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Lee County Sheriff Scott's 'Hussein' reference sparks federal probe

ACLU Director of Communications Brandon Hensler says the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida received an early victory today when Senior Federal Judge Lacey A. Collier denied the ATF’s motions for summary judgment in Kilpatrick v. U.S. The ACLU filed the case on April 18, 2006, on behalf of Karen J. Kilpatrick, who claimed that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) violated her Free Speech rights. Kilpatrick was driving her blue van in Pensacola on April 19, 2004, with the slogans “Remember the Children of Waco” and “Boo ATF” written on some of the windows when she was...

Barack Obama has already brought change: He's ended the "chilling effect." Any restrictions on speech - real or imagined - were once inevitably deemed to have a "chilling effect" on people who would otherwise exercise their First Amendment rights if they weren't so frightened by the possibility of running afoul of the law. Claims of a "chilling effect" were the most reliable weapon in the American Civil Liberties Union's absolutist campaign against, say, even the most common-sensical laws against obscenity. But the politics of free speech has been subtly shifting. Opponents of the ACLU on the right increasingly worry about...

PITTSBURGH - A federal judge does not have the jurisdiction to second-guess security clearance decisions and should throw out a lawsuit by a Muslim scientist who claims he wrongly lost his clearance — and his job — at a nuclear warship plant, U.S. Justice Department attorneys said in court documents. Lawyers for the Department of Energy contend the lawsuit filed by Egyptian-born scientist Abdel Moniem Ali El-Ganayni is an effort to publicize the security review process, which could pose a threat to the U.S. The American Civil Liberties Union helped El-Ganayni sue this year, saying he was wrongly fired for...

As part of the microscopic scrutiny applied to Sarah Palin’s record, the public has been told that as the incoming Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska in 1996, Palin dared to ask the town librarian what would happen if anyone objected to an inappropriate book. She merely inquired, but "anti-censorship" activists, perpetually filled with visions of a trash can full of burning books, exploded. At the time, the Anchorage Daily News captured the librarian, one Mary Ellen Emmons, putting up her First Amendment dukes. “I told her clearly, I will fight anyone who tries to dictate what books can go on the...

I read with great appreciation Phil McBride’s article on the Mountain Man Rendezvous recently held by the Boy Scouts of America at Snow Flat on Mount Graham. The article evoked fond memories of the many times I attended what was then the 3G Council’s annual summer camp at Snow Flat. Lessons then learned from the Boy Scouts remain with me today, as do the many friends I made in Scouting. In those days and for many years thereafter, no one believed that the BSA could become the focal point of controversy. But that was then, and this is now. And...

The American Civil Liberties Union announced today that it has filed a federal lawsuit against Michigan electoral officials over what the organization characterizes as two "statewide voter purge programs" that it claims would "disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Michigan voters"—many of them college students—in advance of the fall presidential election. The legal action comes two days after Democratic nominee Barack Obama's campaign and the Democratic National Committee filed a lawsuit against Michigan over another voter-exclusion practice—using home foreclosure lists to challenge a person's right to vote. The lawsuits suggest that ballot battles in the key battleground state have just started...

Yesterday, Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr announced that he was filing a lawsuit against the Texas Secretary of State, proclaiming that since John McCain and Barack Obama had both missed the candidacy filing deadline under Texas law 192.031, both were ineligible and both should be knocked off of the ballot. Obviously, in a state with 34 electoral votes (and a state where John McCain leads by 21 points), this is big news. However, there are some inconsistencies in Barr’s case that should be hammered out.

Libertarian presidential nominee Bob Barr’s campaign filed suit Tuesday seeking to remove Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama from the ballot in Texas, alleging that the two major candidates missed the deadline for officially filing to be on the ballot. The lawsuit by the former Republican congressman from Georgia claims that neither McCain nor Obama met the requirement of Texas law that all candidates provide “written certification” of their nomination “before 5 p.m. on the 70th day before election day,” because neither had been formally nominated by their respective parties in time. The suit was filed in the Texas...

Libertarian presidential nominee Bob Barr’s campaign filed suit Tuesday seeking to remove Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama from the ballot in Texas, alleging that the two major candidates missed the deadline for officially filing to be on the ballot. The lawsuit by the former Republican congressman from Georgia claims that neither McCain nor Obama met the requirement of Texas law that all candidates provide “written certification” of their nomination “before 5 p.m. on the 70th day before election day” because neither had been formally nominated by their respective parties in time. That would have been Aug. 25. Obama...

Latino advocates and a civil liberties group have filed a federal lawsuit against a Dallas suburb whose officials are trying to drive out illegal immigrants. The groups say the plan by the city of Farmers Branch to ask house and apartment renters to obtain a license is unconstitutional. Rental applicants would be run through a federal database to check their immigration status. The lawsuit filed Friday by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union Immigrants' Rights Project is the latest facing Farmers Branch. The suburb faces several other lawsuits in a nearly two-year...

Here we go again. Ever on the alert to oppose any measures that would help insure America’s safety, the Anti Citizens’ Lives Union, aka, the American Civil License Union, aka, the ACLU is on the warpath again. Reuters reports that the FBI has drafted new regulations regarding suspicious individuals who may be plotting terrorist attacks within the United States. “Justice Department and FBI officials told a news briefing the changes would allow agents in some terrorism cases to use informants, do physical surveillance and conduct interviews without identifying themselves or their true purpose.” (http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN1247176820080912?sp=true) Since this is a Reuters report,...

THE ACLU AND YOU Here we go again. Ever on the alert to oppose any measures that would help insure America’s safety, the Anti Citizens’ Lives Union, aka, the American Civil License Union, aka, the ACLU is on the warpath again. Reuters reports that the FBI has drafted new regulations regarding suspicious individuals who may be plotting terrorist attacks within the United States. “Justice Department and FBI officials told a news briefing the changes would allow agents in some terrorism cases to use informants, do physical surveillance and conduct interviews without identifying themselves or their true purpose.” (http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN1247176820080912?sp=true) Since this...

Caution: This article contains references not suitable for children It took Randy Jackson two years to get the books "The Joy of Sex" and "The Joy of Gay Sex" removed from the Nampa library. The books came to his attention after the teenage son of a friend found one of the books lying on a table within reach of any child. Since then the American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho has sent a threatening letter to the library demanding that the books be put back. The library caved to the demand, according to The Associated Press, as "a matter of...

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Voters who show up at the polls wearing campaign buttons or T-shirts should be allowed to cast ballots, the Pennsylvania Department of State has told county elections officials. State elections Commissioner Chet Harhut said that, as long as a voter does not try to campaign in the polling place, his or her attire should not matter. Harhut's position was outlined in a memo sent last week to county elections officials. "Of primary concern is that no duly registered person be turned away at the polls," Harhut said. "If the conduct and apparel of a voter is determined...

Where are all the free-speech absolutists when you need them? Over the past month, left-wing partisans and Democrat lawyers have waged a brass-knuckled intimidation campaign against GOP donors, TV and radio stations, and even an investigative journalist because they have all dared to question the radical cult of Barack Obama. A chilly wind blows, but where the valiant protectors of political dissent are, nobody knows. On Aug. 11, I called the American Civil Liberties Union national headquarters in New York for comment about the Chicago gangland tactics of one of these groups -- a nonprofit called Accountable America that is...

Bob Barr saying that Gov. Palin is another Eagleton.

While Zogby has McCain up by two today in a post-Palin bounce, there is one ominous line and statistic in the article: "Still, storm clouds remain on the horizon for the Republicans, a four-way horserace contest between McCain, Obama, Libertarian Bob Barr and liberal independent Ralph Nader shows....." ********** BARR: TOTAL: 5% DEMS: 2% GOPers: 4% INDIES: 11%

BANGOR, Maine — The Maine Humanities Council will present a two-part series, “Fear, Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law” this fall at the Bangor Public Library.

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit on behalf of two high school students who say they are offended by the school's policy of allowing prayer at voluntary events and holding Christmas concerts at churches. The students, from Pace High School in Pace, Fla., are identified only as Minor I Doe and Minor II Doe in the lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court because they are both under 18. The complaint alleges disclosure of their names would put the students at risk of "social ostracism, economic injury, governmental retaliation … and potential physical harm." Benjamin Stevenson, staff...

Rear Admiral John Hutson (RET) spoke for Obama from the podium tonight at the DemocRAT freak show. He claims to have recently left the GOP to support Obama. Hutson spent 28 years as a Navy lawyer. We salute his service, but he was not involved in the decisions made by other admirals defending this country. Here he is on the ACLU website. He does not want military commissions for those terrorists who are enemy combatants and not in uniform. Disgusting. Retired Rear Admiral John D. Hutson Navy Judge Advocate General from 1997 to 2000, Current President and Dean, Franklin Pierce...

Imagine if liberal principals were applied to sports, so that the best team is shamed and punished for oppressing the others, and the team that manages to lose the most games is awarded the championship to encourage self-esteem. In Little League, it's already happening: Nine-year-old Jericho Scott is a good baseball player — too good, it turns out. The right-hander has a fastball that tops out at about 40 mph. He throws so hard that the Youth Baseball League of New Haven told his coach that the boy could not pitch any more. When Jericho took the mound anyway last...

ATLANTA – Bob Barr, a former Georgia congressman and the Libertarian Party’s nominee for president, responds to concerns that he’ll siphon votes from Republican John McCain. “The fact of the matter is the Republican Party has problems that go far deeper than Bob Barr,” he said. Barr is fundraising in Georgia over the weekend. “Our goal is to impede the chances to be president for both Sen. McCain and Sen. Obama,” Barr added. Barr is one of two former Georgia congressional representatives running on third party tickets. Cynthia McKinney is the Green Party’s presidential nominee.

A noted child and family psychologist says spanking a child can be an effective form of discipline, despite a recent study that states otherwise. A new report titled "A Violent Education: Corporal Punishment of Children in U.S. Public Schools" shows that more than 200,000 children received corporal punishment in U.S. schools. Texas accounted for the majority of the cases, although 21 U.S. states allow the use of corporal punishment. The study was conducted by Humans Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union. According to a Reuters article on the study, "liberal groups regard corporal punishment as a barbaric relic...

LAKE FOREST – After day laborers reached a tentative settlement in a federal lawsuit against the Orange County Sheriff's Department over soliciting work on public property, the city released details regarding its dismissal from the ACLU lawsuit. The deal with the sheriff's department was reached before a trial that was supposed to have started Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana. In late June, the ACLU agreed to dismiss the city of Lake Forest and City Council from the lawsuit, according to a statement released by the city on Thursday. The city admitted no wrongdoing, and is not required...

The citizens of the world who hate America are going to love the latest agitprop released this week by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union. In a document titled "A Violent Education: Corporal Punishment of Children in U.S. Public Schools," the left-wing groups seek to paint a horrifying portrait of the nation's classrooms as Abu Ghraib-like torture chambers. The report compiles sob stories of students humiliated after being disciplined by school officials for unruliness, and claims that minority students are "disproportionately targeted" for punishment. Citing international law and threatening lawsuits, Human Rights Watch and the ACLU are...

A majority of voters say Libertarian Bob Barr, a potential spoiler for Republican John McCain's presidential hopes, should be included in the three presidential debates scheduled in the fall between Barack Obama and Mr. McCain, a recent Zogby poll says.... The online poll of 3,339 likely voters found that 55 percent of voters nationwide - including 50 percent of Republicans and 69 percent of independents and 52 percent of Democrats - want Mr. Barr, a Republican turned Libertarian, to participate in presidential debates... Mr. Barr is sensitive to allegations that he is playing the same spoiler role for Republicans that...

Group also whitewashed MoveOn.org hate speech, published anti-Christian hate video The National Jewish Democratic Council is grasping at straws in its latest effort to smear John McCain. “McCain Picking on Jewish Supreme Court Justices?” (http://njdc.typepad.com/njdcs_blog/2008/08/mccain-picking.html) says, When Pastor Rick Warren asked Senator John McCain to name his least favorite current U.S. Supreme Court justices it seemed that he was picking on the Jewish members of our highest court. A review of the Kelo vs. New London decision, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that municipalities can collude with private developers to use eminent domain to steal property for private...

...The problems began last fall when [principal David] Davis, who did not return phone messages from The Associated Press, admonished the senior, who is identified only as "Jane Doe" in court records and whose friends say she doesn't want to talk about the experience. The friends donned gay pride T-shirts and rainbow-colored clothing when they found out how Davis had treated her, and he questioned many of them about their sexuality and association with gay students. Some were suspended. "Davis embarked on what can only be characterized as a 'witch hunt' to identify students who were homosexual and their supporters,...

Santa Ana, CA (AP) -- Day laborers reached a tentative settlement with the Orange County Sheriff's Department in an unusual harassment lawsuit that saw workers take their case to federal court, an attorney said. . . . Trial had been set to begin Tuesday in the suit filed by more than 50 laborers who claimed deputies violated their right to free speech by telling them they couldn't seek work on a street corner in Lake Forest.

“The Saakashvili government in Georgia made a foolish mistake by initiating hostilities in its breakaway province of South Ossetia,� says Libertarian Party presidential candidate Bob Barr in a press release entitled No Foreign Aid for Georgian War. “American taxpayers should not have to pay for that mistake. After all, they already are paying $10 billion a month for the administration’s mistaken invasion and occupation of Iraq. They cannot afford to pay the price for other people’s wars as well.� In response to the press release, Liberty Maven says: It is comforting to know that Barr is quick to point out...

SAN DIEGO—A transgendered Mexican woman who was granted asylum in the U.S. should be released immediately from the immigration jail while her case is under appeal, the American Civil Liberties Union said in a lawsuit filed Thursday. The ACLU said Oscar "Diana" Santander should be released while the government appeals an immigration judge's ruling in May that granted Santander asylum because she would be at risk of torture if deported to Mexico. Santander, 42, came to California illegally in 1994 but was deported in 2001 to Tijuana, Mexico, across the border from San Diego. Her attorneys claim she was held...

On Friday, August 15, the Bob Barr campaign attempted to have the Secretary of State authorize local clerks accept late filings of signatures. Don Cookson of the Secretary of State’s office indicated that there is no provision to authorize such a late filing. The signatures filed by the August 8 deadline amounted to 3,200, short of the 4,000 valid signatures required. The Libertarian Party is expected to go to court to force the state to accept the late signatures.

Stories out of Denver are reporting that the DNC is expecting mass arrests at their upcoming convention. City officials have created holding cells in a local warehouse to house all the expected rebel rousers and protesters. The conditions are not exactly posh, to say the least. There are warnings on the walls indicating: "Warning! Electric stun devices used in this facility." Nice of them to warn the extreme liberals, dontchya think? Zoe Williams of Code Pink sounds off on the conditions of the interment camp, I mean holding cells: "Very bare bones and very reminiscent of a political prisoner camp...

Abortion advocates in South Dakota on Tuesday officially launched their campaign against a November ballot proposal that would prohibit most abortions. They say the ban is just a first step in overturning the Roe v. Wade decision that allowed virtually unlimited abortions throughout pregnancy. Planned Parenthood, which runs the only abortion center in the state, and the ACLU are leading the collection of pro-abortion groups. State voters defeated a 2006 ban on a 56 to 44 vote that would have prohibited all abortions except those possibly necessary to protect a mother's life. With polls showing voters wanted an abortion ban...

This past week the Thomas More Law Center won the latest round against the ACLU in a twenty year legal battle to remove a large cross which stands atop a National memorial cemetery in San Diego. The ruling judge - Larry Alan Burns - wrote: “The Court finds the memorial at Mt. Soledad, including its Latin cross, communicates the primarily non-religious messages of military service, death and sacrifice. As such, despite its location on public land, the memorial is Constitutional.” Assessing the temporal nature of the victory, Richard Thompson from Thomas More said: Sadly, I fully expect the ACLU attorneys...

The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts announced today it is suing the Secretary of State's office for refusing to put Libertarian Bob Barr on the presidential ballot in November.

Predictably the ACLU are crying over the verdict of Osama's Driver in his military trial. After a trial filled with overwhelming constitutional and procedural flaws, a jury of military officers today found Salim Hamdan guilty of providing material support for terrorism. The American Civil Liberties Union has been at Guantánamo Bay observing the Hamdan proceedings, which lacked the fundamental legal safeguards found in traditional U.S. courts or military courts governed by the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Followed by bloviation and terrorist love from Anthony Romero. The Center For Constitutional Law is also pitching a hissy fit. And in a...

A new program by the U.S. Department of Justice targeting Muslim men of Arab descent for surveillance is unconstitutional, civil rights groups say. The new terrorist profile, set to be unveiled as early as this week, is meant to keep tabs on such men who frequently travel abroad and maintain extensive international contacts, the Detroit News reported Monday. Under the measure, the men may be subject not only to stops at the U.S.-Canadian border, but also to wider investigations that could include electronic surveillance and detentions, whether or not they are suspected of wrongdoing, the newspaper said. What is dangerous...

Crime in America has been climbing steadely over the past century. in the 1940s, there was one murder a week in New York City. That's 52 murders a year. In 1980s, there were 5000 murders a year in New York City. Why is our crime going up? Did we go wrong in raising the next generation? Could it be the images on TV? Secular Humanism? Our schools? The culprit is Liberals. For the past fifty years left wing policies have hampered law enforcement efforts to go after and prosecute criminals to the fullest extent, prevented law abiding citizens from defending...

In 1992, I was a conservative, Republican college student fighting for George H. W. Bush's re-election. I could not understand how he was losing after being so popular during the Iraq war. Sure, he had gone back on the whole "Read my lips" thing, but hey, what politican didn't break his word once in a while. Then, I spoke to my grandfather, a seaman in the navy during World War II and a blue collar Republican his whole life. He told me he was voting for Perot. I was shocked and dismayed. I tried everything I could think of to...

Homeland Security: Forced to defend its growing terrorist watch list, the FBI let slip a chilling fact that should silence ACLU grumblers: America is teeming with 20,000 terrorists.After 9/11, federal authorities estimated that as many as 5,000 terrorists were living in the U.S. The new figure is jarring not only because it's four times as large but because it's based on real persons, not estimates. It's not something headquarters wanted to publicize. Officials had downplayed the threat so as not to spook the public. The spin had been that Britain has the homegrown problem, not us. But that was before...

Bob Barr, the U.S. presidential candidate of the Libertarian Party, said the Bush administration's diplomatic engagement with Iran is "long overdue." Iran appears to be years away from possessing nuclear weapons, giving time for diplomacy to work, Barr said in a release. He said that war with Iran would be a disaster. "American troops in Iraq would be at risk. U.S. citizens would be targeted for terrorist acts," he said. "Tehran could retaliate against Israel. Oil shipments would be disrupted, causing energy prices to soar even higher. Allied states in the Persian Gulf would be vulnerable to attack. Chances for...

My reasons for leaving the Party that I’ve felt at home in since I became politically aware are numerous. I will start with quoting countless conservatives who feel as I do - I didn’t so much leave the Republican Party, it was the Party that left me. The elected Republican officials failed to implement a conservative agenda, despite having the Presidency and both houses of congress. No Child Left Behind, Prescription Drug Entitlements; they even tried to force Amnesty for illegal aliens upon us. They have given us a government that would make even LBJ blush. Our businesses and land...

Squeezing his thumb and forefinger together in the back of a Manchester bar last night, Libertarian presidential nominee Bob Barr told a crowd of 80 that when it counts, there's that much difference between the Republicans and Democrats. Americans, he argued, are looking for something new. "The definition of throwing your vote away is to go into that voting booth and vote for one of two parties that will not change the direction this country's going in," Barr told a crowd of about 80 at Murphy's Taproom. "And that's the Republicans or Democrats."

Memphis Police Director Larry Godwin and the city of Memphis have filed a lawsuit to learn who operates a blog harshly critical of Godwin and his department. The lawsuit asks AOL to produce all information related to the identity of an e-mail address linked to MPD Enforcer 2.0, a blog popular with police officers that has been extremely critical of police leadership at 201 Poplar. "In what could be a landmark case of privacy and the 1st Amendment," the anonymous bloggers write on the site, "Godwin has illegally used his position and the City of Memphis as a ram to...

In fact, as much as he despised Clinton, Barr thinks President Bush is worse. "What George W. Bush has done to the fabric of our constitutional government, to separation of powers, to a government of limited powers is absolutely unforgivable," he said. That prospect is greatest in Barr's home state of Georgia. Obama is already running ads targeting an untapped pool of African Americans and younger voters. State polls suggest Barr's single-digit following pulls mostly from McCain. "If Barr can win 5 or 6 points of the total vote -- it's an if but it's conceivable -- then Obama could...

Washington (CNSNews.com) - Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr praised Al Gore, who challenged the United States Thursday to run on 100 percent zero-carbon electricity within 10 years. Barr, a former Republican congressman from Georgia who attended the former vice president’s Washington, D.C., speech Thursday, said Gore’s plan “makes sense.” “America responds well to challenges, if it is laid out, if it’s in terms that people can understand and relate to, if it makes sense – and what he’s laid out makes sense,” Barr said in an interview with Cybercast News Service after Gore spoke. In a speech at the Daughters...

Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr praised Al Gore on Thursday for his commitment to addressing climate change and said he has met with the former vice president several times to discuss possible solutions. In a speech Thursday at Constitution Hall in Washington, Gore said that he has also discussed climate change with presidential candidates Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). Both McCain and Obama believe that action needs to be taken on global warming and have separately criticized the Bush administration for its approach on the issue. Barr said he believes the most effective energy solution will...

The judiciary is becoming an important election issue. John McCain is warning conservatives that control of today's finely balanced Supreme Court depends on his election. Unfortunately, his jurisprudence is likely to be anything but conservative. The idea of a "living Constitution" long has been popular on the political left. Conservatives routinely dismiss such result-oriented justice, denouncing "judicial activism" and proclaiming their fidelity to "original intent." However, many Republicans, like Mr. McCain, are just as result-oriented as their Democratic opponents. They only disagree over the result desired. Judge-made rights are wrong because there is no constitutional warrant behind them. The Constitution...