Liberties

This is the second in the lastest series of Blogpower Roundups, and this is my roundup of some of the current live issues around Civil Liberties. I've only been able to cover half of the Blogpower blogs, but I'll do another one soon with the other half. While there are differences between bloggers on some questions at the edge on just what comes under Civil Liberties, there's usually a strong cons

Death of liberties by a thousand cuts... "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." -Benjamin Franklin The Senate has approved and sent to the White House a bitterly contested rewrite of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. The bill overhauls disputed rules on secret government eavesdroppin

Since January, the U.S. civil liberties oversight board — meant to monitor the government's impact on American's privacy and civil liberties — has been shuttered with the expiration of the five members' terms. Unfortunately, the White House is now blocking the board's progress by refusing to accept the nomination of progressive civil liberties expert Morton Halperin: Without any public

If you don't want authoritarianism, don't vote for authoritarians. If you want to voice your concerns about the continual erosions of our basic rights by an increasingly authoritarian government and a supine opposition, who are content to turn a blind eye to this authoritarianism. Then vote for David Davis - he has had enough, and so have we, it is time to roll back the powers of the state and und

John Major has published a seminal article in the Times yesterday in advance of the "42-day detention without trial" vote. I'm taking the unusual step of reproducing it in its entirety; I hope on this occasion that The Times or Sir John don't mind.

Bridgewater, VA (ThaLunatic Daily) -- Ashley Esposito, a 24 year old student-teacher at Turner Ashby High School in Virginia has been arrested on allegations that she had a sexual relationship with a student.Rockingham County Sheriff's Deputies arrested Esposito and charged her with felony counts of sodomy and taking indecent liberties with a child - by a person in a custodial or supervisory relationship.Police say that shortly after Esposito left her student teacher duties at the school, she had elicit sexual contact with a minor student on December 17th, 2008.Reportedly Esposito worked at the school from October to December of last year through a program as a student at James Madison University. It was during this time that police believe Esposito met the student. They say the relat

This from the Star Tribune:The Minnesota chapter of a national Islamic civil liberties group has asked the FBI and local law enforcement officers to investigate reported threats against a Twin Cities charter school as possible hate crimes, while a Jewish organization deplored the threats.The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) made the request Monday after the director of Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy in Inver Grove Heights told police that he and the school had received threatening and harassing phone messages and e-mails.The group is concerned about the safety of the school's students, many of whom are Muslim, said CAIR chapter coordinator Chris Schumacher. Tagging the threats as possible hate crimes also makes it clear that prejudice could have prompted them, and "we wanted to bring

Raleigh, North Carolina (ThaLunatic Daily) -- Shannon Lynn Best, a 33 year old social studies teacher at Sanderson High School has been arrested for taking indecent liberties with a female student.According to a police spokesperson, Best was arrested following an incident that occurred between her and a student over the weekend at Best's apartment. The alleged victim is an 18 year old female student.Authorities first became aware of the alleged incident when school officials contacted them.While the student is of the age of consent, North Carolina law outlaws sexual contact between teachers and students.Best was transported to the Wake County Jail, where she was later released on a $5,000 bond. She also resigned her teaching position at Sanderson High School, a position she held sinc

Members of the U.S. Marshal's New York/New Jersey Task Force took Father Robert Yurgel, 43, into custody in Passaic, NJ. Yurgel was arrested on outstanding warrants from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.Robert Yurgel was wanted on five counts of indecent liberties with a child and two counts of statutory sex offense in connection with a 1999 case. Police say the victim recently reported the incidents to CMPD detectives. The victim was a juvenile at the time the offenses occurred.Father Yurgel was a priest at St. Matthews Catholic Church when the incidents occurred. He served at St. Matthews from 1997-1999. He was then assigned to the Our Lady of Consolation Church for a short time before transferring to a parish in New Jersey. Yurgel will be brought back to Charlotte to face the

April 1 (Bloomberg) -- From his air-conditioned office on the seventh floor of one of Dubai's twin Emirates Towers, Pakistani tycoon Arif Naqvi surveys the metropolis that made him rich. To Naqvi's left, about 50 skyscrapers rise above the desert city, where thousands of cranes work on $200 billion of real estate projects, according to HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe's largest bank. Sprawling to his right are the palace, gardens and stables of the emirate's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al- Maktoum, his wives and children. ``I couldn't have done a 10th of what I've done if it hadn't been for Dubai,'' says Naqvi, 47, who moved to Dubai in 1994 with $50,000 of savings and now runs buyout firm Abraaj Capital Ltd. His $5 billion of assets include stakes in Turkish ho

AC GraylingAs we spiral toward a “Minority Report” meets “Children of Men” society, AC Grayling, a philosophy professor at Birkbeck College, University of London, examines Western governments' inclination to impose more laws in which crimes and acceptable human behavior are redefined. DNA databases, retina scans, CCTV, detention without charges and surveillance all play a part in the continuing erosion of our civil liberties and further pose risks for abuses. Should we follow the now outdated “if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear” argument? Let's ask Jean Charles de Menezes before he gets on the tube in London. Oh, wait. He's dead.By AC Grayling For The Guardian In the current debate about the erosion of civil liberties, a stock claim aimed at dampening the ard

The Bill of Wrongs The 10 most outrageous civil liberties violations of 2006.By Dahlia LithwickPosted Saturday, Dec. 30, 2006, at 6:30 AM ET love those year-end roundups—ubiquitous annual lists of greatest films and albums and lip glosses and tractors. It's reassuring that all human information can be wrestled into bundles of 10. In that spirit, Slate proudly presents, the top 10 civil liberties nightmares of the year:10. Attempt to Get Death Penalty for Zacarias MoussaouiLong after it was clear the hapless Frenchman was neither the "20th hijacker" nor a key plotter in the attacks of 9/11, the government pressed to execute him as a "conspirator" in those attacks. Moussaoui's alleged participation? By failing to confess to what he may have known about the plot, which may have led the gove

Following on from the quite brilliant Global Warming Mug featured on TFTS some considerable time ago, you can now increase your prized collection of political statement mugs (what, you don’t have one?) with this heat reactive disappearing civil liberties mug which is sure to result in a heated debate (pun wholly intended) in the office or workplace. Working on the same principal as those rather tacky cups where a person’s clothing disappears on the addition of boiling water, the Disappearing Civil Liberties Mug will show the full bill of rights until hot water is poured into the mug (the result being disappearance of entire swathes of the text in light of the Patriot Act). Apparently the manufactures were intending to release a UK Bill of Rights Espresso Cup but it was decided that a cup with several CCTV cameras attached to it and well as an entire DNA database would prove especially hard to drink from. The Disappearing Civil Liberties Mug retails for around $11. Copyright &c

The odds? Even if terrorists were able to pull off one attack per year on the scale of the 9/11 atrocity, that would mean your one-year risk would be one in 100,000 and your lifetime risk would be about one in 1300. (300,000,000 ÷ 3,000 = 100,000 ÷ 78 years = 1282) In other words, your risk of dying in a plausible terrorist attack is much lower than your risk of dying in a car accident, by walking across the street, by drowning, in a fire, by falling, or by being murdered. Reason Magazine - Don’t Be Terrorized And for this we’ve decided to toss civil liberties and human rights? For this we’ve started the slow gutting of the constitution? For this we’ve begun removing the only reasons that the United States is worth preserving? For this we’ve decided to burn billions and destroy a country (that is, if you actually believe that we went to Iraq because of terrorism)? Right wing pundits like to talk about bravery and resolve, pride and principle, strength

Now, this is quite interesting. Note that these guys are not liberals or ACLU types by any stretch of the imagination; their conservative credentials are all quite strong but they still object to the manner in which the current Administration has conducted military and anti-terrorist activities. They are confronting the candidates with a request that they sign a pledge to limit their Administrations' activities in certain ways that it is quite likely the current Administration would reject.So far, only Ron Paul has signed the pledge. Apparently Mitt Romney refused to, and was rewarding with an excoriating press release condemning him as ignorant of conservative principles. Whether it will be of any effect or import remains to be seen.My strong suspicion is that Rudy Giuliani will be the focus of the group’s attention next. They picked Romney first because they thought he'd want to sign the pledge to beef up his credibility with conservatives; Giuliani seems like a likely next ta

The BBC reports on a new British civil liberties film takes a hard look at the ‘dangerous erosion of traditional rights and freedoms under Tony Blair.’ Here is a brief synopsis from Real Movie News: As our politicians talk about liberty, democracy and the war on terror, we are ignoring what’s actually happening here at home. Our own freedoms have been completely eroded by governments willing to shred history. This film examines how Britain’s government has undermined five key civil rights guaranteed by the Magna Carta and the European Convention on Human Rights. Everything is shown straight from the headlines, and yet the real truth overturning nearly a thousand years of freedom and democracy. And opening us up to a real possibility of ruthless tyranny.

A great editorial from the New Hampshire Union Leader about the nanny state on it’s way to New Hampshire: MAJORITIES IN THE State House and Senate, elected in a fit of anger at a President and his unpopular war and ineffectual political party, are on the verge of making state government into a cosmic blacksmith’s shop in which legislators swing their hammer and reshape the citizens’ souls upon the anvil of the law. New Hampshire always has been a state in which the character of the people shapes government policy, not the other way around. That could change on Thursday, when legislators consider two bills written to force individuals to adopt behaviors of which legislators approve. “Shall we mould our citizens to the law, or the law to our citizens? And in solving this question their peculiar character is an element not to be neglected,” Thomas Jefferson wrote to John Quincy Adams in 1817. Jefferson, like New Hampshire’s founders, believed that the l

A government agent named Cynthia Porter, who works for Homeland Security, finds her life in danger in the gripping drama UNCIVIL LIBERTIES. The story is told from both Porter’s perspective and that of the terrorists, and enters interesting territory as she starts to have doubts about government surveillance, and some of the terrorists grapple with their own misgivings about assassinating her. Genres: Thriller Actors:Bandar Albuliwi, Penny Perkins, Conor Grocki, Tony Grocki, Mark Musto Reviews: IMDb:2.5/10 (8 votes) Yahoo: A+ (1 vote) Torrent: File Size: 712 mb Release Name:UnCivil.Liberties.2006.DVDRip.XviD-VoMiT

The uniformed Police Department employees who patrol New York City's public schools are too quick to bully students over minor infractions, a civil rights group charged in a paper issued Sunday.The New York Civil Liberties Union said that in recent years it has received hundreds of complaints from both students and teachers about foul language, rough treatment and unwarranted arrests by the NYPD's 4,827 school safety agents.The safety agents are civilian employees of the police department and don't carry firearms. About 70 percent are women.The group said the agents, whose duties include breaking up fights and operating metal detectors, have also improperly taken on the role of enforcing school rules -- like the district's unpopular ban on iPods and cell phones.Donna Lieberman, the group's executive director, said too many safety agents go about their job with an authoritarian zeal more appropriate for guards screening prisoners.This from the C0ntraCostaTimes.

The Times reported today: Central fingerprint database plan draws fire from all over EU.If I remember rightly, the new ePassport (and hence the National Identity Register - NIR) are to contain biometric data (that means fingerprints plus some other stuff), so never mind the recently reported moves to enable the police to take fingerprints from suspects on the street with portable devices, given time enough, the fingerprints of every man, woman and child in the UK will presumably be transferred to (or shared with) this central fingerprint database.There are those of us who regard the storing of our fingerprints for use within the UK as an invasion of civil liberties, you can guess what we feel now! Especially given the sentence in The Times' report: The officials were reluctant to say if the fingerprints, from all 27 countries, would be made available to allies such as the United States in the fight against crime and terrorism, in the same way as airline passenger information. So tha