13. July, 2003 - Ashcroft is evil?

For Democrats Challenging Bush, Ashcroft Is Exhibit A. Finally people are starting to notice the trampling of the Bill of Rights. Of course, it’s the same people who passed USA-PATRIOT a couple years back, so they don’t really have a lot of credibility on the matter (which is what’s prompting them to blame Ashcroft), but it’s an encouraging sign nonetheless, mostly because they’re starting to get some heat for passing such a terrible law.
A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy talks about the dynamics of groups and the problems involved. I’ve seen groups blow up a number of times. I think the problems pointed out are also probably the fundamental flaws that will keep anyone from forming a perfectly libertarian community. It's a long article and worth reading, but the conclusions are: 1 - you cannot separate technological and social issues; 2 - members are not users; and 3 - the core group (members) has rights that trump individual rights of users.
Fighting for the Right to Communicate. Intel v. Hamidi has been settled, and the disgruntled ex-Intel employee won. It means that (at a minimum) Intel’s claim that he trespassed on their computer systems by sending email to Intel employees has been shot down. Will this affect the laws governing spam? It also could be important to unions trying to organize workers at a company.
A Web Site Causes Unease in Police, but the real issue it raises is what kind of expectation of privacy can any of us have anymore?