Indicting the First Amendment | Nat Hentoff | Cato Institute: Commentary

Indicting the First Amendment | Nat Hentoff | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Here is part of [Shore's] Feb. 26 messages to Bunning staffers: 'Are you'all insane. No checks equal no food for me. DO YOU GET IT?'"

"U.S. Marshals appeared at Shore's door and handed him a grand jury indictment."

"Shore 'did utilize a telecommunications device, that is a computer, whether or not communication ensued, without disclosing his identity and with the intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, and harass any person who received the communication.'"

"If found guilty, Shore — or anyone indicted for sending such so-called harassing messages — could be imprisoned for up to two years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000."

FBI used 'dragnet' warrantless cell tracking | Privacy Inc. - CNET News

FBI used 'dragnet' warrantless cell tracking | Privacy Inc. - CNET News: "The FBI obtained a secret order -- it has not been made public -- commanding nine different telephone companies to provide federal police 'with all cell site tracking data and cell site locator information for all incoming and outgoing calls to and from the target numbers.'
But because the U.S. Justice Department did not obtain a warrant by proving to a judge that there was probable cause to suspect criminal activity, there's now a risk that the evidence from the location surveillance may be tossed out of court as illegally obtained."

Obama's Security Strategy Is Clueless | Ted Galen Carpenter | Cato Institute: Commentary

Obama's Security Strategy Is Clueless | Ted Galen Carpenter | Cato Institute: Commentary: "The principal theme in this NSS is burden sharing. The United States, the document stresses, cannot afford to be the world's sole policeman. Washington needs partners who are willing and able to meet security challenges and help preserve global peace and prosperity.

But administrations since the founding of NATO in 1949 have emphasized the need for such burden sharing — with a spectacular lack of success. And successive generations of U.S. officials have vented their impotent frustration. President Dwight Eisenhower's secretary of state, John Foster Dulles, warned the European allies in 1954 that if they didn't do more for the common defense effort against the Soviet Union, the United States would have to conduct an 'agonizing reappraisal' of its commitment to Europe. The NATO allies treated his warning as the empty threat that it was. Their security free riding on the United States barely diminished throughout the remainder of the Cold War."