bill once topped his car payment. "I was paying about $500 a month," says Just. So Just bought a fuel efficient hybrid and said goodbye to his gas-guzzling BMW. And what kind of mileage does he get? "The EPA estimate is 60 in the city, 51 on the highway," says Just. And that saves him almost $300 a month in gas. It's great for Just but bad...

PHOENIX (AP) -- A parental rights issue that pitted school officials against law enforcement advocates apparently is being settled with a compromise. A bill (SB1044) to give districts legal authorization to adopt notification policies -- policies that many districts already have adopted -- easily cleared the Senate K-12 Education Committee last week. The legislation, introduced by Republican Sen. Linda Gray of Glendale, comes a year after lawmakers failed in efforts to work out a compromise to deal with the conflicting concerns about parents' rights and effective law enforcement. Many districts had already adopted a long-standing policy recommended by the Arizona...

"It would shock and offend the framers of the Rhode Island Constitution if we were to hold that the guarantees against unreasonable and warrantless searches and seizures should be subordinated to the interest of efficient law enforcement. Once this barrier is breached in the interest of apprehending drivers who violate sobriety laws, the tide of law enforcement interest could overwhelm the right to privacy." The above quote comes from Rhode Island Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Fay, writing the 1989 opinion in Pimental vs. Department of Transportation that recognized drunken driving roadblocks as unconstitutional in Rhode Island. From the same...

High-Tech Cards Are Designed to Bolster Security Federal officials are developing government-wide identification card standards for federal employees and contractors to prevent terrorists, criminals and other unauthorized people from getting into government buildings and computer systems. The effort, known as the Personal Identity Verification Project, stems from a homeland security-related presidential directive and is being managed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a Commerce Department agency with offices in Gaithersburg. In his Aug. 27 directive, President Bush said that "wide variations in the quality and security of forms of identification used to gain access to secure federal...

Six Navy SEALs filed a lawsuit against the Associated Press and one of its reporters yesterday, saying the news organization revealed their identities, compromised their security and invaded their privacy by publishing personal photographs in a Dec. 4 story.     The complaint says AP reporter Seth Hettena used about 40 images from the personal photo-storage Web site of a Navy SEAL wife. [snip] The images were picked up by the Arab press, including Al Jazeera, and have made their way onto a billboard outside U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where detainees from the war on terror are being kept. The...

Are you in favor of a national identity card? Even though many Americans are against the idea of a national identity card, it is coming. In fact, in many ways, it is already here. Every American citizen and every foreign worker in America is required to have a Social Security card. Your Social Security card is only supposed to be used to gain employment and receive Society Security benefits, but try applying for credit without giving your Social Security number — and most often you will be turned down. [snip] If the question posed at the beginning of this commentary...

So many ideas; so little thought. I refer to that geyser of public policy wisdom known as Sacramento, from which the latest nostrum is the replacement of the per-gallon gasoline tax with a tax on miles driven, the latter to be monitored with a tracking device placed in autos. This proposal is misguided economically and dangerous politically. The economic idea is that the tax shift would raise additional revenues for road construction and maintenance, although that depends heavily on the magnitude of the new mileage tax and the ensuing responses of drivers. More important, there is no guarantee that any...

Someone needs to pull the new director of the Department of Motor Vehicles over and stop her from speeding heedlessly into the future. Joan Borucki wants to put global positioning devices in cars to track the mileage they travel. The idea is to more closely tie gas taxes to where cars go, the routes they take and the mileage they rack up, rather than the fuel they use. The problem inspiring this potentially Orwellian notion is that as more new and fuel-efficient cars take to the state's highways, the less the state gets in gas taxes to maintain highways. As...

<p>PRING, Tex. - In front of her gated apartment complex, Courtney Payne, a 9-year-old fourth grader with dark hair pulled tightly into a ponytail, exits a yellow school bus. Moments later, her movement is observed by Alan Bragg, the local police chief, standing in a windowless control room more than a mile away.</p>

Bill in U.S. Senate proposes to standardize state IDs Photo illustration by Joel Friedman/Daily By Christina Hildreth, Daily Staff Reporter October 28, 2004 Working to close security loopholes identified by the Sept. 11 commission, the U.S. House of Representatives on Oct. 1 passed a bill that, if approved by the Senate, would reform the process of issuing state driver's liscenses. Drafted by Michigan Rep. Candice Miller (R-Harrison Twp.), the license provision in the reform bill would standardize the process of getting state identity documents, including driver’s licenses. Currently, different states have different requirements for receiving an ID. For example, Michigan...

MobileLocate has launched the tracking service to enable businesses to track workers in the field via their mobile phones, with locations either displayed on a map via the user's PC or texted to a nominated mobile. The service will be available on Vodafone, T-Mobile, Orange and 02 and costs under £1 per month per phone. MobileLocate also runs the recently launched ChildLocate, a similar service aimed at parents who want to find out where their children are. MobileLocate MD Jon Magnusson said the service can be used in two ways: "Small and medium-sized companies... can check staff are attending jobs...

Stage Setting For The Mark Of The Beast Revelation 13:16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: 17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. 18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. Beware of the New World...