Destroying Freedom

George Christian, executive director of Library Connection, a consortium of 27 libraries in the Hartford, Conn., area, has, since 2005, been fighting a National Security letter request from the FBI for subscription information on patrons of the library system. Because of the way the PATRIOT Act is written, he was only recently, through a court order, un-gagged to be able to testify to Congress about the experience.

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Watch List Datamart

The master list the federal government keeps of known and suspected terrorists, from which other government agencies derive their own watch lists, already hundreds of thousands of names large, is growing out of control, filling with “fragmentary,” “inconsistent” and “sometimes just flat-out wrong” information, a top counterterrorism official said.

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Blog Against Theocracy

A blogswarm has been organized to use the 2007 Easter season to write articles about the separation of church and state. Regular readers of this site know that I stand firmly on the principles of that separation, and believe it is an important tenant of our democracy (such as it is). Therefore, I’m participating by offering this article.

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Impeachment Now?

I really have not been clamoring for the impeachment of Dick and George Cheney-Bush. I had held out hope that an opposition party in power in Congress might be able to offset the abuses of power wrought by the current administration. Unfortunately, the total disregard by this administration for the Constitution and systems of shared power and checks and balances has become egregious.

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Boston's Big Dig–Top Secret Stuff

In Boston, the state is trying to shut down a lawsuit brought by the family of Milena Del Valle, who was killed last July when 12 tons of Boston’s Big Dig tunnel fell on her husband’s car. The excuse they’ve given this time is that if they turn over relevant documents to the family, the nation’s transportation security could be compromised.

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A Time For Anger, A Call To Action

I have come across the continent to talk to you about two subjects close to my heart. I care about them as a journalist, a citizen and a grandfather who looks at the pictures next to my computer of my five young grandchildren who do not have a vote, a lobbyist in Washington, or the means to contribute to a presidential candidate. If I don’t act in their behalf, who will?

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James Dobson Too Big a Coward to Debate Evangelical Agenda

A struggle for control of the evangelical agenda intensified this week, with some leaders declaring that the focus has strayed too far from their signature battles against abortion and gay rights.

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