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Bob Barr

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Home school ruling should strike fear

From my own experience as a member of Congress who personally reviewed hundreds of applications for admission to our country’s military academies, I can attest to the fact that high school seniors who had been home schooled for all or part of their academic careers competed favorably in all aspects of academics with students who attended public or private schools. Georgia is not alone in recognizing the value of home schooling; virtually all other states do as well.

However, that vital system of home schooling is now threatened. Georgia parents, legislators and others who care about fairness and choice in education, and who value parental rights and individual freedom, should take note and take steps to ensure that a recent court decision in California does not take hold in our state.

Cast a wary eye on surveillance efforts

It’s become a cottage industry —- scaring the bejesus out of the citizenry in an effort to push U.S. House members into following the example of their Senate counterparts and pass legislation giving the administration legal authority to secretly surveil phone calls and e-mails of U.S. citizens in this country without court approval.

Surveillance advocates from President Bush on down are disingenuously mischaracterizing the law —- and the already vast power of the government to gather intelligence information electronically —- in order to gain the votes needed to send such legislation to the president for signature.

To set the record straight, here are some key points concerning the surveillance powers of government —- current and desired:

Bank on it — your every transaction triggers snooping

I am not an Eliot Spitzer fan. The now-former New York governor and I have disagreed privately and publicly on any number of issues, mostly involving questions of prosecutorial abuse. Still, I have great concern with the manner in which his fall from grace was orchestrated, and with the federal laws and regulations on which it was based. The sad saga of Spitzer should concern every American, or at least all those who maintain accounts at any financial institution or who engage in any form of electronic financial transactions.

The web of snooping in which federal investigators and regulators are now able to ensnare any person who engages in any form of financial transaction has become so complex and pervasive that almost no person anywhere in the world can escape its clutches. The ability of the government to manipulate this vast power is magnified manyfold by virtue of the manner in which our laws and regulations require the active complicity of the entire cadre of persons working in, or in some manner connected with, banks and other entities that provide or facilitate financial transactions.

U.S. ranks with China in privacy invasion

What does the United States have in common with Thailand, Taiwan, Singapore, Russia, China, Malaysia and the United Kingdom? According to the most recent annual survey of 70 countries conducted by Privacy International, these seven countries — along with the United States — are the worst performers in terms of protecting the privacy of their citizens. These eight nations qualify as “endemic surveillance societies,” in which privacy-invasive laws, policies and regulations are pervasive and systemic.

While some may discount the findings of Privacy International, a nearly 20-year-old watchdog organization headquartered in London, even a cursory look at recent privacy-related policies in the United States reveals why the latest ranking is deserved.

No Torture. No Exceptions.

In no instance is this scenario clearer than when the current administration has addressed the matter of whether its agents have, since September 11, 2001, tortured prisoners. The difficulty in resolving this controversy is immense, because administration officials won’t even discuss “torture,” preferring instead to talk about “enhanced interrogation techniques.” Federal officials like the latter term because it is not defined in federal or international law (”enhanced interrogation” being essentially a made-up term), and therefore activities falling within its ambit are not—cannot be—illegal.

When forced to answer questions regarding torture, as in the recent debate surrounding the technique known as waterboarding, administration officials dismiss such discussions as improper talk of vital national security matters; denigrate and dismiss such discussions as “silly,” as Vice President Dick Cheney did in a recent interview; or deflect criticism by adding a waffle word in front of the operative term and sliding away. The administration and its supporters rely on the unfortunate propensity of many journalists, members of Congress, and others to accept whatever explanation is proffered without probing beneath the surface.

Big Brother endorses these playthings

Two years ago in this column, I lamented the fact that toy manufacturers were cashing in on society’s headlong rush toward constant and ubiquitous surveillance.

I highlighted a Lego construction set that included, as part of a police 18-wheeler, a surveillance and monitoring unit. I also noted a plastic “play set,” manufactured and marketed by Playmobil, depicting a police officer wanding a civilian figure as pretend belongings go through a pretend X-ray machine. This trend toward “play” search and surveillance has continued, and now includes a functioning toy metal detector.

Wizard Industries Inc. recently heralded the latest children’s toy —- as an “educational aid” —- designed expressly to make surveillance security “fun.” The company’s press release announcing its “Scan-It Toy X-Ray Machine” reveals much about the direction in which our society is moving.

Boston police jump gun with ‘Safe Homes’

Most police officers with whom I have worked over the years —- whether as a United States attorney, a lawyer in private practice, or a member of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee —- are men and women of integrity and commitment to the communities they serve. The vast majority of those officers have a sincere respect for the constitutional rights of the citizenry. But then again, I’ve not worked with the Boston Police Department.

The police department in that Massachusetts city has just launched an initiative that exhibits a cynical disregard for the rights of the citizenry, even as it cleverly cloaks the program in language pretending to protect the people toward whom it is directed. I refer to the “Safe Homes Initiative,” with its slick brochures and smooth rhetoric.

Pain inflicted on OxyContin

Following his 1987 acquittal on 100 criminal counts charged against him by the Justice Department, former Labor Secretary Raymond Donovan asked rhetorically — but pointedly — “Which office do I go to, to get my reputation back?”

As difficult as it is for an individual exonerated of charges against him or her to remove the tarnish to reputation of criminal charges, it is more difficult still for a corporation to recoup lost reputation in such circumstances.

Not all corporations exonerated in court suffer as greatly as Arthur Andersen, driven into dissolution prior to its pyrrhic victory of having its conviction overturned by the Supreme Court in 2005. The list of corporations harmed severely by federal prosecutors making “examples” of them continues to grow.

Conservative cred elusive for McCain

I spent three days last week in Washington, D.C., where, like a recovering alcoholic, I am not infrequently drawn for sustenance and comfort. Part of my time on this latest trip was spent at the 35th annual Conservative Political Action Conference, known among political junkies and media hounds by its acronym, “CPAC.”

CPAC this year attracted a record number of participants —- nearly 7,000 conservative activists of all ages, from mid-teens to octogenarians and beyond. However, most of the time the constant rush of young people charging through the all-too-narrow corridors of the huge but still inadequate Omni Shoreham Hotel made it seem like everyone there had overdosed on Red Bull. Still, it was a most interesting experience in this year in which the nation is poised to elect its 44th president.

A scary way to further erode our liberties

If California Rep. Jane Harman (D), Maine Sen. Susan Collins (R) and many of their colleagues on both sides of the political aisle have their way, President Bush may soon be able to sign into law an act that will create a new, 21st-century version of HUAC — the National Commission on the Prevention of Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism.

The legislation would write into federal law three new concepts: “violent radicalization,” “homegrown terrorism” and “ideologically based violence.” Any person or organization that might have even contemplated the use of “violence” (not itself a defined term in the legislation) ought to be genuinely frightened of this language. Any “extremist belief system” (not further defined) that might facilitate “ideologically based violence” would be a targetable activity for the commission.

Real ID game of chicken

While the right to travel free of government constraints has long been considered a fundamental freedom in America, in the eyes of the current administration of George W. Bush and Mr. Chertoff, this clearly is no longer seen as the case. In recent remarks about carrying out the 2005 Real ID Act, Mr. Chertoff put state governments and American citizens alike on notice that no opposition would be tolerated in complying with the mandates of the federal law, even if it means citizens of those states expressing concerns about the law’s provisions will be unable to board commercial aircraft.

Criticism of parking-lot gun bill misses mark

The Georgia General Assembly session is about to begin, and self-styled “property rights” advocates once again are criticizing the National Rifle Association for daring to urge passage of legislation that would remind Georgia citizens that their right to lawfully possess a firearm, as guaranteed by Constitution and law, cannot be arbitrarily denied them simply because they might chose to exercise that right in or on a publicly-accessible parking lot.

In a Jan. 3 column (”NRA’s latest bill would trample property rights”) against efforts by the NRA and what appears to be a majority of legislators under the Gold Dome, Georgia Chamber of Commerce Senior Vice President Joe Fleming decries the NRA’s effort to “establish” a “peculiar new right” (emphasis mine). The “right” for which Mr. Fleming chides the NRA is in fact neither new nor peculiar under either federal or Georgia state law; and it is certainly not “bizarre” as further characterized by Mr. Fleming’s overblown and vituperative rhetoric.

Despite efforts by Mr. Fleming and others to prevent the legislation supported by the NRA and many state legislators from being signed into law, the measure is actually quite limited and very measured - if, that is, one reads it.

Hide the Kids: Supreme Court to Review Gun Control

Grab the dog, hide the kids, and take cover! The United States Supreme Court has decided to hear arguments this coming spring as to whether the 31-year old gun control law in our nation’s capitol is – as declared by a federal appeals court– unconstitutional. For the first time in the 216 years the Second Amendment has been a part of the Bill of Rights, we should have a definitive answer to the age-old question: does the Second Amendment guarantee an individual’s right to keep and bear arms, or is it merely a codification of the collective need for an organized “militia” to arm itself?

As the time for oral argument approaches, and then as the country awaits the court’s historic decision before it recesses next summer, Washington, D.C. will be Ground Zero in the battle over freedom in America.

As fierce as the war of words that will be waged in the hallowed halls of the nation’s highest tribunal promises to be, we might very well witness some battles of our own under the Gold Dome during the 2008 legislative session; debates and votes that will determine the extent to which Georgia’s citizens will be able to exercise their inherent right to keep and bear arms.

2007 ends on a few good notes

This may surprise many readers (indeed, readers easily shocked may wish not to proceed further), but I actually believe positive events occurred in 2007.

‘07 awards — even for the idiots

It truly has been a banner year. No, not for the economy, or for America’s prestige around the world; and not for the caliber of political discourse here at home as we prepare to enter a presidential election year. It was a very good year for idiocy at all levels — international, national, state, local and individual. Thus, in rendering our “Idiots of the Year” awards, the difficulty lay not in fielding sufficient nominees, but in deciding among so many nominees, those truly most worthy of such designation.

Firefighters as spies truly over the top

The image of the friendly firefighter helping rescue a wayward kitten from a tree might need updating. If the federal Department of Homeland Security has its way, firefighters across the country will be armed not only with firefighting equipment, but also issued training materials on how to recognize suspect behavior on the part of citizens and what to look for in peoples’ homes that might be “suspicious.” In other words, firefighters would become domestic spies. In fact, such training already has begun.

Court must take very careful aim at Second Amendment

In announcing last week that the U.S. Supreme Court would decide whether a lower-court decision last spring invalidating the District of Columbia’s 31-year-old handgun ban should stand, the high court teed up a modern-day “shot heard ’round the world” that may very well define whether freedom retains any life breath in this country.

Drought Reveals Fatal Flaws in Current Political System

The on-going water crisis resulting from lengthy drought conditions in north Georgia and throughout a large swath of the southeastern United States, contains within its four corners a number of important – indeed, vital – lessons we ignore at our great peril.

On the broadest level, the dwindling water supplies in Lake Lanier, Lake Allatoona, and West Point Lake illustrate vividly the dangerous consequences of placing the very livelihood of a major metropolitan area in the hands of unelected bureaucrats.

No, it’s ‘pointless’ to delay and jeopardize trial

The Brian Nichols multiple murder trial is on again. No, wait; it’s off. Sorry, it’s back on. Nope; my mistake; it’s postponed yet again. I guess these fits and starts make sense to someone, somewhere, because after all, presiding Judge Hilton Fuller says that continuing the trial would be “pointless.” “Pointless?” “POINTLESS?” Bringing a person alleged to have murdered four people, including a sitting Superior Court judge in cold blood, to trial would be “pointless?” What planet — no, what universe — is this judge living in? “Pointless,” apparently because the court-appointed lawyers representing Nichols have been paid only $1.8 million?

Clinton Rides High as GOP Battles it Out

Former Speaker Newt Gingrich called Sean Hannity’s radio show last week to announce glibly that in his view U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton’s chances of winning the 2008 Democratic Party presidential nomination had plummeted from 80 percent to 50 percent based on her performance in the most recent “debate” between the party’s candidates. Gingrich’s views clearly were not based on scientific analysis.

SAT doesn’t stand for Sex Aptitude Test

The decision last week by a school in Portland, Maine, to provide students as young as 11 years old with the most invasive types of birth control, including pills, patches and even implants, has rekindled the debate over “sex education” in public schools. The good news is that this debate has been turned up a notch or two by publicity surrounding Portland’s decision. The bad news is that, like most controversies in modern America, it will capture the public’s attention only until another scandal or natural disaster pushes it off the front page. That’s unfortunate.

Multinationals Battling Violence Face Dilemma

There’s trouble brewing in South America, especially for U.S. companies that maintain a visible presence in countries such as Colombia; and Georgia-based corporations active in that Andean country need to sit up and pay attention. In fact, the problems boiling over in Colombia have ramifications for American companies in any country in which there is significant internal strife. Two recent court cases highlight the legal dangers – civil and criminal – facing U.S. multinationals.

Last call for freedom in DeKalb

I’m not a clock-watcher, but I suspect the latest I ever walked out of a bar — in DeKalb County or elsewhere — was probably at least four hours earlier than the 4 a.m. closing time now allowed for bars in that suburban Atlanta county.

Maybe it’s because for most of my adult life I was a member of the Republican Party which, as those of us who have watched politics for a living know, is a party populated exclusively by teetotalers. I just never felt the need to hang around bars until the not-so-wee hours of the morning. But, hey, a lot of people do. And why shouldn’t they be able to; whether they elect to do so for the right reasons or the wrong ones?

We rush to war in Iran at our own peril

The beat of war drums along the Potomac — from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., to Capitol Hill, and from Neo-Con Central at the headquarters of the Weekly Standard to the halls of the Pentagon — is growing in intensity just as it did five years ago in the months leading to the invasion of Iraq. This time, however, the target over which the war hawks are sharpening their spears is not a relatively small and ill-prepared country in the Middle East, but a country larger in land mass than the state of Alaska and with a population nearly four times as large as Iraq’s.

‘Mission creep’ hits airport security

Approach any major airport in the United States in this brave new, post-Sept. 11 world, and there is one message transmitted loud and clear to you — be afraid. Armed police are everywhere. You can’t stop your car for more than a few seconds without being warned by an armed police officer that you’d better move on.

Seeking quality of life at the point of a gun?

The elusive search for safety and improved “quality of life” in communities across America is taking disturbing, even bizarre turns.

Middle school children are being arrested, jailed and charged with sexual felonies for slapping classmates on their rear ends. High school students are being charged with felonies because Swiss Army knives are found in their cars. Armed police units are being formed to enforce local housing and yard ordinances. More often than not — at least in the Atlanta area — it appears that Republican officials are more zealous than Democrats.

Sen. Craig is right to fight charge

Largely lost amid the massive media coverage earlier this week of the long-anticipated but little-revealing “strategic game plan” for the 4 1/2-year-old occupation of Iraq delivered to the Congress by Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, was the latest chapter in the legal saga of Idaho’s U.S. Sen. Larry Craig.

Craig’s problems continue to reveal aspects of our criminal justice system that ought to trouble us deeply. There also is a common philosophical thread between the administration’s Iraq policy and the crime-fighting policies of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Police — both reflect the “pre-emptive strike” syndrome prevalent in modern-day America.

Oil-for-food scandal: Bush critic targeted

The U.S. Department of Justice, established in 1789 — with its extensive investigative and prosecutorial resources in Washington, D.C., and its 94 U.S. Attorney offices spread across all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and America’s overseas territories — is a formidable force. Its budget of some $23 billion dwarfs the resources that virtually any office or person could bring to bear against a selected target. The bottom line is you really don’t want the Department of Justice on your bad side.

This awesome power, however, is supposed to be tempered with a sense of fairness and compassion. As noted by former Attorney General Robert Jackson, speaking at the Justice Department in April 1940: “The prosecutor has more control over life, liberty, and reputation than any other person … and the citizen’s safety lies in the prosecutor who tempers zeal with human kindness, who seeks truth and not victims … and who approaches his task with humility.”

When a government agent clearly steps out of bounds

Georgia is a large state — the biggest state east of the Mississippi River — but not so big that we share a border with Canada. Actually, that’s a good thing, because if Georgia did border our neighbor to the north, that part of our state adjacent to Canada would be subject to the machinations of the International Boundary Commission and that, friends, is something no property owner wants.

The commission is small by Washington standards — a $1.5 million budget and a six-person staff. Its very existence is known to no more than a handful of diehard bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., and Ottawa. That is, until recently.

Congress trashes your privacy

It’s been a little over two weeks since Congress, rushing to get out of town for its August recess, greatly expanded the power of the Bush administration to conduct surreptitious surveillance of Americans’ international calls and e-mails.

While we have no idea how many such transmissions have in fact been monitored, the universe of such communications is vast, as is the government’s ability — and now its legal authority — to intercept, gather and retain such data. Given the administration’s propensity to gather as much information on as many people as possible and sort it out later, it is reasonable and prudent to conclude the number of communications already gathered and retained is extremely large.

It therefore appears timely for Americans to understand just a little bit about how extensive this new power granted the administration really is.

To Tap Calls from Abroad, the Power Is Too Broad

The upshot of your commentary, “Reason and Wiretaps1″ (Aug. 8) is that the legislation amending the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) was as much a defeat as a victory for the Bush administration, which brought intense pressure on the Congress to pass the legislation. In fact, the Congress gave the administration virtually everything it was asking for — much more than the administration publicly said it was seeking. Were the vice president less taciturn than we know him to be, cartwheels rather than the dour analysis offered by the Journal would have been in order.

The real toll is your privacy

Motorists speeding past the collection booths on Ga. 400, our state’s only toll road, might think the worst consequence that could befall them would be a ticket for failure to pay a toll if they don’t have a “Cruise Card” or have allowed it to expire.

In fact, Ga. 400 scofflaws, as well as all those millions who pay their tolls and pass lawfully through its booths, have much more to be concerned about, at least potentially.

As many states are discovering, toll systems yield a gold mine of information. Not only government agents, but lawyers as well are accessing toll records for a wide range of purposes.

Big Brother in the Big Apple

Though the lion’s share of publicity surrounding Tony Blair’s recent departure as Britain’s prime minister focused on his legacy as George W. Bush’s top foreign cheerleader, a more lasting legacy for Mr. Blair’s lengthy tenure as Britain’s chief “decider” will be that he greatly accelerated Great Britain’s ascendancy to the position of the “most surveilled” society in the world. Still, Michael Bloomberg, the Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-independent mayor of New York is giving Mr. Blair a run for the money as the most surveillance-hungry public official in the world.

Even though officials in other cities are embracing and installing surveillance cameras in huge numbers — Chicago, Detroit and Washington, D.C., to name a few — the latest plan unveiled by Mr. Bloomberg and his equally surveillance-enamored police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, leaves these other American cities in the surveillance dust. Truly what we are witnessing being created here is a 21st-century Panopticon.

Troy Davis’ ‘day in court’ brought travesty of justice

I’ve been called a lot of things, but a “bleeding heart liberal” is not one of them. I am a firm believer in the propriety and historic soundness of the death penalty. But, as a proponent of our Constitution and its attendant Bill of Rights, I believe just as strongly in the fundamental fairness that lies at the heart — or should lie at the heart — of our criminal justice system. Because of its obvious finality, the death penalty must be employed with as close to absolute fairness and certainty as humanly possible. Several recent cases, including that of Troy Davis here in Georgia, have raised legitimate questions about just that proposition. True conservatives, as much as the most bleeding heart liberals, should be unafraid to look carefully at such cases.

Immigration belongs at the federal level

The New Testament Book of Matthew recounts the story in which Jesus is asked whether it is proper to pay taxes to Caesar. Jesus admonishes those questioning him to “render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

There is no language in our Constitution or in the Federalist Papers that accompanied, explained and defended that magnificent document, to suggest the drafters had in mind this biblical passage as they labored. But they might as well have harkened back to Matthew 22:21 as they sought to balance and apportion power between the federal, state and local government, and the people .

U.S. Justice has no business in Georgia’s Genarlow Wilson case

I just returned from a 10-day trip to Alaska. On Friday when I glanced at the news stories my crack staff assembled for my current events reading, it was as if I’d not been gone a single day. Grady Hospital is still on the brink of fiscal disaster. Iraq continues its downhill slide. The Bush administration still views itself as immune from congressional oversight. And — most disappointing of all — the case of Genarlow Wilson continues to receive front-page media attention.

I was hoping that upon my return to civilization, the Wilson case would be, if not old news, at least relegated to the middle section of the newspapers. But it was not to be. The case continues to garner far more attention than it deserves. Perhaps if the state Supreme Court renders a decision quickly, following oral arguments scheduled for July 20, we can all get back to other pursuits.

Wrestling in a chokehold

Bob Barr - I suppose it was inevitable. No sooner had police discovered the bodies of pro wrestler Chris Benoit, his wife Nancy and their 7-year old son in their suburban Atlanta home, than the media world — starved for headlines since Paris Hilton no longer was throwing tantrums at or en route to jail — went into 24/7 overdrive.

The local district attorney started the frenzy in the hours following the initial discovery of the three bodies when he teased the media by revealing that the nascent investigation already had uncovered “bizarre” details. The circus was off and running.

‘Rockets’ red glare’ on endangered list

Historians have long known the Chinese invented fireworks during the Han Dynasty (200 B.C.), but until a recent cache of ancient tablets was uncovered in an archeological dig, little was known about the early use of this product. Thanks to this recent discovery, we now know that even during the early years of their availability over two millennia ago, government officials viewed fireworks as the extremely dangerous, if not downright subversive substance that officials in Georgia have come to know them to be.

First disbar, but then keep digging

Lawyers have been taking a beating for a long time. Even Saint Luke, in writing his otherwise glorious Epistle, singled out lawyers as a profession to watch out for, noting in Chapter 11, Verse 46, “Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! For ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.”

Most students of William Shakespeare are familiar with the Bard’s rather draconian solution to the lawyer problem, when he recommended in Henry VI, “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” There’s no getting around the fact that lawyers have taken their hits, which seem to keep on coming.

Of course now we have the winner of the lawyer’s trifecta, the man who gives not only lawyers, but prosecutors and elected officials, a bad name: Michael Nifong.

Don’t Ask, Who Cares

Last week’s forum of 10 Republican presidential hopefuls offered the country some troubling insight into the thinking of leading GOP candidates. In particular, the five who responded to questions about the Clinton-era “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy governing military service by gays and lesbians showed a disturbing move away from conservative principles, in favor of what smells strongly of political expediency or timidity.

TB diagnosis does not repeal a person’s rights

When I was a young boy, growing up in the early 1950s before the Salk vaccine became widely available against polio, pictures of boys and girls lying in “iron lung” machines struck fear into our hearts.

Having to spend one’s life captive to a body-sized metal cylinder in order to breathe was terrifying, and the risk of contracting polio was real. Thanks to the miracles of post-WWII medicines, however, the risk of diseases like polio has been largely, if not quite entirely, eradicated from life in these United States.

In the post-9/11 world, however, every incident involving a remotely serious possible problem becomes a headline story to be red-flagged and repeated endlessly, until it becomes all-consuming and takes on an aura of importance it may very well not deserve.

We can’t secure our borders, but Iraq’s borders get priority

Unlike most other countries, the United States is fortunate to have only two international borders; and one of those — the 5,522-mile border with Canada — is friendly. That’s the good news. The bad news is that our southern border with Mexico, at 1,951 miles, is the most traversed border in the world; much of it illegal. This border witnesses more human traffic (legal and illegal) than any other in the entire world.

Reliance on watch lists can threaten Americans’ safety Reform is crucial to streamline investigations and allow the innocent to clear their names

Kiernan O’Dwyer has been stopped by U.S. Customs agents more than 80 times. This figure puts him at the top of a list of travelers red-flagged as a result of government watch lists. O’Dwyer, a veteran pilot for American Airlines, is in notable company. In 2004, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) was delayed at several airports. It took more than three weeks and several personal phone calls to the Homeland Security secretary to have his name removed.

GOP hotheads wrong about immigration bill

As the old saying goes, “what have you done for me lately?”

Judging by the manner in which many of those in attendance at last Saturday’s state GOP convention greeted the state’s senior Republican senator, Saxby Chambliss, that adage could be the theme for Georgia’s majority party.

Despite having defeated an incumbent Democratic senator less than five years ago to win his seat, and notwithstanding his unwavering support of Republican President Bush throughout his first term in the Senate, Chambliss was actually booed and hissed when he took the stage at the convention to speak to the faithful of his own party. What occasioned this distasteful lapse of protocol? Had the state’s senior senator voted for a tax increase, decided to support a piece of pro-choice legislation or called for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq?

Don’t be fooled; a green CIA won’t root out the terrorists

They didn’t predict the fall of the Soviet Empire. The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 caught them by surprise. But never fear, Congress has now directed that officials at the Central Intelligence Agency keep watch on global warming so we are not taken by surprise if the calamity foreseen by Al Gore causes a spike in temperature in the future.

Congress, now under new management, apparently has concluded that the CIA has far too much time on its hands trying to follow, anticipate and help thwart terrorist attacks. It seems that spending our nation’s foreign intelligence resources trying to figure out what lies behind Vladimir Putin’s beady eyes, or trying to pierce the wall separating North Korea from the civilized world, are all less important than the intelligence community’s latest congressionally mandated responsibility.

Placating the anti-gun crowd

The relationship between the Bush administration and the pro-Second Amendment community has been lukewarm, at best.

The high point in that relationship came early in George W. Bush’s first term, when former Attorney General John Ashcroft wrote a letter to the National Rifle Association, clearly stating the administration’s view that the Second Amendment guarantees the individual right to keep and bear arms. Since the time of that letter — May 17, 2001 — reasons for celebration by us Second Amendment advocates have been few and far between. Based on a recent legislative initiative by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, in cahoots with several anti-gun senators, the road is certain to continue rocky.

Don’t lower flag in lieu of flowers

It used to be that the American flag was lowered to half-staff only when a president or other nationally important person died. In fact, federal law specifies precisely that. The United States Code has, since 1923, provided that the flag is to be lowered for differing lengths of time, upon the death of a current or former president or vice president, Supreme Court justice, senator, U.S. representative, head of a federal department, or governor. The only other occasions specified by law on which Old Glory must be lowered to half-staff are until noon on Memorial Day and Peace Officers Memorial Day.

By adhering to this limited set of circumstances under which our flag is not to be flown at full staff and towering over all state and lesser flags, the law helps ensure that when the flag is in fact lowered, it truly signifies a very special, nationally important event to be noted and remembered.

Privacy … now the Guard?

It is axiomatic that no matter how much power government has, it always wants more. While the administration of President Bush is not unique in this regard, it has taken the truism to new heights; and two recent legislative events illustrate just how insatiable is this administration’s appetite for power.

In late 2005, the Bush administration was caught with its hand in the cookie jar when news accounts revealed the president had, since shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, been ordering the National Security Agency to conduct warrantless eavesdropping on American citizens in the United States without court order or supervision. This program was inaccurately dubbed the Terrorist Surveillance Program to divert attention from the fact it was targeting American citizens with no reason to believe they were engaged in any actions involving terrorism. It was conducted in violation of express statutory requirements to the contrary.

“Ambien” defense causing headaches for prosecutors

THE SENSELESS murder of almost three dozen students at Virginia Tech is a profound tragedy. Yet, already some pundits are jumping on that bandwagon which often emerges in the wake of a human tragedy in modern America — responsibility avoidance. Yes, the blame-shifting has already begun. Barely had Seung-Hui Cho completed his carnage by taking his own wretched life, than those seeking to divert focus from the tortured mind of a mentally deranged young man were declaring that responsibility for the carnage lay not with the individual who perpetrated it, but rather with the system that gave him the tools by which he chose to carry out his deeds.

Stop the runaway prosecutors

Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong may be headed to the unemployment line as a result of his blatant disregard of law and procedure in falsely accusing the Duke Lacrosse players of rape. But all may not be lost for the 56-year old Nifong, who might find a welcoming job in Texas. In fact, when you compare the North Carolina prosecutor’s outrageous actions to some of those by his Lone Star State counterparts, he could go quickly from the bottom of the ethical ladder in North Carolina to the top tier in Texas.

Military institution crumbles

A 26-year-old man, born in Cuba under the regime of Fidel Castro and still a citizen of that Caribbean island nation that maintains no diplomatic relations with the United States, joins the Army, not having completed high school and unable to speak any language but Spanish.

He displays a sticker of the Cuban flag on the windshield of his military vehicle. His hero is Ernesto “Che” Guevara, the long-deceased but deified guerrilla fighter killed 40 years ago following his capture by U.S.-trained and U.S.-backed Bolivian army units while he was fomenting peasant uprisings in that Andean country. In fact, a copy of a biography of “Che” is among this Army enlisted man’s prized possessions.

The preceding description likely would surprise no one, if in fact it described a member of the Cuban army. The problem is, the description fits not a Cuban army enlistee, but a member of the Georgia Army National Guard — yes, the U.S. Army — serving in Iraq. For Army Spc. Hector Arbosferrer, the U.S. Army is, in the words of a recent interview, simply a “path to citizenship” in America.

Why put fish above our civil liberties?

Road projects in our state — especially those involving federal funds (which is the vast majority) — can take years, sometimes decades, to make it from design to completion. Bridges and port deepenings, the lifeblood of many coastal regions, similarly consume years of time and millions of taxpayer dollars before the first scoop of silt is raised or the first girder placed. Constructing a new airport runway or taxiway may suffer countless delays and untold millions in wasted dollars before the first yard of dirt can be graded.

We have a federal agency devoted entirely to ensuring that the environment is protected before any significant project needed for the public good is allowed to go forward. Well over $7 billion is spent each year by the Environmental Protection Agency. Private companies, and state and local governments spend many times that in compliance costs.

Justice gone bananas

Chiquita Brands International, which can trace its roots back to 1870, was, until earlier this month, known to millions of Americans as the “Banana Company” with the blue and yellow logo depicting the cute cartoon character, “Miss Chiquita.”

Now, thanks to a well-publicized legal action by the U.S. government against the company, Chiquita has become a poster child for overzealous government investigators or — depending on your perspective — for American companies abroad dealing with groups that have ties to terrorist groups posing a danger to our country.

Defense fund held hostage

Sooner or later, in every major, high-profile criminal prosecution, someone raises the red herring of the cost of prosecuting the case. While efforts to highlight the cost are often titillating to the readers or viewers of a news story, the fact is, they are almost always wrong and always irrelevant.

The recently suspended slaying trial of accused courthouse killer Brian Nichols is no exception. Prompted by controversy surrounding the exceptionally expensive cost to Georgia’s taxpayers, news stories are now making the rounds with estimates of how expensive is the prosecution of Nichols.

In most cases, it won’t hurt cops to knock

During congressional debates over the USA PATRIOT Act in 2001, and over its reauthorization five years later, much of the debate centered on a provision known by critics as “sneak-and-peek warrants.”

Supporters of the expansive powers granted federal law enforcement in the post-911 legislation preferred the more bureaucratic and benign term, “delayed notification search.” Both sides agreed that the power incorporated in the legislation —- to carry out a search of a person’s home or business without being required simultaneously to let the homeowner or business owner know a search was being or had been conducted —- is an extremely powerful law enforcement tool.

The debate surrounding sneak-and-peek searches was indeed a furious one. I testified more than once before Congress in support of legislation to limit this power.

Downward spiral at Justice

Back in 1988, during my tenure as the United States Attorney in Atlanta, and while my office was concluding an investigation of Pat Swindall, at the time one of only two Republican congressmen from Georgia, the other — Newt Gingrich — opined publicly that perhaps I was a “rogue U.S. Attorney” for pursuing this particular prosecution.

In fact, the future Speaker of the House was mild in his veiled criticism, compared to the furious, behind-the-scenes activity by many other Republican leaders unhappy with my decision to prosecute a sitting Republican congressman.

While the criticism quickly abated months later when a jury found Swindall guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice, the whole exercise revealed some important lessons for me and for the system of criminal justice in our country.

Ruling respects Constitution

Every once in a while — a long while — a federal court decision comes along that is so lucid and solid it deserves kudos. Thus it is with the decision rendered late last week by the U. S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, throwing out the 30-year-old Washington, D. C., ban on private ownership of firearms.

While the 2-1 decision directly affects only the District of Columbia, the opinion will likely be widely cited in other jurisdictions. Even though the District of Columbia government has indicated it will appeal the decision to the full Court of Appeals panel, this case may well become the vehicle through which the Supreme Court will, after more than two-and-a-quarter centuries, squarely address the question of whether and to what extent the Second Amendment to the Constitution protects an individual right to keep and bear arms.

Gun law won’t turn sites into O.K. Corrals

Oft-repeated advice from veteran trial lawyers to the novice barrister: “If the facts aren’t on your side, argue the law; if the law’s not on your side, argue the facts.”

To that lawyer’s proverb might be added a corollary — “if you have neither the law nor the facts on your side, then just scare the heck out of people.”

Gun opponents in Georgia and a number of other states are shamelessly employing fear as a substitute to facts and the law, in an effort to defeat legislation that would do nothing more than protect the right of a law-abiding citizen to maintain a firearm in his or her locked, private vehicle.

Immigration indigestion

It is often said that “politics makes strange bedfellows,” but it is the immigration debate that is making even stranger bedfellows — causing otherwise conservative Republican members of Congress to clamor for draconian restrictions on businesses and for greater mandatory use of Social Security numbers.

When word surfaced recently that some banks, such as Bank of America, were allowing individuals to open accounts, apply for credit cards and obtain home mortgages even though they did not possess a Social Security number, it was not Big Government Liberals who rose up in arms to stop “greedy” financial institutions from offering such services. It was Small Government Republicans, like Colorado’s Tom Tancredo and Californians Ed Royce and John Doolittle, who waxed indignant that banks engaged in such a free market activity as extending credit to someone who proved creditworthy but did not have a Social Security number.

OK, scrap the Bill of Rights

Just last month in testimony before the Congress, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales again dismissed the notion that habeas corpus guarantees the right of all persons detained by the government to have access to a court to determine if they are being held lawfully.

Gonzales reached this conclusion because he apparently discovered that the Constitution of the United States did not “expressly” guarantee the right of habeas corpus. The attorney general’s distressing conclusion followed by two months a speech by former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich that the guarantee of freedom of speech, enshrined in the First Amendment to the Constitution, is at least to some extent incompatible with the need to wage all-out war against “terrorists” and we should therefore consider curtailing that particular freedom.

Blackwater hearings misfire

During my eight years in the House of Representatives, I saw some good oversight hearings, but not many. The majority of oversight hearings I witnessed as a member of the Republican majority during the Clinton administration were transparent efforts to grab a quick headline, or blustery exercises designed to score a temporary political point. Following the election of George W. Bush in 2000, any pretense of meaningful oversight was jettisoned in favor of using congressional power to support a president of the same party.

It was therefore with some degree of interest that I awaited the start of the 110th Congress — under control of the Democratic Party for the first time in a dozen years — to see if Congress would reassert its constitutional duty as a co-equal branch of government, and begin at long last to carry out its responsibility to oversee the executive branch. Thus far, the results are mixed.

Lawful frown on red-light cash cows

With so many of those operating under the Gold Dome on the prowl constantly for things to regulate and limit —- smoking, drinking, driving, even photography —- it’s nice to see some of our legislators taking the lead in trying to un-regulate and disempower our state government. That’s just what state Reps. Barry Loudermilk (R-Cassville) and Bobby Franklin (R-Marietta) are doing.

The target of legislation being championed by Loudermilk, Franklin and a group of their colleagues in the Georgia House is the red-light cameras that have become cash cows for Marietta, Duluth, Alpharetta, Atlanta and elsewhere in the metro area and beyond. The legislators are attacking the scourge of intersection surveillance cameras on all fronts, and their efforts are bearing fruit, at least on the public relations front.

Protecting liberties, fighting terrorism?

Judges Are No Reason to Vote for McCain

Wall Street Journal

The judiciary is becoming an important election issue. John McCain is warning conservatives that control of today’s finely balanced Supreme Court depends on his election. Unfortunately, his jurisprudence is likely to be anything but conservative.

The idea of a “living Constitution” long has been popular on the political left. Conservatives routinely dismiss such result-oriented justice, denouncing “judicial activism” and proclaiming their fidelity to “original intent.” However, many Republicans, like Mr. McCain, are just as result-oriented as their Democratic opponents. They only disagree over the result desired.

Judge-made rights are wrong because there is no constitutional warrant behind them. The Constitution leaves most decisions up to the normal political process.

Judges Are No Reason to Vote for McCain

The judiciary is becoming an important election issue. John McCain is warning conservatives that control of today’s finely balanced Supreme Court depends on his election. Unfortunately, his jurisprudence is likely to be anything but conservative.