Update: Tasering Free Speech II

September 21, 2007

JOE MILLER

Below find two updates (1, 2) to the post I sent yesterday on the tasering and arrest of a student asking legitimate questions at a speech by John Kerry at the U. of Florida on September 17 -- see Tasering Free Speech.

1. Matthew Rothschild: Amnesty International, ACLU Condemn Use of Tasers at University of Florida 9/20
   http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/20/3982/
2. Naomi Wolf: A Shocking Moment for Society: Tasering at University of Florida 9/19
   http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/19/3949/

On a related and positive note, Nat Hentoff (3) reports that the U.S. government last month settled an ACLU lawsuit for violating a couple's First Amendment rights during a July 4, 2004 Independence Day public event featuring President Bush in Charleston, West Virginia. Both individuals wore T-shirts to the event with "Bush" crossed out on the front, and one individual had the words "Love America, Hate Bush" on the back. Acting in accordance with the "Presidential Advance Manual," White House staff members ordered the couple to remove or cover their shirts, or leave the event. When the couple refused, they were arrested, handcuffed, removed, briefly jailed, and had criminal charges filed against them.

3. Nat Hentoff: Free-Speech-Free Zones 9/19
   http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/19/3955/

Related to the protection of our civil rights, Dan Smith (4) recently highlighted three important developments: (a) the ruling by a U.S. District Judge that the expanded use of warrantless "national security letters" by the FBI to force communications companies to surrender customer data in secret was unconstitutional; (b) a report by the Justice Department's Inspector General that the Terrorism Watch List (containing more than 800,000 records) exists in two dissimilar versions, and that each version contains extensive errors; and (c) a challenge by House Democrats to the Administration's requests that federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies be given access to data derived from military spy satellites and aircraft.

4. Dan Smith: Good News In Small Column: A Welcome Page in the Newspaper 9/18
   http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/18/3917/

House Democrats and others need to mount successful challenges soon, because Bush is now urging Congress to make the recently passed Protect America Act permanent. The Act was passed in August, and temporarily expands the government's eavesdropping "tools" until February, 2008.

5. ABC News: Bush Urges Congress to Broaden Surveillance Act 9/19
   http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=3625009&page=1

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Joseph Miller
Department of Psychology
51 Madeleva
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN 46556

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St. Joe Valley Greens, South Bend, IN