Idaho Libertarian Times

Resolution against mandatory Poll tax

By Carolyn Marbry :

 Text of the resolution I'm planning to bring before the CA convention
 this weekend opposing floor fees:

 Whereas National Party By-laws, article 11.3, states that delegates to the National Convention are selected by the state affiliates; and

Whereas Party By-Laws neither require nor allow the National Committee to impose additional requirements upon these delegates to the National Convention over and above their respective states’ requirements; and Whereas, the delegate apportionment formula specified in the By-laws
is primarily based on the number of sustaining national party members in each state;

Be it therefore resolved, that the Libertarian Party of California opposes in principle the imposition of a mandatory registration fee upon all duly elected delegates attending the Libertarian Party’s National Convention in St. Louis, Missouri over Memorial Day Weekend,
the payment of which would be a mandatory prerequisite to the Credentials Committee seating said delegates who wish to attend and vote exclusively at the business sessions of the Libertarian Party National Convention; and

Be it further resolved, that the Libertarian Party of California calls upon the Libertarian National Committee to adopt a policy of strict yearly budgeting from membership dues in order that it may provide meeting facilities for its National Conventions; and

Be it further resolved, that the Libertarian Party of California further calls upon the Libertarian National Committee to require that activities and facilities related to the party’s national conventions but not part of the by-laws-mandated business sessions be self-supporting on the basis of payments from willing customers or sponsors rather than on the basis of subsidies extracted from delegates.

Podcast #16 The dont ask, don't tell, don't get the point episode

PODCAST#16 Sun Feb 07 2010, 09:45:52

New information emerging about arrested Idahoans
by Scott Evans Idaho's NewsChannel 7
Posted on February 6, 2010 at 6:27 PM, Updated yesterday at 10:18 PM
"More information continues to emerge about the group of Americans who were arrested in Haiti."
http://www.ktvb.com/news/Local-store-collecting-donations-for-planned-orphanage-shocked-by-arrests-83732252.html

Fark headline: Secretary of Defense Robert Gates wants to ease "don't ask, don't tell" out slowly, carefully. Doesn't understand the importance of rapid pull-out ; The Boston Globe Pentagon may ease ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’
Could reduce expulsions of gay service members; Some in Congress want to keep existing rules By Bryan Bender Globe Staff / February 2, 2010
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2010/02/02/pentagon_may_ease_dont_ask_dont_tell_rules?mode=PF

FOX News Poll: Most Americans Want a ‘Do-Over’ On Health Reform
By Tami Buhr - FOXNews.com Updated February 05, 2010
A new Fox News Poll shows that less than one-quarter of American voters support passage of the legislation currently before Congress.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/02/05/fox-news-poll-americans-want-health-reform/

Dems To Force GOP Vote On Anti-Social Security Privatization Resolution
Christina Bellantoni | February 5, 2010, 2:02PM
"House Democrats are going to force their Republican colleagues to vote on a resolution opposing the privatization of Social Security."
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/02/dems-to-force-gop-vote-on-anti-social-security-privatization-resolution.php?ref=fpa

Rich Lowry, February 5, 2010 12:00 A.M.
"For Government, Let the Good Times Roll" 1690% increase in federal employees making $170,000 or more.
http://article.nationalreview.com/424072/for-government-let-the-good-times-roll/rich-lowry

 President Obama wants to privatize much of NASA and... wait, what?  (blogs.discovermagazine.com) The Good News: Bye bye Constellation
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2010/02/01/president-obamas-nasa-budget-unveiled/
The real answer is http://www.spacex.com/falcon9.php

www.chattanoogan.com
Cleveland Taking Down Red Light Cameras
posted February 5, 2010
Cleveland city officials said red light cameras in the city seem to be effective, but the company furnishing the cameras has asked that the cameras come down.
http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_168401.asp

Police want backdoor to Web users' private data

But cybercrime investigators are frustrated by the speed of traditional methods of faxing, mailing, or e-mailing companies these documents. They're pushing for the creation of a national Web interface linking police computers with those of Internet and e-mail providers so requests can be sent and received electronically.

via news.cnet.com

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10446503-38.html#close=1

Bad Astronomy: Give space a chance

OK, yes, Spirit is now stuck. It looks like even if it survives the Martian winter it may no longer be able to traverse the Red Planet’s landscape. But that doesn’t mean it’s dead. Instead of a rover, it’s now a stationary platform capable of doing a lot of science on the cheap (since most of the cost was getting it there).

via blogs.discovermagazine.com

ACTA Guide, Part Five: Speaking Out?

The 7th round of ACTA negotiations will conclude around lunch time today in Mexico. If past meetings are any indication, a few hours later the participating countries will issue a bland statement thanking the host Mexican government, discussing the progress on civil enforcement, border measures, and the Internet as well as noting the transparency discussions and the continued desire to address the issue. The release will then conclude by looking forward to the next meeting in Wellington, New Zealand in April.

via www.mp3newswire.net

http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/0102/acta-guide-5.htm#iframe_height=300

ACTA Guide: Part Four: What Will ACTA Mean To My Domestic Law?

Questions about ACTA typically follow a familiar pattern - what is it (Part One of the ACTA Guide), do you have evidence (Part Two), why is this secret (Part Three), followed by what would ACTA do to my country's laws? This fourth question is the subject of this post, Part Four of the ACTA Guide. The answer is complex since the impact of ACTA will differ for each participating country: some will require limited reforms, others very significant reforms, and yet others (particularly those not even permitted to participate) complete overhauls of their domestic laws.

via www.mp3newswire.net

http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/0102/acta-guide-4.htm#iframe_height=300

Podcast #15 The off tangent ranty ranty podcast

PODCAST #15 Sun Jan 31 2010

Clearing the air on emissions testing in Idaho

Testing of Canyon County and Kuna cars and trucks for air pollution could begin by June 1, Idaho Department of Environmental Quality officials say.

BY ROCKY BARKER - rbarker@idahostatesman.com
Copyright: © 2010 Idaho Statesman
Published: 01/31/10
"Two legislative committees narrowly endorsed the Department of Environmental Quality rules that will require vehicles in Canyon County and Kuna to pass emissions tests."
"The problem is the federal government keeps lowering the bar," said Nampa Republican Rep. Steve Kren.
http://www.idahostatesman.com/newsupdates/story/1062630.html

10 Idahoans arrested in Haiti
Story Created: Jan 30, 2010 at 5:41 PM MST
Story Updated: Jan 30, 2010 at 11:27 PM MST
By Jen Wahl & Michael Calcagno
MERIDIAN - A rescue mission abruptly ended Saturday morning at the Haiti-Dominican Republic border as 10 Idahoans were detained for illegal trafficking of children.
http://www.2news.tv/news/83173907.html

Got Milk? Got Ethics? Animal Rights v. U.S. Dairy Industry
Undercover Videos Show Ugly Realities Behind the Scenes of 'Factory Dairy Farms'
By ANNA SCHECTER and BRIAN ROSS
Jan. 26, 2010
Undercover videos produced by animal rights groups are fueling a debate over the need for new laws to regulate the treatment of American dairy cows. "These animals are really treated as little more than milk-producing machines," said Nathan Runkle, executive director of Mercy for Animals. "The overall environment at this facility was really a culture of cruelty and neglect."
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/animal-rights-us-dairy-industry/story?id=9658866

Sergey Brin: Engine driver

Google's bold stand against China owes much to the ideals of the internet giant's co-founder

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/sergey-brin-engine-driver-1869546.html

By Tim Walker

Saturday, 16 January 2010

When, two years previously, the world's largest internet firm had finally started doing business with the world's most populous country, Google's bosses agreed to impose search filters at the behest of Beijing. Thus search terms such as "Tiananmen Square" or "Dalai Lama" threw up results that were either innocuous or simply censored. Many of Google's idealistic employees, let alone its users, had long been troubled by the compromise. One of the site's founders, Larry Page, voted the motion down, as did the CEO, Eric Schmidt. But Page's co-founder, Sergey Brin, abstained.

For the Full Story see the link  above

via www.independent.co.uk

By Michael Geist

Wednesday January 27, 2010

http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/4737/125/#iframe_height=300

Part Three of the ACTA Guide (Part One on the agreement itself, Part Two on the official and leaked documents) focuses on the issue that has dogged the proposed agreement since it was first announced - the lack of transparency associated with the text and the talks. As yesterday's public letter from NDP MP Charlie Angus and the UK cross-party motion highlight, elected officials around the world have latched onto the transparency issue and demanded that their governments open ACTA to public scrutiny. Reviewing the ACTA transparency issue involves several elements: the public concern with ACTA secrecy, the source of the secrecy, and the analysis of whether ACTA secrecy is common when compared to other intellectual property agreements. 1. The Public Concern Over the course of the two years since ACTA was first publicly announced (it was secretly discussed for about two years before the public unveiling), there have been repeated calls from elected officials and public interest groups to address the transparency concerns. In fact, each time portions of the ACTA text leak, the concerns grow stronger. For example, a sampling of the global call from politicians for greater transparency includes:

• Senators Bernie Sanders and Sherrod Brown, United States
• Rep. Mike Doyle, United States
• Rep. Zoe Lofgren, United States
• Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, France
• Tom Watson (Labour), John Whittingdale (Conservative), Lindsay Hoyle (Labour), and Don Foster (Lib Democrats), United Kingdom
• Minister Åsa Torstensson, Sweden
• MEP Jens Holms, Sweden
• MEP Axel Voss, Germany
• MP Clare Curran, New Zealand
• Peter Dunne, New Zealand
• MP Charlie Angus, Canada

Moreover, the European Parliament has voted for a proposal to bring more transparency and public access to documents.  The resolution includes specific language about the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.  In particular, it states:

Acting in accordance with Article 255(1) of the EC Treaty, the European Commission should immediately make all documents related to the ongoing international negotiations on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) publicly available.

The justification for the language is:

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) will contain a new international benchmark for legal frameworks on what is termed intellectual property right enforcement. The content as known to the public is clearly legislative in character. Further, the Council confirms that ACTA includes civil enforcement and criminal law measures. Since there can not be secret objectives regarding legislation in a democracy, the principles established in the ECJ Turco case must be upheld.

In addition to elected officials and parliamentary resolutions, numerous public interest groups from around the world have joined the call for greater ACTA transparency (current joint declaration is one example).  Business groups have also attacked the secrecy associated with the talks.

2.   The Sources of ACTA Secrecy

Identifying the sources of ACTA secrecy are alternately easy and difficult. The confidentiality statement that forms the basis of ACTA confidentiality has been leaked and makes it clear that the U.S. set the initial terms of secrecy.  A more detailed discussion can be found in several documents responding to access to information/freedom of information requests.  For example, the Declaration of Stanford McCoy of the USTR on ACTA disclosure of documents provides the U.S. perspective, while European Council response on ACTA transparency and disclosure of documents provides the EU view (second EU document here).

While those are the official positions, some countries have provided limited access to "ACTA Insiders."  The U.S. made the Internet chapter available under non-disclosure agreement to 42 ACTA insiders in 2009.  Canada intended to create an insider advisory group, but abandoned those plans after details of the possible members was obtained under the Access to Information Act and reported in the press.

More difficult is to identify who currently supports ACTA secrecy. According to an article in the EU Observer, roughly half of the 27 EU Member States support increased ACTA transparency, suggesting that making content publicly available would increase public confidence.  There have been similar reports in the UK, New Zealand, Australia, and Canada. That still leaves the Asian countries and the U.S. as potential holdouts (USTR head Ron Kirk has reportedly said that countries would walk away from the treaty if the text were made available).

3.   Is ACTA Secrecy Standard?

The third major issue is whether the ACTA secrecy is commonplace.  Last fall, the ACTA partners released a joint statement arguing that "it is accepted practice during trade negotiations among sovereign states to not share negotiating texts with the public at large, particularly at earlier stages of the negotiation."  Yet a closer examination of similar international IP negotiations reveals that the ACTA approach is not standard.

U.S. NGO groups have made a strong case for how ACTA's lack of transparency is out-of-step with many other global norm setting exercises.  With regard to international fora, they note that the WTO, WIPO, WHO, UNCITRAL, UNIDROIT, UNCTAD, OECD, Hague Conference on Private International Law, and an assortment of other conventions have all been far more open than ACTA.  For example, the WIPO Internet treaties, which offer the closest substantive parallel to the ACTA Internet provisions, were by comparison very transparent:

The two WIPO Internet Treaties (WCT and WPPT) were negotiated in a completely open meeting at the Geneva Convention Center. The public was allowed to attend without accreditation. The draft texts for the WCT and the WPPT were public, and the U.S. government requested comments on the draft texts, which were available, among other places, from the U.S. Copyright Office.

Two other documents offer similar reviews of the transparency of negotiation documents and opportunities for public participation.  Moreover, Jamie Love recently posted a comparison of the level of transparency during the FTAA negotiations with the ACTA talks.  Several drafts of the FTAA agreement were released to the public as the negotiations were ongoing.

The inescapable conclusion is that the ACTA approach is hardly standard.  Rather, it represents a major shift toward greater secrecy in the negotiation of international treaties on intellectual property in an obvious attempt to avoid public participation and scrutiny.

ACTA Guide, Part Two: The Documents (Official and Leaked)

By Michael Geist

Tuesday January 26, 2010

http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/4730/125/#

Negotiations in the 7th round of the ACTA talks open this morning in Mexico with civil enforcement issues on the agenda. Yesterday I posted on the developments to-date, including a chronology of talks, issues, and leaks that have led to this week's round of discussions. Part Two of the ACTA Guide provides links to the underlying documentation. Governments have been very tight lipped about the talks. Initially, only a brief summary following the conclusion of each round of the talks was provided. More recently, the agenda of each meeting is disclosed and a summary document (largely confirming Internet leaks) has been provided. Links to each of these documents is posted below. * The official agenda for the 7th round of negotiations in Guadalajara, Mexico * Statement on 6th round of negotiations in Seoul, Korea * Statement on 5th round of negotiations in Rabat, Morocco * Statement on 4th round of negotiations in Paris, France * Statement on 3rd round of negotiations in Tokyo, Japan * Statement on 2nd round of negotiations in Washington, DC * Statement on 1st round of negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland * The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement - Summary of Key Elements Under Discussion Of far greater importance are the leaked documents. These have confirmed how the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is designed to extend far beyond counterfeiting and how it would reshape domestic law in many countries, including Canada. Links to all the leaks are posted below. Note that many are dated and therefore reflect initial thinking but may have changed over the course of recent discussions. * Confidentiality statement: terms of confidentiality for ACTA documents (U.S.) * Business Group demands for ACTA * 2007 Outline Proposal for ACTA * EU Analysis of the ACTA Internet chapter * EU Advance Summary of the ACTA Internet chapter * Canadian non-paper on Institutional arrangements * Definitions (U.S.) * Border Measures Chapter (U.S. and Japan) * Criminal Provisions Chapter (U.S. and Japan) * Civil Enforcement Chapter (U.S. and Japan)

The ACTA Guide, Part One: The Talks To-Date

Monday January 25, 2010 The 7th round of Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement negotiations begins tomorrow in Guadalajara, Mexico. The negotiation round will be the longest to-date, with three and a half days planned to address civil enforcement, border measures, the Internet provisions, and (one hour for) transparency. Over the next five days, I plan to post a five-part ACTA Guide that will include sourcing for much of the discussion on ACTA, links to all the leaked documents, information on the transparency issue, and a look at who has been speaking out. I start today with a lengthy backgrounder for those new to ACTA or looking to catch up on recent developments. There are several ways to get up-to-speed. The recent Google-sponsored debate was very informative, particularly on the transparency issue. There has been some helpful mainstream media coverage from the Washington Post (Copyright Overreach Takes a World Tour, Q & A on ACTA) and the Irish Times (Secret agreement may have poisonous effect on the net). The Command Line ran a podcast on the topic last week and I've posted interviews on ACTA I did with Search Engine and CBC's As It Happens. Last last year I also created a timeline that tracks the evolution of ACTA and I gave a talk on ACTA last November that highlights the major developments in about 20 minutes (embedded below).3

via www.michaelgeist.ca