Free Republic

On 7-year-old Cheyenne Gilliam's first day at Mount Vernon Elementary yesterday, her new principal, Leon Davidson, explained to her classmates that the dog she brought to school isn't a pet: It's a working dog trained to respond to Cheyenne's epileptic seizures. But the pair's first day in second grade ended abruptly when Rockcastle County Schools Superintendent Larry Hammond notified Cheyenne's parents, Jennifer and Anthony Gilliam, that the dog was, in a manner of speaking, being suspended. Two hours after the day began, the family took the dog, and their daughter, home. Hammond said in an interview that he wants to...

The King made a royal visit to Wisconsin last week, and as is common when monarchs travel, individual liberties were suspended. King George Bush's bus trip across western Wisconsin closed schools and roads, prevented residents from moving freely in their own communities, and prevented citizens from exercising their free speech rights. All in all, it was a typical George W. Bush visit. But there's a slight twist. People in western Wisconsin, who hold to the refreshingly naive notion that they live in a republic as opposed to an imperial realm, are objecting. "There's a pattern of harassment of free speech...

<p>New York officials will soon be heading to London for a firsthand look at a controversial new program to limit traffic by charging motorists $8 to drive into the central city during rush hours, officials said yesterday.</p> <p>"We're watching it with interest," said Tom Cocola, a spokesman for the Transportation Department. "We'll see how it goes."</p>

Introduction At the close of the Constitutional Conventional in 1787, Benjamin Franklin told an inquisitive citizen that the delegates to the Constitutional Convention gave the people "a Republic, if you can keep it." We should apologize to Mr. Franklin. It is obvious that the Republic is gone, for we are wallowing in a pure democracy against which the Founders had strongly warned. Madison, the father of the Constitution, could not have been more explicit in his fear and concern for democracies. "Democracies," he said, "have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security...

`Not once did this man even get up here and accept responsibility for his actions. I think that's telling.' -- MICHAEL HOROWITZ, who prosecuted David Farrall A judge told David Farrall that law enforcement officers need to uphold a higher standard than the rest of the community. Then he sentenced the former FBI agent to 90 days in jail in one of the most notorious DUI cases in South Florida history. Florence Thompson, whose two sons died in a wrong-way crash with Farrall three years ago, shrieked ''yes!'' when she saw bailiffs clapping handcuffs on the agent for the first...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Gov. Jeb Bush and the Clemency Board restored the civil rights Thursday of the FBI agent convicted of destroying records while investigating the agency's role in the deadly 1992 shootout at Ruby Ridge, Idaho. E. Michael Kahoe, a former head of the FBI's violent crime and major offenders section, pleaded guilty in 1997 to obstruction of justice for ordering the destruction of an FBI report into the 1992 fatal shooting at the cabin of white separatist Randall Weaver. Convicted felons cannot vote in Florida unless their rights are restored by the Clemency Board, which is made...

It's Here...The Federal ID card By Hari Heath Right now the U.S. House of Representatives is debating in committee what could be the single most federal power expanding bill in American history -- HR 4633, the "Driver's License Modernization Act of 2002." Since its passage last October during the post-Sept. 11 hysteria, many Americans thought the more ominously Orwellian "Provide Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (PATRIOT) Act" was intended to bring about the federally-enforced police state. However, if you read the PATRIOT Act while comparing it with existing U.S. Code, it was mostly a housecleaning bill (The...

MIAMI (AP) - Several states, including Florida, are pursuing changes in the way residents obtain a driver's license in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Before the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the nation's main form of identification was issued with loosely enforced standards set by each state. Florida, North Carolina, Michigan and many other states are now tightening regulations, particularly for foreign nationals. The states are considering new driver's licenses that would include biometric data such as fingerprints or retinal scans embedded in microchips. States are also considering connecting the computer networks ...

While listening to the debates in our Congress these past few days, I have come to the realization that even the most practical, specific, and even detailed debates in our government - such as a tax-cut bill or an energy program - underpin one of the greatest debates of our American present: the "role of government." Phrased in such typical American practical terms, this debate has often been cast as a battle between big vs. small - let the people have their money vs. let the government spend it for them. I would like, however, to rake a different light ...

FBI's E-Mail Surveillance Getting Boost Policy: Justice officials likely to call for continuing 'Carnivore,' with privacy protections added. By ERIC LICHTBLAU, Times Staff Writer WASHINGTON--Senior Justice Department officials are recommending that the FBI be allowed to continue using a controversial e-mail snooping tool against suspected criminals-with some new safeguards aimed at answering privacy concerns, law enforcement sources said Wednesday. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft met privately with FBI Director Louis J. Freeh on Wednesday for a briefing on the "Carnivore" surveillance program, and he is expected to announce a decision within the next few weeks on a thorny issue that pits ...

WASHINGTON -- When Indianapolis police stopped James Edmond and Joell Palmer at a drug checkpoint two years ago, the two men didn't merely get peeved. They got even. Edmond and Palmer filed a federal lawsuit claiming the drug-stop violated the Constitution's rule against unreasonable searches, and the Supreme Court recently agreed with them in a 6-3 ruling. But privacy scholars caution that the decision is only a minor victory for the right to be let alone, saying that the 30-year old war on drugs has gradually but persistently eroded privacy rights offline and online. Government officials have repeatedly warned of ...

WASHINGTON -- A controversial cybercrime treaty supported by the Clinton administration likely will not be amended to include privacy protections, a key European official said on Thursday. "We cannot find an acceptable international standard in terms of privacy as it applies to this treaty," said Henrik Kaspersen of the Council of Europe, which expects to finalize the document this month. "We don't want to exclude privacy. We very much want to include it," said Kaspersen, chairman of the council's committee of cybercrime experts. "But there are a number of existing case laws dealing with privacy throughout Europe, and we're also ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI's controversial e-mail surveillance tool works about the way the bureau says and generally doesn't ``overcollect'' evidence, an independent reviewer of the system said. But his remarks failed to calm the fears of privacy advocates. Henry H. Perritt said in an interview that he had recommended how the so-called Carnivore system could be improved, both for efficiency and privacy, but that all-in-all it performed as advertised. ``I think that it's fair to say that it does pretty much what the FBI says it did. For the most part, it does not overcollect,'' he said Monday. Perritt, ...