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May
3, 2007 UPDATE
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 House
Passes Expanded Hate Crimes Bill (AP via My
Way News 05-03-07) Lady Liberty says:
She considers the vote to be exceedingly unfortunate. It may have
been politically correct to vote in favor of this bill, but it was
certainly constitutionally wrong.
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 Bush
Expected to Veto 'Hate Crimes' Bill (Cybercast
News Service 05-03-07) Lady Liberty says:
Perhaps the single most salient argument against this legislation
is the fact that the crimes affected are already crimes. The only
thing that this bill will, in fact, do is to criminalize thought
and opinion. She remains in firm opposition to it accordingly. (As
an aside, she'd note that one reason offered up for a potential
veto is that states can still pass and enforce their own hate laws.
She opposes those laws just as strongly.)
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COMMENTARY
Fear-based
politics (Daytona
Beach News Journal 05-03-07) Lady Liberty
says: While she's not particularly in favor of hard deadlines
for troop withdrawals, she can't argue the rest of the sentiments
here. Appealing to our fears was the way the Bush administration
managed to get the USA PATRIOT Act passed and expanded. It contributed
significantly to the attempted imposition of REAL ID. And it's had
more than a little to do with the loss of liberties in smaller fits
and starts over the course of the last six years as well.
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DHS
Sweats Out National ID Town Hall Meeting (Wired
05-02-07) Lady Liberty says: She doesn't
think DHS is sweating at all. She thinks it's just biding its time
until it tries to force us to comply. She'd recommend, however,
that it not bother to pretend it's not pushing a national ID. If
it looks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck...
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Senators
Cautious About Wiretap Proposal (Winona
Daily News 05-02-07) Lady Liberty says:
It's about time Congress started doing its job and asked some tough
questions! Now if only it will finish doing its job and provide
curbs and oversight to what appears to her to be a runaway power
grab by the executive and judicial branches...
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-
 Secret
Court Issued 2,176 Warrants in 2006 (NewsMax.com
05-01-07) Lady Liberty says: The overwhelming
percentage of warrants approved combined with the fact that nobody
seems to actually know whether or not there were more strikes her
as problematic at best, at least where our civil liberties are concerned.
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Plan
to call fruit juice 'drug' delayed Comment period extended to
May 29 after plan publicized (WorldNetDaily.com
04-27-07) Lady Liberty says: This is
actually good news for all of us who resent this egregious level
of government intrusiveness into our lives. If you don't know about
these proposed legislations, or if you've delayed making your
comments known, take a minute now to take
action. She suspects that we'll all regret it if we don't...
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COMMENTARY
Candidates'
Debate (Cybercast
News Service 04-27-07) Lady Liberty says:
Want to know what was actually said during the Dem debate? Get that
and some added insight from this column (which would actually be
quite a bit funnier if it weren't so damned true).
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Iowa
House approves gay rights bill; Culver guarantees signature
(Globe Gazette
04-25-07) Lady Liberty says: The problem
with this vote is that gay Americans already have rights.
That's sort of what "unalienable" means. What needs to
be dealt with is those who would usurp those rights. Pretending
otherwise does just what the critics suggest, and that's establish
preferential or "special" rights. She doesn't think anybody's
more special than anybody else, and neither should the government.
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California
Senate Votes to Ban RFID Licenses (The
Newspaper 04-25-07) Lady Liberty says:
That's really great, but what are California officials going to
do if the Department of Homeland Security decides — and she
suspects that it will — to use RFID chiips as part and parcel
of its much-vaunted REAL ID plan, eh? Since California has showed
no signs of opting out of REAL ID, she considers this vote to be
nothing more or less than a placebo.
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Antiterror
database may be dropped (New York Times News Service via The
Boston Globe 04-25-07) Lady Liberty says:
You'll forgive her for failing to celebrate upon hearing the potential
good news. She's too busy worrying about what the Pentagon will
do instead — and well under the public radar, you can bet
— once it does dismantle the database we all know
about!
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Gay-rights
proposals gain in Congress Measures would add protections (The
Boston Globe 04-25-07) Lady Liberty says:
She opposes these bills. Don't misunderstand — she doesn't
in any way, shape, form, or manner condone the commission of crimes
of any kind against anyone because of their sexual orientation.
But the truth is, she doesn't think victimizing someone for any
reason is acceptable. This legislation creates a special class of
crime with added punishment as if gay victims were more important
or valuable than black, female, Asian, crippled, or any other kind
of "class" of victim. And that's just as wrong as the
crime itself as far as she's concerned.
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Panel
Votes Immunity for Gonzales Aide (AP via My
Way News 04-25-07) Lady Liberty says:
There's little question in her mind that the Bush administration
as a whole is under attack by Congress. She also doesn't doubt that
some of the motivation is political. The problem — particularly
where people like Alberto Gonzales is concerned — is that
politics isn't all that's involved. If any part of the allegations
of wrongdoing are true in any of these matters, heads ought to roll.
She only hopes those truly resonsible won't find more Scooter Libbys
to take the fall!
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-
Case
of Ex-Senator Argued in High Court (AP via My
Way News 04-24-07) Lady Liberty says:
She's always believed that Congress ought to be subject to the same
laws the rest of us are in the hopes that it might mitigate a few
of their worst ones. This case is a prime example of why she thinks
that would be such a good idea.
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Conservatives
Wary of Giuliani, Romney (NewsMax.com
04-24-07) Lady Liberty says: If you
look at the candidates' records on civil liberties, you'll find
only a couple who actually seem to value them at all. Here's a hint:
None of them are front-runners. That probably says something about
them and about us, and it isn't particularly flattering...
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-
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Gonzales
loses support after his testimony (AP via USA
Today 04-23-07) Lady Liberty says:
Not only is it her opinion that Alberto Gonzales is a threat to
civil liberties, but he's apparently inept, too. She'd be a whole
lot more interested in his resignation if she actually thought his
replacement would be any better, though.
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Bush
Gives Gonzales Vote of Confidence (AP via My
Way News 04-23-07) Lady Liberty says:
She's sure that Gonzales appreciates support coming from somewhere.
But she's endlessly disappointed that the White House continues
to appoint and support men (and women) who have been instrumental
in undermining — for whatever reason — our civil liberties,
few more so than our current Attorney General.
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Conservatives
Ponder Giuliani (Cybercast
News Service 04-23-07) Lady Liberty says:
If they're pondering Giuliani, they're not conservatives. In fact,
they're not particularly enamored with the Constitution, either,
since God knows Giuliani certainly isn't!
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Specter
Says Gonzales Presence Is ‘Harmful’ (The
New York Times 04-22-07) Lady Liberty
says: She suspects that that's true, and that it's true in
more ways than one! If the White House is damaged, well, those folks
sign on for this kind of thing. The fact that the country itself
has been damaged with the loss of freedoms on an almost daily basis,
well, that's another story all together!
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Gonzales
Seeks GOP Support, Gets Little (AP via The
Herald News 04-20-07) Lady Liberty says:
She doesn't think the Attorney General is worthy of support. Her
only regret is that he could lose his job over his mishandling of
the firing of eight attorneys. It's her opinion that there are other
misdeeds far more grievous, not the least of which is his apparent
utter disregard for the First, Second, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth
Amendments!
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White
House insiders: Gonzales hurt himself before panel (CNN
04-19-07) Lady Liberty says: Apparently,
even loyalty can't compensate for incompetence. The truth is that
she's actually pleased Gonzales is having troubles. She considers
him to have been a real threat to freedom throughout his tenure,
and the sooner he's gone, the better.
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COMMENTARY
Time
for calm (Fairbanks
Daily News-Miner 04-19-07) Lady Liberty
says: Yes, Congress rushed through its approval of the PATRIOT
Act. But in fairness, most Americans begged them to do it. She hopes
we've both learned a lesson from that fiasco — one for which
we're still paying!
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COMMENTARY
Guilty
Until Proven Innocent (Hornet
04-18-07) Lady Liberty sayss: As dangerous as the PATRIOT Act has
proved to be to civil liberties, it's at least as dangerous as a
precedent.
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Bob
Barr, Unlikely Leader But Possible Third Party Warrior (Fox
News 04-18-07) Lady Liberty says:
She's long lamented Barr's departure from Congress. At the same
time, it was that very event that enabled him to achieve the voice
he has. This story sums up nicely some of the reasons she admires
Barr and sincerely hopes he'll someday return to Washington, preferably
in a position with a whole lot more authority.
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McCain
says he backs no gun control (AP via MLive.com
04-18-07) Lady Liberty says: She'd
like to say that what the candidates say during the campaign actually
reflects their views of civil liberties, especially when they make
it clear that they're either for them or against them. Unfortunately,
the candidates will say whatever they think will gain them votes,
and the truth is that almost all of them are against almost all
civil liberties.
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Bush
administration seeks to expand surveillance law Bill would permit
more spying on foreigners in USA (USA
Today 04-17-07) Lady Liberty says:
Unsurprisingly, she can't endorse this idea. First, there are just
too many exceptions and too little oversight. Even more important,
though, is the precedent it will set and the almost certain expansions
of the authority we can expect later. No, thank you!
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Congress
Urged to Reform USA PATRIOT Act (OMB
Watch 04-17-07) Lady Liberty says:
It's past time that Congress dealt with this issue. Of course, the
fact that Congress actually caused the problem by failing to read
what it voted in favor of didn't help much, either...
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Gonzales
Hearing Postponed (AP via Breitbart.com
04-17-07) Lady Liberty says: It's ironic
that a hearing having effectively to do with violations of civil
liberties by an agency sworn to protect and uphold them is postponed
by a tragedy that could have been prevented had innocents been permitted
to exercise their civil liberties freely, isn't it? If anything
takes the place of the Gonzales hearings, it ought to be a discussion
intended to restore the rights we've already lost — and which,
we now see all too clearly, can easily result in the loss of life
itself.
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