Rational Review News Digest ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Published Monday-Friday, except for holidays Made possible by the generous support of our readers http://www.rationalreview.com/news
Produced in cooperation with the International Society for Individual Liberty http://www.isil.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Volume IV, Issue #923 Wednesday, June 21st, 2006 Email Circulation 2,010 ------ SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS -------------------------------------- LIBERTARIANS: THE GAY-FRIENDLIEST PARTY Join Outright Libertarians online or at the LP National Convention to help keep the LP true to its gay-friendly roots. http://www.outrightlibertarians.org/ SEE THE FUTURE OF THE INTERNET! Want a Smart Network or Dumb Pipe? Congress is about to Vote, Make Up Your Own Mind. It's About the Future of the Internet! http://www.internetofthefuture.com/ FREE STATE PROJECT Come to the 3rd annual FSP Porcupine Freedom Festival, the largest libertarian event of the year! June 23-July 1, 2006 Roger's Campground, Lancaster, NH http://freestateproject.org/festival FREEDOMAIN RADIO! Passionate, articulate, funny and irreverent, Freedomain Radio shines a bold light on old topics -- and invents a few new ones to boot! http://www.freedomainradio.com/ RADIO FREE LIBERTY Principled Libertarian Podcasts - Changing the world one iPod at a time! http://radiofreeliberty.com/ -------------------------------------- SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS ----- Today's News: 0) Support for ISIL scholarships urgently needed 00) Summer Ad Sale at RRND! 1) Iraq: 15 killed in US raids 2) Afghanistan: Nearly 30 dead in fresh violence 3) US mulls intercepting North Korean missile 4) Safavian convicted in Abramoff coverup 5) Libertarians target New Hampshire 6) Afghanistan: Taliban waging "full-blown insurgency" 7) Memo paints bleak picture at Baghdad embassy 8) Al Qaeda video shows alleged 20th hijacker 9) National Guard arrives in New Orleans 10) GA: Federal lawsuit challenges sex offender law 11) Probe: Iraqi troops killed 2 US soldiers 12) Police bypass subpoenas to get Americans' phone records 13) New border chief: Walls are not the answer 14) Leaders: Broad immigration bill unlikely 15) Oil prices could spike, Saudi warns 16) PA: City to crack down on illegal immigration 17) CT: Mayor admits cocaine use 18) North Carolina's mountaintop homes stir debate 19) Clean Water Act ruling illustrates court's shift 20) Internet access bill gets "rights" 21) Italy may indict American 22) World Cup thief's own goal 23) SC: Store heist erupts into shootout 24) PA: Homeowner opens fire on trespasser 25) GA: Suspect shot by pawn shop employee Today's Commentary: 26) Open letter on immigration 27) That death toll 28) Odyssey to America 29) Hard knocks with no-knock 30) Understanding basics 31) When the world goes mad 32) Is the NSA spying on US Internet traffic? 33) Commons problems 34) Down Mexico way 35) Peak oil = urban ruin 36) Court ruling knocks off a constitutional right 37) Cut and run? Hardly 38) The case against "principles" 39) Congress produces a plan to protect us from elderly ladies 40) Congress stuck in immigration stalemate 41) Clues from coal fields 42) Lieberman on the brink 43) Review: A Remarkable Man 44) S.O.S. 45) Iraq: Means and ends 46) The non-direction direction 47) Mass Omega 3 dosing vs. global fish stocks 48) What's in a number 49) On busy bodies and minding your own business 50) Japan nixes payments to its wartime slaves 51) Crimes of distance are not crimes 52) How to destroy Mongolian mining 53) Whose property is it? 54) Turning the tables on abusive tort lawyers 55) UN bashing is hardly enough 56) Liberalism as religion Today's Movement News & Events: 57) 2006 Porcupine Freedom Festival 58) Seminar: Liberty, Economy & Society 59) ISIL's 25th World Freedom Summit 60) Authority and autonomy in the family 61) Reason in Amsterdam 2006 Today in Political History: 62) They're drinkers, they're liars, but they're men News 0) Support for ISIL scholarships urgently needed International Society for Individual Liberty "Each year ISIL provides scholarships for students and young freedom activists from around the world to attend our international conferences. ... We have a waiting list of more than 20 outstanding individuals on hold while we seek additional funding. Each one costs us $600US+. Please consider donating to our scholarship fund." http://www.isil.org/store/membership.html#scholarships ----- 00) Summer Ad Sale at RRND! Rational Review News Digest We've reduced our advertising rates! Your BlogAd reaches Rational Review's web readers, as well as 7,500+ email subscribers to Rational Review News Digest AND Freedom News Daily each day in our "sponsor bloc" -- a solid libertarian customer base for your product or service. A one-week ad costs only $25, with discounted pricing for 2-week, 1-month or 3-month ads. Click on the "advertise here" link in any Rational Review sidebar, or on the URL below, to place your ad. http://tinyurl.com/7k5am ----- 1) Iraq: 15 killed in US raids Zee News [India] "The US military said today it killed 15 'terrorists' during overnight raids in farmland near the restive town of Baquba but Iraqis insisted the dead were innocent poultry farm workers. 'Coalition forces killed 15 terrorists and detained three other suspects during simultaneous raids north of Baquba,' a military statement said. But Iraqi police, relatives of those killed and a human rights organisation in Baquba gave an entirely different version of the incident in the confessionally divided province of Diyala northeast of the capital. They said the victims were all poultry farm workers who had been sleeping in the fields of Bushaheen village in an area known as al-Salam (peace) when US troops raided the area." (06/21/06) http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?aid=303825&sid=WOR ----- 2) Afghanistan: Nearly 30 dead in fresh violence Middle East Times "There will likely be more significant fighting in southern Afghanistan in the coming months, the US-led coalition said on Wednesday as 30 people, mostly Taliban, were killed in fresh violence. The rebels were operating in larger groups and 'fighting hard' against security forces penetrating new areas, coalition spokesman Colonel Tom Collins told reporters in the capital Kabul. ... An Afghan army commander said that Afghan and coalition forces had killed 20 Taliban on Tuesday evening when they raided a Taliban hideout in southern Helmand province's Musa Qala district, which sees a lot of action. ... a bomb fixed to a tanker supplying fuel to US forces exploded in eastern Nangarhar province on Tuesday as it crossed over from Pakistan, killing six people and gutting 10 trucks, a border police commander said. The blast set alight a fuel tanker behind it and the fire spread to eight other trucks, including road construction vehicles and lorries, Mustafa Khan said. And in neighboring Kunar province, coalition soldiers opened fire on an unmarked police vehicle that did not halt at a check-post and killed three policemen who had rocket-propelled grenade launchers with them, Collins said." (06/21/06) http://tinyurl.com/fp2ng ----- 3) US mulls intercepting North Korean missile CTV [Canada] "With worry increasing that North Korea will test a missile capable of hitting North America, media reports indicate the U.S. government is considering a range of responses. The Associated Press reported Tuesday that U.S. defence officials are considering trying to shoot down any possible missile launch over the Pacific Ocean. The Washington Times newspaper reported that the Pentagon has activated its missile defence system. A Pentagon spokesman said he couldn't say whether the U.S. missile defence system -- which has a spotty record in tests -- might be used. However, U.S. officials admit they don't really know what the secretive North Korean regime is up to. For example, the North Koreans could be launching a satellite -- or they could even be trying an attack, they said on condition of anonymity." (06/21/06) http://tinyurl.com/kwl8x ----- 4) Safavian convicted in Abramoff coverup CNN "A jury found former Bush administration official David Safavian guilty Tuesday of covering up his dealings with Republican influence-peddler Jack Abramoff. Safavian was convicted on four of five felony counts of lying and obstruction. He had resigned from his White House post last year as the federal government's chief procurement officer. The verdict gave a boost to the wide-ranging influence peddling probe that focuses on Abramoff's dealings with Congress." (06/20/06) http://tinyurl.com/er3ne ----- 5) Libertarians target New Hampshire Washington Times "A group that hopes to turn New Hampshire into a libertarian haven will gather this weekend in Lancaster, N.H., for an 'activist boot camp.' The Free State Project is trying to get 20,000 'liberty-oriented people' to move to New Hampshire as 'a strategy for reducing the role of government.' This weekend's "Porcupine Freedom Festival" in Lancaster will work to familiarize potential recruits with New Hampshire ..." (06/21/06) http://washingtontimes.com/culture/20060620-095505-2384r.htm ----- 6) Afghanistan: Taliban waging "full-blown insurgency" USA Today "In their biggest show of strength in nearly five years, pro-Taliban fighters are terrorizing southern Afghanistan -- ambushing military patrols, assassinating opponents and even enforcing the law in remote villages where they operate with near impunity. 'We are faced with a full-blown insurgency,' says Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid, author of Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil & Fundamentalism in Central Asia. Four and a half years after they overthrew the Islamic militia that had controlled much of Afghanistan, U.S.-led forces have been forced to ramp up the battle to stabilize this impoverished, shattered country." (06/20/06) http://tinyurl.com/zhmuq ----- 7) Memo paints bleak picture at Baghdad embassy MSNBC "A recent cable to the State Department from the U.S. embassy in Baghdad outlines a litany of fears and misery among Iraqi employees at the American diplomatic mission that threaten 'objectivity, civility, and logic' among workers. The collection of anecdotes from Iraqi workers in an undisclosed office in the embassy paints an extraordinarily bleak picture of life in the capital, where local employees do not dare reveal where they work, even to family members, for fear of retribution." (06/20/06) http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13442057/ ----- 8) Al Qaeda video shows alleged 20th hijacker Palestine Herald-Press "Al-Qaida has identified a would-be 20th hijacker for the Sept. 11 attacks as a Saudi operative who was killed in a 2004 shootout with his country's security forces. In a statement accompanying a new video, the terrorist network's propaganda arm identified Fawaz al-Nashimi, also known as Turki bin Fuheid al-Muteiry, as the operative who would have rounded out a team that ultimately took over United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed into a Pennsylvania field before reaching its intended target. A 54-minute video featuring al-Nashimi was obtained Tuesday by IntelCenter, a U.S. government contractor based in Virginia. U.S counterterrorism officials declined to comment on the authenticity of the video and its claims." (06/20/06) http://tinyurl.com/fysfm ----- 9) National Guard arrives in New Orleans Ottawa Daily Times "Nine months after they rode to the rescue in the desperate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, National Guardsmen carrying M-16s returned to the city Tuesday to reinforce a depleted police department and battle a surge in violence. The 100 or so soldiers will patrol the streets in ravaged neighborhoods left deserted by Katrina, freeing up police officers to concentrate on more heavily populated sections." (06/21/06) http://tinyurl.com/ef8hr ----- 10) GA: Federal lawsuit challenges sex offender law Rome News-Tribune "A civil liberties group filed a federal class-action lawsuit Tuesday challenging a new Georgia law designed to crack down on people convicted of sexually abusing children, arguing that it is so strict that it would be impossible for offenders to live in most of the state's urban and suburban areas. The law, believed to be among the nation's toughest, is set to go into effect July 1 and would impose stricter limits on where sex offenders may live, work or spend time -- including 1,000-foot buffers around all school bus stops, churches, schools, child-care centers and other places where children congregate. The lawsuit was filed by the Atlanta-based Southern Center for Human Rights on behalf of nine convicted sex offenders." (06/20/06) http://tinyurl.com/obmow ----- 11) Probe: Iraqi troops killed 2 US soldiers Athens Banner-Herald "Two California soldiers shot to death in Iraq were murdered by Iraqi civil-defense officers patrolling with them, military investigators have found. The deaths of Army Spc. Patrick R. McCaffrey Sr. and 1st Lt. Andre D. Tyson were originally attributed to an ambush during a patrol near Balad, Iraq, on June 22, 2004. But the Army's Criminal Investigation Command found that one or more of the Iraqis attached to the American soldiers on patrol fired at them, a military official said Tuesday." [editor's note: Read the date -- this is NOT the incident from a few days ago - TLK] (06/21/06) http://tinyurl.com/pygx7 ----- 12) Police bypass subpoenas to get Americans' phone records CNN "Federal and local police across the country -- as well as some of the nation's best-known companies -- have been gathering Americans' phone records from private data brokers without subpoenas or warrants. These brokers, many of whom market aggressively across the Internet, have broken into customer accounts online, tricked phone companies into revealing information and sometimes acknowledged that their practices violate laws, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press." (06/20/06) http://tinyurl.com/rg6u2 ----- 13) New border chief: Walls are not the answer Somerset Commonwealth Journal "Two weeks on the job, the new head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Tuesday he does not favor building a huge wall along the Mexican border. 'I don't support, I don't believe the administration supports a wall,' Commissioner W. Ralph Basham said in Tucson, where he met with patrol officials and agents before embarking on a tour across the Arizona desert. Asked about proposals in Senate- and House-approved immigration measures to build security walls 380 or 700 miles long, respectively, Basham said, 'It doesn't make sense, it's not practical.'" (06/20/06) http://tinyurl.com/poyo7 ----- 14) Leaders: Broad immigration bill unlikely Waterloo Courier "In a defeat for President Bush, Republican congressional leaders said Tuesday that broad immigration legislation is all but doomed for the year, a victim of election-year concerns in the House and conservatives' implacable opposition to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants. 'Our number one priority is to secure the border, and right now I haven't heard a lot of pressure to have a path to citizenship,' said Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., announcing plans for an unusual series of hearings around the nation to begin in August on Senate-passed immigration legislation." (06/20/06) http://tinyurl.com/njrqz ----- 15) Oil prices could spike, Saudi warns US News & World Report "World oil prices could double or triple over the current painful $70-per-barrel level if diplomacy failed and military conflict broke out over Iran's nuclear ambitions, Saudi Ambassador Prince Turki al-Faisal warned this morning. 'We don't know' what will happen if the United States chooses a military option in Iran, al-Faisal said, but 'if there is military conflict, if bombs are dropped, ships are blown up, oil facilities on our side of the gulf are targeted ... just the idea of somebody firing a missile at an installation somewhere would shoot up the price of oil astronomically.'" (06/20/06) http://www.usnews.com/usnews/biztech/articles/060620/20oil.htm ----- 16) PA: City to crack down on illegal immigration Arizona Republic "With tensions rising and the Police Department and municipal budget stretched thin, Hazleton is about to embark on one of the toughest crackdowns on undocumented immigrants anywhere in the United States. Last week, the mayor of this former coal town introduced, and the City Council tentatively approved, a measure that would revoke the business licenses of companies that employ undocumented immigrants; impose $1,000 fines on landlords who rent to such immigrants; and make English the official language of the city. 'Illegal immigrants are destroying the city,' said Mayor Lou Barletta, a Republican. 'I don't want them here, period.' ... The City Council, which approved the measure in a 4-1 vote, must vote on it twice more before it can become law. The next vote is scheduled for mid-July." (06/20/06) http://tinyurl.com/hgy96 ----- 17) CT: Mayor admits cocaine use Fox News "[Bridgeport] Mayor John M. Fabrizi admitted Tuesday he had abused cocaine while in office and said he wanted to apologize 'to all the people of the city' but had no plans to resign. The admission followed the inadvertent release of an FBI document in which an alleged drug dealer claimed an associate had a videotape of the mayor using cocaine. In a tearful speech to about 200 city employees in City Council chambers Tuesday, Fabrizi said he had not used drugs in 18 months and had sought help for a drug addiction that he had hoped to handle privately. 'I thought that these were personal, private matters to me and my family, that I could deal with these issues with my family and myself,' Fabrizi said. 'I now recognize my actions affected many others, and I want to apologize to my family, my friends, and all of the people of the city of Bridgeport for my actions, my past actions.' Fabrizi, a Democrat who took office after former Mayor Joseph Ganim was convicted of corruption in 2003, said he hopes to move forward and continue running Connecticut's largest city." (06/20/06) http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,200220,00.html ----- 18) North Carolina's mountaintop homes stir debate Christian Science Monitor "Nearly 5,000 feet high, Charles and Deborah Ericksons' ridge-top cabin is perched like a falcon's nest on a cliff face. It's one of a rapidly growing subset of vacation homes called 'ridge-top development' -- where homes are literally bolted to the mountaintop. 'It's almost heaven,' says Ms. Erickson, a retiree who spends half the year in these mountains, the other half in Naples, Fla. She has been drawn to the Smoky Mountains since she visited in her childhood. The price range for these mountaintop homes? $225,000 to $1.5 million. But these scenic views come with other costs: Ridge-top building may cause downstream water pollution and wreck trout streams by causing too much silt to pour off denuded slopes." (06/20/06) http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0620/p02s01-ussc.html ----- 19) Clean Water Act ruling illustrates court's shift Boston Globe "The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that environmental regulators may have gone too far when they applied the Clean Water Act to wetlands, rather than just lakes and rivers, delivering a divided opinion that illustrated the court's rightward shift since President Bush's two recent nominations. The 5-to-4 decision could limit the reach of the Clean Water Act, a landmark 1972 law that gives the Army Corps of Engineers the right to block development that would pollute the nation's waters. Also yesterday, the court announced that it would hear a case next fall involving certain late-term abortion procedures. As in several other important decisions this term, yesterday's environmental case was decided by a bloc of the four most conservative members of the court -- including Bush's nominees, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. -- who were joined by a conservative-leaning centrist, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy." [editor's note: The irony is, in this case the Court is actually loosening the noose around our necks for a change! Consistency is clearly not the "hobgoblin" of these little minds - SAT] (06/20/06) http://tinyurl.com/o7kxe ----- 20) Internet access bill gets "rights" San Francisco Chronicle "As the Senate gets closer to voting on a telecommunications bill that would address the white-hot issue of network neutrality, a key member introduced language into existing legislation that he feels would be a compromise on the issue of charging Web sites extra fees for delivering their content faster online. The provisions would prohibit telephone and cable companies from blocking user access to individual Web sites as part of an 'Internet Consumer Bill of Rights.' The new language allows the Federal Communications Commission to police user complaints and levy fines related to such problems, in addition to Internet carriers cutting access to a particular e-mail service or software." (06/20/06) http://tinyurl.com/h85or ----- 21) Italy may indict American New York Daily News "Italian prosecutors sought the murder indictment yesterday of a Bronx soldier already cleared by the U.S. military in the shooting death of an Italian intelligence agent in Iraq. The case against Army Spec. Mario Lozano was 'still at the preliminary phase' but could lead to a request for extradition, said a spokesman for the Italian Embassy in Washington. Pentagon officials said that a U.S. military investigation had ruled the March 2005 death of Italian agent Nicola Calipari near the Baghdad airport a 'tragic accident.' Military law experts, speaking on background, said that any U.S. agreement to extradition was highly unlikely and the only danger of prosecution Lozano could face would be if he agreed to go to Italy voluntarily." [editor's note: Wasn't Afghanistan's refusal to extradite an accused murderer the pretext for a US invasion? - TLK] (06/20/06) http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/story/428137p-361051c.html ----- 22) World Cup thief's own goal Ananova [UK] "A thief who stole a World Cup ticket from a woman's handbag was caught after sitting down to watch the game next to his victim's husband. The 34-year-old mugged Eva Standmann, 42, as she made her way to the Munich stadium for the Brazil-Australia game at the weekend and discovered the ticket in her bag. But as he took the woman's place in the stadium he was met by her husband Berndt, 43, who immediately called security." (06/20/06) http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1883955.html ----- 23) SC: Store heist erupts into shootout Bluffton Island Packet "A Hardeeville liquor store manager decided he'd have his own shot -- or two -- at exacting justice on the man who robbed his store at gunpoint Monday morning. After the robber took about $1,500 to $2,000 in cash from the counter of Greene's Package Shop, manager Herbert Tolar snubbed the man's demand that he stay in the store for 10 minutes, instead chasing the robber out with his .38-caliber revolver in hand. 'He threatened my life, and I was going to kill the (SOB),' Tolar said Monday afternoon. Tolar said he shot at the robber twice as he ran away, and the robber shot back. No one was hit." (06/18/06) http://www.islandpacket.com/news/local/story/5844042p-5199978c.html ----- 24) PA: Homeowner opens fire on trespasser WGAL News "In Adams County, trespassing charges have been filed against Anthony Sitts, 37. Police said Sitts was trespassing on a property along Gordon Road in Freedom Township shortly after 9 p.m. Monday and entered the house without permission. Police said he left the home and went back to his vehicle, but the homeowner followed him and blew out the rear windows of the vehicle with a shotgun." (06/20/06) http://www.wgal.com/news/9398243/detail.html ----- 25) GA: Suspect shot by pawn shop employee Access North Georgia "A man who attempted to rob a DeKalb County pawn shop was in stable condition Tuesday after being shot by an employee, a police spokesman said. The 21-year-old man, armed with a knife, entered Evans Mill Pawn Shop and tried to hold up the store Tuesday morning, Dekalb County police Officer Herschel Grangent said. The man attacked one of the store's employees, who pulled out a gun and shot the man several times." (06/20/06) http://www.accessnorthga.com/news/ap_newfullstory.asp?ID=76748 ----- RRND MEDIASHELF -------------------------------------------- Books, CDs and other tchotchkes from today's edition: Taliban, by Ahmed Rashid http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0300089023/rationalrev08-20 The End of the Line, by Charles Clover http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0091897815/rationalrev08-20 Note: Affiliate links generate commissions for RRND's editors. -------------------------------------------- RRND MEDIASHELF ---- Commentary 26) Open letter on immigration Independent Institute by more than 500 distinguished scholars "Throughout our history as an immigrant nation, those who were already here have worried about the impact of newcomers. Yet, over time, immigrants have become part of a richer America, richer both economically and culturally. The current debate over immigration is a healthy part of a democratic society, but as economists and other social scientists we are concerned that some of the fundamental economics of immigration are too often obscured by misguided commentary." (06/19/06) http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1727 ----- 27) That death toll LewRockwell.Com by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. "There is something morally creepy about the way the White House responded to the news -- released as inconspicuously as possible -- that the 2,500th American soldier has died in Iraq. 'It's a number,' said White House Press Secretary Tony Snow. Yes, and so is 5,000, and 10,000, and 15,000. Is there no amount of American bloodshed that would trigger a reassessment of the ideological fantasy that US power can transform Iraq into Kansas? As an old news hand, Snow caught the tenor of his dismissive remark and modified it with presidential pieties about sadness and heartache. But there's not enough of the latter to compel a change in policy, so how seriously can we take these expressions of regret?" (06/21/06) http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/death-toll.html ----- 28) Odyssey to America AntiWar.Com by Justin Raimondo "When Adil got to U.S. Customs, he was immediately pulled out of line and interrogated for over three hours. The officer who brought him into the interrogation room commented to the others: 'Morocco -- scary!' While Adil speaks at least several languages, including Arabic, French, and Turkish, as well as English, he was questioned by a group of three or four border control officials, all speaking in rapid-fire English. Are you a Muslim? How many wives does your father have? How many times a day do you pray to Allah? That he, of all people, was being asked this last question is a particularly bitter irony. Adil had never believed it possible that he would ever reach America: it was always a scheme so improbable as to relegate it to the realm of dreams. Europe seemed so much more possible, and besides that, he knew many friends who had made it into the EU via gay marriage. Just find yourself a European husband from one of the majority of EU nations that recognize same sex unions. But some of us are just not the marrying kind, and this is certainly true in Adil's case. He'd rather risk a leaky boat." (06/21/06) http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=9181 ----- 29) Hard knocks with no-knock Reason by Tim Cavanaugh "Ironically, part of the impetus for the no-knock raid is the safety of police and civilians. There's a certain logic to that: A quick and efficient raid, in which the power of the police is immediately established and no resistance is possible, would seem like the quickest means of assuring domestic tranquility. But what happens when a citizen with a legally purchased handgun reacts to a home invasion, by people who have not knocked and are less than prompt in identifying themselves as police officers, in the most reasonable manner available -- by shooting one of the invaders? The Mississippian Cory Maye is famously sitting on death row for shooting a cop who didn't identify himself before trespassing on Maye's residence." (06/20/06) http://www.reason.com/links/links062006.shtml ----- 30) Understanding basics Liberty For All by Ed Lewis "Living free of government control does not mean living lawlessly. It means simply to live in liberty. I have been following a series of e-mails about the purpose of government using 'names' in all caps, and that such is invalid/valid to indicate human beings. No matter what the naysayers state, only you determine what is an acceptable spelling of your Christian name, and the name that identifies you as a human being. However, this isn't about that except in an indirect fashion. It is about the basics of equality and freedom." (06/21/06) http://www.libertyforall.net/2006/may23/basics.html ----- 31) When the world goes mad The Power of Narrative by Arthur Silber "In the insane universe of the Bush administration, where the meaning of words and morality itself are entirely inverted, and where Bush's most zealous advocates sometimes achieve a brief advantage simply by overwhelming us with the weight of impenetrable incoherence and lunacy, satire can sometimes find only an uncertain, faltering foothold. It can be difficult to satirize a world that has gone mad. And when satire becomes close to impossible, we are in very serious trouble. As, indeed, we are." (06/21/06) http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2006/06/when-world-goes-mad.html ----- 32) Is the NSA spying on US Internet traffic? Salon by Kim Zetter "The importance of the Bridgeton facility is its role in managing the 'common backbone' for all of AT&T's Internet operations. According to one of the former workers, Bridgeton serves as the technical command center from which the company manages all the routers and circuits carrying the company's domestic and international Internet traffic. Therefore, Bridgeton could be instrumental for conducting surveillance or collecting data. If the NSA is using the secret room, it would appear to bolster recent allegations that the agency has been conducting broad and possibly illegal domestic surveillance and data collection operations authorized by the Bush administration after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. AT&T's Bridgeton location would give the NSA potential access to an enormous amount of Internet data -- currently, the telecom giant controls approximately one-third of all bandwidth carrying Internet traffic to homes and businesses across the United States." [subscription or ad view required] (06/21/06) http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/06/21/att_nsa/ ----- 33) Commons problems TechCentralStation by Michael Rosen "The enclosure objection, in the realms it examines, challenges much of the fundamental, Lockean justification of private property rights. Locke himself praises the very enclosure of the town commons that Bollier and his colleagues so deride. In his words, recorded in Chapter V of the Second Treatise of Government, one who encloses the commons 'does not lessen, but increase the common stock of mankind.' Most basically, creating or offering the possibility of private property endows would-be property-owners with a powerful incentive to work hard and accumulate wealth. The free-market system promotes economic growth and offers individuals the ability to live comfortably. While, to be sure, some members of society may overstep the bounds of propriety by accumulating market power or by refusing to internalize costs their activities impose on society as a whole, these excesses are susceptible of correction through (mild) regulation." (06/21/06) http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=062106B ----- 34) Down Mexico way The Weekly Standard by James Thayer "As Americans debate illegal immigration, we tend to focus on the magnet that is the United States. We readily understand why people want to come here. But the pull of America is only half of the equation. The push of Mexico is the other half. It is with good reason that Mexicans flee their own country. ... The Economist pointed out that Mexico was, in Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa's words, 'a perfect dictatorship.' It had the superficial appearance of a democracy, but the president could choose all the party's candidates, and so enjoyed nearly absolute power. There was no incentive to clean up the system." (06/21/06) http://tinyurl.com/rr6ot ----- 35) Peak oil = urban ruin AlterNet by George Orwel "Let's just assume that world oil production peaks in about 15 years. What will that mean to us, in concrete terms? It won't mean we'll run out of oil right away. It only means that net oil availability will decline at an annual rate of about 2 percent thereafter, and we should expect that supply will be down by 20 percent by about 2035, when world population will be doubled, along with fuel consumption. This is still speculative and things might turn out differently, including development of new technologies that would make life a little easier, but it's going to a huge problem. It's safe to say that the general progression of events points to a scary future." (06/21/06) http://www.alternet.org/story/37541/ ----- 36) Court ruling knocks off a constitutional right Tennessean by staff "There's a knock on the door, followed by the announcement, 'Open up! Police!' Then comes the anticipation of someone answering the door. That scene is ingrained in the consciousness of Americans familiar with the standards of police work, because it represents the proper way to conduct a search warrant. But what if the cops never knocked? What if they just announced themselves, took a breath, then moved in? That's a case the Supreme Court considered last week, and the court failed miserably, siding with police who had violated a man's constitutional rights by the way they entered his home. The court ruled 5-4 that evidence seized in a search conducted by not even knocking may be used in court. That decision flies in the face of the Fourth Amendment protection from unreasonable searches. Over the years, courts have embraced the 'knock-and-announce' procedure as the way to conduct a constitutional search. The 'knock-and-announce' rule is what makes the search reasonable." (06/20/06) http://tinyurl.com/kua8d ----- 37) Cut and run? Hardly Boston Globe by H.D.S. Greenway "Last week White House operative Karl Rove traveled to New Hampshire to pump up the faithful by telling them that if Democrats had their way, Iraq would have fallen to terrorists. 'When it gets tough, and when it gets difficult, they fall back on that party's old pattern of cutting and running,' said Rove. Never mind that there were no terrorists in a position to take over in Iraq before the US invasion. What struck me about Rove's speech was 'the old pattern of cutting and running' bit. I don't remember that either Democrat Woodrow Wilson, or Franklin Roosevelt, had advocated cutting and running in World Wars I and II. If I remember correctly, a good part of the opposition to Roosevelt's efforts to keep democracy alive in Europe came from the GOP. And wasn't it Dwight D. Eisenhower, the GOP's first successful presidential candidate in 20 years, who campaigned on the promise, 'I will go to Korea' to bring that unpopular war to a close?" (06/20/06) http://tinyurl.com/g9afv ----- 38) The case against "principles" The American Prospect by Matthew Yglesias "Ned Lamont's primary challenge in Connecticut to Joe Lieberman struck me from the beginning as a little quixotic and ill-motivated. ... But Lamont ran anyway, and he's done well enough that the Lieberman camp has been forced to try and respond. What they've come up with has been almost shockingly weak. Jonathan Chait conceded that Lieberman was a bad senator in many ways, but that he'd back him at the end of the day 'since their anti-Lieberman jihad is seen as stemming from his pro-war stance, the practical effect of toppling Lieberman would be to intimidate other hawkish Democrats.' This, to me, sounded like a good reason to hope Lamont won. A country in which many politicians fear that being too dovish will lead to political problems, but nobody fears appearing too hawkish, becomes a radically unbalanced country that does dumb things, like invade Iraq." [editor's note: I especially like the "pizza analogy" in this one! - SAT] (06/20/06) http://www.prospect.org/web/view-web.ww?id=11673 ----- 39) Congress produces a plan to protect us from elderly ladies Arizona Republic by E. J. Montini "This is what hysteria gets us. We demand action on all aspects of illegal immigration, and Congress responds in the way that only Congress can -- by messing things up. Apparently, the folks we sent to Washington believe the best way to prevent non-citizens from receiving government-funded medical care is to impose nearly impossible burdens and life-threatening stress on the homeless, mentally ill and elderly. People like Jeanmarie Elkins' mother, a 92-year-old woman living with a number of other aged and infirm retirees in a Valley nursing home. 'I told the director of the home that we need to hire a bunch of ambulances, load up these old, sick people and drive them over to the (Motor Vehicle Division),' she said. 'We'll tell people that we've come to get some picture IDs. Maybe then someone in charge in the federal government will pay attention to what is going on.' The new rules are part of the Deficit Reduction Act signed by President Bush in February." (06/20/06) http://tinyurl.com/kuzfu ----- 40) Congress stuck in immigration stalemate Fox News by Martin Frost "It's time to forget most of what you learned in school about 'how a bill becomes a law.' The Congressional showdown over immigration reform is being played out in a different league with different rules. There really are only three basic issues to be resolved at this point, and they all turn on pure politics, not on substance. The first question that must be addressed is as follows: Can President Bush convince House Republicans to support legislation which includes legalization (amnesty in the eyes of many House Republicans) for a significant number of the 11 million illegal immigrants currently in our country?" (06/20/06) http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,200118,00.html ----- 41) Clues from coal fields Christian Science Monitor by Nick Anderson "Two days after I arrived in southeastern Kentucky, a coal mine explosion killed five men in nearby Harlan County. In the four weeks since the miners died, I have traveled through the coal-field counties in Kentucky and West Virginia. What I see is that coal is not the clean, cheap energy source that the coal industry advertises. The market price of coal may be relatively low, but the cost to the region is high. We are leveling the Appalachian Mountains, burying streams, polluting the water supply, and destroying North America's oldest and most ecologically diverse forests in pursuit of a fleeting supply of electricity. With underground mining, the cost is measured in lives." (06/20/06) http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0620/p09s01-coop.html ----- 42) Lieberman on the brink Slate by John Dickerson "By traditional measurements, Lieberman should still feel confident. He won the endorsement of the state party last month, and Lamont trails by double digits in the polls. However, the polling gap is closing -- Lamont is behind by 40 to 55 percent, but that is an improvement of 21 points in four weeks. And Lamont is winning endorsements from party veterans, including Jim Dean, brother of DNC Chairman Howard Dean. The challenger clearly has the momentum. He's doing so well that Lieberman has had serious discussions with political advisers about quitting the party to run in the general election as an independent. Lieberman enjoys higher poll numbers among Republicans and unaffiliated voters than among Democrats." (06/20/06) http://www.slate.com/id/2144093/ ----- 43) Review: A Remarkable Man The Free Liberal by Robert Capozzi "On the surface, A Remarkable Man shows us a common man doing uncommon things. Ed Thompson, a regular Joe hailing from Wisconsin, lives a colorful yet relatively simple life in Tomah, population somewhere under 10,000. While his brother Tommy was Wisconsin's governor, Ed prefers to run his supper club, tend to his family, visit senior citizen homes, sponsor Thanksgiving dinners for the community, and be a good, cheerful citizen. Unfortunately for Ed, he made the mistake of paying an undercover agent a $5 refund on a nickel video poker game. He, and other small tavern owners, was subjected to a raid that turned Ed's world upside down. Rather than pay a small fine, Ed stood his ground." (06/20/06) http://www.freeliberal.com/archives/002125.html ----- 44) S.O.S. National Review by the editors "If Republicans lose control of Congress this November, it will be in part because voters saw them as a party of spendthrifts. There is little reason to think a Democratic majority would be better, and much reason to think it would be worse. Even so, today's GOP -- which has superintended a 23-percent increase in real spending over the past six years -- has strayed far indeed from the Contract with America. How fortunate, then, that Senate Budget Committee chairman Judd Gregg is giving his party a chance to redeem itself before the midterm elections. Recognizing that much of what's wrong with the way Washington spends money is a product of the budget process itself, Gregg has proposed a series of reforms to that process. His legislation -- the Stop Over-Spending (S.O.S.) Act -- is one of the most encouraging efforts toward spending discipline in years, and is eminently worthy of passage." (06/20/06) http://tinyurl.com/mu84h ----- 45) Iraq: Means and ends Mother Jones by Jeffrey Laurenti "Disdaining such concerns as defeatism, the House Republican leadership described their expansive Iraq mission as integral to the 'global war on terror.' The war's supporters declared they would set no 'arbitrary' date for withdrawal from Iraq, and called on other nations to join the U.S. coalition. That coalition, however, is unraveling. Japan today is rushing to follow Italy out the door, and Korea and even Britain are edging toward the exit. The very link House leaders make between Iraq and counterterrorism is in fact what undermines the struggle against terrorism around the world." (06/20/06) http://tinyurl.com/fvff5 ----- 46) The non-direction direction Unknown News by Kevin Good "Personally, if a project manager came to me with a plan that included no timetables, no benchmarks, and no fixed budget because he wants to let conditions at the site dictate the cost and completion date of the project, he would wake up in the parking lot in his underwear wondering how he got there." (06/19/06) http://www.unknownnews.org/060619a-infobabble.html ----- 47) Mass Omega 3 dosing vs. global fish stocks Guardian [UK] by George Monbiot "So at first sight the government's investigation into the idea of giving fish oil capsules to schoolchildren seems sensible. ... There is only one problem: there are not enough fish. In March an article in the British Medical Journal observed: 'We are faced with a paradox. Health recommendations advise increased consumption of oily fish and fish oils within limits, on the grounds that intake is generally low. However ... we probably do not have a sustainable supply of long-chain Omega 3 fats.' Our brain food is disappearing. If you want to know why, read Charles Clover's beautifully written book The End of the Line. Clover travelled all over the world, learning how the grotesque mismanagement of fish stocks has spread like an infectious disease. Governments help their fishermen wipe out local shoals, then pay them to build bigger and more powerful boats so they can go further afield. When they have cleaned up their own continental shelves, they are paid by taxpayers to destroy other people's stocks. The European Union, for example, has bought our pampered fishermen the right to steal protein from the malnourished people of Senegal and Angola. West African stocks are now going the same way as North Sea cod and Mediterranean tuna. " (06/20/06) http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,1801506,00.html ----- 48) What's in a number Truthout by Charlie Anderson "Though hardly mentioned in mainstream media, this week the Pentagon released notification that three more American soldiers have died in Iraq, bringing the American death toll to 2,500. With the Bush administration's typical Stalinesque callousness, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow glibly dismissed the tragic milestone saying, 'It's a number and anytime we reach one of these 500 benchmarks, people want something.' To him and the administration, the 2,500 dead and 130,000 Americans currently serving in Iraq are just numbers, numbers that do not include any of his loved ones or the loved ones of anyone serving publicly in the administration. This flippant dismissal cannot lightly brush aside the pain, anguish and utter destruction brought by this war. If the administration truly believes this war can be reduced to mere numbers, perhaps we should consider some statistics left out of Mr. Snow's arrogant, insensitive and inflammatory remarks." (06/20/06) http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/062006C.shtml ----- 49) On busy bodies and minding your own business The Libertarian Enterprise by Ron Beatty "I've just seen some news that's made me decide to continue my article from last week, actually several news items. The first was news that a tobacco company had come up with a new brand of smokeless tobacco, which didn't requre the user to spit, left no residue, and was not in any way dangerous to any other person. The other was a consumer group suing KFC to stop them from using certain types of fats to cook some of their foods. In the first case, an 'advocacy group' was upset. Not because they could be harmed by the new product, but because 'but that won't make them quit!' This leads us to the direct conclusion that these people have absolutely no interest in anything except controlling other people's lives. In the second case, if these people don't like the way that KFC prepares the food, they just shouldn't go there, period!" (06/19/06) http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2006/tle372-20060618-06.html ----- 50) Japan nixes payments to its wartime slaves CounterPunch by Christopher Reed "Nobody knows precisely how much money is owed to the prisoners, or even exactly who should pay whom, but on Japanese government orders in 1942, they were supposed to be paid a few yen a week. Yet of the thousands of POWs held in wartime Japan, hardly any enslaved worker prisoners are known to have received one penny." (06/20/06) http://www.counterpunch.org/reed06202006.html ----- 51) Crimes of distance are not crimes Strike the Root by Harry Goslin "When that next big terrorist attack is staged here on American soil, the domestic criminal activity by the U.S. military that is rained down on the American people -- to enforce security and make us safer -- it will be too late for the American people to do anything to stop the daily violations of their rights as citizens and as human beings. By that time, they will have long sanctified all the actions of the greatest criminal organization to ever curse the earth." (06/20/06) http://www.strike-the-root.com/61/goslin/goslin6.html ----- 52) How to destroy Mongolian mining Ludwig von Mises Institute by Morgan J. Poliquin "The Mongolian state on May 12th imposed what it has termed a 'windfall profits' tax on mining carried out in that country. The law constitutes a 68% tax on profits from mineral sales when the copper and gold price are above US$1.18 a pound and US$500 per ounce respectively. This tax is so punitive that its imposition is tantamount to nationalization. Regardless of its intention, the new tax will destroy investment in mineral exploration and development in Mongolia." (06/20/06) http://www.mises.org/story/2206 ----- 53) Whose property is it? FreedomWorks by Richard W. Rahn "Assume you have just purchased a large piece of property you intend to use for agricultural and recreational purposes. You decide the best place to build your house is about a mile from the main road, and that the best place for you to build a road (driveway) to your new house site is along one of your property lines. Three of your neighbors, hearing of your plan, ask if they can also use your new road because it would give them better access to their properties than they now have. You are willing, for a price, because if you give your neighbors the right to use your road you will have to upgrade it from a single to a double lane. They, understanding this, agree to pay an annual fee if you will build the two-lane road and let them use it." (06/20/06) http://tinyurl.com/og3gm ----- 54) Turning the tables on abusive tort lawyers Center For Individual Freedom by staff "At long last, there's good news in the fight against 'jackpot justice' tort claims and the nefarious law firms that file them. In courts and legislatures across the country, fraudulent lawsuits are being exposed, and the abusive tort lawyers that file them are finally getting a taste of their own medicine. Most notable is the recent indictment of Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman, the nation's most notorious class-action law firm. For four decades, Milberg Weiss has filed hundreds of dubious class-action lawsuits and wrung billions of dollars from terrified companies." (06/16/06) http://tinyurl.com/ltdyh ----- 55) UN bashing is hardly enough Competitive Enterprise Institute by Henry I. Miller "United Nations deputy secretary-general Mark Malloch Brown has a singular view of what constitutes international diplomacy. He said in a speech recently that the American public is ignorant of the importance and effectiveness of the UN because of the U.S. government's tolerance of 'too much unchecked UN-bashing and stereotyping.' By whom? 'Much of the public discourse that reaches the U.S. heartland has been largely abandoned to its loudest detractors such as Rush Limbaugh and Fox News,' according to Malloch Brown." (06/20/06) http://www.cei.org/gencon/019,05388.cfm ----- 56) Liberalism as religion America's Future Foundation by Michael Brendan Dougherty "Godless is like Slander and Treason before it, a best-selling extended indictment of liberals. In fact, I got the eerie feeling as I was reading that I had heard some of these self-incriminating New York Times quotes before. I probably did. In Godless Ann Coulter posits that liberalism is a kind of religion. It has its sacrament: abortion; its priesthood: teachers; its creation myth: evolution. Whereas statements about the 'Willie Horton ad' made by the Times or various liberals were evidence of liberal media bias in Slander, in Godless Willie Horton is liberalism's martyr. It is not a bad formula for success. Make the broad charge, do some research on Lexis or Google and the book begins to write itself. It's not hard to imagine Ann continuing the series with titles like Crybabies: Liberals Whine When they Lose or Perverts: Liberals Rape Your Child and Abort Your Grandchild, or maybe even Fat and Ugly: You Know I'm Talkin' Bout Liberals." (06/19/06) http://tinyurl.com/qn97g Movement News & Events 57) 2006 Porcupine Freedom Festival Free State Project 06/23/06-07/01/06 "Held every summer in New Hampshire, the festival brings together small government activists of all types for a week of socializing, strategizing, and getting to know the Free State." Roger's Campground, Lancaster, NH. http://freestateproject.org/festival ----- 58) Seminar: Liberty, Economy & Society Independent Institute 06/26-30/06 and 08/7-11/06 "To help high school and college-age students better understand the social and economic issues faced throughout life, The Independent Institute sponsors the Liberty, Economy & Society Summer Seminars as a major part of the Institute's overall program for students. These dynamic seminars help students learn what economics is, how it affects their lives, and how understanding its laws can help them achieve the things they care about." Independent Institute, 100 Swan Way, Oakland, CA. Enrollment fee $195 per student, including course materials. Tuition assistance available. http://www.independent.org/students/seminars/ ----- 59) ISIL's 25th World Freedom Summit International Society for Individual Liberty 07/07/06-07/12/06 "ISIL's international conference for 2006 is being held in the stunningly beautiful city of Prague, Czech Republic." Scholarships for students/young activists available. Watch this space for details To Be Announced! http://www.isil.org/conference/ ----- 60) Authority and autonomy in the family various 08/19/06 "August 19, 2006 at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, CA. Speakers confirmed so far include Nathaniel Branden, Peter Breggin (via live video), Susan Love Brown, Marshall Fritz and Sharon Presley. Topics include liberating education, liberating childrearing, encouraging critical intelligence in children, alternative family structures, egalitarian marriage, and encouraging self-esteem in children. The sponsors are Resources for Independent Thinking, the Civil Society Institute, and the Association of Libertarian Feminists." http://www.autonomyinthefamily.org ----- 61) Reason in Amsterdam 2006 Reason Foundation 08/23/06-08/26/06 "Amidst the beauty of Amsterdam's canals, flower markets and colorful people, attendees of Reason in Amsterdam, 2006 will enjoy a unique opportunity to learn about the contemporary struggle in Europe from prominent European and American intellectuals." An astounding roster of guests and speakers, including Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of the hit series "South Park," Time Magazine's Andrew Sullivan, Reason editors Nick Gillespie and Jacob Sullum, and a host of distinguished authors, activists and political leaders. August 23-26 at the Grand Amsterdam Hotel. $425. Online registration available. http://www.reason.org/amsterdam/ Today in Political History 62) They're drinkers, they're liars, but they're men Details, and the "quote of the day," from Leon's Political Almanac at: http://perspicuity.net/cgi/hypercal.cgi ---------------------------------------------------------------------- RRND is published every weekday except on holidays. Forward freely. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or financially support RRND, visit: http://www.rationalreview.com/news To support ISIL's Free-Market.Net Project (tax deductible) http://www.isil.org/store/membership.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Thomas L. Knapp ..... Publisher Mary Lou Seymour .... Editor Steve Trinward ...... Editor R. Lee Wrights ...... Editor --------------------------------- Talk is cheap. Use Yahoo! Messenger to make PC-to-Phone calls. Great rates starting at 1¢/min. --------------------------------- Yahoo! Groups gets better. 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