"An Armenian national who apparently didn't think much of anti-smoking laws blew cigarette smoke at a Pittsburgh police officer and ended up on the receiving end of a stun gun, arrested and jailed after a scuffle at the Greyhound bus terminal over the weekend."
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07018/754698-53.stm "U.S. prosecutors have delivered a severe blow to online gambling companies that are flouting a U.S. ban on Internet gambling by arresting two founders of payment processor NETeller." http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=internetNews&storyid=2007-01-18T161617Z_01_L1810000_RTRUKOC_0_US-NETELLER-IMPACT.xml&src=rss&rpc=22 "WASHINGTON, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- A last-minute addition to a federal spending bill at the end of the last U.S. Congress now makes civilians eligible for military courts-martial." http://www.newsdaily.com/TopNews/UPI-1-20070115-10321700-bc-us-militarytrials.xml "Turns out Lockheed Martin -- the company that gave us the Trident intercontinental ballistic missile -- was renovating the site for an upcoming project when the fire started. It's being turned into a hangar for a prototype airship. If you're frightened of this administration's habit of spying on American citizens, you may want to stop reading. The prototype is called the High Altitude Airship, or HAA. Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems & Sensors in Akron won the $40 million contract from the Missile Defense Agency to build HAA in 2003. It is essentially another blimp. A giant one. Seventeen times the size of the Goodyear dirigible. It's designed to float 12 miles above the earth, far above planes and weather systems. It will be powered by solar energy, and will stay in a geocentric orbit for up to a year, undetectable by ground-based radar. You can't see it from the ground. But it can see you." http://athensnews.com/issue/article.php3?story_id=25082 "LOS ANGELES - Federal drug agents raided nearly a dozen medical marijuana clinics in California, seizing several thousand pounds of processed marijuana, along with weapons and money, authorities said." http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16686623/ "David Monson began pushing the idea of growing industrial hemp in the United States a decade ago. Now his goal may be within reach but first he needs to be fingerprinted. Monson plans this week to apply to become the nation's first licensed industrial hemp farmer. He will have to provide two sets of fingerprints and proof that he's not a criminal." http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=2795133&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312 "Responding to questions from Sen. Arlen Specter at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Jan. 18, Gonzales argued that the Constitution doesn't explicitly bestow habeas corpus rights; it merely says when the so-called Great Writ can be suspended." http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/011807.html "Ed Brown said he was ready for a swarm of federal agents to descend on his property to execute an arrest warrant issued after he failed to appear for the end of his trial. He and his wife contend that they did not have to pay income taxes, and his supporters say a conflict could be violent." http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070119/D8MOKJTG0.html "You'd be forgiven for thinking that it was some new restriction on free speech in Communist China. But it isn't. The U.S. Government wants to force bloggers and online grassroots activists to register and regularly report their activities to Congress in the latest astounding attack on the internet and the First Amendment." http://infowars.net/articles/january2007/180107Bloggers_Prison.htm "WASHINGTON (Jan. 14) - The Pentagon and to a lesser extent the CIA have been using a little-known power to look at the banking and credit records of hundreds of Americans and others suspected of terrorism or espionage within the United States, officials said Saturday." http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/pentagon-viewing-americans-bank-records/20070114061209990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001 "BANGOR, Maine (AP) -- The Bangor City Council approved a measure Monday that prohibits people from smoking in vehicles when children are present." http://www.breitbart.com/news/2007/01/09/D8MHRQEO1.html "Mr. Speaker, what, then, is the answer to the question: "Is America a Police State?" My answer is: "Maybe not yet, but it is fast approaching." The seeds have been sown and many of our basic protections against tyranny have been and are constantly being undermined. The post-9/11 atmosphere here in Congress has provided ample excuse to concentrate on safety at the expense of liberty, failing to recognize that we cannot have one without the other. When the government keeps detailed records on every move we make and we either need advance permission for everything we do or are penalized for not knowing what the rules are, America will be declared a police state. Personal privacy for law-abiding citizens will be a thing of the past. Enforcement of laws against economic and political crimes will exceed that of violent crimes (just look at what's coming under the new FEC law). War will be the prerogative of the administration. Civil liberties will be suspended for suspects, and their prosecution will not be carried out by an independent judiciary. In a police state, this becomes common practice rather than a rare incident."--"Are We Doomed To Be a Police State?" by Representative Ron Paul June 22rd 2002 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
