cannabisnews.com: Our Big Brother, John Ashcroft Our Big Brother, John Ashcroft Posted by CN Staff on November 22, 2002 at 13:28:01 PT By Kevin McAbee Source: Technician Online More people may be listening to your conversations on the telephone than you expect. And I am not referring to your teenage brother or nosy roommate. Now, the U.S. federal government may be listening in, making sure you aren't cooking up a batch of Anthrax or building a pipe bomb. They don't need proof you are a terrorist, they don't have to tell anyone about it and anything they hear is fair game for possible arrest. This is all true because, on Monday, a federal appeals court approved broader powers for secret wiretapping and e-mail reading for the American government. This ruling overturned another federal court's decision to prohibit these acts. In Tuesday's News & Observer, Attorney General John Ashcroft champions the ruling as a "victory for safety and the security of the American people." Whether you agree depends on your definition of security. This ruling makes it much easier for the proverbial Big Brother government to eavesdrop on American citizens, and it is all done in the name of fighting terrorism. According to a Fox News article, the Justice Department says it needs this power in order to catch "multi-layer terror cells" through indirect criminal leads "seemingly unrelated to terror plots." This means that they can now use these wiretaps on people who are not suspected terrorists but rather only suspected criminals. They hope that surveillance on some suspected criminals could eventually lead them to terrorist factions. How can such a blatant infringement of civil liberties be enacted? The answer is fear. When the USA Patriot Act was passed after Sept. 11, no one really battled over the specifics. What politician in his right mind would fight an anti-terrorism bill in wake of the attacks? Now, John Ashcroft is using the Patriot Act as a means for achieving omnipotent governmental power. He is using the veil of terrorism to give law enforcement officers powers that have historically been deemed unconstitutional. Americans have the right to privacy. But this means nothing to Ashcroft -- he is after the terrorists. Get in his way, and you are just an unpatriotic terrorist sympathizer.The power granted by this ruling basically states that all criminals may be tied to terrorists, so we need to eavesdrop on them. Most notably would be drug dealers and drug traffickers, who are painted as funding terrorist activity by many TV ads. This ruling allows Ashcroft to now wiretap these traffickers and use any information, whether terrorist or non-terrorist related, to incriminate them.It is not hard to see that this ruling is more of a war-on-drugs tool than anything else. Ashcroft, using his veil of fear, has managed to indirectly assist his war on drugs with powers that would normally not be given to him. Since the ruling, the FBI has doubled the number of lawyers whose sole job is to file wiretap applications. It seems Ashcroft is going to take full advantage of this power. Soon phones, e-mail accounts and all forms of communication will be open to law enforcement officials looking for the next al-Qaida attack. But no longer are they just looking at known terrorists, now they are looking at everyone they suspect of being a criminal.Fox News reports that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court had previously denied these rights. (This court was set up as non-public court, able to rule on matters of National Security.) However, an appeal by the Justice Department to a special three-judge panel resulted in the decision being overturned. Ronald Reagan appointed all three of the judges on the panel.The American Civil Liberties Union, who battles against laws such as these, is not able to appeal this verdict. In fact, it seems no one can appeal this verdict. The special court is not open to public use, and the case had no defendant, as the Justice Department was the only party involved. Now that they have the ruling they desire, it seems no one can stop them. The ACLU may be able to bring criminal cases against the Justice Department for misuse of information, but until then, nothing will slow the process.Be afraid, citizens; be very afraid. This is a grave omen for society. Slowly, in the name of terror, our rights are being taken away. Anyone can be a suspected criminal -- you, your neighbor or even your grandma. Unknowingly to you, the FBI may be listening to you, waiting for you to admit the time when you ate your roommate's pizza and lied about it. Then they will bust in your door and cart you off to jail.It may seem like an exaggeration, but that is the path we are on, friends. If no one steps up and protests, we could soon have another McCarthy era, where fear and finger-pointing rule. Let us stop the momentum before it reaches that point.To respond to this column, leave Kevin an encrypted note taped to the inside cover of J.R.R. Tolkein's "The Two Towers" at D.H. Hill Library. Or e-mail him at: ktmcabee unity.ncsu.edu -- as no one will ever think to look there. Source: Technician, The (NC State University)Author: Kevin McAbeePublished: November 22, 2002Copyright: 2002 The TechnicianContact: opinion technicianstaff.comWebsite: http://www.technicianonline.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:ACLUhttp://www.aclu.org/Secret U.S. Court OKs Electronic Spying http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14788.shtml'A Supersnoop's Dream' http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14760.shtmlU.S. Hopes To Check Computers Globally http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14733.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #13 posted by afterburner on November 22, 2002 at 20:08:50 PT: Iron Lion Zion. ego destruction or ego transcendence, that is the question. War on patients or war on war. Makin' war or makin' love.Well, I'm on the rock, and then I take a stop. I had to run like a fugitive to save the life I live. I'm gonna be iron, like a lion in Zion. I'm gonna be iron, like a lion in Zion. Iron, lion, Zion. I'm on the run, but I ain't got no gun. You see, they want to be the star, so they fighting tribal war. And they say, him iron, like a lion in Zion. Iron, like a lion in Zion. Iron, lion, Zion. Well, I'm on the rock, runnin' and you're runnin', you see, your Bob, I take a stop, runnin' like a fugitive. I had to run like a fugitive, oo Lord, just to, just to save the life I live. Oh, now, I'm gonna be iron, like a lion in Zion. I'm gonna be iron, like a lion in Zion. Iron, lion, Zion. Iron, lion, Zion. Iron, lion, Zion. Iron, like a lion in Zion. Iron, like a lion in Zion. Iron, like a lion in Zion. Iron, lion, Zion. Iron, like a lion in Zion, runnin' like a fugitive. Iron, like a lion in Zion. Iron, lion, Zion. Iron, like a lion in Zion, runnin' like a fugitive. -Marley [ Post Comment ] Comment #12 posted by DdC on November 22, 2002 at 18:48:28 PT STATE OF THE UNION: CORRUPT by D.E.A.th Inc. http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionwhyitstimetolegalize.showMessage?topicID=332.topic"If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator." -- George W. Bush, 12/18/00"Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger." Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering, Nazi Air Force (Luftwaffe) commander, the Nuremberg Trials "Terrorist operatives infiltrate our communities, plotting, planning and waiting to kill again....To those who scare peace loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: your tactics only aid terrorists." United States Attorney General John Ashcroft "I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country... Corporations have bee enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed." Abraham Lincoln, November 12, 1864, "Parallel to the training of the body a struggle against the poisoning of the soul must begin. Our whole public life today is like a hothouse for sexual ideas and simulations. Just look at the bill of fare served up in our movies, vaudeville and theaters, and you will hardly be able to deny that this is not the right kind of food, particularly for the youth...Theater, art, literature, cinema, press, posters, and window displays must be cleansed of all manifestations of our rotting world and placed in the service of a moral, political, and cultural idea." Adolf Hitler, "Mein Kampf", Vol. 1, Chapter 10 "Arbitrary and capricious" is legal language that was used by DEA Administrative Law Judge Francis Young in 1988 to conclude that DEA was obligated under the Controlled Substances Act to reschedule marijuana as a prescription medicine. DEA Chief Administrator Robert Bonner proceeded to arbitrarily and capriciously disregard Judge Young's well researched and reasoned decision, which the Act allowed him to do.)"Secular schools can never be tolerated because such schools have no religious instruction, and a general moral instruction without a religious foundation is built on air; consequently, all character training and religion must be derived from faith . . . we need believing people." Adolf Hitler, April 26, 1933, from a speech made during negotiations leading to the Nazi Vatican Concordant of 1933 I want to be invisible. I do guerrilla warfare. I paint my face and travel at night. You don't know it's over until you're in a body bag." --Ralph Reed, Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, 11/9/91"The struggle between the two worlds [Fascism and Democracy] can permit no compromises. It's either Us or Them!" Benito Mussolini Address, from Palazzo Venezia balcony October 27, 1930 "The German people have no idea of the extent to which they have to be gulled in order to be led." Hysteria was created in the 1930s by Harry Anslinger of the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, which eventually evolved into the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). Use of the Mexican name of the cannabis plant, marijuana, was popularized by the Hearst newspaper chain to scare the public into believing that there was a new and dangerous drug being introduced to American youth by black musicians and Mexicans. The act of bigotry insinuated that the use of this drug would lead to insanity or acts of violence such as rape or murder. The result of this media blitz was the passage of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, which marked the beginning of marijuana's prohibition (Herer, 1991)."The size of the lie is a definite factor in causing it to be believed, for the vast masses of the nation are in the depths of their hearts more easily deceived than they are consciously and intentionally bad. The primitive simplicity of their minds renders them a more easy prey to a big lie than a small one, for they themselves often tell little lies but would be ashamed to tell a big one." From Benito Mussolini contributing to the "London Sunday Express," December 8, 1935 "How many murders, suicides, robberies, criminal assaults, holdups, burglaries and deeds of maniacal insanity it causes each year, especially among the young, can only be conjectured...No one knows, when he places a marijuana cigarette to his lips, whether he will become a joyous reveller in a musical heaven, a mad insensate, a calm philosopher, or a murderer..." HARRY J ANSLINGER Commissioner of the US Bureau of Narcotics 1930-1962 "All propaganda must be so popular and on such an intellectual level, that even the most stupid of those towards whom it is directed will understand it. Therefore, the intellectual level of the propaganda must be lower the larger the number of people who are to be influenced by it." "Through clever and constant application of propaganda, people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way around, to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise." From Benito Mussolini contributing to the "London Sunday Express," December 8, 1935 "There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana usage. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others." Harry Anslinger, U.S. Commissioner of Narcotics, testifying to Congress on why marijuana should be made illegal, 1937. (Marijuana Tax Act, signed Aug. 2, 1937; effective Oct. 1, 1937.) "The masses have little time to think. And how incredible is the willingness of modern man to believe." "Another weapon I discovered early was the power of the printed word to sway souls to me. The newspaper was soon my gun, my flag - a thing with a soul that could mirror my own." Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini together in the heyday of 1930s fascism. "A violently active, intrepid, brutal youth that is what I am after... I will have no intellectual training. Knowledge is ruin for my young men." Adolf Hitler quoted by John Gunther "The Nation" "Because Fascism is a lie, it is condemned to literary sterility. And when it is past, it will have no history, except the bloody history of murder." - Ernest Hemingway (1898-1961) "...somebody has to take governments' place, and business seems to me to be a logical entity to do it." - David Rockefeller - Newsweek International, Feb 1 1999. Present Drug Czar John P. Walters criticized ABC News for reporting on the Montgomery case. Walters showed no concern for Montgomery but rather complained, "Apparently ABC couldn't find a grandmother on death row for carrying a roach clip..." ACS - Division of Analytical Chemistry - DAC Awards - John P. Walters 1980 Philanthropy Roundtable John P. Walters President"There is a point at which the law becomes immoral and unethical. That point is reached when it becomes a cloak for the cowardice that dares not stand up against blatant violations of justice. A state that supresses all freedom of speech, and which by imposing the most terrible punishments, treats each and every attempt at criticism, however morally justified, and every suggestion for improvement as plotting to high treason, is a state that breaks an unwritten law." - Kurt Huber [The head of White Rose], killed by the Nazis in 1943. "They that start by burning books will end by burning men." (German) "Dort, wo man BŸcher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen." --Heinrich Heine (1797-1856), from his play Almansor (1821) "The mission of the Christian Coalition is simple," says Pat Robertson. It is "to mobilize Christians -- one precinct at a time, one community at a time -- until once again we are the head and not the tail, and at the top rather than the bottom of our political system." Robertson predicts that "the Christian Coalition will be the most powerful political force in America by the end of this decade." And, "We have enough votes to run this country...and when the people say, 'We've had enough,' we're going to take over!" --Pat Robertson(talking about apartheid South Africa) "I think 'one man, one vote,' just unrestricted democracy, would not be wise. There needs to be some kind of protection for the minority which the white people represent now, a minority, and they need and have a right to demand a protection of their rights."--Pat Robertson, "The 700 Club," 3/18/92"We should resist the temptation to identify our religious convictions with the platform of a party or the platitudes of favored politicians."--Ralph Reed, 1996"We want...as soon as possible to see a majority of the Republican Party in the hands of pro-family Christians by 1996." --Pat Robertson, Denver Post, 10/26/92"I don't know that atheists should be considered citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God."-- George Bush"How can there be peace when drunkards, drug dealers, communists, atheists, New Age worshipers of Satan, secular humanists, oppressive dictators, greedy money changers, revolutionary assassins, adulterers, and homosexuals are on top?"--Pat Robertson, The New World Order, p.227A wise man will hear, and will increase learning: and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels. (Proverbs 1:5) If a ruler hearken to lies, all his servants are wicked. (Prov. 29:12) "We're going to bring back God and the Bible and drive the gods of secular humanism right out of the public schools of America." --Presidential candidate Pat Buchanan addressing the anti-gay rally in Des Moines, 2-11-96"I want you to just let a wave of intolerance wash over you. I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you. Yes, hate is good...Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a Biblical duty, we are called by God, to conquer this country. We don't want equal time. We don't want pluralism." --Randall Terry, Founder of Operation Rescue, The News-Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Indiana, 8-16-93Quotes excerpted from above link...The War on some drugs Bushit doesn't sell feeds Terrorism! Non-Psychoactive Ditchweed is the Majority of Cannabis Eradications, Cannabis is the Keystone of WoD, WoD is the drug of Modern Fascism, Stop Funding Terrorist Today by Stopping the WoD... Do Not Feed the Fascist! Peace, Love and Liberty or D.E.A.th...DdC [ Post Comment ] Comment #11 posted by goneposthole on November 22, 2002 at 17:33:46 PT He ain't heavy He's my Big Brother.Even if I were a schizophreniac, he would still be my Big Brother.My defence would be that I am a schizophrenic madman and would plead insanity. I'm guilty of being a schizophreniac, and it is all because of the loco weed. The studies prove it. I'm guilty of smoking the devil's weed and the devil made me do it. Throw him in jail. Leave me alone, for God's sake. I'm guilty as charged. I smoke the wacky tobaccy. I'm nuts, cuckoo, over the edge. "I'm gone, man, gone. Solid gone."-Cab Calloway. Just like the orangutang in "The Jungle Book."Actually, I think we are driving the prohibitionists insane, and they will show the classic symptoms of schizophrenia. What will their excuse be? Certainly not marijuana. So what would it be?"They're coming to take me away. Hey, hey. To the funny farm."What difference does it make if they are reading or listening or whatever.If the gov wants to come and get you, they're gonna.schizophrenia: 1. any of a group of psychotic disorders usually characterized by withdrawal from reality, illogical patterns of thinking, delusions, and hallucinations and accompanied by other emotional, behavioral, or intellectual distortions.2. a situation or condition that results from the coexistence of disparate or antagonistic qualities, identities, or activities: the national schizophrenia that results from carrying out an unpopular war.Definition from dictionary.comWho are the schizophrenics, one might ask? [ Post Comment ] Comment #10 posted by mayan on November 22, 2002 at 17:08:43 PT War on Us!!! There will soon be more soldiers on active duty on U.S. soil than stationed around Iraq. Make no mistake about it, this war will be a war on us. The Fourth Reich is upon us!Goodbye, Freedom...It has happened here, the USA we knew is no more: http://onlinejournal.com/Commentary/Conover112102/conover112102.html'Total information awareness' – the impossible dream of tyrants http://www.antiwar.com/justin/j112202.htmlWelcome to the Police State;Now shut up and do as you're told: http://members.surfbest.net/samizdat surfbest.net/policestate.htmDNA legacy - Stillwater first in county to identify pupils through genetic imprint: http://www.njherald.com/news/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1037804875,63452,Secret Group Manipulates Vote Machines: http://rense.com/general32/secert.htmBush aide: Inspections or not, we'll attack Iraq - http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=12377231&method=full&siteid=50143Get Organized Against War: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2002/11/19/009.htmlExcerpts From Firefighters' WTC Tape on 9/11: http://www.thememoryhole.org/911/firefighter-tape-excerpts.htm9/11 Timeline:Abridged http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/completetimeline/AAtimelineshort.htmlThe People's Investigation of 9/11: http://www.911pi.com/ [ Post Comment ] Comment #9 posted by BGreen on November 22, 2002 at 16:34:28 PT What A Moron - More truth from Canada Canada Reports Bush 'Moron' RemarkCanadian Premier's Aide Reportedly Refers to President Bush As a 'Moron' in Private Conversation Canada Reports Bush 'Moron' Remark [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by DdC on November 22, 2002 at 16:23:55 PT They spy How law enforcement is keeping tabs on the new peace movement. By A.C. Thompson http://www.sfbg.com/37/08/cover_spy.html [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by p4me on November 22, 2002 at 15:57:29 PT Rebecca Knight quotes Hitler Rebecca Knight had another good article at Buzzflash.com- http://www.buzzflash.com/southern/2002/11/22.htmlShe cannot get over the propaganda of the Republicans that call for mandate this and mandate that when 94,000 vote swings would have given the Democrats control of both the House and Senate.Her article quoted Hitler 3 times and I want to submit them to the Cnews record."What good fortune for those in power that the people do not think."-- Adolf Hitler"It also gives us a very special, secret pleasure to see how unaware the people around us are of what is really happening to them."-- Adolf Hitler"Through clever and constant application of propaganda people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way around, to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise."-- Adolph Hitler, Mein Kampf, 19231 [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by AlvinCool on November 22, 2002 at 15:20:08 PT How to protect yourself No your firewall could just be a minor obsticle for them. With their new powers they can read your mail before you get it and before the person you send it to receives it. You may also not be able to keep them out, the possibility exists that they can force ZoneAlarm, and other US manufacturers of firewalls, to give them a "master" key with their new powers.You can use PGP to encrypt all your mail with maximum 128 bit blowfish encryption with a 4096 bit key. The other person will also need PGP on their end and you need to exchange public keys. That is very tough to break and YOU hold the master key. Keep your keys off your PC and put them in your drive only when you use them. [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by DdC on November 22, 2002 at 15:02:19 PT * COINTELPRO * MKULTRA * Tuskegee * D.E.A.th * COINTELPRO lost links http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointel.htmLink gone... http://www.cointel.org/index.htmA Short History of FBI COINTELPRO http://www.monitor.net/monitor/9905a/jbcointelpro.htmlMore information on COINTELPRO in the Bari case is available at the Monitor Judi Bari index. M http://www.monitor.net/monitor/bari/default.html#fbiAmerica's Secret Police: FBI COINTELPRO in the 1990s http://www.ainfos.ca/98/apr/ainfos00152.htmlAlternet.org - Spying and Lying: The FBI's Dirty Secrets http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13316Armies of Repression http://www.etext.org/Politics/Spunk/library/pubs/lr/sp001714/bacorr.html COINTELPRO http://www.dickshovel.com/coin.html COINTELPRO - FBI counterintelligence programs to repress political dissent in the United States. http://www.derechos.net/paulwolf/cointelpro/cointel.htmA Short History of FBI COINTELPRO http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/POLITICS/COINTELPRO/cointelpro.htmlCOINTELPRO Tool - Manufacturing Consent since 2002 http://cointelprotool.blogspot.comLip Magazine - Invade Iraq: Bush's Real Reasons - Puts forward reasons that the Bush Administration is determined to attack Iraq militarily. http://www.lipmagazine.org/articles/featwishnia_213.shtmlMedia Filter - Bari vs. FBI - Explores some of the shadowy law enforcement actions surrounding the bombing of Bari's car and her subsequent standing as the prime suspect in the crime. http://mediafilter.org/MFF/S37/S37cointelpro.htmlThe 1960s and COINTELPRO: In Defense of Paranoia - The 1960s and COINTELPRO: In Defense of Paranoia by Daniel Brandt From NameBase NewsLine, No. 10, July-September... http://www.pir.org/news10.html TomPaine.com - The FBI's New Style Is '80s Retro Chic - John Rieger interviews author Ross Gelbspan about the FBI's investigation in the 1980s with Americans branded as "terrorists." From June 2002. http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5730Village Voice - John Ashcroft On Trial - Nat Hentoff reports on the challenge by civil libertarians to the Attorney General's nuvo 'COINTELPRO' programs. http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0203/hentoff.phpVillage Voice, The - Unleashing the FBI - James Ridgeway criticizes the FBI's reorganization under John Ashcroft and compares it to the COINTELPRO era. http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0223/hentoff2.phpwww.cointel.org - Please go to www.cointel.org and update any links you may have More results from: http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointel.htm COINTELPRO The Sabotage Of Legitimate Dissent http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/POLITICS/COINTELPRO/cointelpro.htmlJUDI BARI VS FBI TRIAL COVERAGE http://www.monitor.net/monitor/bari/Judi Bari Home Page http://www.judibari.orgThe Assassins of Youth: FRCn PDFA/DARE http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionwhyitstimetolegalize.showMessage?topicID=105.topicWhat the WHO doesn't want you to know about cannabis http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionwhyitstimetolegalize.showMessage?topicID=261.topicbilderberg http://www.bilderberg.com/home/home.htmlCan Cannabis the Antibiotic Treat/Prevent Anthrax? http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitioncannabisfoodfuelfiberfarmaceuticals.showMessage?topicID=44.topicMKULTRA: CIA Mind Control C O N T E N T S http://www.parascope.com/ds/documentslibrary/documents/mkultrahearing/index.htmMKULTRA: CIA Mind Control http://www.parascope.com/ds/mkultra0.htmMK Ultra http://www.mkultra.com/index.html MKULTRA CIA Mind Control http://www.peyote.com/jonstef/mkultra.htmResources on Drug Experiments Performed by the U. S. Government http://www.dc.peachnet.edu/~shale/humanities/composition/assignments/experiment/lsd.htmlMKULTRA: CIA Mind Control http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionwhyitstimetolegalize.showMessage?topicID=16.topicAEC, DOE, NRC, Nuclear Murderers http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionwhyitstimetolegalize.showMessage?topicID=257.topicThe Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment & Linx http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionwhyitstimetolegalize.showMessage?topicID=341.topic http://boards.marihemp.com/boards/politics/media/40/40342.jpg [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by p4me on November 22, 2002 at 15:01:33 PT Ominous isn't it? If the youth of America cannot find an area of rebellion in these times, they are one lost generation of would-be protesters that will live the rest of their lives in a fascist state they let entrench itself by their inaction. It is your bed/future young people, and you will be doing a lot more sleep in it than I will. I am happy that the college kids at North Carolina State have developed an interest in their future and maybe they can teach the kids at Chapel Hill something. All this is to gather information on dissidents that want to upset the fascist applecart. If they wanted real criminals they would be prosecuting Hutchinson for violating the Congressional mandate that he not spend taxpayer money to support the wicked cannabis laws. They could also nail that Taft in Ohio, but they really want to get dissidents even if it is that they violated copyright laws when they download their MP3s. The penalties for that will be a year in jail and that should be a strong signal not to fight the fascists/corparate-will.Once I put up a list of the charges a teacher in Statesville got for growing five plants. Could some Cnewser put up the charges out of their local paper for someone charged with marijuana. It is an obsene list of charges especially for growing that would require 4 or 5 lifetimes to to fulfill the penalties. They no longer list charges on Statesville.com and I bet the practice has spread because they don't want Joe Blissful to see it splatterred all over the Internet.300,000 people in California will lose their unemployment come December 28th and join the downward spiral.I now use NetZero as my ISP. It cost $9.95 a month with no set up fee. I am happy with it. For goodness sakes, if you happen to be an AOL user, please send a message to the conglomerate media by quiting their service and save yourself some money.1 [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by FoM on November 22, 2002 at 14:31:55 PT Dark Star That's a good question. I don't know but maybe someone does. Technical things very often go right over the top of my head. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by Dark Star on November 22, 2002 at 14:15:30 PT How to Be Safe Dark Star has firewall software in Windows XP-Pro plus Zone Alarm. Do these provide any protection against the likes of the feds? Is there some encryption software that would be better?FEDS: Nothing nefarious planned here! I am a patriot! I merely do not wish you putting your big nose in my computer! [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on November 22, 2002 at 13:57:22 PT Slowly? The only thing I question in this article is in the third-to-last paragraph. Our rights aren't going slowly - they were going slowly in the past, but they seem to be going fast and furious lately!John Ashcroft, if you're reading this... in the words of George Carlin: You're a public servant. I pay your salary. Go get me a glass of water! [ Post Comment ] Post Comment