Why the oversight can never be adequate. It’s clear that congressional oversight of the government’s intelligence activities is either inadequate or flawed. Asked if he believes there has been enough oversight of the NSA, Senate majority leader Harry Reid was dismissive last week: “Enough is something that’s in the eye of the beholder.” ... MOREJohn Fund: Who Is Watching The NSA Watchers?
Why the oversight can never be adequate. It’s clear that congressional oversight of the government’s intelligence activities is either inadequate or flawed. Asked if he believes there has been enough oversight of the NSA, Senate majority leader Harry Reid was dismissive last week: “Enough is something that’s in the eye of the beholder.” ... MOREJames Hamblin: There Will Always Be More Drugs
Another reason the war on drugs is a failure. A trillion dollars deep and arguably no further forward, the war on
drugs continues to meet new fronts. Only recently have designer drugs
taken hold in forms that effectively mimic the physiologic effects of
the substances we've spent decades and lives and fortunes to eliminate.
The target moves ... MORENSA Copies All Internet Data, Creates Dossiers On Users
The extent of government lawlessness is massive. The Associated Press dropped a bombshell report yesterday that claims the NSA's secret Internet spy program Prism is just a small part of a much more "expansive and intrusive" digital spying effort. According to the AP, the NSA copies ALL INTERNET traffic in and out of the United ... MOREMichael Barone: Americans Becoming More Libertarian
The evidence is abundant. Are Americans becoming more libertarian on cultural issues? I see evidence that they are, in poll findings and election results on three unrelated issues -- marijuana legalization, same-sex marriage and gun rights. Start with pot. Last November voters in the states of Colorado and Washington voted to legalize marijuana, ... MOREWalter E Williams: Unasked & Unanswered Questions
Contempt for liberty by progressives. Grutter v. Bollinger was the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the University of Michigan Law School's racial admissions policy. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, writing for the majority, said the U.S. Constitution "does not prohibit the Law School's narrowly tailored use of race in ... MOREObama Speaks With Forked Tongue On Surveillance
by Sheldon Richman. It’s bad enough the federal government spies on us. Must it insult our intelligence too? The government’s response to Edward Snowden’s leaks about the National Security Agency’s secret monitoring of the Internet and collection of our telephone logs is a mass of contradictions. Officials have said the disclosures are (1) old ... MOREVIDEO: The NSA's Future Crime Unit
A lawless government based on a general warrant by a secret court. The United States was created in part to explicitly reject the abuses of King George. One of those abuses, so-called "general warrants," allowed police to search homes and businesses without evidence of a crime. The broad collection of Americans' phone records, e-mail correspondence and purchase records has largely occurred without suspicion of criminal activity. Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the Cato Institute, comments on the redefinition of privacy by the National Security Agency.
Court Rules Proof Of Citizenship Not Necessary To Vote
Claiming citizenship will be enough. The U.S. Supreme Court threw out an Arizona law that required evidence of citizenship when people register to vote, in a victory for minority-rights advocates and the Obama administration. The justices, voting 7-2, said Arizona’s proof-of-citizenship law runs afoul of a federal statute that sets out ... MORESteve Chapman: Birth Control Without The Middle Man
Hoping for the triumph of logic. We all know that every day, people in Mexico come across the border in pursuit of something they can't find in their country. What you may not know is that every day, people in the United States go across the border to Mexico for the same reason. They aren't looking for jobs. They're looking for birth. ... MOREWary Of Tracking, Users Flock To DuckDuckGo
by Nidhi Subbaraman. First news of the government's Web tracking program PRISM broke late
last Thursday, and by Friday, traffic at the indie search engine
DuckDuckGo was on the upswing. The tagline on its homepage: "Search anonymously." "You could notice the difference almost immediately," Gabriel Weinberg, DuckDuckGo's founder ... MOREJonah Goldberg: The Unfolding Revolution
Freedom, not statism, is progress. ‘Why are there no libertarian countries?” In a much-discussed essay for Salon, Michael Lind asks: “If libertarians are correct in claiming that they understand how best to organize a modern society, how is it that not a single country in the world in the early twenty-first century is organized along ... MORE
Why Mistrust Of Government Is Good
An insightful interview with Penn Jillette. Question: Why is it important to mistrust the government? Penn Jillette: I believe that our country, uniquely for the time, was founded on mistrust for the government, which is such a heady and beautiful idea. The idea that we have all the rights in the world. We have complete and utter ... MORENSA Scandal Separates Liberty Lovers From Poseurs
by Steve Chapman. Most Americans who pay any attention to politics believe the
nation’s great chasm is between “Red State” Republicans and “Blue
State” Democrats. While the nation’s two major parties have their
differences, the real divide is and always has been between those
who reflexively trust the authorities and those ... MOREShane Clark: Are You Willing To Die For Your Freedom?
Massive loss in freedom vs. minimal gain in security. Before we even got the whole picture detailing exactly how widespread the government's phone tracking efforts were, we were hit with news of the NSA PRISM program. The details are still being uncovered and debates and questions concerning both programs abound, but the most ... MOREHow To Keep Your Government From Spying On You
by Ronald Bailey. “Does the [National Security Agency] collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) asked James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing in March. Clapper replied, “No sir...not wittingly.” We now know that was ... MORE
Andrew Napolitano: Liberty In Shambles
Jury Nullification, Not Pardon, For Edward Snowden
by Thomas Mullen. The whistleblower who has risked his life and his freedom to
expose the NSA’s domestic spying program has fled to Hong Kong. Caught
red-handed violating one of the most fundamental limits on its power,
codified in the Fourth Amendment, the federal government has responded
predictably. It wants to prosecute its accuser. ... MORE
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