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civil liberties

'Comply Or Die’ is Not The Law

Monday October 6, 2014

In 1975, as the elected sheriff of Utah’s Davis County, William "Dub" Lawrence helped organize one of the state’s first SWAT teams. On September 22, 2008, his son-in-law, Brian Wood, was killed by that SWAT team outside his home following a 12-hour standoff.

After suffering a breakdown of some kind, Wood called 911 to report (falsely) that he had beaten and raped his wife. SWAT operators used chemical weapons to force Wood from the pickup truck in which he had taken refuge, then treated him to a barrage of rubber bullets, projectile bean bags, and pepper-spray rounds, in addition to tear gas and flash-bang grenades. While Wood was prone and helpless, he was shot with a Taser at least eight times by one officer, and an unknown number of times by a second — before being shot at point-blank range by another officer wielding a .308-caliber rifle.
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Dennis Kucinich on America's Dangerous, Anti-Democratic Path

Thursday July 10, 2014

Who will protect us from our government? That is a central question I have after reading the Washington Post's publication of NSA intercepts given to them by whistleblower Edward Snowden. The article describes an "exponential" increase in NSA spying on American citizens, gathering and storing information about deeply personal, private matters of the heart, health, and finances. 

What has happened is that under the guise of security, our government has annihilated each individual American's sphere of privacy. I warned of this when, as a member of Congress, I led opposition to the Patriot Act as well as opposing FISA legislation.
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Is It A Crime To Insult the Police?

Tuesday July 8, 2014

Arena, Wisconsin is a village of roughly 800 people, most of whom are white, politically liberal, and materially comfortable. Despite having a very low crime rate, the village has a police department that, like every other, exists primarily to collect revenue.

Two years ago, police arrested three “out-of-state juvenile males” on suspicion of burglarizing a business. Two of the suspects “were detained by residents until law enforcement arrived,” the department noted in its Facebook page. The three unfamiliar black men were conspicuous in a tiny village with a nearly all-white population, and by the time the police arrived all of the difficult work had been done. Perhaps as a way to compensate for its deserved sense of worthlessness, the Arena PD arrested someone whose only role in this affair was to publish a derisive remark on the department’s Facebook page.
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Have You Reset the Net?

Friday June 6, 2014

Suppose your neighborhood experienced a dramatic increase in home break-ins. What might you and your neighbors do in response?

Some residents may join together in a neighborhood watch. Many residents will review their home security precautions. Some people will put new locks on their doors. Other neighbors will build or improve fences, close their curtains more often, install security lights or an alarm system, acquire a guard dog, or a keep a gun at the ready.
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Judge Napolitano: NSA Intercepting Private Photos 'Blatantly Violates the Constitution'

Tuesday June 3, 2014

Judge Andrew Napolitano condemns as a violation of privacy and the United States Constitution the recently revealed US National Security Agency practice of intercepting millions of images each day from communications including emails, text messages, and videoconferences. Napolitano, speaking on Monday with Melissa Francis on Fox Business, says the NSA’s actions blatantly violate the US Constitution and privacy rights.
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Judge Napolitano on Obama Helping 'Targeted Killings Memo' Author Become Judge

Thursday May 22, 2014

Judge Andrew Napolitano, speaking with Shepard Smith on Fox News, denounces President Barack Obama’s ongoing delay in providing the legal arguments used to justify the executive branch’s “targeted killings” program. In particular, Napolitano criticizes Obama’s refusal to provide the memorandum describing the legal argument for the US government using a drone to kill US citizen Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen. Obama’s delay, Napolitano says, will mean that the United States Senate will have approved the lifetime appointment of David Barron, the memo’s author, to a US federal court before the memorandum is made public.
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Toothless USA FREEDOM Act Losing Support

Wednesday May 21, 2014

The USA FREEDOM Act (HR 3361), which is supposedly designed to thwart the US government’s mass spying program, appears to be confirming RPI Executive Director Daniel McAdams’ warning from September: “beware NSA spying and beware the PATRIOT Act and beware FISA reauthorizations. But most of all...keep your eyes on the reformers!”

The stench from the USA FREEDOM Act has grown so obvious that privacy-related interest groups are renouncinghttp://thehill.com/policy/technology/206686-privacy-advocates-pull-support-for-watered-down-usa-freedom their support of the bill after the bill, which had already passed through the committee approval process, was revised Tuesday to gain the Obama administration’s support. It is becoming harder by the day to have faith the legislation is even a small step toward greater respect for freedom.
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Pussy Riot on Capitol Hill

Tuesday May 6, 2014

Just when you thought their 15 minutes of fame was up, the women of Pussy Riot have made their way to Capitol Hill and into the hearts of (some) US lawmakers. They also posed for pictures with Hillary Clinton, which promptly ended up on her Twitter page.

The Pussy Riot did not come to the Hill empty-handed, however. They conveniently brought with them a list of their fellow Russians who they would like the US government to put under sanctions for "human rights violations." Their list included -- surprise surprise -- one of the judges who presided over their 2012 trial for inciting religious hatred. It was a charge filed after they screamed an obscenity-filled rant aimed at the Russian government and religious leaders on the altar of Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in central Moscow.
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Ron Paul: 'State Department's Free Press Hypocrisy'

Thursday May 1, 2014

Ron Paul points out the incredible hypocrisy of the US State Department's big roll out of its "Free the Press" campaign on the very day the US government filed a brief urging the Supreme Court to reject New York Times journalist James Risen's plea that he not be forced to reveal his confidential sources.

Should Risen's plea be rejected, as the US government demands, the journalist faces prison time for refusing to reveal the sources for his article on CIA efforts to undermine Iran's nuclear program.
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Eastern Ukraine is Blowback for Kiev: McAdams on Jay Taylor Show

Wednesday April 23, 2014

RPI Director Daniel McAdams is back with Jay Taylor, where they discuss the Bundy ranch raid and showdown, the problems with government-held land, and the potential for real violence to break out in Nevada. They also discuss Ukraine, and how what is happening now in the eastern part of the country is in many ways blowback for US actions supporting the February coup in Kiev. Also, they discuss why newer NATO members are abusing that alliance to strike back at old foes.
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