Pay No Attention To The Man Behind the Curtain

[Occhidiangela]

http://news.com.com/Congress+may+make+ISPs...ml?tag=pulse.tb

I am going to be cynical. The moneyed classes who back the two political parties have decided to become clever. They are advising bombast and cartoonish behavior by their frontmen, in order to change the window dressing from the Republocrats to the Demublicans.

It is time for the Bull Moose Party to rise, Phoenix like, from the ashes of its demise in 1912.

Vote Kinky Friedman, Texas Governor, 2006. He can't be any worse, and at least he's funny on purpose.

Occhi

[Rinnhart]

http://news.com.com/Congress+may+make+ISPs...ml?tag=pulse.tb

I am going to be cynical.  The moneyed classes who back the two political parties have decided to become clever.  They are advising bombast and cartoonish behavior by their frontmen, in order to change the window dressing from the Republocrats to the Demublicans. 

It is time for the Bull Moose Party to rise, Phoenix like, from the ashes of its demise in 1912.

Vote Kinky Friedman, Texas Governor, 2006.  He can't be any worse, and at least he's funny on purpose. 

Occhi
[right][snapback]110250[/snapback][/right]

Gonzales. <_<

Hey look, more reactionary legislation that will do little to halt already illegal activies. Another in a long line of brilliant pieces.

Death by a thousand cuts, anyone?

[Occhidiangela]

Death by a thousand cuts, anyone?
[right][snapback]110252[/snapback][/right]

Sounds like a suicidal teen girl shaving her legs.

Ba dum, bump! :w00t:


Occhi

[Lissa]

http://news.com.com/Congress+may+make+ISPs...ml?tag=pulse.tb

I am going to be cynical.&nbsp; The moneyed classes who back the two political parties have decided to become clever.&nbsp; They are advising bombast and cartoonish behavior by their frontmen, in order to change the window dressing from the Republocrats to the Demublicans.&nbsp;

It is time for the Bull Moose Party to rise, Phoenix like, from the ashes of its demise in 1912.

Vote Kinky Friedman, Texas Governor, 2006.&nbsp; He can't be any worse, and at least he's funny on purpose.&nbsp;

Occhi
[right][snapback]110250[/snapback][/right]

I'd settle for someone in the media that everyone trusts to let loose with a litnany of Jefferson quotes...although, dealing with America society, that may not go over too well... <_<

[Occhidiangela]

I'd settle for someone in the media that everyone trusts [right][snapback]110259[/snapback][/right]

That's like a stupid acne treatment, Oxymoron.

You can't trust any member of "The Media," since everyone of them is in pursuit of

-- a buck
-- the editorial board's political agenda, that of the shareholders', or both.

Would you trust a hungry fox with your chicken? The Fourth Estate is corrupt to the core.

Occhi

Edit for clarity, and some words missing

[Mithrandir]

Between the NSA tracking phone data and now this, I wonder if the next logical step is to start installing cameras in everyone's home to make sure us citizens aren't up to no good, once they have the phone and internet locked down. The thing the rubs me the wrong way the most about the NSA data mining phone calls in this post-9/11 world is that if the concrete wall between the FBI and CIA was dropped (and some high-ups had pulled the trigger with the data they did have), then 9/11 could very well have been avoided. But their solution? Instead of fixing the inherent problems to the system, we're just going to start spying on our citizens all the time! Yay! ...?

Here's an interesting counter-viewpoint:
http://www.theothersideofkim.com/index.p...ngle/9332/

I have three problems with his assessment however:

1) The grocery store purchase tracking services are completely voluntary. The NSA tracking your phone calls and snooping on you is not.

2) He made the rather bold assumption that nothing unethical would ever be done with your data. Just because *he* never did anything unethical in his career, does not mean that same ethical behavior can then be directly applied to the people in our government. Especially lately, we've seen just how "ethical" our government can be.

3) Once the NSA is given free range to data mine our phone calls and spy on us, the government has a toe hold. Where do we draw the line? I choose to draw it here, to make sure the government knows I don't think that it's okay for a government to spy on law-abiding citizens.

I realize that the NSA wasn't the main point of the article, but I saw that paragraph and just needed to rant and rave :) Forcing our ISPs to spy on us for child pornography, while a noble goal (perhaps, perhaps not due to the proximity to election time), is just another way for the government to squirm it's way into our lives. I somehow doubt that given the wealth of information the ISP will be collecting that our government will be able to confine itself to just this one subject, however. That's like laying a 10-course meal in front of a starving man and saying, "I'll be back in a couple hours, but please only eat the peas."

The whole situation just reeks of Mussolini's Blackshirts - "If you've got nothing to hide, then you'll let us search through your house." Bleh.

[kandrathe]

... I somehow doubt that given the wealth of information the ISP will be collecting that our government will be able to confine itself to just this one subject, however. That's like laying a 10-course meal in front of a starving man and saying, "I'll be back in a couple hours, but please only eat the peas."
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Wouldn't it also work to make ISP's liable for the information they allow to be stored on or transmitted from their sites? Empower the ISP's to police themselves and levy a huge fine for any violation and they will soon be maintaining their own carefully crafted block lists. Gonzales can still convict the kiddy porn sicko's and fine their ISP's.

[Threnody]

Wouldn't it also work to make ISP's liable for the information they allow to be stored on or transmitted from their sites? Empower the ISP's to police themselves and levy a huge fine for any violation and they will soon be maintaining their own carefully crafted block lists. Gonzales can still convict the kiddy porn sicko's and fine their ISP's.

I used to work for a very large ISP, so believe me when I say that they don't want to police themselves. The instant you start telling your customers what content is and isn't acceptable is the day your customers go somewhere else. Just because one ISP is willing to censor or monitor it's customers doesn't mean all of them will. This is one of the best ways for an ISP to commit fiscal suicide.

Between the NSA tracking phone data and now this, I wonder if the next logical step is to start installing cameras in everyone's home to make sure us citizens aren't up to no good, once they have the phone and internet locked down.

The idea of placing cameras in private homes has already been suggested by Houston's chief of police. I'm guessing he didn't read Orwell's 1984 in high school.

[Mithrandir]

The idea of placing cameras in private homes has already been suggested by Houston's chief of police. I'm guessing he didn't read Orwell's 1984 in high school.

Holy crap that is spooky.

[Occhidiangela]

Holy crap that is spooky.

Let's all meet at my house. I'll supply the pitchforks, someone else bring the torches. Then, it's off to Houston to visit that moron.

Occhi

[Rinnhart]

BYOB?

[kandrathe]

Let's all meet at my house. I'll supply the pitchforks, someone else bring the torches. Then, it's off to Houston to visit that moron.

Occhi

Or... We could take him quail hunting at the Huffington ranch. :D

[Threnody]

Let's all meet at my house. I'll supply the pitchforks, someone else bring the torches. Then, it's off to Houston to visit that moron.

If I had an unlimited supply of money of I would hire a squad of private investigators to watch him 24 hours a day. Just so he knows what it's like to have zero privacy.

[Occhidiangela]

BYOB?

Yes indeed. If it is home made, you get extra points. :D

Occhi