Page 88

	Web www.bigbrothergovernment.org

The federal government is forcing people and corporations to do its bidding. In addition, the federal government is supporting programs on the state and local levels that are aimed at control of people. Corporations are also forcing people to do their bidding to benefit the corporations.

The Government's New Right to Track Your Every Move With GPS

Government agents can sneak onto your property in the middle of the night, put a GPS device on the bottom of your car and keep track of everywhere you go. This doesn't violate your Fourth Amendment rights, because you do not have any reasonable expectation of privacy in your own driveway - and no reasonable expectation that the government isn't tracking your movements.

Source: Yahoo News!, August 26, 2010

Under financial overhaul, FTC could gain enforcement power over Internet

The version of regulatory overhaul legislation passed by the House would allow the FTC to issue rules on a fast track and permit the agency to impose civil penalties on companies that hurt consumers. FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz has argued in favor of bolstering his agency's enforcement ability.

Source: The Washington Post (online), April 27, 2010

'Hate' laws could label 5-year-olds 'offenders'

The case was reported by the London Daily Mail, which said teachers are being ordered to write up even minor incidents as "serious bullying" and add them to a database that will follow a student through a school career.

The report confirmed that when small children use "homophobic" or racist words without knowing what they mean, they still must be written up.

Source: WorldNetDaily, March 5, 2010

Feds push for tracking cell phones

Even though police are tapping into the locations of mobile phones thousands of times a year, the legal ground rules remain unclear, and federal privacy laws written a generation ago are ambiguous at best. On Friday, the first federal appeals court to consider the topic will hear oral arguments (PDF) in a case that could establish new standards for locating wireless devices.

Source: cnet news, February 11, 2010

Google links up with US spy-master to thwart threats to cyberspace

Google is teaming up with the US National Security Agency to battle cyber-attacks from China in a move that is causing disquiet on the internet.

Source: Times on Line, February 5, 2010

Brain Scan May Foster Communication With Vegetative Patients

Bobby Schindler said that while the test using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) likely holds promise for the families of minimally conscious and persistently vegetative patients, he wishes his sister had been afforded this technology before a court ruling allowed her husband Michael Schiavo to remove her feeding tube in 2005 leading to her death.

ABC News/Health, February 4, 2010

The government has your baby's DNA

It's simple, the pediatrician answered: Newborn babies in the United States are routinely screened for a panel of genetic diseases. Since the testing is mandated by the government, it's often done without the parents' consent, according to Brad Therrell, director of the National Newborn Screening & Genetics Resource Center.

Source: CNN Health, February 3, 2010

Police want backdoor to Web users' private data

CNET has reviewed a survey scheduled to be released at a federal task force meeting on Thursday, which says that law enforcement agencies are virtually unanimous in calling for such an interface to be created. Eighty-nine percent of police surveyed, it says, want to be able to "exchange legal process requests and responses to legal process" through an encrypted, police-only "nationwide computer network." (See one excerpt and another.)

The survey, according to two people with knowledge of the situation, is part of a broader push from law enforcement agencies to alter the ground rules of online investigations. Other components include renewed calls for laws requiring Internet companies to store data about their users for up to five years and increased pressure on companies to respond to police inquiries in hours instead of days.

Source: CNET, February 3, 2010

Feds push new national identification card program after "Real ID" flops

Four years ago, President Bush signed a law requiring states to create driver's licenses that meet national standards, store related information in nationally connected databases and foot the bill for most of this nearly $4-billion project. Now, after the 2005 Real ID Act has alienated state governments and privacy advocates alike, the federal government is considering a replacement measure called Pass ID that it hopes will improve national security while being less expensive and less intrusive on privacy.

Source: Scientific American, September 9, 2009

Ask Permission To Use Newborn Data, Parents Say

These state-required samples, taken to alert doctors to rare, serious inherited diseases that can be corrected if treated early, are stored by health agencies for years. Most parents are unaware the samples still exist, unless a sample proves useful for identification or to shed light on a child’s health condition. Realizing the samples’ collective value, researchers are beginning to use them to study the origins of childhood leukemia and toxin exposures in utero, and see potential for other beneficial research as well.

Source: ScienceDaily, July 12, 2009

Feds can search laptops without reason at airports

Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed.

Source: Houston Chronicle (online), August 1, 2008

I Hear Ya: Bush Signs Expanded Wiretap Power into Law

The change is the most sweeping since the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) was adopted three decades ago to prevent the government from spying on people in the U.S. suspected of engaging in espionage or terrorism without court approval. The new provisions allow the U.S. Justice Department and National Security Agency (NSA) to recruit telephone companies to bug their customers' phone conversations, and prohibit lawsuits against the telecoms for privacy rights violations. The measure also protects the companies against suits for past wiretaps. That means lawsuits will likely be dropped against AT&T and Verizon that charged they had violated privacy rights by tapping their customers phone lines at the request of the NSA. (Qwest Communications, on the other hand, refused similar requests in 2001.)

Source: Scientific American, July 11, 2008

Court blasts state's strip-search of children

Two children who attended a private Christian school in Wisconsin were illegally strip-searched and had their constitutional rights violated by a state social worker, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled Monday.

Source: WorldNetDaily, May 20, 2008

New Cars Are Gathering Information On You That Might Interest Insurance Companies, Advertisers, Government

Years ago, Stanford communication and sociology researcher Clifford Nass wondered why some people treated their computers as humans, instead of machines, a question that led him down a path of interesting research. Now he wonders about drivers willing to have personal conversations with the artificial voice in their cars—and what will become of the secrets the humans share with their four-wheeled friends.

Source: ScienceDaily, May 15, 2008

Bush Lobbies Again for Surveillance Law

"To put it bluntly, if the enemy is calling into America, we really need to know what they're saying, and we need to know what they're thinking, and we need to know who they're talking to," Bush said at the start of his annual meeting with the nation's governors at the White House.

Source: Breitbart, February 25, 2008

Dancing Spychief Wants to Tap Into Cyberspace

Spychief Mike McConnell is drafting a plan to protect America’s cyberspace that will raise privacy issues and make the current debate over surveillance law look like “a walk in the park,” McConnell tells The New Yorker in the issue set to hit newsstands Monday. “This is going to be a goat rope on the Hill. My prediction is that we’re going to screw around with this until something horrendous happens.”

Source: The Wall Street Journal, January 13, 2008

The Bush administration's warrantless spy effort is protected by the 'state secrets' privilege, federal judges rule.

In a 3-0 decision, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the government, which had argued that allowing an Islamic charity's claims that it was illegally spied upon to go forward would threaten national security.

Source: Los Angeles Times, November 16, 2007

Are Young Girls Dressing Too Revealingly?

Ten-year-old Ashley Parks said she admires the Pussycat Doll look. "I like how it's sexy," she said. Six year-old Venus Melvin aims a bit older, looking to model and fashion mogul Kimora Lee Simmons. She is really creative," Melvin said, "and she knows how to handle fashion."

Source: ABC News Good Morning America, October 27, 2007

Bush Calls for Expansion of Spy Law

President Bush said Wednesday he wants Congress to expand and make permanent a law that temporarily gives the government more power to eavesdrop without warrants on suspected foreign terrorists.

Source: Breitbart, September 19, 2007

Spy Chief Seeks More Eavesdropping Power

No Americans' telephones have been tapped without a court order since at least February, the top U.S. intelligence official told Congress Tuesday.

But National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell could not say how many Americans' phone conversations have been overheard because of U.S. wiretaps on foreign phone lines.

Source: Breitbart, September 18, 2007

Taser ban for illegals blasted by Tancredo

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., is asking the U.S. Office of Detention and Removal Operations to explain why it's OK for jailers to use Tasers to control inmates who are U.S. citizens but not those who are in the country illegally.

Source: WorldNetDaily, September 15, 2007

Kindergarten cops rule: Witches in, Bibles out

The Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund has submitted amicus briefs in a lawsuit filed when a kindergarten student, under an assignment in which parents were invited to read their child's favorite book, was denied permission to have his mother read a Bible story.

Source: WorldNetDaily, August 31, 2007

Civilian prisons coming soon to U.S. Army base near you

The U.S. Army is authorized to create civilian prison labor camps on military installations, according to a little-noticed regulation.

Source: WorldNetDaily, August 31, 2007

US intelligence eavesdrops on thousands of foreign calls: chief

US intelligence eavesdrops on thousands of foreign telephone calls on lines that cross through US territory but monitors the calls of fewer than a hundred people in the United States, intelligence chief Mike McConnell has disclosed.

Source: Breitbart, August 22, 2007

U.S. to Expand Domestic Use Of Spy Satellites

The decision, made three months ago by Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell, places for the first time some of the U.S.'s most powerful intelligence-gathering tools at the disposal of domestic security officials. The move was authorized in a May 25 memo sent to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff asking his department to facilitate access to the spy network on behalf of civilian agencies and law enforcement.

Source: Wall Street Journal (online), August 15, 2007

Secrecy May Shield US Wiretap Program

The administration has acknowledged it intercepted some U.S. telephone conversations without warrants as it hunted for terrorists. Whose calls? The government isn't saying. And since only those who were spied on have grounds to sue, it's almost impossible to mount a successful legal challenge.

Source: Breitbart, August 13, 2007

Lovin' it: McBranding hooks preschoolers

Preschoolers preferred the taste of burgers and fries when they came in McDonald's wrappers over the same food in plain wrapping, U.S. researchers said, suggesting fast-food marketing reaches the very young.

Source: Reuters (online), August 6, 2007

Bush Signs Terrorism Law

President Bush on Sunday signed into law an expansion of the government's power to eavesdrop on foreign terror suspects without the need for warrants.

Source: AP News My Way, August 5, 2007

Surveillance Cameras Win Broad Support

Given the chief arguments, pro and con — a way to help solve crimes vs. too much of a government intrusion on privacy — it isn't close: 71 percent of Americans favor the increased use of surveillance cameras, while 25 percent oppose it.

Source: ABC News (online), July 29, 2007

From start, Fairness Doctrine was about silencing opposition

While Democrats in Congress claim they are only seeking balance, accuracy and truth with renewed calls for the reintroduction of the Fairness Doctrine, history shows government enforcement of the broadcast rule was selective, heavy-handed and used purposely to squelch political opposition – by both Democrats and Republicans.

Source: WorldNetDaily, July 11, 2007

Christian tracts censored at tribute to vets

A Maryland church pastor attending a July 4th community band concert and fireworks in a city park to honor veterans is reporting he was told by officials to leave, because he was handing out Gospel tracts.

Source: WorldNetDaily, July 7, 2007

Now praying gets 7 Christians arrested

The resulting ordinance came under fire by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Alliance Defense Fund for being too broad. It allows the city to create prior restraints of speech on an event-by-event basis, with virtually no predictable limits. It also criminalizes certain free speech behavior around public events and authorizes the police to enforce breaches of permits – the penalty for such breaches being arrest.

Source: WorldNetDaily, July 7, 2007

Fingerprints to Help Single Out Terrorists

Beginning this fall, foreign nationals will have to submit their 10 fingers for printing, not just two. The government believes this will give it more chances to catch a terrorist.

Source: ABC News (online), July 2007

U.S. Adds Marshals to Overseas Flights

The U.S. is adding air marshals to overseas flights because of concerns about potential terrorism threats originating in Britain and Europe, the homeland security chief said Sunday.

Source: Breitbart, July 1, 2007

Lieberman calls for wider use of surveillance cameras

“The Brits have got something smart going in England, and it was part of why I believe they were able to so quickly apprehend suspects in the terrorist acts over the weekend, and that is they have cameras all over London and other of their major cities,” Lieberman said.

Source: The Hill, July 1, 2007

PC mandate gone wild: Christian books yanked

Hundreds of Christian books are disappearing off the shelves of U.S. prisons under a federal directive intended to prevent violent inmates from receiving radical Islamic texts, prompting a lawsuit.

Source: WorldNetDaily, June 11, 207

GPS tracking of offenders

The small, blue, waterproof device straps to an offender's ankle and tracks their movements using GPS technology.

Source: The Morning Deseret News, June 3, 2007

Emergency detention plan: 'This way to the camps!'

Halliburton's former engineering and construction subsidiary has a contingency contract with the Department of Homeland Security to construct detention facilities in the event of a national emergency, according to WND columnist Jerome Corsi.

Source: WorldNetDaily, May 30, 2007

Google’s goal: to organise your daily life

Google’s ambition to maximise the personal information it holds on users is so great that the search engine envisages a day when it can tell people what jobs to take and how they might spend their days off.

Source: Financial Times, May 22, 2007

Pentagon to Merge Next-Gen Binoculars With Soldiers' Brains

U.S. Special Forces may soon have a strange and powerful new weapon in their arsenal: a pair of high-tech binoculars 10 times more powerful than anything available today, augmented by an alerting system that literally taps the wearer's prefrontal cortex to warn of furtive threats detected by the soldier's subconscious.

Wired, May 1, 2007

2006D-0480 - Draft Guidance for Industry on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Products and Their Regulation by the Food and Drug Administration; Availability

The deadline for public comment has been extended to 05/29/2007

"The Food and Drug Administration (FDA, we) is announcing the availability of a draft guidance for industry entitled "Complementary and Alternative Medicine Products and Their Regulation by the Food and Drug Administration." In recent years, the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) products has increased in the United States, and we have seen increased confusion as to whether certain products used in CAM are subject to regulation under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act ("the Act") or Public Health Service Act ("PHS Act"). We have also seen an increase in the number of CAM products imported into the United States. Therefore, the draft guidance discusses when a CAM product is subject to the Act or the PHS Act."

Christians in bull's-eye in new 'hate crimes' plan

A fast-tracked congressional plan to add special protections for homosexuals to federal law would turn "thoughts, feelings, and beliefs" into criminal offenses and put Christians in the bull's-eye, according to opponents.

Source: WorldNetDaily, April 26, 2007