To: ca-liberty@yahoogroups.com (ca-liberty)
Cc: LibertyUS:;
Subject: [ca-liberty] IN: Cops track prescription drug users
Date: Sat, 16 Nov 2002 07:42:21 -0800
IN: Cops track prescription drug users
State police use list to bust abusers, druggists, and doctors
Indiana State Police are keeping a list of everyone in the state who buys high-powered painkillers prescribed by doctors. They are collecting the information with the permission of a little-known law that forces pharmacists to send them patients' names, the drug they are taking, the name of their doctors and even the number of pills they receive. This means whenever you have a prescription filled for Schedule II drugs, such as Percodan, Vicodin or Lorcet, a record with your name on it is created and shared with a number of agencies. It is all part of a computerized electronic tracking system used by Indiana and 17 other states in a federal program to help police and medical licensing agencies bust prescription drug abuses. Nationally, the program is called the Diversion Control Program. In Indiana, it's called the INSTEP (Indiana Schedule Two Electronic Prescription) monitoring program. Authorized by Indiana law in 1997, police say INSTEP is one of the key tools used to ca!
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tch drug abusers and the doctors and pharmacists who provide the drugs.
http://www.indystar.com/article.php?track15.html,news
U.S. won't support Net "hate speech" ban
The Bush administration said on Friday that it will not support a proposed treaty to restrict "hate speech" on the Internet.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-965983.html
'A supersnoop's dream'
Language tucked inside the Homeland Security bill will allow the federal government to track the e-mail, Internet use, travel, credit-card purchases, phone and bank records of foreigners and U.S. citizens in its hunt for terrorists. In what one critic has called "a supersnoop's dream," the Defense Department's Total Information Awareness program would be authorized to collect every type of available public and private data in what the Pentagon describes as one "centralized grand database."... The project first appeared in the Senate Democratic proposal for the new Homeland Security Department, which was defeated Wednesday in a 50-47 vote. However it was included in the Republican-brokered agreement that passed the House later that night in a 299-121 vote and is on the fast track to pass the Senate by next week.
[The truth comes out -- it was the Dems who originated the 'super snooping' -- and the Repubs just couldn't say 'NO'.]
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20021115-70231.htm
AZ: Tombstone paper calls for militia
Cochise County's "official newspaper" has issued a call to arms and is spearheading the formation of a local militia to combat illegal immigration. Tucson human rights activist Isabel Garcia said the Tombstone Tumbleweed's rhetoric is the latest manifestation of a militant vigilantism that has long existed in Cochise County with the acceptance and encouragement of local officials. She said Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever's public friendship with groups like Glenn Spencer's American Patrol, the sheriff's lack of investigation into Roger and Don Barnett's armed detention of illegal entrants and the clear unwillingness on the part of Cochise County Attorney Chris Roll to investigate and prosecute the two brothers have given them credibility and encouraged groups like Texas-based Ranch Rescue and the new Tombstone Militia. "To have the official newspaper of the county call on people to take up arms is very dangerous, very frightening. Law enforcement and public officials sh!
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ould be concerned," she said. Garcia canceled an upcoming speaking engagement in Bisbee out of concern over the growing hostility in the county.
http://www.azstarnet.com/border/21115TOMBSTONEBORDER2fmst2fj.html
Judge Issues Injunction in Airport Screener Case
A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked a rule saying the government's new airport security screeners must be U.S. citizens. The portion of the Aviation and Transportation Security Act barring non-citizens from the positions is unconstitutional, U.S. District Judge Robert Takasugi ruled.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,70561,00.html
States Agree to Simpler Sales Tax System
In a controversial decision that may leave Web-based and mail-order retailers in a tizzy, 31 states this week decided to simplify their sales tax structures so that Internet and Main Street retailers would be on the same page when it comes to collecting sales taxes. The plan is, in part, a move to get the OK from Congress to have a nationwide mandatory online sales tax collection system. Traditional, brick-and-mortar retailers have demanded such a move since the catalog-sales business took off in the 1980s, followed by the Internet retailing boom in the late 1990s.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,70538,00.html
The Tummy Track
The "tummy time" story in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal is a real hoot. Moms are putting their babies through rug-rat training sessions so they'll build the upper-body strength needed for head lifting and crawling. ... [Lots of hard hits on the education system.] ... IllinoisLoop.org's humor page links to Scary Teacher Postings, which features messages on education bulletin boards. A math teacher seeks advice on using numerology to create "fun type" lessons. A social studies teacher asks: "Who is to blam [sic] when students don't do homeworks? who is to blam when pareants [sic] don't care to come to the teacher pareant [sic] conference?" Another teacher writes: "Cheap shot i know, but doe's [sic] prove a point in so much that Merit Pay doe's [sic] not stand the close inspection of cold hard logic." From a message board for math teachers: Does anyone know where I can get interdisciplinary lesson plans for Veterans' Day? The following reply was posted: How about something!
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about how we saved France twice in world wars, after which they went on to teach their children math while we do interdisciplinary lesson plans?
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,70513,00.html
NYC: Miss Manners with a gun?
Libertarians rip NYC bill that outlaws cell phone ringing
While many Americans agree it is bad manners if your cell phone rings during a movie, a Broadway play or a concert, should it be against the law, with offenders paying a $50 fine for each infraction? Politicians in New York City think so, and have proposed a bill to outlaw such boorish behavior - much to the chagrin of the Libertarian Party. "Picture Miss Manners with a gun and you have some idea why this proposal is an overreaction," says George Getz, the party's communications director. "Civilized people can deal with minor annoyances without further empowering the Nanny State." This month, the New York City Council will consider a bill to impose a $50 fine on anyone who makes or receives a cell phone call, or fails to disable a phone's ringer, during an indoor performance at a theater, art gallery, concert hall or library. If passed, the law would become the nation's first-ever "cell phone etiquette" law - one that may rapidly spread to other states, says the Libertaria!
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n Party.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=29681
CA: $11 theft gets career criminal 25 years to life
A career criminal was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison under California's three-strikes law for stealing $11 worth of wine, lip balm and breath freshener. Superior Court Judge Frank Ochoa called Ronald Herrera, 57, one of the worst criminals to pass through his courtroom, and prosecutor Darryl Perlin said: "He's what the three-strikes law is all about." Herrera's record lists 17 serious felonies, including a 1971 home-invasion robbery and rape of a woman and her 15-year-old daughter, the shooting of a police dispatcher, and six armed robberies in Virginia. He was sentenced Thursday for burglary and petty theft at a supermarket. At trial, his lawyer said Herrera has a brain injury that made him forget to pay for the items.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002-11-15-strike-three_x.htm
Ron Paul: Oppose the New Homeland Security Bureaucracy!
Ron Paul in the US House of Representatives, November 13, 2002
Mr. Speaker, when the process of creating a Department of Homeland Security commenced, Congress was led to believe that the legislation would be a simple reorganization aimed at increasing efficiency, not an attempt to expand federal power. Fiscally conservative members of Congress were even told that the bill would be budget neutral! Yet, when the House of Representatives initially considered creating a Department of Homeland Security, the legislative vehicle almost overnight grew from 32 pages to 282 pages - and the cost had ballooned to at least $3 billion. Now we are prepared to vote on a nearly 500-page bill that increases federal expenditures and raises troubling civil liberties questions. Adding insult to injury, this bill was put together late last night and introduced only this morning. Worst of all, the text of the bill has not been made readily available to most members, meaning this Congress is prepared to create a massive new federal agency without even knowin!
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g the details. This is a dangerous and irresponsible practice.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul61.html
Vote Lotto
... But where fear, hate and government goodies have failed, perhaps Democrats can regain power by reaching out to voters in an even more direct way - something verging on bribery. Lighting the way to voter enticement and seduction, the National Voting Rights Museum in Selma, Alabama, this year offered a $10,000 cash prize to one lucky voter. In effect, a ballot stub proving that this person had voted was turned into a private lottery ticket. This lottery, however, has an ironic shortcoming. It is racially segregated. The winner, to be picked in a drawing November 17, must according to the rules be someone who has been "historically excluded from voting in Alabama during the last 50 years." In other words, no white people need apply. Caucasians are racially excluded from winning, and hence from whatever incentive to vote that this lottery prize might give. We can only wonder how the marchers, black and white together, who crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge March 7, 1965, i!
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n one of the greatest historic moments of the civil rights struggle, would have felt about this cynical return of segregation to Selma 37 years later. One of those marchers who was a young girl in that 1965 march is Museum founder and head Joanne Bland. She refused to tell reporters the source of this year's $10,000 prize, saying that the donor wished to remain anonymous. ...
http://www.frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=4642
House votes to protect Big Sur wilderness
The House has voted to extend wilderness designation to nearly 57,000 acres of federal lands in Monterey County, the last major Big Sur land protections intended to preserve a large area from coastal mountains to offshore waters and rock formations for recreation and research. The legislation was sponsored in the House by Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel. But the areas also are included in a much larger statewide wilderness bill sponsored by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and she was at work Friday trying to persuade her colleagues to let this small piece of her controversial 2.5 million-acre package go through.
http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/5219098p-6227485c.html
NH: Locals Come Face To Face With Homeland Securit
A few North Country residents got a firsthand look at Homeland Security in progress last week. Calvin Kittredge and his wife, June, were on their way home to Danville, Vt., from Colebrook, N.H., last Monday when they came upon a check point operated by the U.S. Border Patrol on Route 3 in North Stratford, N.H. ... Just over the hill from North Stratford village in the large parking area along Route 3, Calvin Kittredge said there were federal and state law enforcement vehicles lined up on both sides of the road. Law officials were out of their vehicles with their guns drawn. He saw six to seven cars were already pulled over by the time he was flagged down. Four officers approached his vehicle, two on each side, with their hands on their rifles. One officer who identified himself as an agent from the federal immigration department asked the questions. The Kittredges were asked to verify their residency. A driver's license was satisfactory. They were asked why they were in Ne!
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w Hampshire, how long they were in the state and where they were going. While the immigration officer was doing the questioning, the other officers walked around his 1990 Mercury Grand Marquis examining the car. When Calvin Kittredge tried to ask questions, he received no response. Kittredge was asked if it was all right for the officers to search his vehicle. "I said go right ahead. I have nothing to hide." The Kittredges stayed in their vehicle the entire time. Law officials looked in his trunk and even lifted the rear seat to look underneath. When they found nothing, the seat was put back in place. "They didn't take anything," said Kittredge. "They didn't say much of anything except sorry to have to bother us. And then they let me go along."
http://www.caledonian-record.com/pages/top_news/story/c1a9fa4dc
Privacy Groups Turn Screws on DOJ
Privacy advocates want to know the how and why behind U.S. government surveillance done in the name of the USA Patriot Act. On Wednesday, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Privacy Information Center asked a federal court judge to force the Justice Department to respond to their Aug. 21 Freedom of Information Act request for documents related to the Patriot Act's surveillance provisions. The request seeks aggregate statistics and policy directives from both the FBI and the Department of Justice, with specific emphasis on details about surveillance that targets American citizens or foreign nationals "on the basis of activities protected by the First Amendment." The ACLU wants to find out whether surveillance is being justified by "what websites people visited or letters to the editor that the government
didn't like," said Jameel Jaffer, the ACLU's lead attorney on the case. The privacy groups originally filed the lawsuit on Oct. 24 after negotiations with the Justice Department broke down. The plaintiffs want the district court to force the Justice Department to provide a list of documents within seven days and the documents themselves within 20 days. In a letter dated Sept. 3, the Justice Department granted the groups' request to expedite the process, writing that the request concerned a "matter of widespread and exceptional media interest in which there exist possible questions about the government's integrity which affect public confidence." However, the Justice Department still has not turned over any documents, or even a list of documents, covered by the request.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,56423,00.html
New Total Information Awareness Details
EPIC has obtained the system description (PDF, 4.7 MB) for the Total Information Awareness (TIA) Program. The document describes an elaborate system of human identification and surveillance. EPIC is pursuing a FOIA lawsuit against the Department of Defense to obtain further information about the TIA Program. (Nov. 15)
http://www.epic.org/privacy/profiling/tia/tiasystemdescription.pdf
--
Johann Opitz <johannp@earthlink.net> RKBA!
"Throughout recorded history, without exception, it has been the sole accomplishment of organized government to deprive their populations of liberty and of their property." -- John C. Calhoun