Rand Paul proposes bill to prevent warrantless drone surveillance

By Eric W. Dolan

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) introduced legislation on Tuesday that would prohibit law enforcement agencies from using unmanned aerial vehicles to conduct surveillance without a warrant.

?I?m not against technology per se,? he explained on CNN. ?What I am for are the constitutional processes that protect our civil liberties. So, you know, it?s not like I?m against the police using cars or against them using airplanes or helicopters or robots. But I am for personal privacy for saying that no policeman will ever do this without asking a judge for permission.?

This year?s Federal Aviation Administration funding bill contained provisions that made it easier for law enforcement agencies to use drones within the United States. The new law requires the FAA to speed up the process by which it authorizes government agencies to operate drones. The law also requires the FAA to allow agencies to operate any drone weighing 4.4 pounds or less as long as it is operated within line of sight, during the day and below 400 feet in altitude.

Read More

Latest Big Brother/Orwellian
- US Continues To Try To Block Megaupload From Using Its Lawyers, Pretends It Has Jurisdiction Over The World
- Agent Provocateur At Bilderberg 2012 Tried to Set Up Protesters With Fake Bomb Threat
- U.N. could tax U.S.-based Web sites, leaked docs show
- Labor Department backs off plan forcing reporters to use government-issued computers
- US Government Still Insisting It Can't Be Sued Over Warrantless Wiretapping
- FBI Did Not Steal Megaupload Evidence Because It's "Digital"?
- Obama Administration Argues No Warrant Required for GPS Tracking of Citizens
- Caveman Blogger Fights for Free Speech and Internet Freedom

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which in some cases has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available for the purposes of news reporting, education, research, comment, and criticism, which constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. It is our policy to respond to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (found at the U.S. Copyright Office) and other applicable intellectual property laws. It is our policy to remove material from public view that we believe in good faith to be copyrighted material that has been illegally copied and distributed by any of our members or users.
About Us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy
"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened..." - Winston Churchill

View the original article here

Socialists Seek To Prevent Humanity From Colonizing Space

Chris | InformationLiberation

Humanity will not be allowed to colonize outer space if socialist professors are allowed to have their way.

Via Space.com:

Does Asteroid Mining Violate Space Law?

Several well-known billionaires are forming the new company Planetary Resources with plans to send a robotic spacecraft to mine precious metals from an asteroid and bring them back to Earth. Google executives Larry Page and Eric Schmidt and their business partners say the enterprise will "add trillions to the global GDP."

But to whom do those trillions belong -- the company, or everyone? Does a private company have a right to stake claim to an asteroid, or are celestial bodies such as the moon, planets and asteroids the communal property of all Earthlings?

"The law on this is not settled and not clear," said Henry Hertzfeld, professor of space policy and international affairs at George Washington University. "There are lots of opinions on the status here, and nobody is necessarily right because it's complicated."

[...]Frank Lyall, public law professor at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, and director of the International Institute of Space Law, and Paul Larsen, a space law expert and adjunct professor at Georgetown Law School, both interpret the OST as meaning that no one -- neither a government, nor a person -- can claim title to an asteroid, or the precious metals therein.

The point is proven by a 2001 court case, they said. In 2000, an American man named Gregory Nemitz registered a claim to the asteroid Eros. When NASA sent a satellite to investigate this asteroid soon after, Nemitz sent a letter to NASA telling the space agency to pay parking fees for landing the satellite on his property. "NASA declined and so did the U.S. Dept. of State," Larsen explained in an email. "The reason is that the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, Article II, specifically states 'outer space ... is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereign, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means.'" [Images: Planetary Resources to Mine Asteroid Riches]

Thus, as the international law on the matter now stands, "an asteroid in outer space cannot be mined for the purpose of appropriation," Lyall wrote. "All the states whose nationals might mine are part of the 1967 [Outer Space] Treaty agreement and hence their national systems cannot provide the base of a title to the property."

Well then, if the law says it, then it must be so!

Fortunately, not everyone agrees.

Latest Economy
- 5 New Lies That The Federal Reserve Is Telling The American People
- Paying Off One Handout With Another
- Jim Rogers On Whether China Is In Trouble
- Obama Regime to Ban Children from Doing Work on Family Farms
- The Death of All Banking Freedom?
- Wal-Mart, Victim of Extortion
- Turning Rich Natural Resources Into Scarcity
- Marc Faber: Economy Will Be Worse Than The Great Depression

it's really really stupid to use the word socialists here The idea does seem socialist- well, maybe not socialist since there's no government ownership- there's NO ownership, so I'm not sure what to call it. But certainly not capitalist. I don't think it's the professors' fault, however- over 100 countries agreed to this amazingly socialist (or whatever the correct term is) treaty- even the U.S.!

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which in some cases has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available for the purposes of news reporting, education, research, comment, and criticism, which constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. It is our policy to respond to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (found at the U.S. Copyright Office) and other applicable intellectual property laws. It is our policy to remove material from public view that we believe in good faith to be copyrighted material that has been illegally copied and distributed by any of our members or users.
About Us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy
"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened..." - Winston Churchill

View the original article here

EU bans claim that water can prevent dehydration

Brussels bureaucrats were ridiculed yesterday after banning drink manufacturers from claiming that water can prevent dehydration.
By Victoria Ward and Nick Collins

EU officials concluded that, following a three-year investigation, there was no evidence to prove the previously undisputed fact.

Producers of bottled water are now forbidden by law from making the claim and will face a two-year jail sentence if they defy the edict, which comes into force in the UK next month.

Last night, critics claimed the EU was at odds with both science and common sense. Conservative MEP Roger Helmer said: ?This is stupidity writ large.

?The euro is burning, the EU is falling apart and yet here they are: highly-paid, highly-pensioned officials worrying about the obvious qualities of water and trying to deny us the right to say what is patently true.

?If ever there were an episode which demonstrates the folly of the great European project then this is it.?

Read More

Latest Big Brother/Orwellian
- Sprint Launches Soon To Be Mandatory Emergency Alert Messages
- Who Knew the TSA Even Had a Code of Conduct?
- Supreme Court Blocks Government Plan To Claim Ownership Of DNA
- RIAA Wants To Shutter Torrent Sites, And More
- Green Fascism: Businesses Face $1.1Million Fine If They Blame Carbon Tax For Rate Hikes
- Obama Praises Australia's Draconian Carbon Tax
- TSA Backtracks On Body Scanner Radiation Study Promise
- Ron Paul Comes Out Against SOPA; Joins Other Elected Officials Saying No To The Great Firewall Of America

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which in some cases has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available for the purposes of news reporting, education, research, comment, and criticism, which constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. It is our policy to respond to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (found at the U.S. Copyright Office) and other applicable intellectual property laws. It is our policy to remove material from public view that we believe in good faith to be copyrighted material that has been illegally copied and distributed by any of our members or users.
About Us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy
"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened..." - Winston Churchill

View the original article here