THOMAS MITCHELL: Subpoena seeks names -- and lots more -- of Web posters

"Fear of serious injury cannot alone justify suppression of free speech and assembly. Men feared witches and burnt women. It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears. To justify suppression of free speech, there must be reasonable ground to fear that serious evil will result if free speech is practiced."

--Justice Louis Brandeis

Free speech should be practiced only by those who are ready to deal with the consequences, which just might include a knock on the door by a friendly federal investigator wanting to know if you posted an anonymous comment on a Web site. Were you advocating violence or confessing to breaking the federal tax laws?


This is not a hypothetical.

On May 26 the Review-Journal published an article about an ongoing federal tax evasion trial. The primary defendant, Las Vegan Robert Kahre, stands accused of tax fraud for using the rather inventive argument that he could pay people in U.S. minted gold and silver coins based on their precious metal value but for tax purposes use their face value, which is many times less.

The story was posted on our Web site. When last I checked nearly 100 comments were appended to it, running the gamut from the lucid to the ludicrous.

This past week the newspaper was served with a grand jury subpoena from the U.S. attorney's office demanding that we turn over all records pertaining to those postings, including "full name, date of birth, physical address, gender, ZIP code, password prompts, security questions, telephone numbers and other identifiers ... the IP address," et (kitchen sink) cetera.

Full story

I could not find another story covering this one so feel free to correct me, otherwise this is quite upsetting to me. I almost feel iffy bringing it to ATS but I am of the attitude that they can bring hell to subdue me and others. Either way it's ridiculous and reminds me of the orwellian society we all are looking forward to.

Is it time to turn on the proxies for safety or blatantly stand your ground? Will it make a difference at this point? These are the questions I am asking, what about you?




[edit on 8-6-2009 by N3krostatic]

That is sad when you can be held accountable for whats going on in your mind, yet they force us to pay our water bills, which are effectively poisoning every man, woman and child around us.

They poison, I can't speak. LOL This world would be so much better off if something happened to whoever makes these rules up, like if they died or something. In fact, I hope they do.

*had to add:

Not only what I had said, but:

Free speech should be practiced only by those who are ready to deal with the consequences

Isn't this a rather contradicting statement? Whoever postulated this idea this is needs to get back on his meds. Crackpots.

[edit on 8-6-2009 by shanerz]

reply to post by N3krostatic


I not surprised one bit. Depending on the comments (which I haven't looked at) there could be an admission of a crime or a threat of a crime. I can see the judge asking for all the records so as to not tip off the one they are looking for, but I still think it's a bit of an invasion of privacy.

I tell people that a facebook page (or any online stuff) is never secret and that you should never post stuff on line that you would not be proud of saying 50 years from now.

Would you want your kids to know about your sexual exploits?
Would you want a spouse/employeer/family to know you committed a crime or have an STD?
Assume someone is always recording or watching what you write down.

Last word of advice if you are stupid enough to have an affair and then deny it during the divorce proceedings; you shouldn't put the names of the men you had the affairs with and rate thier sexual performance on your public blog. if you do then it will be evidence and someone may just forward the link to your mom.

reply to post by shanerz


Agreed. Even though I don't want to admit it, with the state of the world and everything else we all seem to be approaching a breaking point of control or revolution.

Everything adds up and this, if even a example, shows how things seem to be headed.


[edit on 8-6-2009 by N3krostatic]

reply to post by N3krostatic


I've heard it been said by a few history major friends and family, "This is the stuff revolutions are made of."

I think, should it keep building, whether it will be peaceful or not is definitely up to those who keep oppressing. The amount of LEA power misuse proof being spread nowdays, I can definitely see some people believing the only road to true justice is in their own hands. Job loss, socialization (Mussolini said something about Fascism being called corporatism, when gov. and corporations become one - Arguably whats happening today with CEOs being laid off/government ownership lol?), Patriot Act coupled with DHS Codex, gun control, now this... Amendments 5 to 1 in order, with attacks on others, especially 10 from Sotomayor, along the way.

Yeah... I can see what they are talking about.

LATE EDIT: Strike 2 to the first Amendment.

[edit on 8-6-2009 by shanerz]

[edit on 9-6-2009 by shanerz]