Comments on: FCC approves Net-wiretapping taxes

Agency votes to force broadband providers to pay costs of making their networks intercept-friendly.

[maxwis]

The Motherland, The Fatherland...

The Nazi Stormtroopers on both sides of the aisle are out in full force. God we need a viable 3rd party in the country to save us from this rampant corruption.

As for the rationale about saving us from Errorists, the Guberment doesn't really want to catch the bad guys. They need a foil to keep the public in a constant state of unbalance, and a never ending money pit called protecting the Fatherland, to continue to pay for no bid contracts. Read how Arbusto turned down daily opportunities to get Zarqawi for over a year. We knew exactly where he was and The Man would not allow him to be liquidated.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200605/s1627197.htm

[maxwis]

Why Are Palo Alto Spycams Pointing Down?

Drive along Sand Hill Road and you will see numerous spy (traffic) cams on lightposts pointing down. What's that all about? Are they trying to look down women's cleavage or something? Who watches the watchers? Does the angel in the whirlwind still direct this storm?

[fred dunn]

King George Does It Again..."Orwellian"

This is like something out of a George Orwell novel but then this whole administration is like something out of a George Orwell novel.
Just think Orwell predicted it in his novel "1984" and he was only 20 years and a few presidents off the mark.

[ajbright]

hmm

Actually I think the references to King George should be replaced by Chairman George.

The actions this administration is attempting are more similar to China's oppressive regime than the fantasy created about the English prior to independance.

The Founding Fathers were nothing more than rich white men who didn't want to pay their taxes - and have more in common with today's CEOs than any sort of freedom fighter we associate them with.

But requiring US Citizens to fill out travel forms detailing which countries you're visiting, where you'll be staying and reasons for your visit, as well as recording your conversations and internet activities are far more reminiscent of the propaganda we were fed during the cold war.

Also consider this. It's not related but certainly worth consideration.

Supposedly passengers of commecial jetliner that crash into remote wilderness regions of the Andes and were forced to eat their companions often stated that people taste like chicken. This has been confirmed by other groups that have taken part in weird tribal rituals and such.

So if this is true, that human flesh tastes like chicken, doesn't it follow that chicken tastes like people?

Just something to ponder over your next McChicken sandwich.

[TamT]

No guarantee to protect our privacy

I understand the need for national security, but there is nothing to guarantee our privacy, and nothing to show that no abuse of our privacy will take place. We know that policing of the exchange of emails already takes place, where key words in any email are automatically highlighted and looked at. So, what's different?
TamT

[TamT]

No guarantee to protect our privacy

I understand the need for national security, but there is nothing to guarantee our privacy, and nothing to show that no abuse of our privacy will take place. We know that policing of the exchange of emails already takes place, where key words in any email are automatically highlighted and looked at. So, what's different?
"1984" has been with us for some time!

[andrewp111]

It is inevitable

If you read that linked house committee report, it is clear that they did not anticipate that we would 10 years late be moving toward a single, internet-based communications network. Or maybe, perhaps they did anticipate it, but not want to discuss it. Either way, they said that the law wouldn't apply to "internet service providers" but did allow that the FCC would have the power to expand the definition of "telecommunications carriers" in the event that something new substitutes for traditional telephone service. Since internet based communications are now replacing telephones, the FCC seems to be on solid ground in expanding the reach of the law, and it is up to the universities to petition Congress if they are to get any compensation.

[MisterFlibble]

Do you work for the government?

With all that rhetoric you just spouted, it sounds like it. The FCC has no such power. Hell, they're trying to get the right to censor satellite and cable. They're expanding their powers unconstitutionally by leaps and bounds and acting like a mythical fourth co-equal branch of government. Actually, it's worse than that, they're acting like they're above the other branches and just get to decide what laws to pass own their own. They need to be reained in and Kevin Martin needs to lose his job ASAP!

[kaufmanmoore]

Why the outrage now?

All this ruling is doing is extending current requirements from 1994 to new technology that wasn't around then. The internet has never been private, and phone taps go back before J. Edgar Hoover if you think its just under this administration that you have been monitored you are sorely mistaken.

[MisterFlibble]

Only congress can extend the act...

... and if they did, we'd be just as outraged. I guess you do like your freedom. Becuase "other people wiretapped" doesn't make it right, I guess you'll excuse Bush for the NSA scandal becuase Nixon did it? Nixon was the reason FISA was created, to prevent abuses of power from happening again. I have to ask, if you don't like your freedom, why don't you go to another country more suitable with your needs? We do you feel you should get the right to take the rest of us who do cherish freedom, freedoms away?

[libill]

what is wrong with them

Absolutely unbelievable. First they throw the U.S. constitution in the trash and then they want to charge us for it? They deserve the death penalty for treason, not Moussaoui.

[Tomcat Adam]

When you hold most levels of government...

Your influence extends far beyond the impressionable minds of 'joe public'.

[Jim Hubbard]

Isn't this like paying "protection money" - but without the "protection"?

Maybe we should all have to supply keys to our homes and the combinations to our safes....

After all, don't terrorists use houses and safes?

Sure they do!

Hey! Maybe we can mandate glass houses so that the cops can just drive by and see "what we're up to in there".

In fact, we could even mandate no hard drives for personal or business use. We could stop the sale and use of home PCs - so that you can only use a terminal attached to a government mainframe that logs your every keystroke and e-move.

Maybe we could even force people to work and play naked. That way they can't hide anything under thier clothes.

As for evil suitcases, bags and purses - they have to be made of clear plastic that allows a transparent view of everything inside (which must be only 1 layer....nothing stacked on top of anything else - lest Sam not be able to see it at a glance).

Odd thing is.....even is we enacted all of these ridiculous suggestions, they'd STILL screw it up.

Loss of freedom is not freedom from harm. It is harm.

Want to save the world? Educate it.

[Zymurgist]

If the authorities can tap your line...

... so can everyone else. One of the most serious problems with this, of course, is that it opens up everyone involved to being snooped on by people other than the authorities.

I don't know if it is still true, but at one time, the number of wiretaps performed by people other than law enforcement was some 10-fold that of law enforcement itself.

Many of these systems are operable over various phone networks and the Internet. Knowledgable persons have considerable ability to monitor whatever/whoever they choose. While I suppose that it's not a serious issue for the average Joe, I suspect that a lot of industrial espionage is facilitated this way.

[Dain Bramage]

Government Conscripts

This is the corporate equivalent of the draft. Forcing America's
corporations into being unwilling conscripts in the war on terror (or
drugs, or pr0n, or...). The longer this goes on the more in common
we'll have with our "trading partner" China. Except that China will
kick our ass because they've been practicing this whole police
state/mixed economy for far longer. The current version of the
GOP are newbies at maufacturing a fascist police state, but boy
they sure learn quick.