Sex offenders are about to share the stage with society's latest pariahs: meth cooks.

Newsweek reports:

Law-enforcement officials in Tennessee have a new approach to fighting meth: naming names. Now the public can search an online database for the name, alias and birth date of anyone convicted of manufacturing the drug since last March. It's the first compilation of its kind nationwide....

By using the registry, landlords or property owners could make sure they're not renting to cookers. The names will stay on the site for seven years, at which time the offenders can appeal to be removed.

Civil libertartians are rightfully up in arms:

by TChris

If you want to be shocked or outraged, or just want to listen to one of the looniest rants you’ll ever hear on the radio (even if you regularly listen to Rush or O’Reilly) because you need to know that people like this are out there, give a listen to Shirley Phelps-Roper’s interview on Wisconsin Public Radio. Phelps-Roper bills herself as the attorney for the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, whose parishioners protest homosexuality by picketing at the funerals of soldiers who died in service to their country. Phelps-Rogers gets whackier as she goes along, ultimately (at about the 8 minute mark) explaining that she feels sorry for the parents of the fallen because they failed in their duty to their children and raised them for the devil by not smiting homosexuals from the Earth (or something to that effect).

Crazy lawyers who condemn the parents of dead soldiers are a disservice to the profession. She shouldn’t be licensed.

by Last Night in Little Rock

bin Laden yesterday may have given George Bush his latest Presidential Daily Briefing via Al-Jazeerah about more possible attacks on the U.S. Will the U.S. step up "security against terrorism"? Who knows. We didn't the first time.

This time we might, but for all the wrong reasons and in all the wrong ways. One need only look at the PATRIOT Act and what the government has done with it. Who would have imagined five years ago we'd even be having this discussion?

Now, the government has yet another excuse to take away more of its citizens' civil liberties. And that is where the terrorists win: We sit on our hands and let our President turn us into a police state. When our government lives in fear of every citizen, government inevitably will turn against its citizens because it must control their lives to assuage its worries. I've read "1984," and I feel like I'm living it.

Does bin Laden have to attack us to take alter the way of life in America? No; he need only threaten to, and the Bush Administration will, quite predictably, do the rest for him. Everyday, the government intrudes more and more into our personal lives. That is how the terrorists are making their point. Will they "win" by causing further subjugation of the American people, without firing a shot or setting off a bomb? How subtle. How diabolical. How "George."

In the meantime, is the government even looking for bin Laden? Remember that Bush said he doesn't think much about bin Laden.

The New York Times reports that using documents as their weapon of choice, lawyers from around the country today joined forces to file dozens of motions attacking the Homeland Security Agency's continued deportation of Haitian citizens.

The lawyers filed motions in dozens of cases, asking immigration judges to stop the deportations because their clients' lives may be threatened. The State Department has warned Americans against traveling to Haiti, citing the lack of an effective police force and the presence of armed gangs engaged in kidnappings and violent crime.

The lawyers, who held news conferences in Miami, New York, Boston and Philadelphia, said they were acting because homeland security officials had not given Haitians temporary protected status, which temporarily prevents the deportation of immigrants who cannot return to their native countries because of armed conflict, natural disasters or other extraordinary conditions.

Does anyone believe this is only about random porn searches? I think it's about the Government's ability to track and spy on what Google users are searching generally.

The Bush administration, in a bid to resurrect a controversial online pornography law, has asked a federal judge to force online search giant Google (GOOG) to surrender details on what its users are viewing.

Google has refused to comply with a subpoena, issued last year, to turn over a sweeping amount of material from its databases, including 1 million random Web addresses and records of all Google searches from any one-week period.

Sen. Dick Durbin introduced a cell phone privacy bill today. From his press release (received by e-mail.)

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today introduced legislation to prohibit the sale, fraudulent transfer or use of cellular telephone records. Durbin's bill would make it illegal to transfer personal information from cell phone companies to online brokers and the legislation provides tough criminal penalties, including up to 10 years in prison, for those found guilty of violating phone users’ privacy.

“The acquisition and sale of an individual’s personal cell phone call list record is a violation of privacy, and can pose a real threat to personal safety,” Durbin said. “The fraudulent acquisition of records needs to be punishable as a true criminal offense, subject to jail time and fines. The sale and transfer of this information needs to be clearly prohibited by law.”

by Last Night in Little Rock

As TalkLeft reported here, for a price, Locatecell.com will try find a way to steal your cellphone number, particularly from Cingular. I first read about this story on AOL a few days ago. One should be surprised at the lack of news coverage of such a gross invasion of privacy by one citizen against another. A PI told me a few years ago he could get this information. I thought he was kidding; apparently not.

Cingular obtained a TRO in U.S. District Court in Atlanta against Locatecell late last week in a story that seemed to escape the news, except for USAToday.com. Cingular is the victim of its own employees and what it calls "data burglars." Verizon is also going after them.

by TChris

The IRS recently warned an Episcopal church in Pasadena that its "political activities" -- consisting of anti-war sermons -- placed its tax exempt status in jeopardy. How will the IRS respond to complaints by clergy members about two Ohio churches that have promoted the political campaign of a Republican running for governor?

In their complaint, the clergy members contend that the two Columbus-area churches, Fairfield Christian Church and the World Harvest Church, which were widely credited with getting out the Ohio vote for President Bush in 2004, have allowed their facilities to be used by Republican organizations, promoted the candidate, J. Kenneth Blackwell, among their members and otherwise violated prohibitions on political activity by tax-exempt groups.

The churches say they promote values, not candidates, but candidates benefit directly from the churches' work.

It occurs to me that no one has a greater interest in preventing cell phone records from being obtained by third parties via the internet than drug and FBI agents.

Informants often contact their police sponsors via cell phone. Cops give out their cell phone numbers for all sorts of reasons. Anyone wanting to know if someone has become an informant could order up a cop's cell phone records, and voila.

Also, a suspecting drug dealer could order up the records on an associate he thinks has given him up, and then request the records of the phone numbers listed. When one turns out to belong to an agent, somebody could be in real danger.

by Last Night in Little Rock

"Brokeback Mountain," the movie of a love affair between two cowboys who later marry women and must deal with their love for each other, was voluntarily banned in Utah, which is not surprising since even renting an R rated movie at Blockbuster is impossible (you get the sanitized made for airplanes or TV versions there).

It opened in Little Rock last night to a sold out crowd, with the theater manager saying, essentially, "if there is a market, we'll show it."

Cingular has issued a press release saying it has obtained temporary restraining orders against two internet sites that have been selling customer phone records online.

Cingular today obtained a Temporary Restraining Order from the U.S. District Court in Atlanta, GA, against two companies, Data Find Solutions, Inc. and 1st Source Information Specialists, Inc. Several weeks ago, Cingular filed a civil lawsuit alleging that these companies unlawfully obtained and disseminated Cingular customer records. The court has now granted Cingular's request for a Temporary Restraining Order in order to halt these companies' ability to obtain and sell Cingular customer records.

Cingular believes that 1st Source now owns Locate Cell and Cell Tolls, and that the two sites formerly were owned by Data Find.

AmericaBlog was able to obtain Wesley Clark's Sprint cell phone records for $89 from Locate Cell. CNN reported tonight it was able to buy a producer's Sprint cell phone recrods for the same price. John of AmericaBlog reports that he was able to buy his own Cingular calls from Locate Cell.

by TChris

Edward Mueller filed a municipal complaint against Stephen Acropolis, alleging that Acropolis violated a Brick Township, New Jersey ordinance that prohibits the display of political campaign signs more than 30 days before an election. Mueller listed eight addresses where Acropolis’ signs were posted. Why this should be Acropolis’ problem is unclear, since the signs weren’t on his property, but Mueller wants Acropolis to be held responsible because he was “at the top of the ticket.”

Acropolis reasonably points out that the ordinance stifles political speech and is likely unconstitutional. He also wonders why Mueller, a journalist as well as a losing candidate, would want to squelch political expression:

[Acropolis] finds it peculiar that Mueller, who publishes the weekly Brick Township Town News and Sampler, would try to stifle a residents' right to free speech. “If Ed Mueller was a newspaperman who cared about free speech, he wouldn't have signed the complaint," Acropolis said.