Even the Author of the Patriot Act Is Trying To Stop the NSA 322
Daniel_Stuckey writes "Republican Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner will introduce an anti-NSA bill tomorrow in the House, and if it makes its winding way to becoming law, it will be a big step towards curtailing the NSA's bulk metadata collection. Wisconsin Rep. Sensenbrenner, along with 60 co-sponsors, aims to amend one section of the Patriot Act, Section 215, in a bill known as the United and Strengthening America by Fulfilling Rights and Ending Eavesdropping, Dragnet Collection, and Online Monitoring Act — also known by its less-clunky acronym version, the USA Freedom Act."
We also need... (Score:5, Insightful)
We also need a law prohibiting all these fucking acronym law names... fucking seriously...
So we ignore the 40+ Democrats... (Score:0, Insightful)
that are fighting the good fight for privacy, but instead we praise only one wishy-washy nutcase that was for it before he was against it. Seriously, he created this problem. Why praise him for telling the lie that he no longer supports it. He is a Republican so of course he wants more spying on citizens, especially minorities.
I have a easier answer... (Score:5, Insightful)
Just repeal the damned PATRIOT act. IT was supposed to be a temporary measure and it needs to go away now.
Why dont these senators have any backbone or honestly left in them and just repeal it?
Re:I have a easier answer... (Score:5, Insightful)
IT was supposed to be a temporary measure
Temporary or not, it was awful and it should never have passed.
Re:Don;t worry about the NSA - stop Obamacare! (Score:4, Insightful)
Obamacare is the real threat to this country, and will destroy us through wealth redistribution and bankrupting the country we leave to our chiildren. We need to focus our efforts to end the Socialist agenda.
Hmmm. Healthcare for all Americans, or eavesdropping for all Americans. Is there even a debate here?
USA Freedom Act (Score:5, Insightful)
Isn't that what the Constitution is supposed to be?
We don't need another Law. The Laws that made this garbage legal are unconstitutional and criminal.
We don't need another Law. We need to hunt down and incarcerate the criminals who created this mess.
We don't need another Law. We need to hold government officials personally accountable for their flagrant and criminal violations of the Constitution.
We don't need another Law. We already have a USA Freedom Act. It is called "The Constitution of the United States."
Re:We also need... (Score:4, Insightful)
Having not read the bill, or likely being able to even understand its meaning had I read it, I can only assume that, similarly to the USA PATRIOT Act, its acronym means the opposite of the abuses it will enable.
Weasel bastards from hell (Score:5, Insightful)
How about getting these rat fucking weasels away from the process and give the acts numbers instead, and get rid of the bullshit of riders that have nothing to do with the bill while we are at it.
Anyone else think these names are hilariously bad? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:And now they get credit for saving us (Score:5, Insightful)
Do people really fall for this?
To the ones pulling the strings, such an incredibly short memory and inability to draw contrasts is not a bug, it's a strongly encouraged feature.
Most people are passive mentally and believe thinking to be a burden that should be avoided whenever possible. Therefore, if the TV news doesn't specifically highlight something in a nice ADD-friendly 10-second sound bite, it won't be widely known. If this sounds incredible or alien to you, it's because the Slashdot crowd doesn't represent mainstream America (though the way people keep arguing from emotion, that's changing).
There is no one in power who wants a well-informed, smart, savvy, thinking population that has a long memory, is familiar with dialectic and able to easily perform critical thinking. No one running the show wants that at all. It's no surprise that within the little feudal system of a corporation that no one is forced to do business with, this goes unnoticed. It goes unnoticed with huge political changes that affect daily life.
Re:And now they get credit for saving us (Score:5, Insightful)
There was a time when mainframes were better, then there was a time when desktops were better, then there was a time when thin clients were better, then there was a time when BYOD was better... I'm not sure what you point is there other than "shit changes"
Re:And now they get credit for saving us (Score:2, Insightful)
...then there was a time when BYOD was better...
The utopian future, where users won't be crying "fix my random device you have never seen one of before, I need it to work" to IT?
Re:So we ignore the 40+ Democrats... (Score:4, Insightful)
acronymics (Score:5, Insightful)
"United and Strengthening America by Fulfilling Rights and Ending Eavesdropping, Dragnet Collection, and Online Monitoring Act — also known by its less-clunky acronym version, the USA Freedom Act."
Actually, the acronym of that title is USA FREED COMA
Re:This isn't new (Score:5, Insightful)
No, he was just the scribe. It was done by 536 traitors, backed by 300 million cowards.
Re:Don;t worry about the NSA - stop Obamacare! (Score:3, Insightful)
Observation shows americans have stupid paranoid about socialism, and despite not having anything like socialism, have a huge authoritarian government. Which makes you look like a moron.
Re:And now they get credit for saving us (Score:5, Insightful)
I prefer politicians who are willing to change their minds based on public opinion, thank you very much.
I prefer politicians who are willing to change their minds based on facts and new information, not based on public opinion. Public opinion is subject to all kinds of superficial things because majority of people don't have time to understand all the issues and therefore pick up their opinions from a few soundbites. Public opinion does not depend on reality but on the agenda of those who are the best at shaping it, and should never be trusted.
Will they really stop? Is there accountability? (Score:4, Insightful)
Is the data they're collecting actually useful, or is it kind of tinfoil-hat paranoid useful where they get confirmation bias patterns out of it and believe it's useful?
And if so, what makes us think they will actually stop collecting it, especially if what they have is useful to other people (FBI, CIA, military..)? The whole operation is uber top secret and after Snowden I would imagine that they are redoubling their leak containment and secrecy. Sure, they've been able to ask/strongarm some of it and they might be impeded from doing that anymore but much of the principal job is spying -- surreptitiously obtaining and decoding information meant to be secret -- won't they just figure out how to get it through other means anyway?
Who or what can actually audit what the NSA does and what data they collect anyway? It sounds like a level of intelligence clearance and top-secretness that nobody but an insider can get and it always seems that once even an "agent for change *cough*Obama*cough* gets insight into this stuff they suddenly start being advocates for intelligence, not for change,