Freedom of Speech

O'Connor praises international law

Calls foreign code 'vital' if judges
are to faithfully discharge duties
WASHINGTON – Judges would be negligent if they disregarded the growing role of international law in U.S. courts, asserted Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in a speech at Georgetown Law School. It was the second time O'Connor has made a point of affirming the place of international law in U.S. courts.

Flashbacks:
Judge Bork: Judicial Activism Is Going Global
WASHINGTON -- Justices have started to cite foreign sources to justify the way they rule at home, oftentimes looking toward liberal courts no matter how preposterous the connection to the cases being heard at home, said retired Judge Robert Bork. In turn, that activism in courts abroad is influencing decisions among judges throughout the legal system at home. The liberal elite, or “New Class,” as he terms it, will stop at nothing to impose its moral and legal framework on the rest of society, and is using foreign courts, multinational treaties and international law to achieve it, he said.

Judicial Dictatorship
Judicial review was originally proposed (most notably in Federalist No. 78) as a method of making sure legislatures didn’t pass unconstitutional laws. Today it has become a method of changing the very meaning of constitutions under the guise of interpreting them. The problem was highlighted this past November, when the supreme court of Massachusetts handed down the sensational ruling that the state’s constitution required that same-sex “marriage” be recognized in law. The court didn’t even bother citing any specific passage of the constitution that might be construed to mean this; obviously it couldn’t find one. It just decided to do the “progressive” thing, regardless of the text.

FBI confiscate UNM students homework

NMUSA -- Law enforcement officers questioned and frisked two University of New Mexico seniors conducting an anthropology homework assignment at an old dump. Then the officers confiscated their homework. Ameer Bauer and Akita Bright-Holloway say they had an assignment to excavate a dumpsite and they chose an old dump near Kirtland Air Force Base. Albuquerque police, Air Force security and the US Border Patrol swooped in on them October 18th. Police officer Greg Hitchcock says he's forwarded the student's papers to the FBI.

Fingerprint evidence not good science, scholar says

Just ask Brandon Mayfield, the Oregon lawyer who was arrested in May, jailed for two weeks and branded a terrorist. FBI experts mistakenly linked his fingerprint to the Madrid train bombing that killed 191 people in March - even though Mayfield has never been to Madrid. The fingerprints were later found by Spanish experts to match a foreign terrorist. FBI officials have apologized for the error, but they have not yet explained it - which is no surprise to Cole, who has made UCI ground zero for challenging conventional wisdom about fingerprints.

Spy Cams To Keep Watch In Hollywood

In a new step for crime fighting in Los Angeles, the Police Department plans to start installing surveillance cameras on city streets, beginning with Hollywood Boulevard. Five video cameras will train their electronic eyes on one of the world's most famous — and infamous — streets as early as January. And if all goes according to plan, there eventually will be 64 cameras on Hollywood, Santa Monica and Sunset boulevards and Western Avenue.

Police approve of systems such as OnStar that help track cars

Law enforcement officials are recommending the use of electronic vehicle locating systems. Safety and communication systems such as General Motors' OnStar use GPS and cellular technologies that can pinpoint exactly where a vehicle is located. When a vehicle is reported stolen, the same technology can help show police what street to go to and also honk the vehicle's horn or flash its lights to further alert police. In-vehicle safety systems are particularly useful to owners and police because the vehicle is often found before it can be damaged or have parts stripped from it.

Registrar integrates student ID pictures into SIS

Beginning this fall, SIS was updated to allow faculty access to student pictures, effective for the Fall Semester of 2004. Any faculty member is now able to access the Rensselaer ID picture of any student in his class via SIS. The student picture software was added to SIS by Integrated Administrative Computing Solutions, a department under DotCIO, in order to augment the standard Banner System made by SunGuard, according to Registrar Sharon Kunkel.

Britain eyes national ID card

The British government said it was making good progress with plans to introduce the first national identity cards in Britain in more than half a century. Home Secretary David Blunkett said people applying for a new passport from 2007 will also be issued with an ID card, bearing biometric data such as electronic fingerprints or iris scans.

UK Home Secretary presses on with compulsory ID card plans

The government will now issue standalone compulsory biometric ID cards as part of changes to the draft ID card bill issued by Home Secretary David Blunkett – despite growing public opposition to the scheme. The cards will be issued with passports but will not be incorporated into either the existing passport or driving licence as previously proposed, with a standardised online verification service used to check card details against those held on the National Identity Register (NIR).

UK Secret services to be given access to ID card database

The intelligence services will be given unprecedented access to the government database underpinning the controversial identity card scheme, the Home Office said yesterday, prompting accusations of Big Brother-style surveillance of people's everyday lives.

A Christian business says it time to turn the tide

There's been a disturbing trend over the past few years of corporate policies bending under the weight of the homosexual community's demands. ... It is high time that the Christian business community began using their investment dollars and stock options to stem the tide of dissident and immoral groups taking control of this country's moral canvas.

Americans burn U.N. flag

A group of talk-radio listeners in Montana burned a United Nations flag to protest a ceremony at the state's Capitol honoring the global body. On Friday, KGEZ radio host John Stokes in Kalispell, Mont., got wind of a planned ceremony that afternoon at the state Capitol in Helena to honor the U.N. on United Nations Day (though Sunday was actually U.N. Day). Stokes tells WorldNetDaily the ceremony included members of the Montana National Guard carrying and presenting a U.N. flag that was to be hoisted over the building.

Get US out! of the United Nations
Join with thousands of other Americans working to Get US out! of the United Nations. Take the action steps outlined on this website to carry out a proven strategy to increase your effectiveness and influence. Every individual can make a difference in the battle to preserve freedom.

Web Server Takedown Called Speech Threat

Devin Theriot-Orr, a member a feisty group of reporter-activists called Indymedia, was surprised when two FBI agents showed up at his Seattle law office, saying the visit was a "courtesy call" on behalf of Swiss authorities. Theriot-Orr was even more surprised a week later when more than 20 Indymedia Web sites were knocked offline as the computer servers that hosted them were seized in Britain. The Independent Media Center, more commonly known as Indymedia, says the seizure is tantamount to censorship, and civil libertarians agree. The Internet is a publishing medium just like a printing press, they argue, and governments have no right to remove Web sites. The case, which involves an Internet company based in Texas, photos of undercover Swiss police officers and a request from an Italian prosecutor investigating anarchists, raises questions about the circumstances under which Internet companies can be compelled to turn over data.

Woman arrested after accidentally dialing 911

CALLAWAY, Fla. -- A woman was arrested on drug charges after accidentally dialing 911 and hanging up, which brought a sheriff's deputy to her home to investigate, authorities say. Investigators said the wrong number led them Wednesday to one the largest methamphetamine laboratories ever found in Bay County. Deputies said Vicki Lynn Nunnery, 43, told them she hung up the phone after realizing she had inadvertently dialed 911 when she started to call someone else. She was unaware that it is standard procedure for police to send an officer to investigate all 911 disconnections.

Screening for Pilot Training Extended to Smaller Planes

WASHINGTON -- The federal government has begun conducting background checks on all foreigners seeking to attend American flight schools, the Transportation Security Administration said Friday. The expanded security measures, aimed in part at preventing potential terrorists from taking pilot lessons here as some of the Sept. 11 hijackers did, now apply to any foreigner seeking flight training in the United States, not just those learning to fly larger aircraft.

Erasing history threatens liberties

Recently, the Anti-Defamation League challenged an engraved religious quotation by President Theodore Roosevelt at the historic Riverside County Courthouse. The quote reads: "The true Christian is the true citizen." The Los Angeles-based ADL wants the quote removed, citing separation of church and state. This case illustrates the larger trend of atheists and secular groups stripping away any mention of God or our Judeo-Christian history from the public arena. The legal onslaught advanced by the American Civil Liberties Union and their ilk has reached Orwellian proportions.

Legal Dispute Over Copy of Bill of Rights

RICHMOND, Va. -- A copy of the U.S. Bill of Rights disappeared more than a century ago after a soldier supposedly snatched it from the North Carolina Capitol. The prized parchment has had several owners since, including a Connecticut businessman who says federal authorities seized the document last year before he could make his case for ownership. The government has been holding the 1789 document in a secret location in North Carolina, where it will likely remain until the courts decide its rightful owner. "There ought to be a hearing on who the document was taken from," said Michael Stratton, an attorney for businessman Robert Matthews.

State Schooling

Abduction, Indoctrination and Theft
Government schools are non-market entities. The government enforces attendance, curriculum and financing. Praxeologically (looking at the logical implications of human action), compulsory attendance is abduction, compulsory curriculum is indoctrination and compulsory financing is theft.

Christian campus group must accept non-believers

A Christian group is suing a state university that rejected its recognition on campus because it will not accept officers and members who openly oppose its religious beliefs. The University of California's Hastings College of Law says the Christian Legal Society chapter's criteria violate the school's Policy on Nondiscrimination. The policy forces the CLS chapter, and other campus religious groups who want to be recognized, to accept non-Christian members and officers. The federal civil rights lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges UC Hastings is violating the First Amendment rights of expressive association, free speech and free exercise of religion.

Teacher Jailed After Brawl With Parent

MACON, Georgia -- A teacher-parent brawl in front of 19 primary school pupils sent a mother to the emergency room and the teacher to jail. Teacher Katrina Ann Rucker, 30, is charged with battery and cruelty to children for allegedly beating a parent who tried to retrieve her daughter's book bag, The Macon Telegraph newspaper reported Friday. According to police interviews, parent Lurella Amica went to Bruce-Weir Elementary School Thursday morning to deliver a note to her 9-year-old daughter. At the classroom door, the girl told her mother that Rucker had thrown her bag in the trash can, the report stated. Amica entered the classroom and tried to get the book bag, but Rucker grabbed for it and the two struggled, the report said. After Amica wrestled the bag away, police say Rucker picked up a chair and hit her in the back, knocking Amica to the floor. Rucker then began punching Amica in the face and body.

Student Suspended After Gun Found In Car

A Tivy High School student was suspended Thursday and had his 12-gauge shotgun confiscated after it was spotted in the back seat of his vehicle on campus. According to school and police officials, School Resource Officer Arnold Harst spotted a gun case on the back seat of the Honda car during a routine parking lot check. Superintendent Dan Troxell said the student explained he had been bird hunting several days earlier and had forgotten the gun was in the car.

Pastor's 'bomb' at airport was the Bible

Already the Nashville International Airport security screeners had found a laptop that the Orlando-bound Delta passenger Jose L. Gonzalez said at first he didn't have. Then, as they were searching his carry-on bag, Gonzalez announced that he had a bomb. He then plunged his hand into his luggage and withdrew a Bible, declaring, ''This is my bomb,'' federal agents charge. Gonzalez, a Seventh-day Adventist pastor living in Deltona, Fla., sent Transportation Security Agency staffers, airport police and, ultimately, the FBI scrambling to assess the potential terror threat Sunday night at the Nashville airport, federal court records show.

Bible gets a makeover to attract younger readers?

Good-bye dusty black leather. Hello Bling Bling. The Good Book is getting a makeover — inside and out. Eager to bring disinterested teens and young adult seekers into the fold, Christian publishers are churning out a host of new Bibles, some with flashy magazine-like covers, quizzes and Top 10 lists, others with edgy modern-day retellings of the Scripture. There's "Revolve: The Complete New Testament," (Thomas Nelson Publishers), a glossy "BibleZine" for teenage girls, complete with beauty secrets and dating tips; and "Refuel," its counterpart for teen boys. And there's "The Word on the Street," (Zondervan) a witty passage-by-passage paraphrasing intended to "make the Bible a page-turner" again. Michigan-based Christian publisher Zondervan has also put out two new markedly more subtle teen-targeted Bibles.

Big Brother is hiding in plain sight

A CIA Predator drone, as used in Afghanistan and Iraq, costs $25 million, not that you could buy one even if you could afford it. But the Draganfly Predator is another matter. It's a scaled-down model of the real thing (wingspan: six feet instead of 49 feet), and like its namesake it carries a video camera and is controlled by radio from the ground. It can climb to 8,000 feet and can cruise lazily in the sky for up to an hour and a half, transmitting full-color video all the while. The drone is quietly battery powered, so if one were circling above your house or office or your kids' school right now, probably no one would notice. And it costs not $25 million, but just $750.

Poindexter's Laboratory

"We're just as concerned as the next person with protecting privacy," John Poindexter recently told The Washington Post. Maybe, if the next person happens to be J. Edgar Hoover. Poindexter, a former national security adviser, now heads the Information Awareness Office (IAO), a new division of the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. This obscure little office with a blandly creepy name has a grand mission: Total Information Awareness—in a word, omniscience.

Should We be Working Toward Pluralism?

Can a biblically-based government (including the civil sphere) operate within the conceptual framework of pluralism? While it depends on the definition of pluralism, let me say that the modern concept of pluralism is one of the most pernicious inventions of the twentieth century designed to eliminate the Christian religion. All sorts of evil acts are done in the name of "pluralism." Homosexuality and abortion, for example, are defended and supported on the basis of pluralism.

America - The Fatherland

It Happened Before, In Hitler's Germany
The similarities between America at the turn of the Century and Germany in the 1930s are stunning, frightening, and unprecedented. They offer an apodictic history lesson of perils, present and future. ... Many of us who have spent the time to understand what is happening in America and who write about it have found ourselves isolated and scorned by family and often by friends. Dissent in times of despotic peril is not popular. Citizens want to trust their government and therein lies much of the problem. Our Founders were wise in regard to government; they distrusted it and made every attempt to curtail its growth. This wisdom is gone and has been replaced with an inordinate dependence. It is a dysfunctional relationship in which the head has become the foot.

Government grabbing homes – who'll be next?

Government is authorized to take private property by the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution for "public use" – not for public benefit. What is legitimate "public use"? Pretty good guidelines are offered in Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution: "... forts, magazines, arsenals, dock-yards, and other needful buildings. ..." If government remains empowered to take private property for whatever it perceives to be a public benefit, the concept of private property will vanish; the United States will be no different from a communist nation where government decides how all property must be used.

Implantable Chip Prompts Privacy Concerns

WASHINGTON -- Privacy advocates are concerned that an implantable microchip designed to help doctors tap into a patient's medical records could undermine confidentiality or could even be used to track the patient's movements. "If privacy protections aren't built in at the outset, there could be harmful consequences for patients," said Emily Stewart, a policy analyst at the Health Privacy Project.

State Uses Federal Law to ID New Voters

Some 40,000 Miss. voters will
be asked for ID at polling sites
More than 40,000 Mississippians will have to show a driver's license or other form of identification when they go to the polls Nov. 2. Mississippi lawmakers couldn't agree on a voter ID bill this year, but a federal law carries a voter ID mandate for those who have mailed in voter registration forms since Jan. 1, 2003, and are participating in their first federal election. They are being singled out because election officials did not independently verify their addresses.

Foreign Election Monitors Driven by Leftist Political Agenda

The U.S. State Department cracked open the door and now the invasion has begun. Foreign election monitors determined to oversee the U.S. election this November seem to be coming out of the woodwork. Even Jimmy Carter has gotten into the act. The bottom line is that the November election is being set up to humiliate the United States and place in doubt the legitimacy of our government.

Election to Be Scrutinized for Irregularities

Mounting concerns about voter registration foul-ups, election machine defects and other problems that might undermine the presidential election have spurred dozens of organizations to plan extraordinary efforts to scrutinize the polls on Nov. 2. More than 25,000 poll watchers, including lawyers and computer experts, are expected outside and inside precinct stations to report problems and in some cases to intervene if they believe poll workers are violating voter rights or making technical mistakes.

Colorado Gov Backs ID Requirement For Voters

If a judge overturns the new state law that requires voters to show identification at the polls, Gov. Bill Owens said late Thursday that he will appeal that decision. The lawsuit brought by Colorado Common Cause, which could be determined by Denver District Judge Morris Hoffman as early as today, says requiring potential voters to show an ID is unconstitutional.

Judge May Reopen Voter Sign-Ups

A District Court judge is expected to determine today whether Clark County should reopen voter registration to accommodate Democrats whose forms allegedly were destroyed by a Republican-funded group. The Democratic Party of Nevada filed a lawsuit against Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax on Wednesday evening. "We would like the judge to give Larry Lomax the authority to reopen voter registration for voters who have been victimized by the company," said Jon Summers, Nevada State Democratic Party spokesman.

Woman Upset With Screener's Request To Feel Her Breasts

SAN DIEGO -- A woman said she drove home from Denver rather than submit to what she viewed as an intrusive search by airport security screeners. Ava Kingsford, 36, of San Diego said she was flagged down for a pat-down search at Denver International Airport last month as she prepared to board a flight home with her 3-month-old son. Kingsford objected when a female screener with the Transportation Security Administration told her, "I'm going to feel your breasts now."

New Trees Cancel Out Air Pollution Cuts

Industry has dramatically cut its emissions of pollutants, called volatile organic compounds. But those cuts have been more than offset by the amount of VOCs churned out by trees. The revelation challenges the notion that planting trees is a good way to clean up the atmosphere. Trees produce VOCs, which tend to be ignored by scientists modelling the effects of ozone on pollution. So a team led by Drew Purves at Princeton University investigated the impact of newly planted forests on VOC levels in the US. They calculated that vegetal sources of monoterpenes and isoprene rose by up to 17% from the 1980s to the 1990s – equivalent to three times the industrial reductions.

Christians Jailed In Philadelphia For Preaching God's Word

Life and Liberty Ministries
Even though the Christians obeyed all laws, city ordinances, and lawful requests by the Philadelphia police officers on hand, they were promptly and without warning, arrested and hauled off to jail where they spent 21 hours before being released on Monday morning.

Christians Arrested for ‘Hate Crime’ to Be Arraigned on Monday
‘Philadelphia 11’ charged with 3 felonies, 5 misdemeanors.
A group of Christians who were arrested on October 10 at a Philadelphia homosexual celebration will be arraigned at 9 a.m. on Monday in the Criminal Justice Center on charges that could bring 47-year prison sentences. None of the charges has been dropped or reduced since the arrests of 11 people ranging in age from 17 to 72 were made around 1 p.m. during the Coming Out Day “Outfest,” a spokeswoman from the District Attorney’s office told Concerned Women for America’s Culture & Family Institute.

FEC May Regulate Web Political Activity

WASHINGTON -- With political fund raising, campaign advertising and organizing taking place in full swing over the Internet, it may just be a matter of time before the Federal Election Commission joins the action. Well, that time may be now. A recent federal court ruling says the FEC must extend some of the nation's new campaign finance and spending limits to political activity on the Internet.

FBI terrorist alert on pupils' email

PUPILS at a leading Northampton school have been banned from using private Hotmail accounts in the classroom, after two teenagers sparked a trans-Atlantic security scare. Senior staff at Northampton School for Boys took the decision after pupils using a classroom computer sent a fake email to FBI headquarters in the USA claiming to be from a worldwide terrorist cell. FBI officials were alerted by the contents of the email, sent earlier this week, and immediately notified senior officers within Northamptonshire Police who visited the pupils at the school in Billing Road, Northampton.

Spyware, adware and the loophole in the law

It is amazing that years after the Gator Corp. became the bane of Internet users because of its drive-by downloading of software and adware, the Federal Trade Commission has finally filed a lawsuit against a spyware proliferator. What is more amazing is that Claria, which is the feel-good name Gator adopted last year, wasn't named in the legal action. The lawsuit targets two companies by name, Seismic Entertainment Productions and SmartBot.net, and one individual, Sanford Wallace. If Wallace's name sounds familiar, it is because he was once the self-proclaimed king of spam before a 1998 lawsuit put him out of business. The new lawsuit specifically cites software that used a Microsoft Internet Explorer flaw (go figure) to change user settings.

Study: Some Cell Phone Users At Risk For Benign Tumor

STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- A Swedish study suggests that people who use a cell phone for at least 10 years might increase their risk of developing a rare benign tumor along a nerve on the side of the head where they hold the phone. In an interview Thursday with The Associated Press, one of the researchers behind the preliminary study, Anders Ahlbom, said the results were surprising and more research is needed.

Paralysed man sends e-mail by thought

Brain chip reads mind by
tapping straight into neurons.
An pill-sized brain chip has allowed a quadriplegic man to check e-mail and play computer games using his thoughts. The device can tap into a hundred neurons at a time, and is the most sophisticated such implant tested in humans so far.

FDA approves use of implantable chip

The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved an implantable computer chip that can pass a patient's medical details to doctors, speeding care. VeriChips, radio frequency microchips the size of a grain of rice, have already been used to identify wayward pets and livestock. It's the first time the FDA has approved medical use of the device, though in Mexico, more than 1,000 scannable chips have been implanted in patients.

Principal Suspended Over Alleged Illegal Gun Possession

CHICAGO -- Authorities have temporarily removed the principal of a Chicago elementary school from his post after finding a large number of allegedly unregistered firearms at his South Side home. Police say 50-year-old John Lewis was charged with 61 counts of possessing unregistered firearms after the guns were found at his home during a weekend raid. Police said Lewis had a valid firearm owner's identification card -- but for only one of the guns. Lewis was the principal of Libby Elementary School on 53rd Street.

California proposal would laser-brand ID number on bullets

LOS ANGELES -- California's attorney general wants to crack down on gun violence by laser-branding all handgun bullets sold in the state with tiny identification numbers nearly invisible to the naked eye. The controversial proposal could open the way for the next major debate over gun control in California, a state that already has some of the toughest such laws in the United States. Attorney General Bill Lockyer is expected to discuss his proposal at a meeting on gun crime today with Los Angeles Mayor Jim Hahn and a citizens group, an aide said yesterday.

Group Posts Surveillance Camera Locations

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- The surveillance cameras that keep watch over our daily activities are being watched. An advocacy group has teamed up with a Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher to give pedestrians an online map of camera locations in Manhattan. Tad Hirsch, a research assistant at MIT's Media Lab, has adapted a desktop version of the iSee Project for use in handheld devices using Java programming language.

U.S. Funds Chat-Room Surveillance

TROY, N.Y. -- Amid the torrent of jabber in Internet chat rooms — flirting by QTpie and BoogieBoy, arguments about politics and horror flicks — are terrorists plotting their next move? The government certainly isn't discounting the possibility. It's taking the idea seriously enough to fund a yearlong study on chat room surveillance under an anti-terrorism program. A Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute computer science professor hopes to develop mathematical models that can uncover structure within the scattershot traffic of online public forums.

Homo-Fascism

Christians Charged with Hate Crimes,
for Sharing the Gospel
This past Sunday, October 10, Christians with the ministry Repent America were arrested, jailed, and each charged with three felonies and five misdemeanors, including "ethnic intimidation." The arrests took place while the group was sharing the gospel on the public sidewalk at a Philadelphia sodomite event. Tune into "The Heart of the Matter" to hear the president of Repent America, Michael Marcavage, and Pastor Ralph Ovadal discuss this brazen assault on Christian liberty. (Wisconsin Christians United)

Jay Sekulow's betrayal

Jay Sekulow and the American Center for Law and Justice have recently confused the conservative community by supporting ultra liberal Judge Bill Pyror. Bill Pyror has a proven record of liberal judicial activities and gained nationwide attention for leading the charge as Alabama Attorney General to remove Judge Roy Moore from the Alabama Supreme Court. Retaking America, a conservative organization that supports the Ten Commandments is challenging Jay Sekulow's position.

As Alabama's Attorney General, Bill Pyror prosecuted and persecuted Judge Roy Moore, and by so doing has shown complete disregard for both the State of Alabama Constitution and the Constitution of these United States. He prosecuted Judge Moore with a zeal that is hard to understand, never giving consideration to Constitutional bounds.

Jay Sekulow's support of liberal Judge Bill Pyror is devastating.

Judge Roy Moore
Latest on Ten Commandments Monument Battle

Reject Draft Slavery

The Draft Is Slavery
by Rep. Ron Paul
I oppose HR 163 in the strongest possible terms. The draft, whether for military purposes or some form of "national service," violates the basic moral principles of individual liberty upon which this country was founded. Furthermore, the military neither wants nor needs a draft.

Names of high school students to go to military
They must act by Saturday to prevent information from being provided Names, phone numbers and other information about Seattle high school students must be provided to the Defense Department on request -- unless parents opt out in writing by Saturday. President Bush's 'No Child Left Behind Act,' an expansive education reform bill passed two years ago, requires high schools across the country to release information about juniors and seniors to military recruiters and to give them the same access to students as college recruiters and prospective employers.

FBI to get help on Election Day plots
WASHINGTON -- Attorney General John Ashcroft quietly has issued a sweeping directive that authorizes the FBI to use hundreds of law enforcement agents from other federal agencies to help investigate any terrorist plots that target the Nov. 2 elections. The directive — the first of its kind since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — allows the FBI to tap agents from the U.S. Marshals Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives as part of a nationwide effort by FBI-led counterterrorism units to seek out and stop any plots against the elections.

Senate Wants Database Dragnet
The Senate could pass a bill as early as Wednesday evening that would let government counter-terrorist investigators instantly query a massive system of interconnected commercial and government databases that hold billions of records on Americans. The proposed network is based on the Markle Foundation Task Force's December 2003 report, which envisioned a system that would allow FBI and CIA agents, as well as police officers and some companies, to quickly search intelligence, criminal and commercial databases. The proposal is so radical, the bill allocates $50 million just to fund the system's specifications and privacy policies.

Feds plan to track every car
Obscure agency working on
technology to monitor all vehicles
A little-known federal agency is planning a new monitoring program by which the government would track every car on the road by using onboard transceivers. The agency, the Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office, is part of the Department of Transportation. According to an extensive report in the Charlotte, N.C., Creative Loafing, the agency doesn't respond to public inquiries about its activity.

Lawmakers consider 'smart' driver's licenses
Computer chip's signals allow
data to be read from a distance
A controversial technology already planned for tracking consumer products could be used to create "smart" driver's licenses that emit signals readable from a distance, according to federal and state government officials contemplating ways to fight identity fraud. Radio frequency identification, or RFID, could help thwart terrorists who use falsified documents to get around, say Virginia lawmakers who will hear testimony on the technology's uses, reports Wired.com.

Is The White House Shutting
Down The People's Right To Know
According to the 30-organization coalition, Openthegovernment.org, "Secrecy has increased dramatically in recent years under the policies of the current administration." This coalition also maintains that the costs for unnecessarily classifying information and keeping it secret hit an astronomical $6.5 billion in 2003; this excludes the CIA. In 2003, 14 million documents were classified which represents a 40% increase from 2001. This increased veil of secrecy has also caused a huge backlog in filling requests under the Freedom of Information Act. FOIA requests made in 2004 to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library probably won't get processed until 2008.

Supreme court debates pollution cleanup
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court considered Wednesday whether companies that voluntarily seek to clean up their polluted land can sue former owners to get help with the costs. The case could have important ramifications for communities with abandoned toxic plants, landfills and mines. Federal law allows the Environmental Protection Agency to designate as "Superfund" sites areas that are highly polluted. Officials can seek money from current and former owners for the cleanup costs.

Court Weighs Harm of Misleading Car Loans
WASHINGTON -- A Virginia man's car-buying nightmare ended at the Supreme Court, where justices considered Tuesday whether buyers are entitled to more than $1,000 in damages when they are misled about auto loans. Most justices appeared reluctant to allow higher damages under the Truth in Lending Act, suggesting Congress never intended that. The case involves 27-year-old Bradley Nigh, who contends he was victimized by what he considered bait-and-switch tactics of an Alexandria, Va., car dealership, Koons Buick Pontiac GMC Inc.

"Ten Commandments" scales back
performances after bad reviews
LOS ANGELES -- The critics have had their say -- and the big-budget stage musical "The Ten Commandments" is being retooled. The show starring Val Kilmer as Moses opened last week to less-than-rave reviews. The New York Times called it "bland, static, overproduced and underdirected." It went on to say the show unfolds like "a long, lumbering fancy-dress episode of American Idol." But a producer of the musical says he's been thrilled by the audience reaction and hopes to take the show on the road after its Los Angeles run.

Smacking the other cheek
A Republic, If You Can Keep It (cont'd): Police had to break up two University of North Carolina students who started slapping each other in the face while discussing who Jesus would vote for on Nov. 2.

The Great Evangelical Heresy

In his book How Should We Then Live? the late evangelical philosopher Francis Schaeffer wrote, “Pragmatism, doing what seems to work without regard to fixed principles of right or wrong, is largely in control. In both international and home affairs, expediency—at any price to maintain personal peace and affluence at the moment—is the accepted procedure. Absolute principles have little or no meaning in the place to which the decline of Western thought has come.” Schaeffer, at whose feet I had the privilege of sitting while a student in Switzerland, was right. Evangelicalism has been contaminated by the very disease it has tried to cure—secularism and pragmatism, a philosophy of life void of eternals. It is the great evangelical heresy of experience first, Bible second.

Judicial Arrogance Silences Louisiana Voters

Only seventeen days after 78 percent of Louisiana voters approved a constitutional amendment protecting traditional marriage, one state judge has overruled them, claiming that the state's newly approved constitutional amendment is, somehow, unconstitutional.

'Orwellian nightmare'

House 9/11 Bill Will Set Up A Database
On All Americans, Create National ID Card
What part of "Constitution" don't they understand? In a frightening move, House Republicans -- members of the party that supposedly favors "limited government" -- are pushing an Orwellian nightmare in Congress in the name of "national security." In the wake of the 9/11 Commission's recommendations, the Senate -- unlike the House -- has prepared legislation which would closely track that Commission's findings by reorganizing the intelligence services in the federal government. The Senate bill is relatively innocuous compared to the House version, HR 10.

Can It Happen Here? Sweden’s "Hate Speech" Laws

Sweden’s "hate speech" laws were modified in 2002 to include, for the first time, criminal sanctions against anyone who denounces homosexuals. The law explicitly included sermons as speech subject to prosecution. Ministers from denominations in Sweden and abroad wrote in opposition to the new law, but were ignored. Now that collecting Bible verses can officially be hate speech, can we expect the Bible itself to be banned? ... In the U.S., we are not in the same boat as Sweden—yet. We do not yet have laws that penalize expression of certain opinions. But we are unmistakably headed in that direction. The federal government and several states have passed "bias crime" laws that increase penalties if a crime was motivated, even in part, by racism, hatred of homosexuals, bias against the handicapped, etc.

Supreme Court Rejects Moore's Appeal

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court rejected an appeal Monday from Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, who lost his job after defying a federal order to dismantle a Ten Commandments monument. A federal judge ruled that Moore violated the Constitution's ban on government promotion of religion when he placed the monument in the rotunda of the judicial building in the middle of the night in 2001. The display was moved last year over Moore's objections, and a state court removed him from office.

School officials draw ire for enforcing rules banning religion

HENNESSEY -- Superintendent Uwe Gordon summarized Monday a sensitive expression of religious freedom that has put townspeople and school officials at odds. The issue blossomed Friday when the 2003-04 Hennessey High School yearbook arrived with a page titled “The Sweetest Thing,” a poem written by entertainer Red Skelton about the country’s Pledge of Allegiance. A passage of the poem that centers on “Under God” had been omitted. ... Jimmy Berkenbile, a bus driver for the school district and First Christian Church of Hennessey minister, said hostilities had been expressed openly about a high school Christian club that meets Friday at noon for prayer.

Multiculturalism's War on Education

Back to school nowadays means back to classrooms, lessons and textbooks permeated by multiculturalism and its championing of “diversity.” Many parents and teachers regard multiculturalism as an indispensable educational supplement, a salutary influence that “enriches” the curriculum. But is it?

Public schools no place for teachers' kids

More than 25 percent of public school teachers in Washington and Baltimore send their children to private schools, a new study reports. Nationwide, public school teachers are almost twice as likely as other parents to choose private schools for their own children, the study by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute found. More than 1 in 5 public school teachers said their children attend private schools.

Court Wades Into Prison Sentence Dispute

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court returned for another term Monday and wasted no time getting down to business, appearing poised to alter the system used for sentencing 64,000 federal criminal defendants a year. But justices clashed over whether any changes they make would create greater inequity in the federal system. Judges, not juries, consider factors that can add years to defendants' prison sentences, under the government's 17-year-old system which has been challenged as unconstitutional. Justice Antonin Scalia said that lucky accused criminals go before merciful judges. The unlucky, he said, can face a "hanging judge." "The whole reason for jury trials is we don't trust judges," he said.

Court Weighs Legal Rights of Mich. Poor

WASHINGTON -- With backing from two-fifths of all states, Michigan asked the Supreme Court on Monday to whether a state can refuse to pay for appeals by indigent defendants who plead guilty to crimes. Michigan is the only state with such a law, which was ruled unconstitutional by lower courts. Other states looking to cut the number of appeals clogging their courts are eager to follow Michigan's lead, and 21 filed briefs with the Supreme Court in support of the Michigan law.

Supreme Court Won't Hear Terrorism Case

The Supreme Court declined Monday to consider another issue related to the rights of terrorism suspects _ rejecting without comment an appeal by Ali Saleh Kahlab al-Marri, one of three people who have been held in America as enemy combatants without traditional legal rights. The Supreme Court last spring considered the cases of the other two _ Jose Padilla and Yaser Hamdi _ as well as an appeal involving similar detentions of people held at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Bush administration maintains that al-Marri is an al-Qaida sleeper agent.

Supreme Court Won't Hear Do-Not-Call Case

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court turned away a challenge Monday to the federal do-not-call registry, ending telemarketers' bid to invoke free-speech arguments to get the popular ban on unwanted phone solicitations thrown out. The court, without comment, let stand a 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that upheld the registry of more than 64 million phone numbers as a reasonable government attempt to safeguard personal privacy and reduce telemarketing abuse.

Supreme Court Addresses Prison Sentences

WASHINGTON -- With thousands of prison sentences on the line, the Supreme Court will decide whether judges have too much power to tack on extra cell time in a case that one justice said could wreak havoc on courthouses nationwide. The high court stunned prosecutors, judges and public defenders when it ruled in June that judges had been given too much sway in determining the length of prison terms.

Enemies Of The State

In 1917 Woodrow Wilson's Congress enacted the Trading With the Enemy Act to regulate—not forbid—trade with belligerent nations. The language of this piece of legislation defined precisely who was, and who was not, an enemy of the United States. Specifically excluded from that classification were the citizens of the United States. That was an oversight that would be corrected three days after Franklin D. Roosevelt assumed the mantle of the presidency on March 6, 1933.

Tiny Tracking Chips Will Be 'Everywhere'

In the future, a controversial technology that uses tiny computer chips to identify and track items from a distance will be "on everything from diapers to surgical instruments," says an executive for a leading corporation. Pat Rizzotto, vice president of global customer initiatives for Johnson & Johnson, says his company's long-term vision for RFID, or radio frequency identification, includes having physical objects communicate in real time and extending the Internet into everyday items.

The Intolerance Hall of Fame

Christianity is a religion of faith (Heb. 11), but it is also a religion of intolerance. Meet some of the most intolerant characters of Scripture:

God the Father. God drove Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden because they disobeyed Him (Gen. 3). God sent a world-wide flood as a judgment for Man’s sins and, with the exception of Noah, He destroyed “every living substance...which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven.” (Gen. 7). Also, God “rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire” for their depravity and homosexuality (Gen. 19).

The Law-Giver Moses. Moses refused to tolerate the Egyptian Pharaoh’s enslavement of the Israelites, and, at God’s behest, told his brother Aaron to stretch out his hand and call ten plagues upon the land of Egypt (Exod. 7-12). Also, Moses burned the golden calf which the idolatrous Israelites had created, and sent the Levites to slay all those who refused to side with the Lord (Exod. 32). Also, Moses declared the judgment of God upon the Israelites for their complaining (Num. 14:26-38)

Gideon the Judge. Gideon took ten of his servants, cast down the altar of Baal, cut down the wooden image that was beside it and offered a sacrifice to God on an altar which he built (Jud. 6:27-28). Gideon also drove the Midianites out of Israel, pursued them, and slew “two princes of the Midianites, Oreb and Zeeb.” (Jud. 7)

The Prophet Samuel. Samuel condemned Saul for not waiting for him before offering sacrifices to God (I Sam. 13:8-15). He also refused to tolerate Saul’s rebellion to God when Saul disobeyed God’s order to utterly destroy the Amalekites, and told Saul that “to obey is better than sacrifice.” (I Sam. 15). Also, Samuel condemned King Saul for seeking the advice of the Witch of Endor, and declared God’s judgment on Israel for Saul’s disobedience to God (I Sam. 28).

The Prophet Elijah. Elijah declared a drought in Israel as God’s judgment for King Ahab’s idolatry (I Kings 18:17-40). He also refused to tolerate Israel’s rejection of God, and slew the false prophets of Baal (I Kings 18:17-40).

The Prophet Isaiah. Isaiah condemned Israel and Judah for their rebellion and idolatry against God (Isa. 57), and he declared God’s curse upon Israel (Isa. 6).

The Prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah declared God’s judgment on Israel for her theft, murder, adultery, and idolatry (Jer. 7:9). Also, he declared God’s curse, that God would “fight against you [Israel] with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger, and in fury, and in great wrath.” (Jer. 21:5)

The Prophet Daniel. Daniel declared God’s judgment on Belshazzar and his kingdom for the idolatry and blasphemy of the Babylonians (Daniel 5:13-31).

John the Baptist. John preached to the Jews, saying, “O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” He refused to tolerate Jews who did not bring forth fruits, but rather rested on their descent from Abraham (Luke 3:7-9). Also, John refused to tolerate King Herod’s marriage to his brother’s wife (Mark 6:18)

God the Son. Jesus cleansed the temple and “cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves.” (Matt. 21:12-13 Also, Jesus refused to tolerate those who might attempt to find redemption through any religion but Christianity, saying, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6).

God the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was lied to by Ananias and Sapphira, who cheated the church. The Holy Spirit then judged Ananias and his wife and caused them to fall and die (I Kings 18:17-40)

The Apostle Paul. Paul refused to tolerate immorality in the church and went so far as to say that, “if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolator, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.” (I Cor. 5) Also, Paul refused to tolerate women teachers, and said, “I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.” (I Tim. 2:12)

Israel was judged repeatedly. The pagan tribes and nations were judged repeatedly. Countries, cities, and individuals were judged.

God, however, is only intolerant of disobedience. And Jesus Christ died on the cross and was resurrected on the third day so that His blood might cover our inability to keep the Law.

There is hope. God will tolerate those who come before Him through Christ Jesus, and the Holy Spirit will grant unto the same the ability to keep the Law.

I Pet. 5:6-11 reads: “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.”