CLibertyC

Judge Napolitano: The NSA Scandal Violates the Lessons of Our History and Our Constitution

"After 9/11, Congress enacted the Patriot Act. This permitted federal agents to write their own search warrants, as if to mimic the British soldiers in the 1760s. It was amended to permit the feds to go to the FISA court and get a search warrant for the electronic records of any American who might communicate with a foreign person. In 30 years, from 1979 to 2009, the legal standard for searching and seizing private communications was lowered by Congress from probable cause of crime to probable cause of being an agent of a foreign power to probable cause of being a foreign person to probable cause of communicating with a foreign person." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJudge Napolitano: The NSA Scandal Violates the Lessons of Our History and Our Constitution

Connecticut health officials bully barber giving free haircuts to the homeless

"An 82-year-old barber who has been giving free haircuts to the homeless in exchange for hugs for 25 years was granted permission by the mayor Thursday to keep working in a city park, despite orders to leave from police and health officials. Anthony 'Joe the Barber' Cymerys has been a fixture every Wednesday for years at Bushnell Park, where he cuts hair and his friends hand out food to the needy. But shortly after Cymerys set up shop this week, he said, health officials and police confronted him and his friends and told them they had to leave because they didn’t have permits." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingConnecticut health officials bully barber giving free haircuts to the homeless

GCHQ intercepted foreign politicians’ communications at G20 summits

"Foreign politicians and officials who took part in 2009 G20 summit meetings had their computers monitored and their phone calls intercepted on the instructions of their British government hosts. Some delegates were tricked into using internet cafes which had been set up by British intelligence agencies to read their email traffic. The disclosure raises new questions about GCHQ and the National Security Agency, whose access to phone records and internet data has been defended as necessary in the fight against terrorism and serious crime. The G20 spying appears to have been organised for the more mundane purpose of securing an advantage in meetings." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGCHQ intercepted foreign politicians’ communications at G20 summits

Karl Rove: NSA surveillance is OK because fictional cops do it on TV shows

"'If you don’t like this program, which we now know was accessed 300 times last year, then you’ve got to be against local law enforcement being able to access routinely business records of the telephone company in their local investigations as well,' Rove told Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday. 'You cannot turn on a cop drama on television where there is not somebody who’s pinging somebody’s cell phone or taking a look at the phone calls made from some landline or telephone booth to help solve some crime on television,' he added. 'And it is routinely done in a large scale at the local law enforcement level.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingKarl Rove: NSA surveillance is OK because fictional cops do it on TV shows

Senators skip classified briefing on NSA snooping to catch flights home

"Many senators elected to leave Washington early Thursday afternoon instead of attending a briefing with James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, Keith Alexander, the head of the National Security Agency (NSA), and other officials. Many lawmakers were eager to take advantage of the short day and head back to their home states for Father’s Day weekend. Only 47 of 100 senators attended the 2:30 briefing, leaving dozens of chairs in the secure meeting room empty as Clapper, Alexander and other senior officials told lawmakers about classified programs to monitor millions of telephone calls and broad swaths of Internet activity." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSenators skip classified briefing on NSA snooping to catch flights home

Obama doesn’t believe secret NSA surveillance violated privacy rights: chief of staff

"While he defended the surveillance, McDonough said 'the existence of these programs obviously have unnerved many people.' He said Obama 'welcomes a public debate on this question because he does say and he will say in the days ahead that we have to find the right balance, and we will not keep ourselves on a perpetual war footing.' Revelations of the NSA’s broad monitoring of phone and Internet data has drawn criticism that the Obama administration has extended, or even expanded, the security apparatus the George W. Bush administration built after the September 11, 2001, attacks." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingObama doesn’t believe secret NSA surveillance violated privacy rights: chief of staff

A Computerized, Desktop Metal Fabricator for $1,400?

"So, you don’t want plastic guns made on a 3-D printer? You want a metal gun. You don’t care about metal detectors at an airport. You are concerned about gun registration. It looks as though your answer is almost here. Possibly by the end of summer, you will be able to buy a computer-driven desktop metal fabricator. So will a lot of people. Within five years, this technology will be everywhere. This is the wave of the future. We are going back to what we had in 1790: cottage industries. Only the cottages will be factories. This is decentralization on a scale we can barely imagine. Sales taxes? Gone. Tariffs? Gone. Registration? Gone. Buy a blueprint, download it, and DIY." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingA Computerized, Desktop Metal Fabricator for $1,400?

Effort to block NDAA indefinite detention fails in U.S. House

"Indefinite detention remains in effect, but this week an effort was made to fix the problem with the Smith-Gibson amendment to the 2014 NDAA act. This bi-partisan amendment, sponsored by Republican Chris Gibson of New York and Democrat Adam Smith of Washington, would have guaranteed any detainee a trial and prohibited the transfer of anyone arrested in the United States to military custody. As happened with the substantially similar Smith-Amash amendment last year, this effort failed by a close 226 to 200 vote on the floor of the House." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingEffort to block NDAA indefinite detention fails in U.S. House

Report: Obama Spends $180K Per Day Undermining State Medical Marijuana Laws

"In 2011 and 2012, the DEA spent four percent of its budget on the medical marijuana crackdown. Having conducted at least 270 paramilitary-style raids during the past four years, Obama's DEA spent approximately $8 million to carry them out. However, the amount of taxpayer dollars spent on raids was dwarfed by the amount spent on investigative efforts preceding raids, indictments, and lawsuits, which has totaled more than $200 million. Over the past two years alone, the DOJ has effectively shuttered more than 500 dispensaries by sending letters to landlords, threatening criminal prosecution and seizure of their property." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingReport: Obama Spends $180K Per Day Undermining State Medical Marijuana Laws

Marijuana: Will It Ever Be Legal? States Lead the Charge as Opinion Shifts

"Colorado and Washington entered an uncharted territory when state leaders decided to take what has been an underground system since marijuana was declared illegal 75 years ago and turn it into a regulated and taxed commercial enterprise. No other places in the world have such liberal marijuana laws. Alcohol prohibition was a federal policy implemented by the individual states, similar to today’s situation with marijuana. When New York decided not to enforce alcohol prohibition anymore, it set the tone for what was to come as other states followed suit. Eventually the federal government decided that it was not going to commit the resources needed to enforce the law." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMarijuana: Will It Ever Be Legal? States Lead the Charge as Opinion Shifts