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Obama Administration Wants Your Old Email 639

Nemesisghost wrote to us with a story about attempts to reform the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act. Under the act, messages left on a server are considered abandoned after six months and are trivially subpoenaed by law enforcement. A group of ISPs is lobbying to extend the protections afforded to locally stored messages to messages stored on third party servers, but the Obama administration is urging Congress not to reform the law.
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Obama Administration Wants Your Old Email

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  • by bongey ( 974911 ) on Thursday April 07, 2011 @08:05PM (#35752048)
    The only thing that Obama did good was get elected. Every single person except real left wing die hards are cursing him. What has he really accomplished? Obamacare was slim ball way to pass such a huge measure.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 07, 2011 @08:07PM (#35752066)

    Come on, man. I agree with you, but we've had the same argument here a thousand times before, and will a thousand times more. There is nothing left to be said, let's spend our time arguing about the specifics of email abandonment instead.

  • by nomadic ( 141991 ) <`moc.liamg' `ta' `dlrowcidamon'> on Thursday April 07, 2011 @08:09PM (#35752078) Homepage
    Nope, completely wrong; the left wing die hards have been criticizing him for a while. It's the moderates who like him. I'm a little disappointed in how he's done, though even now he is still head and shoulders above GWB, or how McCain would have been.
  • by jedidiah ( 1196 ) on Thursday April 07, 2011 @08:13PM (#35752114) Homepage

    Well here would be one big reason to avoid webmail or outsourced mail servers in general.

    Although most people really aren't "geeky" enough to avoid having someone else handle their email server. This law is just attempting to take advantage of the average n00b's clueless and disorganized nature....

    +...calling something at the bottom of that big pile on your desk "abandoned".

    They should enforce a standard like that for out of print creative works...

    It's all just a part of the Corporate/Individual double standard that both parties heartily embrace.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 07, 2011 @08:16PM (#35752146)

    Yeah, Obama stopped the war and thank god he closed Gitmo! He's way better than G Dub!

  • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 07, 2011 @08:17PM (#35752154)

    He's worse than Bush. Bush may have been stupid, but he wasn't such a fraud.
    If Obama had been president 10 years ago he would have gone to war as well. No doubt about it.

  • by PeeAitchPee ( 712652 ) on Thursday April 07, 2011 @08:23PM (#35752198)

    he is still head and shoulders above GWB

    We're still in Iraq. We're still in Afghanistan. He's started a third war in Libya. Gitmo is still open. Unemployment is still way too high. We're still broke and spending more than we ever have. The Patriot Act is still around and the Administration continues to press on with other initiatives which erode the rights of American citizens. So, exactly how is BHO "head and shoulders above GWB"?

  • by Compaqt ( 1758360 ) on Thursday April 07, 2011 @08:36PM (#35752264) Homepage

    If the people don't have the right to be secure in their papers and effects (by extension, computers and emails), what right does the government have (by extension) to
    -buy weapons systems that didn't exist when the Constitution was written?
    -set up a cyberspace command?
    -use electronic money?

    When interpreting the people's rights, it's always done to the letter. When interpreting the government's rights, it's done expansively. [/rant]

  • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 07, 2011 @08:38PM (#35752276)

    For one I would say Obama has a head above his shoulders.

  • by errandum ( 2014454 ) on Thursday April 07, 2011 @08:39PM (#35752284)

    You guys are delusional.

    From an international standpoint, your allies actually talk to you now.

    From an economic standpoint, your economy is actually almost getting out of the hole republicans led you to

    Yes, you're still in two wars. Two wars he did not start and he's been trying to end since he got elected

    Did he do everything he said he'd do? No. Far from it. Way too many politics in the way of ideals. Too bad, some of those were actually good.

    But can you honestly say he's been bad? I guess you'd prefer the side that says "3 is a better number for pi".

  • by bongey ( 974911 ) on Thursday April 07, 2011 @08:40PM (#35752296)
    Can you please point to somewhat of unbias resource . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Monthly [wikipedia.org] is left leaning and was founded by someone who started in the peace corps. So yes you link is bullshit.
  • by MBGMorden ( 803437 ) on Thursday April 07, 2011 @08:42PM (#35752306)

    Anyone who thought those items were even slightly possible drank waaay too deeply from the ultra-liberal kool-aide.

    Delusional...

    Anyone who thinks them impossible has become to brainwashed by the political tendency (by both parties) to keep saying something until people believe it.

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    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday April 07, 2011 @08:42PM (#35752308)
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    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday April 07, 2011 @08:46PM (#35752332)
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    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday April 07, 2011 @08:50PM (#35752348)
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  • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 07, 2011 @08:51PM (#35752350)

    But can you honestly say he's been bad?

    Did you not read the article? The man and his misadministration are effectively attacking the Constitution of the United States.

    I'm sorry that you don't seem to comprehend that an assault on the fourth amendment is just as evil as anything Bush or any of the Republicans may have done. I'm sorry you don't understand the meaning of the word liberty; that you have no notion of this country's founding ideals.

    I'm sorry that you're retarded.

    I'm sorry for you. I'm sorry for me. I'm sorry for all of us, because you, sadly, aren't alone. No. You and your fellow sports fans are legion, waving your pennants and cheering for the blue team while the country burns down around us.

  • by Glock27 ( 446276 ) on Thursday April 07, 2011 @08:57PM (#35752376)

    You know I never really cared for GWB either but mocking the man's intelligence when he was smart enough to get elected Governor of one of the largest states in the Union and then beat the best the Democratic Party had to offer twice in a national election is pretty pathetic.

    Not only that GWB has a MBA from Harvard. 0 has kept his records closed, why is that do you suppose? Don't the American people deserve to see the school accomplishments of the "smartest President ever"? What was his SAT/ACT score I wonder?

    0 is an outright sham and disgrace.

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    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday April 07, 2011 @09:00PM (#35752404)
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  • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 07, 2011 @09:03PM (#35752432)

    Oh, god. 'rammed down the throats of the American people'. Jon Stewart did a clip of Republicans/right wing commentators repeating that phrase over and over - try having an original thought. Obama made clear he was going to seek healthcare reform when he ran for office, and the American people elected him and a majority Democratic congress. Polling suggests that if anything a plurality of Americans are annoyed that they didn't go far enough.

    Until you decide that it's not okay to let people die from illness when your society is being rich enough to heal them I personally think your human race membership card should be revoked.

  • by Archangel Michael ( 180766 ) on Thursday April 07, 2011 @09:06PM (#35752456) Journal

    Unjustly, you mean by getting the consent and approval from congress, verses Obama, we're going to send planes to bomb a sovereign country without any provocation what-so-ever?

    You may not like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that is fine. The war in Lybia is pure and simply a "war for oil", more so than Iraq ever was, but you seem to like it because the bombs have (D) on them and not (R).

  • by sqrt(2) ( 786011 ) on Thursday April 07, 2011 @09:08PM (#35752468) Journal

    Left-wing die hards ARE the ones cursing him! Obama is not a leftist, he is a socially moderate pro-business Democrat. Look at his handouts to the media industry (appointments of industry insiders to high positions in his administration) and favorable treatment to business with tax (they practically let GE write their own tax code). Even the much derided "socialist" Obamacare was in actuality a massive government give away to insurance and pharmaceutical companies. Real socialized medicine reform wouldn't have allowed those two players to have a seat at the negotiating table, it's impossible to balance their interests (profits) with the idea of covering everyone because the people in most need of care are the least profitable to insure. He does no better on foreign policy. He hasn't closed Gitmo, has made no real progress divesting us in the Iraq or Afghanistan adventures, and has in fact added a third mid-East country to our list of active military engagements; Libya--although that is only in an air-war capacity, similar to America's involvement in the war in the Balkans under Clinton.

    I voted for him the first time. I wanted a real left-wing president to bring the US back on course after so many years of disastrous right-wing imperialist policies that nearly brought our economy to the point of utter collapse, increased inequality to points nearly as high as our nation has ever seen in its history, and squandered the good will of the world that we had just barely started to win back.

    Obama is NOT a socialist, and that's a shame, because that's what the US needed. It is what we still need.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 07, 2011 @09:12PM (#35752496)

    Being smart enough to be elected governor of a state full of retards(retards tend to be bigger people so they need a state big enough to accommodate them ) doesn't say much. And he still needed to use all those fancy-schmancy political connections when all he really had to do was put on Sesame Street and hand out a bunch of twinkies. I can talk shit because I used to live there. Whole lotta nothin'.

    Have you ever seen a retard stoned? I have. Two retards, actually. One is named Roberto, and he used to buy us beer when we were in high school. Once shit his pants after lifting an 18-pack from Texaco and smokes meth like a motherfucker. The other's name is Ronald. His childlike awe of everything was really heartwarming, especially when we poured Jack Daniels in his fish tank and showed him our homemade pornographic videos. He would slowly say, "Naaaah!" in disbelief while smiling with his mouth open.

    -- Ethanol-fueled reporting in from Karma Hell. Not posting anonymously for visibility, but simply because Slashdot's login is broken at this time. Fix your fuckin' code!

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    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday April 07, 2011 @09:12PM (#35752498)
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    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday April 07, 2011 @09:21PM (#35752550)
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    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday April 07, 2011 @09:26PM (#35752596)
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  • by StrahdVZ ( 1027852 ) on Thursday April 07, 2011 @09:42PM (#35752716)

    I've never understood the Republicans' fear of "frightening expansion of government" while in the same breath they're happy to have the government track and monitor their every move in the interests of national security and tell them what they can and can not watch or read in the interests of morality.

    It doesn't make sense. How can you not trust them to give basic services and necessities to the poor, but you can seemingly trust them to listen in on your every move and tell you exactly what you can and can not do?

    Isn't the whole point of government to provide services to the community, as opposed to being a nanny?

  • by bit trollent ( 824666 ) on Thursday April 07, 2011 @09:44PM (#35752722) Homepage

    The government intervened to help the economy, much to the consternation of Republicans everywhere.

    That intervention stemmed the job losses, as it was designed to. It gave money from the states that were hemmoraging teachers and other government funded jobs. Those teachers and other workers still paid their bills.

    The stimulus plan which was passed over Republican objections also created jobs in the private sector. These people also paid their bills and continued to support the rest of the economy.

    The President also propped up the banking system, allowing credit to continue flowing, even if at a slower pace.

    Over time, things got better until the private sector was able to start hiring again.

    Without government intervention, job losses would have continued unabated.

  • by ConceptJunkie ( 24823 ) on Thursday April 07, 2011 @09:49PM (#35752770) Homepage Journal

    Wait. The U.S. has a Constitution?

  • by ukemike ( 956477 ) on Thursday April 07, 2011 @09:50PM (#35752780) Homepage
    Don't forget that instead of universal health care he got us a universal requirement to purchase private insurance.
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    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday April 07, 2011 @09:57PM (#35752830)
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  • by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) * on Thursday April 07, 2011 @09:58PM (#35752838) Journal

    it takes away the individual right to choose

    What right do you think you have to "choose"? You've got to be kidding.

    Here you go:

    1) Coverage can not be denied to children with pre-existing conditions.
    2) Adults up to age 26 can stay on their parents' health plans.
    3) Free preventive care.
    4) Rescinding coverage is now illegal.
    5) Eliminating lifetime limits on insurance coverage.
    6) Restricting annual limits on insurance coverage.
    7) More options to appeal coverage decisions.
    8) $5 billion in immediate federal support to affordable Coverage for the Uninsured with Pre-existing Conditions.
    9) $10 billion investment in Community Health Centers.
    10) Create immediate access to re-insurance for employer health plans providing coverage for early retirees.
    11) Made an $80 billion deal with the pharmaceutical industry to contribute to cut prescription drug costs for the nation's seniors reduce the size of the "donut hole" in the Medicare (Part D) Drug Benefit.
    12) Provides a $250 rebate to 750,000 Medicare Beneficiaries who reach the Part D coverage gap in 2010. As of March 22, 2011, 3.8 million beneficiaries had received a $250 check to close the coverage gap, according to an HHS report.
    13) Businesses with fewer than 50 employees will get tax credits covering up to 35% of employee premiums effective 2011 and a 50% tax credit effective 2013.
    14) Creates a state option to provide Medicaid coverage to childless adults with incomes up to 133% of the federal poverty level. By 2014, States are required to provide this coverage.
    15) Provides a 10% Medicare bonus payment for primary care services and also a 10% Medicare bonus payment to general surgeons practicing in health professional shortage areas.
    16) Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) requires that insurance companies spend at least 80 to 85 percent of the proportion of the premium dollars on clinical services. As an example, WellPoint's Anthem Blue Cross unit in California has reduced its proposed rate increase

    But you're concerned about having the "right" to choose to go to an emergency room if you get sick so the rest of us can pay for it. Fuck you.

    Obama's a disappointment for a lot of reasons. But taking away your "right" to leech off the rest of us by not having health insurance is not one of them. And the health care reform act is not one of them. I'd have preferred a single-payer system similar to the ones the rest of the world have, because it will cost less, but this one is a big improvement over what we had before.

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    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday April 07, 2011 @10:07PM (#35752894)
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  • by fred911 ( 83970 ) on Thursday April 07, 2011 @10:09PM (#35752906) Journal

    We spend 100 million a week in Libya without any debate except to cut more social services and prohibit collective bargaining.

  • by bmo ( 77928 ) on Thursday April 07, 2011 @10:20PM (#35752994)

    >Don't forget that instead of universal health care he got us a universal requirement to purchase private insurance.

    Which was a Republican Idea (TM).

    This is how it works:

    Republicans come up with something on their own.
    Democrats come up with something on their own.
    Republicans vehemently oppose the Democrats' ideas.
    Democrats cave, and adopt a Republican idea
    Republicans vehemently oppose the Democrats' Idea (formerly republican) because there are "points to score"
    Democrats get the formerly Republican idea through and signed and call it victory.
    Republicans wail and gnash their teeth calling Obama a Communist Nazi Jew (Go back to Canada) etc. for passing a Republican idea.

    This country is fucked.

    --
    BMO

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    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday April 07, 2011 @10:43PM (#35753144)
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    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday April 07, 2011 @10:46PM (#35753164)
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  • by LordLimecat ( 1103839 ) on Thursday April 07, 2011 @10:52PM (#35753210)

    Not war! Kinetic military activity! And we're only providing our unique dictator-removal capabilities, not bombing!

    And didnt we have to invade a country to arrest Noriega?

  • by LordLimecat ( 1103839 ) on Thursday April 07, 2011 @10:56PM (#35753234)

    Pretty sure GWB didnt open Gitmo either. Pretty sure GWB wasnt the first to establish free speech zones. And im pretty sure EVERYONE was for war in Afghanistan when we first invaded.

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  • by haruchai ( 17472 ) on Friday April 08, 2011 @12:17AM (#35753718)

    The real problem are the voters - how can they be so stupid? Much as I think the Republicans are venal, their ability to convince the sheeple to vote against their best interests is truly astonishing.

  • by Slashdot Parent ( 995749 ) on Friday April 08, 2011 @12:39AM (#35753834)

    >Don't forget that instead of universal health care he got us a universal requirement to purchase private insurance.

    Which was a Republican Idea (TM).

    This is how it works:

    Republicans come up with something on their own.
    Democrats come up with something on their own.
    Republicans vehemently oppose the Democrats' ideas.
    Democrats cave, and adopt a Republican idea[snip]

    Actually, it was more like:
    Democrats strongly push single-payer socialized medicine.
    Conservative think tanks try to come up with a more palatable solution that focuses on individual responsibility so conservatives don't look like tone-deaf morons without a plan of their own, knowing full well that their "proposal" will never see the light of day with the Democrat stranglehold on Congress.

    At any rate, that was a long time ago. Things change. The Heritage papers weren't written by Constitutional scholars, they were written by policy wonks.

    The funny thing about this whole thing is if the Democrats weren't so chickenshit about creating a new tax, they could have done an end-run around the Constitutionality argument. Nobody denies that the federal government has the right to levy taxes, and nobody denies that the federal government can provide a service. So create a new tax called the ObamaCare MegaTax of 2011, and a new service called the ObamaCare Catastrophic Health Insurance Plan. Enroll every man, woman, and child in this new plan.

    There, done. Now everybody has some sort of minimal coverage. Let the free market handle any needs beyond that like the MediGap plans do today for Medicare.

    Jesus Christ, Democrats. Is it so hard to stay true to your Tax And Spend(TM) ideals? What the hell is in that 2,000 page monstrosity of a bill, anyway?

  • by lennier1 ( 264730 ) on Friday April 08, 2011 @01:48AM (#35754152)

    Who really cares? It's the same corrupt pile of shit on both sides, just with a different label attached.

  • by Keen Anthony ( 762006 ) on Friday April 08, 2011 @02:51AM (#35754390)
    Actually, and this is an area were too many people are absolutely clueless, the military incurs costs whether its engaged in a war or not. Obviously, the military doesn't sit conveniently in a cabinet until the president is ready to pop open the DVD case and load the game. Also, the assumption people make regarding Libya is that the choice we faced was either spend zero money dealign with the Libyan situation or spend a lot of money. I believe the President and his Chiefs have more and better information than any Slashdotter. The President's choice, for all any outsider knows, may have been the least expensive option. Finally, the fact that Libya is a third hot spot means nothing. You didn't bring that up, but others did. The US military is more than capable of being in three places at once. In fact, we're not just in three places. What the military cannot handle is a government shutdown that results in military families not getting the money they need to live on. Most of the military lives paycheck to paycheck in communities that have survived only because of military bases. Often these communities are part of the Republican base. A government shutdown will quickly kill local economies that rely on the military. Ironically, if Republicans give in to the desires of the Tea Party, much of the ordinary Republican base will be hurt.

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