bill of rights

The Google Executive Chairman on Private Drones vs. Government Armed Drones

"'You're having a dispute with your neighbor. How would you feel if your neighbor went over and bought a commercial observation drone that they can launch from their backyard. It just flies over your house all day. How would you feel about it?' Schmidt went on to bring up military and terrorist concerns. 'I'm not going to pass judgment on whether armies should exist, but I would prefer to not spread and democratize the ability to fight war to every single human being. It's got to be regulated... It's one thing for governments, who have some legitimacy in what they're doing, but have other people doing it... it's not going to happen.'" Continue reading →

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Colorado Sheriffs Suing Their Own State Over New Gun Laws

"Exposing the disconnect between Colorado politicians and the law enforcement officers charged with upholding the law, more than half of the sheriffs in the state are planning to file a lawsuit against recent gun control laws passed by Democrats. While politicians may pass the laws, law-enforcement officials are the ones who have to deal with the real-world implications of putting the new laws into effect. Because of this, 37 of the state’s 62 sheriffs have announced their plans to file a lawsuit against the new laws, saying they are unconstitutional and unenforceable." Continue reading →

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Dad Finds 4th-Grader’s Crayon-Written Paper: ‘I’ll Give Up Constitutional Rights To Be Safer’

"The words are written in crayon, in the haphazard bumpiness of a child’s scrawl. 'I am willing to give up some of my constitutional rights in order to be safer or more secure.' They’re the words that Florida father Aaron Harvey was stunned to find his fourth-grade son had written, after a lesson in school about the Constitution. Harvey’s son attends Cedar Hills Elementary in Jacksonville, Fla. Back in January, a local attorney came in to teach the students about the Bill of Rights. But after the attorney left, fourth-grade teacher Cheryl Sabb dictated the sentence to part of the class and had them copy it down, he said." Continue reading →

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Missouri Highway Patrol gave concealed carry permits data to feds

"Missouri's database of concealed weapon permits was twice given to federal authorities investigating Social Security disability fraud in a move that has enraged lawmakers already angry over potential abuses in a new driver's licensing system. Missouri State Highway Patrol Col. Ron Replogle was questioned for nearly an hour this morning by the Senate Appropriations Committee after he revealed to Chairman Kurt Schaefer yesterday that his agency had turned over the data. The delivery of the information to federal authorities has become a huge issue for lawmakers since they began raising questions about new driver's licensing procedures." Continue reading →

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Florida Police use Driver License Faceprints to Investigate Public At Large

"In Florida, the police are using facial biometrics gathered and stored by the DMV for Real ID with facial recognition technology to identify and investigate individuals in public, at will. Presumption of innocence? Probable cause? Not necessary when everyone is a suspect. We are just at the edge of an onslaught of similar stories that whether revealed or not are rooted in Real ID. You and I have the dubious honor of being located in the slice of our generation that is going to gain a deep understanding of the value of our privacy. We will learn because we are the ones who once, having the luxury of relative obscurity, are watching it slip away." Continue reading →

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Secrets Police Don’t Want You To Know

"Angry at the malicious and callous demeanor of those that supposedly worked for the greater good of the People Eddie began to carefully research and document the relationships between the various statutes and the legislative enactments that created them, especially the 'ad valorem' property tax, and eventually the federal income tax. He has since spent the past eleven years researching the various Texas Codes such as the Transportation Code. Much to the dismay of many municipalities, police officers, and prosecutors he has thrown a very large monkey wrench into the gears of their money machine, using their own laws!" Continue reading →

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FOIA documents suggest IRS may have ignored court ruling on email privacy

"The Internal Revenue Service (IRS), commonly thought of as accountants with the power to garnish wages and seize property, is also a law enforcement agency with the power to spy on communications, so it’s not totally surprising that it has typically followed Supreme Court precedent regarding law enforcement’s broad spying powers when it comes to emails more than 180 days old. However, in a ruling issued December 2010, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the IRS to always obtain a warrant before rifling through emails, no matter how old, contained on services like Gmail and Yahoo Mail, which otherwise have significantly less privacy protections." Continue reading →

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Court orders NYPD to pay $360,000 for raid that destroyed Occupy Wall Street library

"Around 1 a.m. on Nov. 15, 2011, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg ordered the NYPD to evict protestors — some of whom had camped there for almost two months — from Zuccotti Park in New York City’s Financial District. The police threw away 5,554 books from the Occupy library and destroyed media equipment in addition to removing tents, tarps, and belongings. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York decided that the NYPD’s actions violated the protestors’ rights under the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments." Continue reading →

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Secrets of FBI Smartphone Surveillance Tool Revealed in Court Fight

"A legal fight over the government’s use of a secret surveillance tool has provided new insight into how the controversial tool works and the extent to which Verizon Wireless aided federal agents in using it to track a suspect. Verizon reprogrammed his aircard so that when an incoming voice call arrived, the card would disconnect from any legitimate cell tower to which it was already connected, and send real-time cell-site location data to Verizon, which forwarded the data to the FBI. This allowed the FBI to position its stingray in the neighborhood where Rigmaiden resided. The stingray then 'broadcast a very strong signal' to force the air card into connecting to it." Continue reading →

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Government spying hurts the economy

"With laws like the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA), the United States could be losing out on much needed business opportunities. Legislation like these allow the government to spy on customers' data, and RT's Liz Wahl takes a look at why companies are thinking twice before investing in the US." Continue reading →

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