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[Phillip Rhodes <mindcrime AT cpphacker.co.uk>]

Some of you may already be aware of this case, some of you may not. 
Everyone who is an American citizen should be.  The U.S. Supreme
Court is set to hear a case, on March 22nd, of Mr. Dudley Hiibel.

What did Mr. Hiibel do to get arrested, and why has it made it
all the way to the Supreme Court?  Here's a quote from one of
the websites covering the case:

<i>One balmy May evening back in 2000, Dudley was standing around 
minding his own business when all of a sudden, a policeman pulled-up and 
demanded that Dudley produce his ID.  Dudley, having done nothing wrong, 
declined.  He was arrested and charged with "failure to cooperate" for 
refusing to show ID on demand.  And it's all on video.

On the 22nd of March 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether 
Dudley and the rest of us live in a free society, or in a country where 
we must show "the papers" whenever a cop demands them. </i>

There are more details, but that's the gist of it.  For more details
and some conversation and discussion see:

http://papersplease.org/hiibel/facts.html

and

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/02/19/2336249&mode=thread

I for one am absolutely outraged at this abuse of authority by
the police, and think every man, woman and child who proudly
call themselves American and believe this is truly the "land of
the free and home of the brave" should be as well.

If this kind of behavior is allowed to happen, we as the citizens
of this great nation need to start asking some very difficult questions
about our future.  If this is allowed to happen, it must immediately 
become clear to every American citizen that our government is no longer
the government the Founding Fathers intended to create, and is no longer
the government dictated by the Constitution of the United States of America.

If this stands, it is absolutely time for drastic, sweeping changes
in the power structure of our government.  No, I'm not advocating an
armed Revolution (not yet anyway), despite my .sig line.  But I am 
saying that this will send a clear signal that all of the incumbent 
elected officials in place at the Federal level must be removed from 
office, and replaced with officials who respect the Constitution this 
country was founded upon.  If that can be accomplished by simply voting 
the existing officials out of office, then so be it.  If it can't... 
then we have to ask ourselves if we're willing to stand by and watch
this country slowly, gradually, and inexorably decay into a nightmare
of which George Orwellian proportions.  We must ask if we are willing
to live in the modern day equivelant of Nazi Germany with a modern
day Gestapo enforcing the rules and demanding our "papers."

And for those of you who know me, and know that I am a Libertarian
Party member, please be aware that these are my thoughts, and my
thoughts alone, and are not associated in any way with any
official position of the Libertarian Party.  And this message is
not a argument to vote Libertarian...  it's an argument to vote for
somebody, anybody, other than the corrupt, power-mad idiots who
are currently running this country.  Vote Libertarian, vote Reform
Party, Constitution Party, American Communist Party, Green party, 
whoever. But please, realize that the status-quo must be broken, for the 
future of our country.

Now, maybe, just maybe the Supreme Court will get this right,
and Liberty will prevail.  I certainly hope so, but based on
recent evidence, my confidence that this will happen is not high.
If that happens, feel free to flame me to death for being unnecessarily
"alarmist."  But whatever happens, everyone, please keep a close eye on 
this case, encourage your friends, neighbors, co-workers, and family to 
do likewise... and think about the ramifications of this decision when 
it comes down.


TTTYL,

Phillip Rhodes


--
When the 1st Amendment no longer protects your voice.
And when the 4th Amendment no longer protects your privacy or your stuff.
Thank God we have the 2nd Amendment to tell our elected representatives 
that enough is enough.
It's time to put "... from my cold, dead hands" back where it belongs.

FREE AMERICA
Vote Libertarian
www.lp.org