Is it just me, or do the rest of you guys find this news item somewhat ironic:
This is from Westwood One’s Metro Source newswire; I can’t find anything on AP, so if anyone else can, let me know.
Gee… Where’s the bill to stop AT&T from giving the NSA a direct connection to their backbone?
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/04/att_assisting_n.html
Asswhutahmsayin’!
I’m feeling disturbingly thick. What is the irony?
We are officially protesting China’s internet policies, including restricting access to parts of the web, and snooping on Chinese netizens.
Meanwhile, our own policies involve massive spying on all internet traffic, with full cooperation from the telecom companies, often without warrants. We can snoop, but you Chinese can’t.
I think Congress can’t pass a “bill of attainder,” that is, a bill aimed specifically at China (but I could be wrong about exactly what that means.) In any event, if the bill passes, could it be used to allow massive lawsuits against … oh, I dunno, say, QWEST!?
Cite? The NSA database was a database of call records, not of Internet sites visited.
A bill of attainder declares an individual to be guilty of a crime by law instead of by trial. A bill opening telecom companies to lawsuits for sharing information with the government of China would not be a bill of attainder. The bill at issue here, H.R. 275, applies to Belarus, Cuba, Ethiopia, Iran, Laos, North Korea, the People’s Republic of China, Tunisia, and Vietnam as “Internet Restricting Countries” and allows the President to designate additional such countries after the bill is enacted.
I just heard, on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, a short interview with the whistle-blower. He said the entirety of US internet traffic is sent to the NSA. They sort by content, not by who sent or received it. In other words, when I mention jihad, car bombs, and Muktada, this post will be tagged at the NSA. I’m just a boring old retiree, and not a criminal, but they’re monitoring my stuff. All my broker statements, bank info, personal e-mail, and political opinions are being screened. Yours, too. It’s unconstitutional, an unreasonable search.
The show’s still going on, so the links aren’t up yet. After a few hours, look at www.npr.org
Nixon was on the verge of being impeached for wiretapping his political enemies when he resigned.
I think everyone with email should set up a filter that forwards all spam emails to the NSA and include the signature “suck on this, spooks!”
D!cks.
A bill of attainder is a bill punishing an individual for a crime. Specifically, it’s a bill putting someone to death. A bill punishing someone with a penalty less than death is a “bill of pains and penalties”. It wouldn’t apply in this case.
Moving thread from IMHO to Great Debates.
Why? QWEST was the one telecomm that held out on giving their records to the govt. and got punished with denial of contracts for it.
Perfectly true. OTOH, irony as such is not unconstitutional and there is nothing to prevent Congress or the Administration from taking arguably inconsistent positions on different matters, so long as there is no practical or legal inconsistency in their enforcement.