“Polls show that public opinion on NSA spying shifts back and forth depending upon who is in the White House. In other words, liberal or conservative voters generally aren’t opposed to mass surveillance as long as their party is in power.”
Read more: https://fee.org/articles/the-fisa-reauthorization-only-boosts-big-brother/
“All too often those who continuously apologize for crimes committed by police officers are able to justify some of the most egregious instances of outright murder by claiming the officer was a bad apple. Almost as often, however, as TFTP has shown numerous times, the bad apple theory is exactly that—a theory—with no evidence to support it.”
“A motorist who was ticketed last summer for ‘provocation’ for flipping off an Indiana state trooper has filed a federal lawsuit saying the citation violates his First Amendment rights.”
Read more: http://www.cleveland.com/nation/index.ssf/2018/02/indiana_man_argues_he_has_cons.html
“It’s true that the federal government used to consist of three branches. Bu that quaint notion disintegrated when the federal government was converted to what is known as a ‘national-security state’ after World War II. Even though it was done without a constitutional amendment, that conversion effectively added a fourth branch of government to the federal government — the national-security branch, which consists of the NSA, the CIA, and the Pentagon. The addition of that fourth branch fundamentally altered the original three-branch concept, especially because the fourth branch quickly became the most powerful branch. The reason is because ultimately government is force, and the fourth branch is where the most force was concentrated within the new, altered governmental structure.”
Read more: https://www.fff.org/2018/02/05/america-military-nation/
“The FISA court has always done a dismal job of overseeing the vast surveillance regime it helped spawn. FISA provided a stamp of legitimacy for perpetual deceit and perhaps the worst trampling of constitutional rights in American history. Regardless of the outcome of the current brawl, Washington must radically decrease secret surveillance of the American people.”
“All this shows is that power will also be abused. Secret power that much more. But neither major party is actually fighting to strip these powers from the government. The GOP’s complaints of abuse of power ring hollow as they approve other Fourth Amendment violations authorized by the same legislation! They are just fighting for the upper hand over their political opponents. This is not freedom versus tyranny. It is a war of factions. That said, it is laughable that some worry the release of this memo will cause dangerous distrust in the FBI and DOJ. The more people distrust those dangerous and secretive government agencies, the better!”
“Why does the Bill of Rights protect us from the federal government rather than, say, from ISIS, terrorists, illegal immigrants, drug dealers, communists, Muslims, Iran, Syria, North Korea, Vietnam, Russia, or China? The answer is simple: Because the federal government, not those foreign entities, is the biggest threat to our country. That’s why the Bill of Rights focuses on it rather than on foreign entities. But here’s the kicker, the one no one (except libertarians) likes to think about: The threat that the federal government poses to the country comes primarily in the form of the troops — yes, the same troops that most everyone profusely thank for their ‘service.'”
Read more: https://www.fff.org/2018/02/01/biggest-threat-country/
“J. Wells Dixon, a lawyer at the Center for Constitutional Rights, said that formally making it U.S. policy ‘to detain Muslims forever without charge in an offshore prison’ is ‘politically expedient but exceedingly stupid no matter how you look at it,’ except as a terrorist recruitment bonanza.”
“During his nearly seven-year pretrial incarceration, Tigano loudly and repeatedly invoked his Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial. Because Tigano kept bringing up the Sixth Amendment, he was forced to undergo three separate court-ordered examinations to determine whether he was competent to be tried.”
Read more: https://reason.com/blog/2018/01/25/government-is-gutting-the-right-to-trial
“It’s a felony to leave water for thirsty people? Meanwhile, ICE has run wild. They are busting parents while their kids are at school. They’re publicizing ‘sweeps’ in cities like they’re chasing down Capone or someone. And there’s a very good possibility that, in the so-called ‘sanctuary cities,’ we will see confrontations between ICE agents and local law enforcement. And now we have this latest insanity, whereby technology will be handed to an agency sliding swiftly toward a very dangerous point.”
Read more: http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a15898207/ice-border-patrol-trump/