Senate Bill Would Ban Most Bulk Surveillance 176
An anonymous reader writes: Today Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) introduced a bill that would ban bulk collection of telephone records and internet data for U.S. citizens. This is a stronger version of the legislation that passed the U.S. House in May, and it has support from the executive branch as well. "The bill, called the USA Freedom Act, would prohibit the government from collecting all information from a particular service provider or a broad geographic area, such as a city or area code, according to a release from Leahy's office. It would expand government and company reporting to the public and reform the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which reviews NSA intelligence activities. Both House and Senate measures would keep information out of NSA computers, but the Senate bill would impose stricter limits on how much data the spy agency could seek."
Alright! Go Senate bill (Score:4, Insightful)
I will cheer for you all the way until the first anonymous hold prevents you from advancing to a vote!
Re:Alright! Go Senate bill (Score:4, Insightful)
For domestic use only (Score:4, Insightful)
What's the point? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's pretty clear at this point that the executive branch can get away with completely ignoring any law they want, without actual repercussion.
Congress fiddles while our separated-powers republic burns. I can't find words for how much I hate Congress and the President for this.
Who does the NSA report to? (Score:3, Insightful)
Don't the NSA report, directly or indirectly, to the President? So if executive branch support a measure to limit bulk surveillance, couldn't they, of their own initiative, direct the appropriate agencies to cancel or modify the mass surveillance programs?
We already have a bill... (Score:5, Insightful)
um (Score:4, Insightful)
How about instead, we just pass a law clarifying that the constitution does indeed apply to algorithms?
Just because a robot searched your car does not mean your car was not searched.
i.e. A police officers doing:
C:\directory search batch file.bat
is no different than:
C:\dir
and really... that's what this all comes down to.
How long did that take? (Score:4, Insightful)
So this would:
> prohibit the government from collecting all information from a particular service provider or a broad geographic
> area, such as a city or area code
Sounds rather specific. My bet is this was very carefully crafted, with help of the NSA to specifically and publically ban a slice of activities so narrow and specific as to stop NOTHING that they are currently doing.
becasue there's no money in it. (Score:2, Insightful)
and the media for not taking an issue of this over the last 20 years.
they play patsy
They make money by getting viewer to watch ads.
What gets viewers?
Bullshit issues. Issues that anger people.
Is the TV media covering this bill, the ramifications and past abuses by our government?
Fuck no!
When Snowden was caught it wasn't so much what he uncovered but about him personally and whether or not he is a traitor.
distraction.
Currently, the big news is what?
Russia, Gaza, and Fox News is all worried about something about In god we trust on money.
More distraction.
Now, when Bengazi or whatever it was called - don't give a shit - happened, the Republicans and Fox News beat the shit out of and it's still going on. But for something as serious as spying on us Americans? They bitched and moaned a bit but they went after some other distraction bullshit.
Or could it be that it would shine a bit too much light on the W. Bush administration and their power grab for the Executive branch - the biggest ever?
In the meantime, Obama took ALL those powers that the Bush administration grabbed and ran with it!
And the next President will do the same fucking thing.
what will Joe Schmoe worry about? Distraction issues. Abortion, gun rights, "entitlement programs", taxes - even we're paying the lowest I think since the Income Tax was implemented.
See, people do NOT know what Freedom is.
And that's why we should be teaching Civics in school and not code monkey skills to supply cheap local labor to Facebook and Silicon Valley parasites.
Smells like BS (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Alright! Go Senate bill (Score:5, Insightful)
I find this interesting, since as head of the Executive Branch, he can order the NSA to do what this bill requires without bothering with a law, since no law exists requiring the NSA to collect telephone records on everyone.
However, he can't order the next President to continue his policies. There's a lot to be said for pinning these things down so that they can't be changed on a whim.
Re:For domestic use only (Score:3, Insightful)
Too fucking bad. As an American, I'm quite comfortable with our intelligence agencies keeping tabs on the rest of the world. I want them watching you.
Yea, well, as an American who gives a fuck about both fiscal responsibility and how Americans are perceived abroad, I respectfully disagree with your idiotic position.
There's no point spending money watching people who don't do anything worth watching.
Re:Alright! Go Senate bill (Score:4, Insightful)
It's a real shame that the Supreme Court doesn't really agree with you.