From Can They Hear You Now at Slate.com:

The Federal Communications Committee and the Justice Department are at loggerheads over a new problem in the war on terror: how to listen in on Internet phone calls. Thanks to the blistering growth of VoIP—Voice over Internet Protocol—services, which have been adopted by approximately 10 million people worldwide so far, law enforcement officials now worry that wiretapping may one day become technically obsolete. If traditional phone lines go the way of the horse and carriage, will the FBI still be able to listen in on Internet phone calls? How would it go about tapping one? Is it even possible?

After some highly technical descriptions, the article continues:

Last Thursday the FCC held an open hearing on the future of VoIP telecommunications. In a 4-1 decision, FCC commissioners, supported by Chairman Michael Powell, voted that a VoIP provider called Free World Dialup should not be subject to the same regulations as traditional phone companies—including the particulars of CALEA compliance. Instead, the FCC decided to put off the issue, stating that it would initiate a proceeding "to address the technical issues associated with law-enforcement access to Internet-enabled service" and "identify the wiretapping capabilities required." One commissioner, Michael J. Copps strongly dissented, calling the postponement "reckless."

Bottom line: The technology is growing so fast, the Government may not be able to implement monitoring internet calls even if it is allowed to do so--companies, particularly those overseas, are finding ways to free us.

Attorney General Ashcroft gets to decide if Rodi Alvarado receives asylum. Please take just 30 seconds by clicking here and ask Ashcroft to grant Rodi Alvarado asylum. Please share with friends and colleagues. Please forward this action alert on to list-servs and e-mail lists. Please take action one last time for Rodi Alvarado and all women and girls fleeing gender-based persecution.

If you're in the Denver area tomorrow.....

You are cordially invited to join your Rocky Mountain Progressive Network for a special news conference tomorrow, February 24th, in Denver. The following notice was just sent to over 400 state and national media outlets:

WHO: Rabbi Joel R. Schwartzman, Reverand Bill Kirton and the Rocky Mountain Progressive Network

WHAT: Press Conference on the Federal Marriage Amendment, Fidelity & Colorado's Elected Officials

WHEN: TOMORROW / TUESDAY, February 24, 2004, 1:15 p.m.

WHERE: State Capitol Press Room, 3rd Floor of State Capitol, Denver, Colorado

CONTACT: RMPN, 303-991-1900 or info@rmpn.org

Months ago, we all rejoiced that TIA (Total Information Awareness) was dead. We may have been premature in our celebration. The AP reports that research for many of Poindexter's programs continues to be funded under slightly altered names--a "shell game" if you will.

The government is still financing research to create powerful tools that could mine millions of public and private records for information about terrorists despite an uproar last year over fears it might ensnare innocent Americans.

Congress eliminated a Pentagon office developing the terrorist tracking technology because of the outcry over privacy implications. But some of those projects from retired Adm. John Poindexter's Total Information Awareness effort were transferred to U.S. intelligence offices, congressional, federal and research officials told The Associated Press.

In addition, Congress left undisturbed a separate but similar $64 million research program run by a little-known office called the Advanced Research and Development Activity (ARDA) that has used some of the same researchers as Poindexter's program.

"The whole congressional action looks like a shell game," said Steve Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists, which tracks work by U.S. intelligence agencies. "There may be enough of a difference for them to claim TIA was terminated while for all practical purposes the identical work is continuing."

David Neiwert, writing over at American Street answers the question, "What do the Ten Commandments, gay marriage and Janet Jackson all have in common?"

All three are symbols, for the religious right, of "everything that is wrong with America." The fact that a judge was prevented from having the Ten Commandments placed in an Alabama courthouse; that a Massachusetts court legalized gay marriage, followed by the civil-disobedience action by San Francisco authorities in similarly recognizing such unions; and that Jackson was able to "shock" Super Bowl audiences long ago jaded by half-naked cheerleaders and beer commercials by briefly baring her breast -- all these, according to the folks who want to remake America as a "Christian nation," are clear signs that the nation's moral depravity has gone too far.

And as a troika, they are playing a central role in the campaign by this same faction of the right to radically recast the nation's political landscape, primarily by attacking the power of the courts to shape public policy. They are the noisy cover, as it were, for a stealth attack on the judiciary.

This is great writing, read the whole thing.

There are more than 1,000 federal protections and responsibilities denied to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender families because they cannot legally marry in this country. Here are just a few:

• ability to make decisions on a partner's behalf in a medical emergency.
  petition for partner to immigrate.

• up to 12 weeks leave from work to care for a seriously ill partner or parent of a partner.

• parenting responsibilities of children brought into a family through birth, adoption, surrogacy or other means.

• ability to purchase continued health coverage for a domestic partner after the loss of a job.

All American families deserve the same protections. Check out the Million for Marriage page of Human Rights Watch and sign a petition to end the discrimination.

by TChris

The United States Supreme Court announced today that it will decide whether American citizens arrested on American soil can be detained indefinitely as "enemy combatants" without access to lawyers or courts. The issue arises in the case of Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen arrested nearly two years ago for allegedly participating in a plot to detonate a "dirty bomb" in the United States.

Not surprisingly, Attorney General John Ashcroft takes the position that the power to designate someone as an "enemy combatant" and to hold that person indefinitely, without the right to seek release in court or even to obtain legal representation, "is a vital part of the war on terrorism." Others quite properly view such action as a war on the Constitution, which guarantees that no person shall be deprived of liberty without due process of law and contains no express exception for persons viewed as a threat by a presidential administration.

"Because the president said `I think you're a bad man,' he's been in jail for two years," said Andrew Patel, one of Padilla's attorneys. "He hasn't had a chance to defend himself. That's not the way we do things in this country, when we're at war or when we're at peace."

The Court will also decide whether an American citizen captured in Afghanistan can be held indefinitely as an enemy combatant. The cases dovetail with another another case the Supreme Court recently accepted, in which it will decide whether foreign-born terror suspects may be held indefinitely at the military's prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Court's willingness to decide these troubling issues may signal an unwillingness to accept the administration's cavalier disregard of the Constitution.

Bush and Gov. Arnold may not like it, but San Francisco will continue to marry same-sex couples--many are coming in from all over the world. If you've been wondering how to get a license, the details are here.

The San Francisco Chronicle approves:

But it's plain that the policy rushed out by Mayor Gavin Newsom taps into the heartfelt urge by same-sex couples to claim the same rights and recognition as heterosexuals. Newsom should be commended for taking a high- risk stand for equality, which has turned City Hall into the eye of a political storm.

.... It should reassure Americans who are uneasy about same-sex marriage to see the joy and love in the eyes of so many applicants. Some of these unions will last a lifetime, others will fail -- compatibility and commitment are not determined by sexual orientation. Neither should the concept of equal protection under the law. Old or young, single or with extended families, these couples crave -- and deserve -- the respect and rights accorded to others in this society.

....All couples, gay or straight, should enjoy the same rights, including marriage.

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Meet Dudley Hiibel:

Meet Dudley Hiibel. He's a 59 year old cowboy who owns a small ranch outside of Winnemucca, Nevada. He lives a simple life, but he's his own man. You probably never would have heard of Dudley Hiibel if it weren't for his belief in the U.S. Constitution.

One balmy May evening back in 2000, Dudley was standing around minding his own business when all of a sudden, a policeman pulled-up and demanded that Dudley produce his ID. Dudley, having done nothing wrong, declined. He was arrested and charged with "failure to cooperate" for refusing to show ID on demand. And it's all on video.

On the 22nd of March 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether Dudley and the rest of us live in a free society, or in a country where we must show "the papers" whenever a cop demands them.

Historian Arthur Schlesinger recently spoke at Swarthmore College:

Schlesinger, 86, said he believed that more debate was needed before the United States commits American lives to fighting on foreign soil, and that public dissent is essential to democracy.

"Going to war does not abrogate our freedoms of conscience, speech and thought," the prize-winning author and former foreign-policy adviser told those who attended the first in a series of American history lectures Tuesday.

"We have no obligation to bow down before an imperial presidency," he said.

[link via Instapundit.]

The DearMary.com campaign launched last week. It's highlighted in Newsweek.

This floors us. The Pentagon is now saying that the detainees at Guantanamo may be held for years or even indefinitely:

Senior Defense Department officials said Thursday that they were planning to keep a large portion of the detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, there for many years, perhaps indefinitely. The officials said they would soon set up a panel to review those long-term prisoners' cases annually to determine whether the men remained a threat to the United States or could be released.

The officials described the panel as a "quasi-parole board" that would comprise three members before whom prisoners could personally plead their case for release. At the same time, the officials said, in the coming months they will continue to release to the home governments many other prisoners deemed not to be a continuing danger.

Indefinitely, as in forever? Life without parole for prisoners never charged with a crime or provided a lawyer? What country is this....Iraq?