Wednesday, July 16, 2003

Bad Judges & Corporateers QUOTE OF THE DAY "The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all freedom." - - U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas KNOW YOUR HISTORY - JULY 1945 -- First atomic bomb exploded, Trinity Site, Alamogordo, New Mexico. Detonation was not made public for 3 weeks, when 2 others like it devastated the Japanese cities of Hiroshima & Nagasaki. Powered by a sphere of plutonium the size of an orange, it produced a fireball that rose 8,000 feet in a fraction of a second, pushing a mushroom cloud 41,000 feet high. The Manhattan Project was top secret in 1945 & nearby residents were told an ammunition dump had exploded. RHINO HERE: Today I pass on 2 appeals for your help in stopping the lifetime appointments of William Pryor to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. and Carolyn Kuhl to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Both of these extremist right-wing ideologues have despicable records as described in the reports below. I urge you to contact the appropriate Senators to oppose these appointments. RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE is info on protecting the privacy of your personal info from corporateers; those who put commerce before culture. Urge the Only Undecided Senator to Reject Judicial Nominee Pryor http://act.actforchange.com/cgi-bin7/DM/y/nUII0FBOIr0ICp0db20AK Activism Update from www.actforchange.com President Bush continues to nominate and support numerous extremist right-wing ideologues for lifetime appointments on the circuit courts. One of the most egregious nominees is Alabama Attorney General William Pryor, who has been nominated to a lifetime seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Among his most outlandish statements, Pryor called Roe v. Wade "the worst abomination of constitutional law in our history," and argued that the Supreme Court should limit the protections of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Clean Water Act. He also defended chaining prisoners to hitching posts and argued that states' execution of mentally retarded inmates did not violate the U.S. Constitution. Pryor is scheduled for a Judiciary Committee vote this Thursday. The vote will almost certainly be 10-9 one way or the other. The key swing vote will most likely be pro-choice Pennsylvania Republican Arlen Specter, who has recently told The Associated Press that he was still undecided. Call Senator Specter Today Urge Senator Specter ( http://act.actforchange.com/cgi-bin7/DM/y/nUII0FBOIr0ICp0db20AK ) to vote "No" on the nomination of William Pryor to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. In addition to sending an e-mail, please call Senator Specter today at 202/224-4254 and urge him to vote "No" on Pryor's nomination. The vote is scheduled for this Thursday, so please call today! True Majority Action Appeal The Senate is expected to vote by the end of July on the confirmation of the next truly offensive judicial nominee, Carolyn Kuhl, who has a record of attempting to undermine laws protecting basic civil rights: She favored weakening laws against sexual harassment in the workplace; She supported tax exemptions for Bob Jones University, despite itsracist policies; She advocates overturning laws giving environmental, labor, andother organizations the right to defend their members' interests incourt. We are joining these groups in calling upon our Senators to refuse lifetime tenure for Kuhl as a federal appellate judge: AFL-CIO Feminist Majority National Council for Jewish Women People for the American Way United Farm Workers National Organization for Women To join True Majority and easily send a free fax to your Senators urging them to oppose the nomination of Carolyn Kuhl, go to: http://www.truemajority.org/ctt.asp?u=2497&;l=77 For more information on Bush's unqualified nominations to the federal courts, click here: http://www.sierraclub.org/politics/judicial_nominees/kuhl_opposition.asp http://www.truemajority.org/ctt.asp?u=2497&;amp;l=78 Today's RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE looks at efforts to protect the privacy of the citizens from corporateers who would stuff their pockets, some by collecting data on our personal lives & some buy selling that data. The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR) is a non-profit, non-partisan consumer advocacy organization which I've highlighted in past blogs. Last month FTCR released the first 4 digits of the social security numbers of California politicians who voted down a long awaited financial privacy legislation in the Assembly Banking & Finance Committee. FTCR purchased those social security numbers on the Internet for $26 as a demonstration of how at risk individuals' personal financial information is without new privacy protections. In addition, FTCR also published on the Internet the first three digits of Governor Davis's social security number attempting to get him to use his personal influence with reluctant committee members. Jamie Court of FTCR was on the public radio program "Marketplace" announcing he'd also bought, via the Internet, the Social Security numbers & home addresses & phone numbers of the U.S. attorney general and the head of the CIA. If he goes public with those, he might be arrested under the Patriot Act for intimidation. Banks, insurance companies and other corporate interests have spent more than $20 million in campaign contributions & lobbying expenses in California to kill the financial privacy bill, SB 1. A ballot initiative is now circulating with even stronger financial privacy protections & could be on the March ballot, potentially the same ballot as the recall ballot attempting to dump Governor Davis. After the Assembly Members voted against the financial privacy legislation, they sought to charge FTCR with a felony for releasing digits of their social security numbers. If you want to donate to FTCR's bail fund, buy their book "Corporateering; How Corporate Power Steals Your Personal Freedom, And What You Can Do About It". http://www.corporateering.org Buy your own legislator's social security number online for $26 at: http://www.usdatasearch.com More Info On The Work Of The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights at: http://www.consumerwatchdog.org 7:00:59 AM    comment

RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE - Big Squeeze on Americans' Privacy The Big Squeeze on Americans' Privacy By Patt Morrison Los Angeles Times - July 15, 2003 ...Americans' privacy is feeling the Big Squeeze. From one side of the vise, the government is using the threat of terrorism as an excuse to do just about anything, from checking out the books we borrow from the library, to looking into what goes on under the paper gowns in the doctor's office. (My reading of the fine print of the new medical privacy policy, HIPAA, is that if Washington believes the Republic will fall if it doesn't find out what kind of birth control pills I take, Washington must be told.) From the other side of the vise is commerce. Ours has become a dollar democracy, where every dollar we spend, or might spend, is a vote ó a more influential one than the vote we cast in an election. As far as commerce is concerned, as citizens, we're a nuisance, but as consumers, we're a commodity, and as irresistible to business as an untapped oil well in Dick Cheney's frontyard. That's why the prospect of a Patriot Act II ó no court order needed for the FBI to tippy-toe into your phone or bank or computer or credit records ó is as pointless as it is sinister. Why bother? Just convert the FBI into the FBI Inc., and, thanks to our invertebrate legislators, the G-men can sit at their home computers and buy all that information on the Internet... READ IT ALL AT: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-patt15jul15,1,825466.story "RHINO'S BLOG" is the responsibility of Gary Rhine. (rhino@kifaru.com) Feedback, and requests to be added or deleted from the list are encouraged. SEARCH BLOG ARCHIVES / SURF RHINO'S LINKS, AT: http://www.rhinosblog.info RHINO'S OTHER WEB SITES: http://www.dreamcatchers.org (INDIGENOUS ASSISTANCE & INTERCULTURAL DIALOG) http://www.kifaru.com (NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS VIDEO DOCUMENTARIES) Articles are reprinted under Fair Use Doctrine of international copyright law. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html All copyrights belong to original publisher. 6:01:29 AM    comment

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