Oregon refuses to ignore basic constitutional rights for the sake of the war on terrorism: "Portland police have refused a U.S. Justice Department request for help in interviewing Middle Eastern immigrants as part of its sweeping terrorism investigation, saying it would violate state law." "Arabs and Muslims have expressed outrage at the U.S. Justice Department's plan to interview the 5,000 men, who are not suspected of any crimes. The list is comprised of men ages 18 to 33 who entered the United States since January 1, 2000, from countries that have been linked to the hijackers in the September 11 attacks or were waystations for the terrorist organization, al Qaeda." [...] http://www.cnn.com/2001/LAW/11/21/inv.portland.police.questioning.ap/index.h... Oregon does battle with Ashcroft over physician-assisted suicide laws: "The judge said his order "nullifies giving any legal effect" to Ashcroft's directive -- in other words, doctors should not fear legal repercussions if they follow the Oregon law." "Ashcroft's order prompted the court challenge, with Oregon officials saying the government was trying to strip the state of its right to govern the practice of medicine" [...] http://www.cnn.com/2001/LAW/11/21/assistedsuicide.hearing.ap/index.html DEA feds declare war on Californians: "Unable to find Osama bin Laden or dismantle al Qaeda, the Bush administration has attacked an easier target -- the 960 mostly AIDS and cancer patients of the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center." "The basis for the raid is the long-standing state-vs.federal government dispute over who has say over drug laws. In 1996, California voters approved Proposition 215, which gave patients the right to possess medical marijuana. The federal government has refused to recognize the law in California and eight other states and Washington, D.C., which have passed similar medical-marijuana measures. Last May, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the reopening of an Oakland club, a decision cited in last weeks search warrant." [...] http://www.laweekly.com/ink/01/50/news-simmons.shtml Add that to the raid on the Sacramento doctor and lawyer recently, resulting in hundreds of seized patient records. Damn pesky West Coast states, trying to pretend that they still have rights. They're part of the Union and have to do what Bushcroft says -- except, of course, when it comes to power outages. Then they're on their own. Hmm. Anyone see Redmond as the capital of the Independent States of the Pacific Coast? -MW-