WTF Is It Now?!?

Well, just great - Breaking news from yahoo: Justice Department gives FBI authority to monitor Internet sites, libraries, churches and political organizations.

The new rules allow agents to conduct "general topical research" and "pure surfing" designed to find Web sites, chat rooms or Internet bulletin boards with information about terror, bomb-making instructions, child pornography or stolen credit cards.

It was nice knowing you.




Are those testicles under those tutus??

Senate Democrats today asked Attorney General John 'Crisco' Ashcroft to explain why the 'Justice' Department chose not to file lawsuits in nine cases it was investigating for possible voting rights violations. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy and four other Democrats requested in a letter that Ashcroft supply them with the jurisdictions involved, the violations alleged and the reasons for closing the nine cases.

Last week Assistant Attorney General Ralph Boyd told the committee that the department was preparing lawsuits in five cases arising out of complaints about violations in the 2000 presidential election — one in Missouri, one in Tennessee and three in Florida counties.

Boyd said the five suits came out of 14 active investigations that resulted from more than 11,000 complaints. The Florida cases focus on language assistance issues, but the department has not provided details about the locations or the nature of the nine investigations that are not being litigated.

The senators also questioned the position of the Justice Department in a dispute between Florida's Democratic Attorney General, Bob Butterworth, and its Republican-led legislature over a congressional redistricting plan.

They said the legislature and Republican Gov. Jeb Bush, the president's brother, "in an unprecedented move," excluded the attorney general from any role in submitting the new voting plan to the Justice Department for review, as they are required to do under the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

"The actions of the Florida legislature and the governor raise serious concerns about the legitimacy and potential legality of the reapportionment plan," the senators wrote. - - (from yahoo news).