[thechat] head shops busted by feds

Judah McAuley judah at wiredotter.com
Tue Feb 25 13:58:01 CST 2003


Ken Kogler wrote:
>> Herr Commandant Ashcroft
>
> This made me laugh. Hard. :)
>
>> That man needs to be stopped somehow.
>> Revolution is starting to look
>> more and more attractive.
>
> Seriously. Lest we forget, the voters of Missouri looked at the ballot
> and saw this:
>
>   [ ] John Ashcroft
>   [ ] Dead Guy
>
> And Ashcroft LOST. He LOST to a *DEAD GUY*.

I keep explaining this to people.  No one should be allowed into an
unelected position of power in federal government after they have lost
an election to a dead guy.

> P.S. Yes, I know I'm oversimplifying... My point remains. Ashcroft is a
> schmuck.

Actually, you're not oversimplifying.  That's exactly what happened.
And yes, John Ashcroft is a schmuck.

> P.P.S. That's covered under the first ammendment, right? He's not gonna
> come raid my dorm and steal my pocketknife, is he?

Actually, he'll send the Secret Service.  This just came in on the
Politech mailing list as your message came in.  Courtesy of the ALA
(American Library Assoc.)

Santa Fe Police Detain Library Patron
over Chat-Room Visit

A St. John’s College Library visit by a former public defender was
abruptly interrupted February 13 when city police officers arrested him
about 9 p.m. at the computer terminal he was using, handcuffed him, and
brought him to the Santa Fe, New Mexico, police station for questioning
by Secret Service agents from Albuquerque. Andrew J. O’Conner, 40, who
was released about five hours later, said in the February 16 Santa Fe
New Mexican, “I’m going to sue the Secret Service, Santa Fe Police, St.
John’s, and everybody involved in this whole thing.”

According to O’Connor, the agents accused him of making threatening
remarks about President George W. Bush in an Internet chat room.
Admitting he talked politics face-to-face in the library with a woman
who was wearing a “No war with Iraq” button, O’Connor recalled saying
that Bush is “out of control,” but that “I’m allowed to say all that.
There is this thing called freedom of speech.” He also speculated that
the FBI might have been observing him because of his one-time
involvement in a pro-Palestinian group in Boulder, Colorado.

Earlier on the same day O’Connor was questioned, officials at St.
John’s—as well as at the College of Santa Fe and Santa Fe Community
College—issued warnings to students and faculty that the FBI had been
alerted to the presence of “suspicious” people on campus within the past
four weeks.

Concern about threats to individual privacy under the USA Patriot Act
has prompted New Mexico legislators in both houses to propose
resolutions urging state police not to help federal agents infringe on
civil rights. The resolutions also encourage libraries to post prominent
signage warning patrons that their library records are subject to
federal scrutiny without their permission or knowledge.





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