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Three Lawmakers Ask For Enforcement Against Leak Sites

eldavojohn writes "You may recall the TSA demonstrating how tech-savvy it is by releasing a document with redactions intact. Now three Republican lawmakers are asking what's being done to prosecute those hosting the document (e.g. Cryptome and Wikileaks). In a letter to the DHS (PDF), Charles Dent (R-PA), Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), and Peter T. King (R-NY) asked, 'How has [sic] the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration addressed the repeated reposting of this security manual to other websites, and what legal action, if any, can be taken to compel its removal?' And they asked if the DHS is 'considering issuing new regulations pursuant to its authority in Section 114 of Title 49, United States Code, and are criminal penalties necessary or desirable to ensure such information is not reposted in the future?' King is the representative who announcing a probe into Wikileaks after the half million 9/11 pager messages were released."

316 comments

  1. NO!! by splatacaster · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is a dangerous road to go down.

    1. Re:NO!! by conspirator57 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      we're already there.

      --
      "If still these truths be held to be
      Self evident."
      -Edna St. Vincent Millay
    2. Re:NO!! by AP31R0N · · Score: 1

      And oh so slippery.

      --
      Utilizing the synergization of benchmark e-solutions to pre-workaround action items!
    3. Re:NO!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Think about it this way though. Now we have the names of 3 lawmakers of which to start probing into their private lives INTENSELY.

      This certainly applies to them:

      Methinks thou dost protest too much.

    4. Re:NO!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      LOL, Republicans.

    5. Re:NO!! by tboulan · · Score: 0, Troll

      Sounds like something a Socialist regime would do.

    6. Re:NO!! by Anonymusing · · Score: 1

      C'mon, people shoot the messengers every day of the year. Why should today be any different?

      --
      Liberal? Conservative? Compare perspectives at Left-Right
    7. Re:NO!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't know what all the fuss is about. It's a serious security breach due to someone at the TSA seriously screwing up, but we need to keep it in perspective. It's not like they accidentally uploaded a movie to bitorrent or something.

    8. Re:NO!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      curse those socialist republicans!

    9. Re:NO!! by mcgrew · · Score: 1

      Still waiting for TFA to load, but

      Peter T. King (R-NY) asked, 'How has [sic] the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration addressed the repeated reposting of this security manual to other websites, and what legal action, if any, can be taken to compel its removal?'

      1. The DHS is a single entity with many parts. You don't ask "do my car have enough gas" unless you're part of certain American subcultures. Yes, I know this is how they do it in Britain but it sounds silly to my ears. How has DHS addressed the "problem"? How have the people of DHS addressed it?
      2. These bozos want to prosecute someone but they can't think of a specific crime to charge them with or any law to do it?
      3. If the files are hosted by foreigners in a foreign country, I don't see how any American law could apply
      4. Barbara Streisand
    10. Re:NO!! by Sparr0 · · Score: 1

      Say what? "How has the DHS..." is perfectly acceptable.

    11. Re:NO!! by NotOverHere · · Score: 1

      Sounds like something a Totalitarian regime would do.

      There, fixed that for you

    12. Re:NO!! by Thinboy00 · · Score: 1

      I believe you and the GP are in agreement about that (he's complaining about the use of "[sic]", which seems to imply that the editor thought it should have been "have" or something).

      --
      $ make available
    13. Re:NO!! by TapeCutter · · Score: 1

      Yes, does thier rant on the 911 leak mean the republicans will stop furiously hyping the CRU leak?

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    14. Re:NO!! by on+the+8ball · · Score: 1

      there are 2 agencies named, so the [sic] is correct.
      e.g. How has DHS and TSA addressed ..." is the same as "How has they addressed ...", both are wrong. S/b "How HAVE ..."

      - the grammar nazi

      --
      Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment â" Buddha
    15. Re:NO!! by jesset77 · · Score: 1

      1. Barbara Streisand

      Am I the only one who has noticed that Cartman coerced a malfunctioning censorship chip to electrocute people by invoking the name of Barbara Streisand 4 years before she managed to do something completely different in order to put her name on the very idea of backfiring censorship? Matt and Trey really need to stop being so god-damned right all the time. ;D

      --
      People willing to trade their freedom of expression for temporary entertainment deserve neither and will lose both.
    16. Re:NO!! by mattmatt · · Score: 1

      Oops. I was going for insightful and hit redundant. Posting to undo.

    17. Re:NO!! by mcgrew · · Score: 1, Insightful

      That was (one of) my point(s). IMO the verb should be singular rather than plural, although the British (and a lot of Americans) disagree.

    18. Re:NO!! by hrimhari · · Score: 1

      I believe that the singular vs. plural applies to this:

      the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration

      Meaning that the question refers to two entities, hence should be addressed in the plural.

      --
      http://dilbert.com/2010-12-13
  2. Once it's out of the bag.. by MaerD · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's kinda hard to put back, if there are criminal charges to be involved, it should be against the idiots who posted the document and should have known better.

    --
    I put on my robe and wizard hat..
    1. Re:Once it's out of the bag.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      With regard to DHS and TSA, there probably are. We won't hear about them, especially if the person who 'let them out' has a position of significance. Not that such a thing exists at either of these agencies....

      We should all recognize this type of tactic. Attack, and blame the ones holding the data after the fact. Not the idiots who let it out in the first place. This is standard procedure for politicians with regard to agency fuck-ups.

    2. Re:Once it's out of the bag.. by girlintraining · · Score: 5, Insightful

      it should be against the idiots who posted the document and should have known better.

      A government agency responsible for securing billions of dollars in assets and millions of lives yearly now knows the exact scope and nature of a serious breach of security that otherwise wouldn't have been noticed and could have been exploited by people who are a genuine threat to national security, as opposed to a bunch of average americans who get to feel special for about five minutes. Clearly, jailing the people who exposed this is the best route, as opposed to using a little-known fund that the DHS setup to reward private citizens who contribute to anti-terrorism objectives.

      The people who exposed this are heroes, not criminals. They've exposed a major security vulnerability before anyone could be hurt. Unfortunately, the reputation the TSA and DHS has when private citizens come forward to report problems with their administration of policy, or the policies themselves, is atrocious. They only option they had was a wide and public distribution -- if it could have been contained, they'd vanish right along with the problem. Moving forward the best thing to do is;

      1. Establish guidelines for reporting problems with administration of their policy
          (in the private sector, we euphemistically refer to these as "training opportunities").
      2. Establish guidelines for reporting problems with operational security.
      3. Modify existing damage control procedures to focus more on problem resolution than image protection.
      4. ACCEPTING THAT SECURITY BREACHES WILL OCCUR, and have a reporting procedure and clear chain of command
            (thus far, they've shown a remarkable lack of understanding of this key concept)
      5. Stop over-reacting to perceived security breaches -- it desensitizes people and worsens response time should a truly serious situation occur.
            Call it the "I cried wolf too many times" story. Stories about the TSA used to make front page... now they're barely slow news day material.

      The overarching objective here is to restore faith in the institution -- because the TSA has become the laughing stock of the media, and the flying public groans at the mention of it. Remember only a few years ago when the TSA was created how people said they'd willingly and happily stand in line for an hour and a half to get through the checkpoint, because they felt safer? Public opinion has dropped considerably since then -- now they're afraid they'll get the greased glove treatment if they so much as look at the equipment. When a flight attendant flips out over someone's request to have orange juice and then receives an official notice that they could be thrown in jail, charged with felonies, and be added to the no-fly list... There is a serious lack of understanding about both what security means, and the public's perception of it. And it's nobody's fault but the TSA's for allowing this to happen.

      --
      #fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
    3. Re:Once it's out of the bag.. by Jason+Levine · · Score: 2, Funny

      No, no, no. That's far too sensible sounding. The best approach is to cover your ears and sing "LA LA LA LA" as loud as you can while you have anyone pointing out problems arrested for aiding terrorists.

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    4. Re:Once it's out of the bag.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The people who leaked this were EMPLOYEES. By leaking the documents they SHOULD be prosecuted. Its the same as any military member leaking information on any top secret project! They get court marshaled! The employees probably didn't post the documents to wikileaks, but even leaking them to a friend or relative is a violation of a contract they signed, even after they leave that job! When you're dealing with the government, breaking a contract sometime means you are breaking the law!

      These lawmakers are asking the "What the hell are you doing?!" questions that more lawmakers should be asking of the executive branch.

    5. Re:Once it's out of the bag.. by MaerD · · Score: 1

      The people who exposed this are heroes, not criminals.

      I get the feeling you may have misinterpreted who I meant should be jailed. I meant the people who did not properly redact said document and posted it online. Regardless of how minor a document this is, the people being trusted with classified information that may affect "national security" should be at the very least fired with all clearances revoked when they screw up.
      What if this had instead of just screen procedures had included a schedule of which flights get air marshals? (Even if out of date, could be used to figure out which are more likely to have them in the future).

      And yes, the TSA in general is so much uselessness.

      --
      I put on my robe and wizard hat..
    6. Re:Once it's out of the bag.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Public opinion has dropped considerably since then -- now they're afraid they'll get the greased glove treatment if they so much as look at the equipment.

      The funny thing is - without confirming or denying whether I'd read the document in question - is that if I had read the document in question, some of the redacted portions might actually be pretty reassuring. As a practical matter, you really might have the right to just walk away from the guy with the rubber glove. You'll miss your flight, and you'll probably be watched all the way out of the airport, but you won't be disappeared.

      Of course, as a measure of how low public opinion of TSA has dropped... had I read such a thing in such a document, I would have been pleasantly surprised and reassured by the notion that TSA actually tells its goons that there really are limits on their powers.

    7. Re:Once it's out of the bag.. by shentino · · Score: 1

      Indeed.

      I'd even go so far as to say that such a boneheaded move by the TSA should constitute willful declassification.

    8. Re:Once it's out of the bag.. by jackal40 · · Score: 1

      If you are refering to the individuals who leaked those documents, then I agree. To me, this is nothing different than someone leaking to the newspapers or the television stations. Once its out, its out. If you are refering to the people who host the web sites, then we have a different story. While a web site does not have the protections that journalists do - I believe that in this case they are providing the public the same type of information, and should be protected. YMMV

      --
      The patriot volunteer, fighting for country and his rights, makes the most reliable soldier on earth. (Stonewall Jackson
    9. Re:Once it's out of the bag.. by cayenne8 · · Score: 1
      "With regard to DHS and TSA, there probably are. We won't hear about them, especially if the person who 'let them out' has a position of significance. Not that such a thing exists at either of these agencies...."

      Correct me if I'm wrong, but, I thought pretty much with even secret documents...the crimes/penalties are to mishandling and letting it out on the govt. side, but, as far as I know there are no laws about doing anything with it once it is in the 'wild'. I mean, once it is out of security control, doesn't it by definition cease to be 'secret'?

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    10. Re:Once it's out of the bag.. by quickgold192 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Did you read the actual letter? (You and I both know the summery is supposed to be sensational, not accurate.) They had 7 questions they wanted answered, and one of those was how to get the sensative documents off the interwebs, if that's even possible. The answer will most likely come back "not possible." The other 6 questions were things like "why were the documents up on the TSA's website in the first place?" "are there other documents that can be compromised the same way?" "What policies are there to deal with security breaches like this, and what can we do to keep our stuff more secure?"

      I was fooled by the summery too and I was about to write Bilirikis a little letter from a citizen, but then I read the actual letter that was written, and it's pretty reasonable.

    11. Re:Once it's out of the bag.. by cayenne8 · · Score: 1
      "The people who leaked this were EMPLOYEES. By leaking the documents they SHOULD be prosecuted. Its the same as any military member leaking information on any top secret project! They get court marshaled! The employees probably didn't post the documents to wikileaks, but even leaking them to a friend or relative is a violation of a contract they signed, even after they leave that job! When you're dealing with the government, breaking a contract sometime means you are breaking the law!"

      But the trouble is here, they aren't just talking about going after the people who leaked it, but also the sites like wikileaks which just reposted the information. Once it is out in the clear...it shouldn't be a crime for anyone to look at or post it...it isn't secure anymore once it goes out to the public.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    12. Re:Once it's out of the bag.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The concerned representatives are republicans. No wonder they have some difficulty adjusting to a democracy.. ;)

    13. Re:Once it's out of the bag.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Got it in one. It might still be "sensitive" in some respects- but the secrecy is no longer there. In this case, someone in the TSA was sloppy beyond mere words on that little leak. Same goes for most of the WikiLeaks stuff, actually.

    14. Re:Once it's out of the bag.. by honkycat · · Score: 1

      Regardless of how minor a document this is, the people being trusted with classified information that may affect "national security" should be at the very least fired with all clearances revoked when they screw up.

      This is as silly as any of the "zero tolerance" policies that get ridiculed so heartily on this site. The appropriate punishment, and I do agree completely that there should be punishment, depends on how this error came to be. Even with good faith efforts in place to do things properly, errors will occur. If your immediate response is to fire and humiliate those who make errors, you deny your organization the ability to "learn" from them. If the error was grossly negligent, that's different, of course, but I don't think you can categorically say that someone committed a firing offense without additional information about the process by which this document was redacted and released.

    15. Re:Once it's out of the bag.. by Gudeldar · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The people who exposed this are heroes, not criminals.

      Being a criminal and being a hero aren't mutually exclusive things.

    16. Re:Once it's out of the bag.. by Thing+1 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Won't Apple then sue you for publicly performing the IP they just purchased?

      --
      I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
    17. Re:Once it's out of the bag.. by Ifni · · Score: 1

      Hence the inclusion of the word "not".

      --

      Oh, was that my outside voice?

    18. Re:Once it's out of the bag.. by sdkee · · Score: 1

      No. The document should have never been secret. We supposedly live in a democratic society. We pat ourselves on the back at how incredibly enlightened we are for being this way. But then we hide EVERYTHING from the voters. Tell me, fellow nerds: If the voters have no access to the info, then how does it help that they are voting? Why not just put on blindfolds while voting? Government secrecy is fundamentally incompatible with democratic elections.

    19. Re:Once it's out of the bag.. by sdkee · · Score: 1

      >> The people who exposed this are heroes, not criminals. >Being a criminal and being a hero aren't mutually exclusive things It is a sign of the decay of society that this is becoming more true. Now we have a nearly zero correlation between the two. We are even now beginning to see *negative* correlations between "illegal" and unethical.

    20. Re:Once it's out of the bag.. by MaerD · · Score: 1

      There are a lot of industries where a mistake will lead to firing. The idea is that they have been trained about this, and had to pass certain checks and training to get in a position to even handle such information.

      For instance, imagine you are working at a publicly traded company and are given insider information. If you leak this information and it causes investors to move on the stock and the SEC gets involved, do you NOT think that you are going to be fired, if not face criminal charges?

      Or say you work at a bank and fail to fill out the appropriate forms when someone comes in with several deposits ranging from $9900-9999 ($10k being the "Automatic report limit"), and they are found to be money laundering. You can bet the bank is going to be fined, and you will be fired, if not fined as well.

      They were trained. They agreed they knew what not following the rules meant.

      --
      I put on my robe and wizard hat..
    21. Re:Once it's out of the bag.. by honkycat · · Score: 1

      Can you send me a link to their training materials, the ones you must have reviewed in order to categorically state they were sufficiently trained to have known how not to make this technical error?

      Perhaps they should be fired. But it depends on the circumstances of the event. To categorically say that someone must be fired because a bad thing happened is laughably shortsighted. Firing someone doesn't solve every problem, sometimes a less knee-jerk CYA reaction is better.

    22. Re:Once it's out of the bag.. by honkycat · · Score: 1

      Sorry to double-reply.. but also, firing should not be used as a punishment within a sensible organization. Someone should be fired if they are demonstrably unable to perform their job or if they will somehow harm the organization by their continued employment. They way you describe it is like "they had it coming" in a vengeful sense. If this was simply gross incompetence or flouting of established and well-documented procedures, it's probably evidence this person is unqualified for the position, and in that case I'd support firing. Simply making an error is not a reason to fire an otherwise capable employee.

      There's also the possibility that this was a failure at the organizational (i.e., bureaucratic) level rather than solely the fault of one individual. Given the info that was in the article I read, there's no way to make that determination for yourself. At least, not in a reasonable way.

  3. Corrupt Republicans hate freedom/truth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Corrupt Republicans, like usual, are trying to prevent their constituents from having the actual information about the farce of security that is the TSA. Corrupt republicans feel that security through stupidity is the best way for the country, they fully support the destruction of libertarian ideals and those who support freedom.

    1. Re:Corrupt Republicans hate freedom/truth by Myrimos · · Score: 5, Insightful

      These politicians are liberal and that is where the corruption abounds. (They are also known as RINOs).

      I don't disagree that corruption is party-agnostic, but I take umbrage to terms like Republicrat or RINO that marginalise the centre right and left. They promote a "with us or against us" mentality that was famous with the United States' last president.

      --
      Internet scofflaw
    2. Re:Corrupt Republicans hate freedom/truth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Charles Dent (R-PA), Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), and Peter T. King (R-NY)" are 'liberals'?

      Somehow I doubt that all three of these Republicans are "liberals'.

      A strawman argument if I've ever seen one.

      Look what happens if we substitute some keywords in your argument. This shows the straw man bias in your argument.
      "Sure both sides of the isle have their share of PIZZA CRAVINGS. These politicians are liberal and that is where the PIZZA EATING abounds. (They are also known as PIZZAEATERS)."

    3. Re:Corrupt Republicans hate freedom/truth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Both sides of the isle have their share of corruption.

      Fianna Fáil and the Ulster Unionists?

    4. Re:Corrupt Republicans hate freedom/truth by ehrichweiss · · Score: 2, Interesting

      One has to wonder how they'd react if we all just posted the redacted PDF everywhere along with instructions on how to bypass the redactions.

      --
      0x09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C0
    5. Re:Corrupt Republicans hate freedom/truth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Does that mean you agree? On a personal quest to remove "don't disagree" from our language :).

    6. Re:Corrupt Republicans hate freedom/truth by modecx · · Score: 1

      I don't disagree that corruption is party-agnostic, but I take umbrage to terms like Republicrat or RINO that marginalise the centre right and left. They promote a "with us or against us" mentality that was famous with the United States' last president.

      In my circle, those terms are used less to describe political centrists/moderates, and more to describe those who would be unelectable in locale of their choosing--except for their claimed political leanings. Frankly, as someone generally on the center right of the political spectrum, I'm glad when I see a "bad" republican replaced by a "good" democrat.

      --
      Constitutional rights may be respected, repealed, or modified; but they must never be ignored.
    7. Re:Corrupt Republicans hate freedom/truth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      I don't disagree that corruption is party-agnostic, but I take umbrage to terms like Republicrat or RINO that marginalise the centre right and left. They promote a "with us or against us" mentality that was famous with the United States' last president.

      We need to get past the whole left-right paradigm. Overall there's really not a whole lot of difference between the parties. Both want more government, more control, more corporatism and corporate welfare, war (though the "opposition party" tends to be anti-war), etc.

      I personally prefer the graph used at Advocates for Self-Government: http://theadvocates.org/

      Left = Economic control
      Right = Social control
      Up = Liberty, Less Government
      Down = Tyranny, More Government

      On that scale, both parties are fairly center. Probably a bit to the right with the Democrats being slightly left and the Republicans being slightly to the right of each other. The important part is where they are vertically. Both are rather far down towards tyranny.

      (if you're wondering about me personally, I'm fairly center on that scale and up very close to the top)

    8. Re:Corrupt Republicans hate freedom/truth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't disagree that corruption is party-agnostic, but I take umbrage to terms like Republicrat or RINO that marginalise the centre right and left. They promote a "with us or against us" mentality that was famous with the United States' last president.

      Nitpick: RINO/DINO are traditionally used by hardline Republican and Democratic partisans to exclude moderates.

      "Republicrat" and "Demopublican" are traditionally epithets used by (left/right Libertarians, Greens, and other third-party advocates) to point out that whie hardline Republicans and hardline Democrats have different agendas on wedge issues such as abortion or global warming*, they are indistinguishable on matters of substance (legislators for sale to the highest-bidding lobbyist, surveillance/torture, and picking winners/losers in favored industries).

      * (yes, global warming is a real phenomenon, and it's likely anthropogenic in origin, but that doesn't mean both sides aren't exploiting it to rile up their respective followers against the pot-smoking-bunny-hugging/SUV-driving-hick-redneck bastards on the other side of the aisle)

    9. Re:Corrupt Republicans hate freedom/truth by csartanis · · Score: 1

      Uhhh, no? Just because you don't like them doesn't mean they're not republicans.

    10. Re:Corrupt Republicans hate freedom/truth by moxley · · Score: 1

      It's not about "Republicans" or "Democrats;" if you haven't figured out that 95% of both of these parties are basically the same when it comes t things like this (and forms of insitutionalized corruption)...then...well, I guess you are like many in America.

      This left vs right paradigm is very useful to those who do nothing but benefit while a good portion of the country fight about whatever the latest meaningless political outrage is, or how many holes Tiger Woods has 'sunk' off of the golf course this year.

    11. Re:Corrupt Republicans hate freedom/truth by NickDngr · · Score: 1

      I don't disagree that corruption is party-agnostic, but I take umbrage to terms like Republicrat or RINO that marginalise the centre right and left. They promote a "with us or against us" mentality that was famous with the United States' last president.

      I take umbrage with that.

      --
      Yoda of Borg am I! Assimilated shall you be! Futile resistance is, hmm?
  4. Dear My Government... by girlintraining · · Score: 5, Informative

    Dear My Government, It's Officers, Agents, And All Of That:

    You do not own the internet. You do not control the internet. You screwed up by releasing sensitive information to the public through lawful channels, via a lawful request, that was not in any way fraudulent or deceiving. Man up to this, and figure out how to avoid the problem in the future like every other self-respecting government would -- instead of trying to throw your citizens to the wolves without a trial, or god only knows what else you're planning.

    Sincerely,

    A Whole Lot of Patriots

    P.S. Those badges look like something out of a cereal box. Take this as an opportunity to make them actually look like something better than what you'd expect from a first year graphic design student. Or use psychic paper. Your choice.

    --
    #fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
    1. Re:Dear My Government... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or use psychic paper.

      What do you mean? It's blank.

      P.S.: Well said.

    2. Re:Dear My Government... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dear A Whole Lot of Patriots,

      Although our current prison population is higher than some of our smaller states, we feel more can be done. For this reason we are continuing with out policy of trying to create more laws, to fill more prisons, in order to satisfy the needs of private corporations benefiting from your tax money. We certainly could spend that money on better education, but we do not feel this in any way benefits the needs of the private corporations in which we have vested interests.

      We also appreciate your arguments about doing a better job in protecting national secrets. We find it much more expedient to prosecute patriots, rather than 'cleaning up our mess'.

      A Senator.

    3. Re:Dear My Government... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Freedom of the press. I don't see any way that they could legislate this without the Supreme Court overruling them.

    4. Re:Dear My Government... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or use psychic paper.

      What do you mean? It's blank.

      Careful! You don't want to out yourself as part of the Torchwood Institute.

    5. Re:Dear My Government... by sconeu · · Score: 1

      Dear Messrs, Dent, Bilirakis, and King,

      Since your high school civics classes obviously forgot to include it in your course of study, please allow me to introduce you to the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.:

      Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

      (Emphasis is mine).

      Thank you.

      --
      General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
    6. Re:Dear My Government... by nomadic · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Dear My Government, It's Officers, Agents, And All Of That:

      I don't think they're reading slashdot.

    7. Re:Dear My Government... by girlintraining · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Since your high school civics classes obviously forgot to include it in your course of study, please allow me to introduce you to the First Amendment

      They also forgot the exceptions to the First Amendment, because constitutional law is complex and has no place in a high school classroom with children that still believe that there are no losers, everything is sunshine and kittens, and basic language skills consist of "hey dood wut up? u wana cut skool n go smoke sum pot?"

      Times of War.The Supreme Court has upheld on numerous occasions restrictions to speech that center around the military, particularily during times of war. It's become a clear precident that the protections afforded by the First Amendment can (and are) overlooked during wartime. There's also the "Clear and present danger" restrictions, made famous by saying free speech doesn't apply to someone yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theatre. The Supreme Court has stated that the states could punish people who's words "by their very nature, involve danger to the public peace and to the security of the state."

      Obscenity/Sex If I say "Fuck you!" -- that's obscenity. If I say "Fuck the military," then it's a political statement. If I fuck you and record it, that's pornography. If I fuck you while dressed like Lady Liberty, and you're dressed like Justice, then it has "artistic merit" and is free speech. Unfortunately, like my analogies, the laws covering obscenity and sex are equally obtuse, poorly-worded, and occasionally humorous.

      Slander and Libel. I say you're a child molester. You say "bullshit!" I can't prove it. I'm not protected because I made a false statement about your character, and you're not protected because you swore at me for doing so. ...
      And the list goes on.

      --
      #fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
    8. Re:Dear My Government... by amicusNYCL · · Score: 5, Funny

      If I fuck you while dressed like Lady Liberty, and you're dressed like Justice

      I put on my robe and judge's wig.

      --
      "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
    9. Re:Dear My Government... by Beardo+the+Bearded · · Score: 1

      Dag nab it. Posting to fix a slip of the finger.

      My last of 15 -- thanks for not letting us undo, /.

      (You were supposed to get an "interesting".)

      --

      ---
      ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
    10. Re:Dear My Government... by girlintraining · · Score: 1

      (You were supposed to get an "interesting".)

      Blame the hanging chad. :)

      --
      #fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
    11. Re:Dear My Government... by girlintraining · · Score: 1

      I put on my robe and judge's wig.

      You're in contempt of court. Justice and Liberty wanted alone time, you perv.

      --
      #fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
    12. Re:Dear My Government... by amicusNYCL · · Score: 1

      Overruled.

      --
      "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
    13. Re:Dear My Government... by SatanClauz · · Score: 1
      i've never been so indecisive as to how to rank a post in my life

      funny?
      interesting?
      informative?

    14. Re:Dear My Government... by MaerD · · Score: 1

      Bloodninja, is that you?!

      --
      I put on my robe and wizard hat..
    15. Re:Dear My Government... by Belial6 · · Score: 2

      They also forgot the exceptions to the First Amendment, because constitutional law is complex and has no place in a high school classroom

      That is a really sad statement.

    16. Re:Dear My Government... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What the fuck, I told you not to message me again.

    17. Re:Dear My Government... by girlintraining · · Score: 1

      Overruled.

      Interlocutory appeal. :P

      --
      #fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
    18. Re:Dear My Government... by istartedi · · Score: 1

      This thread is the price we pay for freedom of speech.

      Either that, or "five dolla".

      --
      For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
    19. Re:Dear My Government... by amicusNYCL · · Score: 1

      Motion denied, you need to wait until I'm done.

      --
      "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
    20. Re:Dear My Government... by Demonantis · · Score: 1

      Exactly the same sentiment here. You and what jurisdiction.

    21. Re:Dear My Government... by amicusNYCL · · Score: 1

      I thought the price of freedom was a buck-oh-five.

      --
      "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
    22. Re:Dear My Government... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't think they're reading slashdot.

      Yes we are.

      We're also watching you, Mr. "nomadic", and you should *really* be ashamed of yourself.

    23. Re:Dear My Government... by Xyrus · · Score: 1

      The grits. Hot grits. You MUST be covered in HOT GRITS!

      ~X~

      --
      ~X~
    24. Re:Dear My Government... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Since your high school civics classes obviously forgot to include it in your course of study, please allow me to introduce you to the First Amendment

      They also forgot the exceptions to the First Amendment, [...]
        Times of War.The Supreme Court has upheld on numerous occasions restrictions to speech that center around the military, particularly during times of war. It's become a clear precedent that the protections afforded by the First Amendment can (and are) overlooked during wartime.

      I think you, sort of, you know, have to have, you know, Congress like, actually, declare war.

      They haven't done that since like, 1942 or something (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_of_war_by_the_United_States).

    25. Re:Dear My Government... by Kirijini · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Sorry, but I think your post is misleading and inaccurate.

      "It's become a clear precident that the protections afforded by the First Amendment can (and are) overlooked during wartime."

      This is misleading. The most important restrictions on free speech relating to national security actually came during times of peace. Scarily enough, they were related to the red scare in the 1920s (Gitlow v. People of New York) and McCarthyism in the 1950s (Dennis v. United States). Those rulings basically stand for the proposition that if the government is afraid of an ideology (i.e., communism), then its okay to punish members of groups that espouse that ideology.

      "There's also the "Clear and present danger" restrictions"

      This is inaccurate. Clear and present danger is short hand for the restrictions that exist on top of the national security exception talked about above. The current rule is that advocacy of unlawful activity cannot be punished "except where such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action." (Brandenburg v. Ohio)

      If I say "Fuck you!" -- that's obscenity.

      No, that's not obscene. Obscenity only applies to "speech" (i.e., movies and pictures and maybe books) that "depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct," "appeals to the prurient interest," and "lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value." (Miller v. California)

      What that could be is "fighting words," which are "Words which by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace." (Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire). But even still, the government may not ban a word or set of words based on the presumption that they're fighting words (Cohen v. California, Virginia v. Black).

      "the laws covering obscenity and sex are equally obtuse, poorly-worded, and occasionally humorous."

      To nitpick, laws that proscribe obscene speech must be carefully and explicitly worded, or else the courts will strike them down for vagueness or overbreadth. On the other hand, the rules the Supreme Court has made as to how to determine whether certain speech is obscene and thus can be banned by a carefully constructed law are obtuse and poorly worded.

      "Slander and Libel. I say you're a child molester. You say "bullshit!" I can't prove it. I'm not protected because I made a false statement about your character"

      This stuff gets complicated. Depending on who you are and I am, potentially there's no free speech / first amendment issue here at all. If you post on your blog that I'm a child molester, and I'm not a "public figure" or somehow involved in a public issue of some kind - then I can sue you for defamation, and only have to show that the statement is false and you were negligent in publishing it. If I'm a public figure, then I have to show "actual malice," which basically means that I have to prove that you actually knew the statement was false, or had serious doubts that it was true and published it anyway.

      And the list goes on.

      It does. We haven't covered true threats, commercial speech, symbolic speech, speech by public employees, content based discrimination, viewpoint based discrimination, time place and manner regulations, the secondary effects doctrine, public forums etc.

    26. Re:Dear My Government... by nomadic · · Score: 1

      Ha, don't worry, I have no shame.

    27. Re:Dear My Government... by mcgrew · · Score: 3, Informative

      It's become a clear precident that the protections afforded by the First Amendment can (and are) overlooked during wartime.

      Not just the first amendment. In WWII, native-born American citizens of Japanese and certain other anscestries were put in camps. In the Civil War, unarmed civilians were killed by both sides, and their properties burned.

      And it's not just in times of war, either.

      has no place in a high school classroom with children that still believe that there are no losers, everything is sunshine and kittens, and basic language skills consist of "hey dood wut up? u wana cut skool n go smoke sum pot?"

      First off, I wouldn't characterise high schoolers as "children" even though people in their twenties seem like children to me (yeah, I'm gettin' old). Only a few centuries ago the average age of marriage was the same age as these high schoolers. Yes, I realise that the teenaged brain isn't fully developed, but still...

      And even prepubescent children know that there are losers in any game (if you don't want to lose, don't play), and that everything isn't sunshine and kittens, especially if they're being raised in a slum. AFAIK It's a particularly American trait to characterise anyone as a "loser". And unless things have changed dramatically since my kids were in high school (youngest is now 22), the number of kids that were incapable of speaking anything but Ghetto English are a small minority.

      Illinois state law mandates that these kids learn and be tested on both the US and Illinois constitutions.

      Pedantric Nit (since you dissed the teens' language and literacy skills): it's "whose words", not "who's words". Who's is a contraction of "who is".

      As to slander and libel, the Constitution doesn't gurantee you the right to harm me. Your right to swing you fist ends just before my nose.

    28. Re:Dear My Government... by almondo · · Score: 1

      Bailiff, remove everyone from the courtroom, I want some peace and quiet so I can think of some politically correct way to respond to this in order to get re-elected.

    29. Re:Dear My Government... by mcgrew · · Score: 2, Informative

      I'd bet that out of all its officers, agents, and all of that there are a surprising number that actually ARE reading slashdot.

    30. Re:Dear My Government... by girlintraining · · Score: 1

      Motion denied, you need to wait until I'm done.

      Fine. You're substituted. :P

      --
      #fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
    31. Re:Dear My Government... by kilodelta · · Score: 1

      Yep, the cat is out of the bag, and you can't un-ring that bell. The net is interesting in that respect, it has a LONG memory.

    32. Re:Dear My Government... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Some people casually use swear words while they speak. Well, especially college age kids in a college town.

      So, if a swear word is part of your speech, just the way you talk, is it really considered obscene?

      Because I notice buses will sometimes say no profanity as part of their rules, which I think might be based on city or state laws.

    33. Re:Dear My Government... by polle404 · · Score: 1

      Lawporn...
      I fell so... dirty and constitutionally violated...

      --

      ~men are from earth. women are from earth. deal with it.~
  5. I would think the first amendment would cover this by ElSupreme · · Score: 1

    I would think posting words would be covered under free speach. I doubt they are copyrighted. Plus with the internet you can host outside the USA. But I guess that didn't work for The Pirate Bay so who knows.

    --
    My addiction: Arguing with idiots. AKA Slashdot!
  6. My email to Gus by Jaysyn · · Score: 1

    I know transparency terrifies you & your ilk, but I hope you get a clue & leave Wikileaks alone.

    --
    There is a war going on for your mind.
  7. Security by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Ah yes, security by obscurity, that always works.

    1. Re:Security by zoloto · · Score: 1

      worked for the TSA didn't it?

  8. I'll let someone else speak for me... by Jugalator · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "The real meaning of enlightenment is to gaze with undimmed eyes on all darkness." ~ Nikos Kazantzaki

    Of course, this is not what the people responsible for it wish to happen.

    --
    Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
  9. Headline should read: by Wireless+Joe · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Three Lawmakers Ask For Enforcement Against Leak Sources

    1. Re:Headline should read: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      what legal action, if any, can be taken to compel its removal?

      RTFS

    2. Re:Headline should read: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Whooosh!

    3. Re:Headline should read: by Wireless+Joe · · Score: 1

      Who said anything about removing it? I'm saying they should investigate how the leak happened, and fix the problem at the source instead of running around like a schoolkid trying to catch the pages of his term paper blowing in the wind. Train people to redact properly. Or better yet, to better determine what actually has to be redacted in the first place, and what really belongs to the public. RMFP

    4. Re:Headline should read: by natehoy · · Score: 1

      Who said anything about removing it?

      The article did.

      I'm saying they should investigate how the leak happened, and fix the problem at the source instead of running around like a schoolkid trying to catch the pages of his term paper blowing in the wind. ...

      Agreed, but I also took your post to mean that the headline of the article did not reflect the contents, not that you disagreed with the contents of the article.

      --
      "This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
  10. Really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If your national security relies on censorship in this day and age, you're just not doing it right.

    1. Re:Really? by rdnetto · · Score: 1

      If your national security relies on censorship

      aka security by obscurity

      --
      Most human behaviour can be explained in terms of identity.
  11. Nice to know they're on our side by T+Murphy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I've never known a politician to be thick or outdated, so I'm sure these guys are just concerned for our rights. They must be intentionally invoking the Streisand effect upon realizing how important this information is to have spread further across the internet.

    1. Re:Nice to know they're on our side by DaFallus · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Hopefully someone will go out of their way to dig up some dirt on Dent, Bilirakis, and King and immediately post it to WikiLeaks. Smells like they have some dark secrets and the idea of WikiLeaks makes them very nervous. All the more reason to put them under a magnifying glass.

      --
      No one cares what your captcha was

      Houston TX, USA
  12. Exposure is good. by RichMan · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Suppressing the exposure is not the solution. It just means any future such leaks will be distributed "below the radar". In the interests of national security the leaks should be made as public as possible so that reactions can done to the leaks if required. Ideally the policies should be secure enough that we are still safe with full disclosure. As we all know security through obscurity is not a good solution.

    Better that we know the leak occurred than the leak occurs and we don't know it happened.

  13. Like Google CEO Says... by flyneye · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Like the Google CEO said a few days ago in a story, " If you've done nothing wrong, you've got nothing to hide".
    (of course the fascist said it pertaining to personal privacy, but the sentiment really belongs to government transparency.)
            Now the fat ibogaine addicted swine are mudwrestling and brandishing weapons trying to get the toothpaste back in the tube.
    Anything to draw the publics attention away from the fact that not only do they not uphold their constitutional duties, but they have every intention of slowly subverting and perverting the constitution to suit their power hungry needs.
                    shutdown -r apocalypse now

    --
    *Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
    1. Re:Like Google CEO Says... by eldavojohn · · Score: 2, Informative

      Like the Google CEO said a few days ago in a story, " If you've done nothing wrong, you've got nothing to hide".

      Swing and a miss. If you're going to use quotation marks, take the time to look up what he actually said:

      'If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place.'

      Of course, we'll remove the 'maybe' and the 'don't want anyone to know' and make it sound more Orwellian and before you know it, 640 kilobytes ought to be enough for anybody!

      --
      My work here is dung.
    2. Re:Like Google CEO Says... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's not what the CEO of Google said. If you're going to put quotes around something, make sure what's between the quotes is at least close word wise to what the person said.

    3. Re:Like Google CEO Says... by R2.0 · · Score: 1

      In addition, "doing it" was a reference to searching for information on the activity that you want to keep hidden. Considering that ALL search engines of any magnitude keep that information, and they are ALL subject to subpoena (which was edited out of the quotes", it's probably a good rule to follow.

      --
      "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
    4. Re:Like Google CEO Says... by flyneye · · Score: 3, Funny

      It's really cool, all I have to do is post and instantly I have a cast of volunteer secretaries to correct syntax, research, and post supporting links.
            See what happens when you send Bob $30, the slack just starts pouring down on you.
      http://www.subgenius.com/scatalog/membership.htm

      --
      *Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
    5. Re:Like Google CEO Says... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I dont think that you can be addicted to ibogain....
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibogaine#Treatment_for_opiate_addiction

    6. Re:Like Google CEO Says... by locallyunscene · · Score: 1

      How is that a troll? He's right and non-trivially so.

      It doesn't diminish the GP's point either.

  14. I can answer that for you by AdmiralXyz · · Score: 5, Informative

    what legal action, if any, can be taken to compel its removal?

    Wikileaks is hosted outside the United States. So, none.

    --
    Dislike the Electoral College? Lobby your state to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.
    1. Re:I can answer that for you by Jaysyn · · Score: 1

      And according to their FAQ, they are mirrored in a fashion that would make them very, very, very hard to actually take down.

      --
      There is a war going on for your mind.
    2. Re:I can answer that for you by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wikileaks is hosted outside the United States. So, none.

      Surgical air strike?

    3. Re:I can answer that for you by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      More like, "Operation Wiki Freedom"

    4. Re:I can answer that for you by abigsmurf · · Score: 1

      They can remove the wikileaks domains and compel ISPs to filter all traffic to and from any IP addresses that resolve to the wikileak servers.

      You can't remove it from the web completely but you can make it incredibly hard for anyone in the US to access.

    5. Re:I can answer that for you by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Are the Republicans proposing the US to license Big Firewall of china ? :-D What a wonderfull time to live :D

    6. Re:I can answer that for you by Hurricane78 · · Score: 1

      A) That’s what Saddam said. Look how well that worked out. ;)

      B) That’s what Osama said. And he was right. ;)

      C) What if it’s in a darknet. With many copies. That will be next to impossible to attack.

      D) I say, if they want to take the hoster down, then host it on their own servers and watch them taking themselves down. :D

      --
      Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
    7. Re:I can answer that for you by Jaysyn · · Score: 1

      Yes, we should bomb the fuck out of Switzerland. That will show them how right we are.

      --
      There is a war going on for your mind.
    8. Re:I can answer that for you by JasterBobaMereel · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The information was openly requested - No Charge

      The information was provided by the US Government legally - No Charge

      The information was posted on a website not hosted in the US and is not breaking any local or international laws - No charge

      What can they do ... nothing

      --
      Puteulanus fenestra mortis
    9. Re:I can answer that for you by rhizome · · Score: 2, Insightful

      They can remove the wikileaks domains and compel ISPs to filter all traffic to and from any IP addresses that resolve to the wikileak servers.

      Oh, you mean like when Bad Country uses their national firewall to block access to websites deemed unsavory?

      --
      When I was a kid, we only had one Darth.
    10. Re:I can answer that for you by Jaysyn · · Score: 1

      No that wouldn't cause the whack a mole effect or anything. Or a huge shitstorm.

      --
      There is a war going on for your mind.
    11. Re:I can answer that for you by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "What can they do ... nothing"

      They can twist the international law to suit their need as they still are seen as a military super-power. "Our way or the highway"

    12. Re:I can answer that for you by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They can remove the wikileaks domains and compel ISPs to filter all traffic to and from any IP addresses that resolve to the wikileak servers.

      And that would work because terrorists trying to get through security would never leave the US and would not know anyone outside the US?

  15. Falls under freedom of press by Xeoz · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The press is allowed to post anything newsworthy, no matter how the information got into their hands, even if it was acquired via illegal actions. So long as the press organization and it's agents have not done anything illegal to get it.

    1. Re:Falls under freedom of press by R2.0 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "The press is allowed to post anything newsworthy, no matter how the information got into their hands, even if it was acquired via illegal actions. So long as the press organization and it's agents have not done anything illegal to get it.The press is allowed to post anything newsworthy, no matter how the information got into their hands, even if it was acquired via illegal actions. So long as the press organization and it's agents have not done anything illegal to get it."

      That's not exactly true. If documents are an *actual* security risk, the publication can be suppressed. The Pentagon Papers case wasn't about the ability of the government to prevent the publication of material that threatened national security; it was about how the government classifies such information. The court found that the government cannot simply declare document "Top Secret" for no reason, or because the are embarrassing.

      In practice, the press can get away with a lot because they use the Pentagon Papers case as an invincible shield, when it's not. In the Valerie Plame case, Bob Novak KNEW she had a TS clearance and was still under cover, and he published anyway. He should have been prosecuted along with Armitage. And if that lead to the VP and others, so be it. Instead we got Scooter Libby for lying to the FBI. Lots of justice there, yessiree.

      --
      "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
    2. Re:Falls under freedom of press by Yaa+101 · · Score: 1

      In my country buying of stolen goods or information is a criminal offence, at least the members of press that got information in their hands have to prove they did not know that the info or goods were stolen.

    3. Re:Falls under freedom of press by BitterOak · · Score: 1

      In my country buying of stolen goods or information is a criminal offence, at least the members of press that got information in their hands have to prove they did not know that the info or goods were stolen.

      Well, then, I'm glad I don't live in your country.

      --
      If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
  16. They posted what was released by harl · · Score: 3, Informative

    How are the web sites at fault? The TSA gave them the information. If the TSA didn't want it posted they shouldn't have released the information.

    The TSA's lack of technical skills is not a crime on the web sites part?

    --
    I find being offended by me offensive.
    1. Re:They posted what was released by Hurricane78 · · Score: 3, Informative

      You talk like this was a matter of logic.

      It’s a matter of power. The one with the most power is the one who defines right and wrong.
      That’s why I always say, that the laws are an illusion. They are only true as long as the one with the most power stands behind them.

      --
      Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
    2. Re:They posted what was released by divide+overflow · · Score: 1

      What he said. Mod parent up for concise logic.

    3. Re:They posted what was released by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am pretty sure that ctrl-a, ctrl-c, ctrl-v are covered as circumvention measures as per the DMCA.

      God I wish I was kidding.

    4. Re:They posted what was released by Abstrackt · · Score: 1

      How are the web sites at fault? The TSA gave them the information. If the TSA didn't want it posted they shouldn't have released the information.

      The TSA's lack of technical skills is not a crime on the web sites part?

      The "crime" is that they made the TSA look stupid(er).

      --
      They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance. - Terry Pratchett
    5. Re:They posted what was released by Duradin · · Score: 3, Funny

      "The "crime" is that they made the TSA look stupid(er)."

      Is that even possible?

      I thought the TSA was a constant like the speed of light.

      The TSA going beyond 1.0 TSA would require more than infinite stupidity and the universe would implode itself to put itself out of its misery.

  17. Republicans for Powerful Government!!! by rwv · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When I was young Republicans wanted a less powerful government who couldn't regulate anything. Why is there a call by three Republicans for more government control? Do they not remember the values of their party?

    Maybe they only want a powerful government when it's convenient for them?

    1. Re:Republicans for Powerful Government!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe they only want a powerful government when it's convenient for them?

      This

    2. Re:Republicans for Powerful Government!!! by Raisey-raison · · Score: 4, Insightful

      When I was young Republicans wanted a less powerful government who couldn't regulate anything. Why is there a call by three Republicans for more government control? Do they not remember the values of their party?

      Maybe they only want a powerful government when it's convenient for them?

      Republicans only care about less government when that means lower taxes and the government not providing services to it's citizens - especially the poor ones. But when it comes to a police state, defense spending and going to war they don't give a crap about liberty.

      There really is no option (with respect to a viable political party) for someone who believes in liberty in all areas. The democrats want to take away economic liberty.

      And both major parties don't seem to have common sense, eg we cant run deficits year after year since 2001 without severe consequences, IP is out of control and the gini coefienient is way too high. And except for a few on the hard left, there seems to be serious brain damage in the American political system when the majority of people think that you can have an effective health care system delivered by the free market. The free market doesn't work for health care.

    3. Re:Republicans for Powerful Government!!! by minderaser · · Score: 1

      When I was young Republicans wanted a less powerful government who couldn't regulate anything. Why is there a call by three Republicans for more government control? Do they not remember the values of their party?

      Maybe they only want a powerful government when it's convenient for them?

      Did you just figure this out?

    4. Re:Republicans for Powerful Government!!! by robw810 · · Score: 1

      The Democrats and Republicans are only different with respect to how *far* they want to crawl up your ass and what they want to do once they get there.

    5. Re:Republicans for Powerful Government!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You hit the nail on the head. The problem is that both parties are after control, just in different ways. The Republicans usually do it by enforcing a religious view of what is 'Right' and 'Wrong'. The Democrats do it through dependence by making sure people can't function without the government.
      A true republican would say the government has no right to legislate peoples personal life and information about the government should be easily available.
      Don't expect it to ever happen because the American people have become dependent on the Government.

    6. Re:Republicans for Powerful Government!!! by divide+overflow · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Maybe they only want a powerful government when it's convenient for them?

      More accurately, they only want a powerful government when they are in power.

    7. Re:Republicans for Powerful Government!!! by argStyopa · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's the bifurcation of the right.

      When Republicans were kind of the 'permanent minority' in Congress, we remained the party of small, local government (our founding principles).

      When the Democrats screwed up so bad that they lost control to the Republicans, there emerged the neo-con - EVANGELICAL (in a jam-it-down-their-throats way, not a religious way, although a large proportion of them ARE religious) conservatism. It's the party of force-your-conservative-viewpoints-on-everyone instead of the mildly Libertarian "just generally leave us alone" original party platform. This was likewise the party that supported the GWBush 'spend like a drunken sailor' plan, and the Bush 'massively broaden the powers and reach of the Federal government plan' that would have had Republicans even from the 70's and 80's going WTF?

      Sucks, and I think that's most of what's wrong with the Republican party now, but there it is.

      FWIW the Democrats have pretty much also morphed into something unrecognizable by their grandfathers. Can you see a blue-collar steelworker from the 1960s looking at NAMBLA and saying "oh yeah, I'll vote with them!"?

      --
      -Styopa
    8. Re:Republicans for Powerful Government!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When the Democrats screwed up so bad that they lost control to the Republicans, there emerged the neo-con - EVANGELICAL (in a jam-it-down-their-throats way, not a religious way, although a large proportion of them ARE religious) conservatism.

      Yeah, the Democrats would never jam their agenda down our throats *cough* health care, global warming, cap and trade *cough*.

      OTOH, the neo-cons did kill the Republican party.

    9. Re:Republicans for Powerful Government!!! by Rich0 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      an effective health care system delivered by the free market. The free market doesn't work for health care

      That depends on your definition of "effective."

      The current health care system isn't a free-market system by any stretch of the imagination. A few reforms would make it much closer to one and it would greatly reduce costs. These reforms wouldn't socialize medicine, but you could add socialism a lot cheaper if you had these reforms:

      1. Price lists - health providers MUST have and PUBLISH them, and MUST follow them ALL the time. No negotiated rates for anybody. If you want an operation done you can comparison shop from a catalog.

      2. Up-front cost disclosures. If the patient's name isn't on a piece of paper disclosing the cost of a procedure, then the service provider doesn't get paid, in general. Acute emergency procedures can be handled differently, but should be the exception. They could probably be socialized as well with regulated prices (which would of course encourage providers to avoid calling everything an emergency).

      Just those reforms alone would greatly lower the cost of healthcare by commoditizing much of it. Those without insurance would also get fair prices, and if this care was socialized then the taxpayers would save money as well.

      I think that other changes could be made more opt-in, so that people can choose from a number of different insurance options. I think that catastrophic coverage is something to consider - there is no reason that people should need insurance for routine care unless they have a serious chronic problem. Wellness programs (almost HMO-like) are another option where providers can be paid based on outcomes rather than services. Healthcare savings accounts should have carryover and the ability to freely contribute at-will so that they are used whenever possible. Or, you could use other mechanisms to tax-deduct health expenses. The main issue with voluntary insurance coverage is that you need to avoid the pre-existing condition problem, and as genetic testing becomes more advanced that could be a big problem. Mandatory coverages of some kinds could be necessary.

      I don't mind socialism in medicine, but I think that it should be the exception for those who truly cannot care for themselves. There are a number of reforms that could make a market-based system much more efficient, and that actually makes socialized medicine easier to deliver.

    10. Re:Republicans for Powerful Government!!! by rwv · · Score: 1

      Not really, I've know for quite some time... I just wanted to highlight the political hypocrisy of these three congressmen.

      Ideas like these... whether coming from Republicans or Democrats... are not supported by me.

    11. Re:Republicans for Powerful Government!!! by BobMcD · · Score: 1

      Its called hijacking.

    12. Re:Republicans for Powerful Government!!! by just_another_sean · · Score: 1

      Because "don't you see, it all changed after 9/11!". If I hear this one more time from a
      "conservative" I might seriously consider cutting off my ears.

      --
      Creationist Textbook Stickers Declared Unconstitutional by CowboyNeal
    13. Re:Republicans for Powerful Government!!! by rwv · · Score: 1

      A true republican would say the government has no right to legislate peoples personal life and information about the government should be easily available.

      Good point! As a life-longer voter for Democrat candidates, I'd enthusiastically elect a Republican who campaigned with this agenda. As it stands, if the government insists on being all-controlling I'd prefer a control system that benefits the disenfranchised who are in need of aid because they can't help themselves (as opposed to special interest monopolists that current Republicans insist on helping).

    14. Re:Republicans for Powerful Government!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Um, Republicans from the 80's wouldn't be shocked - remember Reagan? Star Wars? Billions and billions of dollars flushed down a massive hole labeled "missile defense"?

    15. Re:Republicans for Powerful Government!!! by mdarksbane · · Score: 1

      I'm still waiting for someone to explain to me why a relatively free market works so well for food, water, shelter, clothing, and heat (all basic human needs that are a much higher priority to one's continued existence) but fails for healthcare. Healthcare is not inherently a magical good that is not subject to market forces. No, using our ridiculous government-enforced, highly-regulated current model as an example of failure does not count. Our current system has some benefits (relatively good overall care if you can pay) and a ton of problems. No one who doesn't have their hand in the medical industry's pocket disagrees with that, it's just that people have decided that "reform" mean "have the government take it over completely."

    16. Re:Republicans for Powerful Government!!! by timeOday · · Score: 1

      I'm still waiting for someone to explain to me why a relatively free market works so well for food, water, shelter, clothing, and heat (all basic human needs that are a much higher priority to one's continued existence) but fails for healthcare.

      OK, here are a few reasons that spring to mind:

      1) Healthcare customers usually do not possess the expertise to make informed decisions for themselves.
      2) Healthcare expenses are concentrated at the end of life, after you lose productive capacity to pay for them.
      3) Healthcare expenses are extremely unpredictable, ranging from "none at all" to "more than you will earn in your lifetime."
      4) No reasonably stable and weathy nation actually leaves food, water, shelter, clothing, and heat entirely to the free market; there is a safety net that supplies enough of each to survive. What the free market actually determines is how much luxury people are entitled to. (That is why the recent spike in unemployment hasn't been accompanied by mass starvation, and ensuing violent upheaval). This is sort of true even for health care in the US, since emergency rooms are compelled to provide lifesaving treatment. But it's a terribly expensive and ineffective way to go about it.

    17. Re:Republicans for Powerful Government!!! by johnny+cashed · · Score: 1

      I'm still waiting for someone to explain to me why a relatively free market works so well for food, water, shelter, clothing, and heat (all basic human needs that are a much higher priority to one's continued existence) but fails for healthcare.

      one word: Insurance.

      Insurance doesn't cover your food, clothing, water, heat, shelter (though you can get insurance for shelter). Insurance is designed for rare events, like your shelter burning down, not for routine medical/health needs.

    18. Re:Republicans for Powerful Government!!! by Raisey-raison · · Score: 1

      A few reforms would make it much closer to one and it would greatly reduce costs. These reforms wouldn't socialize medicine, but you could add socialism a lot cheaper if you had these reforms:

      1. Price lists - health providers MUST have and PUBLISH them, and MUST follow them ALL the time. No negotiated rates for anybody. If you want an operation done you can comparison shop from a catalog.

      2. Up-front cost disclosures. If the patient's name isn't on a piece of paper disclosing the cost of a procedure, then the service provider doesn't get paid, in general. Acute emergency procedures can be handled differently, but should be the exception. They could probably be socialized as well with regulated prices (which would of course encourage providers to avoid calling everything an emergency).

      Just those reforms alone would greatly lower the cost of healthcare by commoditizing much of it. Those without insurance would also get fair prices, and if this care was socialized then the taxpayers would save money as well.

      I think that other changes could be made more opt-in, so that people can choose from a number of different insurance options. I think that catastrophic coverage is something to consider - there is no reason that people should need insurance for routine care unless they have a serious chronic problem.

      I very much agree with the tenure of you arguments. Is there a thinktank, set of articles, or a blog that articulates you idea in greater detail?

      I have two concerns. Firstly income in the USA is very unevenly distributed at the moment. For a family of 4 earning $120,000 it's totally affordable to be financially responsible for most health care needs (in a cheaper commoditized market). But what about the bottom 50% who are earning less than $50,000. And what about the bottom 32% earning less than $30,000 a year. And what about people earning $8.00 an hour? You may be able to bring the cost of seeing a physician down to $25. But what about an MRI? It currently costs between $900 and $5000 depending on what is being done. Because of the significant capital costs you are not going to be able to bring the cost below $500. So how do you deal with the fact that $500 is simply money that the bottom 30% does not have?

      They may run up bills of $2000 in a single (unlucky) year and be financially ruined. Or they may simply may be shut out of getting care. Or what about a hernia repair operation? If you include all docs fees, hospital fees, drugs fees etc the whole thing costs between $5000 and $13,000. Even if you could get the price down to $2000 that is still very high for the bottom 50%.

      Secondly how do you deal with the cost of prescription drugs. The generics are cheap. But the non generics and even a few generics can cost between $200 and $800 for a 1 months’ supply. Again this is money that the bottom 50% simply does not have.

      So I could go with you plan with the following adjustments:

      1. Nurse practitioner’s have similar patient outcomes to GPs. In other words doctors are over qualified and over trained. And it costs us a fortune as a result. This is a consequence of the fact that you need an undergrad degree, normally 2 years spent in addition to getting a long list of pre reqs (and the list keeps on growing) + getting volunteer experience. The average age of just starting med school is 26. Then 4 years of med school. Then 3 - 10 years residency. It’s a huge waste if resources.
      http://pt.wkhealth.com/pt/re/jcn/abstract.00004471-200902000-00016.htm;jsessionid=LvVTpv7L1qJW3Lgt2D62GJ6bhy9Sv6pTCM9HnYWJ7PPMmgL2Wmpr!713630137!181195628!8091!-1

      Too maximize efficiency I would suggest 2 levels of physician:

      Level i – This would involve a 6 year undergrad degree with internships and residen

    19. Re:Republicans for Powerful Government!!! by Locke2005 · · Score: 1

      Don't confuse neo-conservatives with Replicans. GW Bush was NOT a good Republican; he diverged widely from traditional Republican values of fiscal conservatism and personal responsibility.

      Libertarianism is an option for someone who believes in liberty in all areas, but you are correct, it is not currently a viable political party in most elections.

      The free market doesn't work for health care. Amen to that. Health care is the only industry I know of where having several competing providers in a single market makes costs go up instead of down.

      --
      I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    20. Re:Republicans for Powerful Government!!! by Locke2005 · · Score: 1

      Price lists only work if hospitals are not forced to provide services for non-paying customers. As it currently stands, the price of everything (especially emergency room services) is significantly padded to cover the overhead of providing services to those who will never pay. I agree that full upfront disclosure of costs is important, but unfortunately most people do very little comparison shopping while riding in the back of an ambulance. Do you shop around for the absolute cheapest hotels when your company is footing the bill? Why do you think patients will shop around when an insurance company is footing the bill?

      I believe it is in our public interest to subsidize preventative care (e.g. vaccinations and pre-natal care) and routine tests. It is NOT in our public interest to subsidize catastrophic care, especially for conditions caused or aggravated by poor life decisions. E.g. heart surgery should only be covered by private insurance, not government. I'm not sure where trauma care fits into this picture, but it's probably similar to fire departments -- everybody should kick in to handle the emergencies of the few. This is only viable if you can stop people from using emergency rooms as their primary source of health care, and only use them for real emergencies.

      --
      I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    21. Re:Republicans for Powerful Government!!! by Solandri · · Score: 1

      More accurately, they only want a powerful government when they are in power.

      But they're not in power right now...

    22. Re:Republicans for Powerful Government!!! by Raisey-raison · · Score: 1

      The price mechanism is a form a rationing. It determines who gets what and how much of it people get. The problem is that you can't just not get health care or get very crappy care. You can live in a studio appartment with a roommate and have just the bare essentials of life and get by on $10.00 an hour. But you can't just get bare essentials of health-care.

      If you get cancer and need chemotherapy and you don't have insurance - you die. Health-care is a necessity that everyone needs quite a bit of. So we need to distribute it in a rather 'equal' manor as opposed to everything else where distributing it unequally doesn't mean people suffer and die.

    23. Re:Republicans for Powerful Government!!! by Rich0 · · Score: 1

      I very much agree with the tenure of you arguments. Is there a thinktank, set of articles, or a blog that articulates you idea in greater detail?

      No one place I can think of - just general opinion after lots of thinking and reading about this stuff. NPR had a really great two-part series on the healthcare crisis recently which I'd consider a must-listen for anybody interested in healthcare policy. It was fairly non-partisan and consumer-centric. It also had a lot of doctor perspectives from physicians who want to care for people and not have to care for some kind of system - there is plenty of money out there so nobody needs to starve.

      Too maximize efficiency I would suggest 2 levels of physician:

      I agree. Actually, what I'd probably do is open access to medical technology to consumers. Everybody should get a copy of their test results and records, and things like prescription drugs should be available with prescriptions in general except for stuff like antibiotics where there is a common welfare issue. Of course, people should be strongly encouraged to see a doctor, and insurance probably shouldn't have to pay for non-prescribed medication.

      A triage system just makes a lot of sense from a cost standpoint. Recently I ended up going to an ER for a pretty minor problem because it was a holiday weekend and I didn't want to risk leaving it untreated until I could see my primary doctor. A simple cheap clinic would have been ideal for what I needed.

      Most of your other comments were addressed at income disparity. I agree with most of what you suggest - my suggestions were mainly aimed at greatly lowering medical costs and improving access to medicine overall. Even if we just make it so that anybody who can afford a new car can afford to go with only catastrophic insurance then we've solved a big part of the problem. There are lots of people who can't afford new cars, and those people will need a more socialized system if they're going to have care. There are a lot of ways to do this, but they all benefit from a more efficient healthcare market.

      The main thing is to help people act more like normal consumers where healthcare is involved. It still doesn't work 100% since health is an unlimited-demand market and an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. However, right now there are some really huge problems in the market where people don't have any visibility into costs (often not even the doctors), and the current system isn't really all that good for just about anybody (even most of the special interests).

    24. Re:Republicans for Powerful Government!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      there is no reason that people should need insurance for routine care unless they have a serious chronic problem.

      If this is what you think, then what you're calling "insurance" is actually a subsidized payment plan. Insurance works by accepting relatively small payments from a large pool of players who couldn't themselves pay for an exceptional, costly event.

    25. Re:Republicans for Powerful Government!!! by Rich0 · · Score: 1

      You'll note that I did indicate that acute emergency care does need different handling. Most care does not actually fall into this category.

      E.g. heart surgery should only be covered by private insurance, not government.

      I'm not sold that preventative choices can really eliminate stuff like heart surgery. At least, not with current medical technology. I know people who eat fairly well and who have had good weights who have ended up with type 2 and cardiac issues. They might be anomolies, but they shouldn't have to pay through the nose for not winning the genetic lottery.

      Sure, obesity is caused by eating too much, and in theory that is controllable. However, in practice it is a WHOLE lot easier for some of us to do that than it is for others. For some people asking them to get to a normal weight would be like asking somebody who is mentally retarded to concentrate harder.

      In any case, I do agree that there needs to be ways to incent preventative care so that people don't just let it slide. It might be a cost-effective area to apply socialized medicine.

      In general, however, I don't like the idea of socializing something that most people could just pay for most of the time if the system wasn't so broken. I feel that way for the same reason that I'd prefer to try changing my diet before I start popping statins. Like most drugs, socialized medicine probably has its place, but let's not use it to fix every problem out there.

    26. Re:Republicans for Powerful Government!!! by Rich0 · · Score: 1

      I agree - in the US for the most part insurance is just a buyer's club for healthcare. It has the same problems that you'd have if your employer paid your grocery bill and the list price of milk was $300/gallon (with $290 of that being written off, $1 being a copay, and $9 going to the dairy and the army of accountants processing the bills).

      The whole reason for #1 on my list is to get rid of the need for buyer's clubs in healthcare. In the current US if you don't have insurance you have to haggle every transaction (usually after the fact - a major negotiating disadvantage). If everybody paid the same then list prices would be reasonable or doctors couldn't attract ANY clients.

      It doesn't fix all the problems with healthcare - no single measure does. It does fix a lot of them.

    27. Re:Republicans for Powerful Government!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or at least a stopgap to cover people who've lost coverage and try to get back onto the insurance system - like Medicaid that is based on loss of coverage and not on means-testing. Then you can reapply to the insurance after spending a certain period of time on Medicaid - similar to how COBRA continuous coverage will protect you via HIPAA to get on a new plan after losing your employer-based benefits.

    28. Re:Republicans for Powerful Government!!! by dachshund · · Score: 1

      There really is no option (with respect to a viable political party) for someone who believes in liberty in all areas. The democrats want to take away economic liberty.

      Well, you're obviously not talking about healthcare --- since you don't want that delivered by the free market. So what specifically are you talking about?

      Cap & Trade (a conservative plan for pricing pollution externalities, ripped right from the libertarian playbook)? Higher taxes so we can balance the budget? A single one-time economic stimulus bill that will probably never be repeated? Or the stupid TARP thing that was initiated by a Republican president, and was still probably necessary because the alternative was not economic freedom, but economic destruction.

      Seriously, be specific. I know it's fashionable to reflexively bash the Democratic party on Slashdot, but you were able to give specifics about how the Republicans fucked us. Given that the Libertarian party has no chance of ever doing anything for anyone, anywhere, what would you ask the Democrats to do differently?

    29. Re:Republicans for Powerful Government!!! by kramerd · · Score: 1

      They can't possibly.

      If republicans want less government (which they do), then they don't want a police state, defense spending, or war.

      Politicians, on the other hand, want votes, and one of the easier ways to garner votes is through fear. A police state, defense spending, and war stir up enough fear to gain votes, but these concepts have nothing to do with being a republican.

    30. Re:Republicans for Powerful Government!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When I was young Republicans wanted a less powerful government who couldn't regulate anything. Why is there a call by three Republicans for more government control? Do they not remember the values of their party?

      If you're really that old, then you should know the answers to those questions. The seeds of the malady now afflicting the Republican party were planted even before Goldwater's failed presidential bid, but it's that election loss which fed egregious elements within the party. The Republican party is dramatically different from what it was just half a century ago, and mostly for the worse. I recall coining the term "RINO", Republicans-in-Name-Only, long before it started appearing in various blogs sometime around 2006. My idea of the term was far different from how it's now applied to denigrate today's minority of Republicans who aren't, roughly speaking, ultra-right religiously motivated idealogues (or even fascists, for those prone to mild hyperbole). To me, it's the neocons and their ilk who are the RINOs, but now I can't use my own term without being gravely misunderstood. Should've become a journalist or pundit if I wanted it to gain any traction, I guess. Imagine how Goldwater would have reacted to Santorum.

      Maybe they only want a powerful government when it's convenient for them?

      I believe this can be said for politicians of any party, including most, if not all, of the minor ones.

      - T

      [Captcha is "circus". Funny or sad? You decide.]

    31. Re:Republicans for Powerful Government!!! by Locke2005 · · Score: 1

      Just because "most people could pay for (it) most of the time" doesn't mean that people actually WILL pay for it most of the time! You socialize preventative care because it is basic human nature of people struggling to survive to put off paying for non-urgent expenses until they become emergencies, and thus much more expensive, while preventative care is cheap. Nothing should be socialized because of misplaced notions of "fairness", "entitlement", or "doing the right thing". Things should only be socialized when the net benefit to society as a whole exceeds the net cost to society as a whole. Helping out individuals is irrelevant (of course you're still very welcome do to do through private charity.) Some procedures are just too expensive to pay for providing these procedures to everyone without bankrupting society. Cold as it appears, our only viable alternative then is to let the free market decide who receives and who doesn't receive these procedures.

      As far as bad genetics goes, I've always exercised, eaten right, and never been obese... and yet I have diabetes, just like my sister, my mother and my grandmother! My sisters have apparently chosen not to breed because of this; unfortunately, I didn't find out about my own diabetes until after I had a child. And now I'm being told my mother-in-law also has diabetes... sigh.

      --
      I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    32. Re:Republicans for Powerful Government!!! by AioKits · · Score: 1

      Can you see a blue-collar steelworker from the 1960s looking at NAMBLA and saying "oh yeah, I'll vote with them!"?

      NAMBLA or NAFTA? While containing a few of the same letters, I feel the goals of these organizations are drastically different... I could be wrong.

      --
      "Quote me as saying I was mis-quoted." -Groucho Marx
    33. Re:Republicans for Powerful Government!!! by DragonWriter · · Score: 4, Insightful

      When Republicans were kind of the 'permanent minority' in Congress, we remained the party of small, local government (our founding principles).

      The Republican Party was founded in 1854, and elected its first President in 1860. Given the most notable events of that first administration, I don't think the Republican Party's "founding principles" had much to do with "small, local government".

      It's the party of force-your-conservative-viewpoints-on-everyone instead of the mildly Libertarian "just generally leave us alone" original party platform.

      Please present a copy of the text of this "just generally leave us alone" original platform of the Republican Party. Because the earliest party platforms -- those of 1856 and 1860 -- I can find contains a call for building new infrastructure (a transcontinental railroad, river and harbor improvements, etc.) as a government priority, including a positive call for an expansive view of federal Constitutional authority to support that effort, and a call for strong federal regulation on certain contemporary areas of trade. Insofar as they contain "just generally leave us alone" provisions at all, they are in regard to the 1860 platforms declaration of the inviolability of State's rights to control its own domestic institutions, which certainly didn't seem to survive very long past 1860 as a core Republican principle.

      This was likewise the party that supported the GWBush 'spend like a drunken sailor' plan, and the Bush 'massively broaden the powers and reach of the Federal government plan' that would have had Republicans even from the 70's and 80's going WTF?

      Given the similar expansion and spending of the Reagan years, I have trouble understanding that. Unless you are suggesting that the intervening decade would have caused Republicans from that time to forget the 1980s.

      FWIW the Democrats have pretty much also morphed into something unrecognizable by their grandfathers. Can you see a blue-collar steelworker from the 1960s looking at NAMBLA and saying "oh yeah, I'll vote with them!"?

      What does NAMBLA have to do with anything? I can't imagine current Democrats supporting NAMBLA any more than I can imagine 1960s Democrats doing so (well, except that 1960s Democrats -- like 1960s Republicans -- wouldn't have a choice, since NAMBLA didn't exist.)

      A more real change in the Democratic Party since the 1960s was a result of the Civil Rights movement, which drove a wedge between the conservative (and often segregationist) wing of the party and the rest of the party, which was exploited by Republicans with Nixon's Southern strategy and subsequent efforts, over time turning the South from a Democratic stronghold to a Republican one.

    34. Re:Republicans for Powerful Government!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Without advocating a completely run government medical system, I'm going to say that the reason I think healthcare is inherently different from food, water, shelter, clothing, and heat is that there are no (non-luxury) usages of those basics that will cost 10x the average annual salary for an unavoidable 18 day usage of the commodity. In healthcare, you might need a liver transplant to save your life, spend 18 days in the hospital as a result, and end up with a bill that is 10x your annual salary. In comparison, the costs you mention are regular, predictable, and affordable. If I cannot afford to eat lobster and steak, I can eat ground chuck and rice, and I won't die. If Versace and Kors are out of my budget, I go to Walmart or a thrift store, keep older clothes longer, and I won't die. If I can't afford the luxury condo on top of the building facing central park, I rent an apartment in a seedy part of the South Bronx with 3 close friends and (if I don't become a victim of crime) I won't die. The costs of the basic necessities won't exceed my income, and if they do, I will qualify for assistance. If I cannot afford to have the malignant glioblastoma removed, I can't choose something cheaper. I can't even wait until I can afford it. I'll be dead in a few weeks if it isn't treated.

      Now, all that aside, there are other options than our system, and a "government take over". The problem is that there is a lot of money to be made selling things that people can't do without, there's a lot of money to be made denying people coverage, and there's a lot of money that can be donated to political campaigns, and to run scare ads, etc., for both sides. You clearly are against a "government takeover", and I can certainly sympathize with that, but I'm not convinced that a government takeover is really what anyone but some radical fringe groups are proposing. I'm also very open to (you might say begging for) alternative suggestions. Real, well thought out suggestions, open to debate. Not just "tort reform", which some appear to believe is some sort of healthcare magic bullet, but which the GAO believes would have only single digit percentage influence at best, and which has shown little or no results in states where it has been tried. So, I guess I'm saying let's have more honest debate, less parroting of slogans, less shouting of talking points, less mischaractherization to impart fear (the end of the country! chaos in the streets! death panels! it's just like Nazi Germany!), and maybe together we can avoid a solution so heavily dependent on the government. But so far, "the free market" has brought us the highest per capita spending on healthcare in the world, but less than the best outcomes. It's given us 30 million uninsured, and thousands of personal bankruptcies every year. We can do better, can't we?

    35. Re:Republicans for Powerful Government!!! by mdarksbane · · Score: 1

      And the only reason that the primary method of providing healthcare is insurance is because of government tax laws for businesses.

      If it weren't for that, everyone would still pay for medical expenses out of pocket, with some people choosing to have disaster-level insurance for major procedures, just like they do for car wrecks, unexpected death, and home fires.

      There is a problem with people who have chronic, recurring problems. The thing is, at that point that person is essentially a charity case - whether it's charity through higher premiums everyone else pays or through a government mandate, they are someone who costs more to keep alive than they will produce with their life. The insurance model breaks down. That is still not a particularly good reason for trying to still ram them into an insurance model of any sort, government or otherwise.

      Personally I'd love a purely free market approach, untied from employment, for the vast majority of people to cover unexpected horrible events, and possibly a government funded program that yes, rations funds, to pay for the charity cases.

    36. Re:Republicans for Powerful Government!!! by mdarksbane · · Score: 1

      Oh, I completely agree we can do better, and that civilized debate is unfortunately nowhere to be found. A large part of that is defining the problem in a reasonable fashion, and being honest about solutions.

      We don't have a free market. We haven't since congress established our employer based health insurance system. We have a highly regulated industry where laws create essentially only 2-3 providers in each state. These providers sell primarily to businesses because of various tax laws. So most consumers of healthcare never see the real bill, and have no incentive to shop around or minimize the cost of procedures. When getting an x-ray or an MRI have the same deductible, which are you going to choose? People make decisions that they would not if they were paying the bills themselves, driving up the overall cost of insurance.

      Adding to this, because most insurance is obtained with employment, increasing required benefits is seen as benefitting workers and normal people. This means in many states, insurance is required to pay for birth control, medications, and other procedures - this makes it more expensive (generally to the employer, so the cost is again hidden), but it also drives up costs for individuals who don't have employer-funded insurance. Most healthy young adults (the largest group who lacks insurance) can't buy a high-deductible, low-benefit plan that would only pay for catastrophic damage (similar to the minimum coverage car insurance many of them are also buying) because state law prevents it.

      Finally, because voters are concerned about insurance companies bypassing the laws they have made about minimum insurance (which, again, make some sense when you see insurance as part of a benefits package from employers, not as something bought by the individual) they don't want insurance companies to be able to cross state lines. This preserves state's individual mandates for extended coverage, but reduces competition and overall increases prices.

      The proposed solution for a public "option" attempts to solve the problem of availability and price for those without employer insurance without solving any of the other major issues contributing to the rising costs of medical care. Ignoring any argument about the proper role of government, there is a very hard problem here of how to run a government backed system that is simultaneously more efficient than private efforts (who have a very good reason to be efficient, as they lose money if they aren't) while not undercutting private industry to the point of driving it out of business. It is very hard for a private industry to compete with a government corporation who can mandate that people buy its product, or what prices its clients can charge. Two very likely (or at least very concerning) outcomes of this are that the public option fails to be more effective and becomes a bloated, inefficient arm of government that requires ever higher taxes and fees to administer, or that it succeeds and in doing so drives private industry out of business. Any government-backed company is not playing on a level field with its opposition. It is either operating under legislative mandates which hamstring it as a successful business, or with a government windfall that removes impetus for better management and hides the real costs of poor decisions.

      Given all that, we have three groups of people who need to be served by healthcare:
      Those who have or can pay for "normal" insurance.
      Those who can't pay for normal insurance.
      Those who have an existing issue that prevents them from getting normal insurance.

      The first group aren't really the problem at all - they pay for a good that they can afford, get some use out of, and are generally happy with. Few people are arguing that US healthcare is actively (or at least significantly) worse for those who do have insurance.

      The second people can be fixed at least partially by lowering the cost of insurance, but many of them will still never carry it. Short of actively charging or imprisoning people

    37. Re:Republicans for Powerful Government!!! by NoOneInParticular · · Score: 1

      There is a problem with people who have chronic, recurring problems. The thing is, at that point that person is essentially a charity case - whether it's charity through higher premiums everyone else pays or through a government mandate, they are someone who costs more to keep alive than they will produce with their life. The insurance model breaks down.

      Are you actually arguing that the insurance model breaks down when it tries to do its job: insure something?? That's odd. If it is not possible that a person will take much more than he puts into the fund, we are not talking about insurance, but about investment, a pension fund, or something else. Compare what you just said with liability insurance. For a few dollars per year, one is insured for liabilities that would normally bankrupt an individual. Some people actually will incur this cost, but instead of being bankrupted, they can continue. Everybody else foots the bill. These people take more out of the pot than they will ever put back. Does the insurance model break down here as well?

    38. Re:Republicans for Powerful Government!!! by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Libertarianism is an option for someone who believes in liberty in all areas, but you are correct, it is not currently a viable political party in most elections.

      It has been said that Libertarians are those who want police protection from their slaves. I don't think that everyone who self-describes as a Libertarian is necessarily like that, but I do think it's a necessary end of Libertarianism, desired or not. Arguably, some soft form of socialism is a superior way to protect liberty, but regardless of the system, what is truly needed is citizen involvement.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  18. Obligatory H2G2 by idiotnot · · Score: 1

    You're a jerk, Dent. FWIW, there is a difference between a reputable organization publishing these, where the address, employees, and funders are all known, and some anonymous group. If you want media shield protections, announce yourself, and retain counsel to ensure it.

  19. Retards in office. by ground.zero.612 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Am I the only person that believes we have certifiable retards running our country? Like, seriously I think you have to be retarded if you actually think you can remove data from the internet.

    --
    "Be prepared, son. That's my motto. Be prepared." --Joe Hallenbeck
    1. Re:Retards in office. by kilfarsnar · · Score: 1

      People achieve office based on their ability to convince enough people to vote for them (and rigging elections). Sadly, and obviously, it says nothing about their ability to responsibly and intelligently govern.

      --
      "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
    2. Re:Retards in office. by couchslug · · Score: 1

      "Am I the only person that believes we have certifiable retards running our country? Like, seriously I think you have to be retarded if you actually think you can remove data from the internet."

      We have plenty of retards relentlessly electing the "retards" who run the country.

      We really need to admit that most of the American public are, to be polite, stupid, superstitious, willfully ignorant, and vicious.
      Smart, clueful people will always be a tiny, often beseiged, minority.

      --
      "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
    3. Re:Retards in office. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We really need to admit that most of the American public are, to be polite, stupid, superstitious, willfully ignorant, and vicious.

      That's a bit of a distortion. You missed out "fat".

    4. Re:Retards in office. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Many of us feel the people in charge of our country are not the best to be doing so, unfortunately we have nobody to blame but ourselves. Ultimately WE are not making enough noise. WE are not putting those actually capable of doing the job. Additionally, many of those same people vote along party lines, if at all. How can you expect anything different?

      Interesting question: Why do we force leaders to step down from a business at 55-60? I suspect it's because we don't think they're fit to represent the interests of the company. So why do we take the same people we say can't run a company, and let them run the country?

      Is anyone really surprised that these people don't understand technology, and don't care about the future of the country? They'll all be dead in 15 years.

    5. Re:Retards in office. by Again · · Score: 1

      Which is exactly why you do not want to convince people to vote. A low voter turn-out can be a very good thing if the turn-out is low because only people who have educated themselves on the issues at hand will go vote.

      It is when the educated get apathetic enough to stop going to polls that we need to start worrying.

      I admit that my attitude is at least slightly elitist but I would like to propose a system where people get extra votes based on some sort of a test or quiz that they can fill out that would test their IQ and their knowledge of relevant facts. Now that would make interesting results.

    6. Re:Retards in office. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Am I the only person that believes we have certifiable retards running our country? Like, seriously I think you have to be retarded if you actually think you can remove data from the internet.

      They think that annotating a PDF document by drawing black boxes over sekrit stuff constitutes "removing data" from it...so why shouldn't they think they can take an eraser to the internet?

      The way to deal with stupid people like this is to meet them on their own level. For example, Wikileaks could publish all offishial gummint sekrits in black type with a black background. It would be easy to make most politicians and bureaucrats believe that this left their secrets totally inaccessible. After all, to read the text, someone would have to figure out how to change the color of the font or the background in their web browser! I'm quite sure that 99.9% of all government officials could be easily convinced that this is impossible. Because to them, it is.

      Seriously, I think there's a deliberate attempt to capitalize on the public's technical ignorance by making the government look like the innocent victim of a sophisticated cracker attack. The next step is to convince the public that we need stricter laws to punish these criminal hackers.

      Even news organizations that you might expect to know better are falling for this line. I listened to an NPR commentator this morning who described it as a computer error. Clearly, the guy was clueless. (Well, yes, it was an error, and it was done with a computer, but what an uninformative thing to say!) He then went on to further characterize the "error" by saying "...apparently, there was information inadvertently left in the background" that was then "retrieved" by hacker types using sophisticated techniques. He gave the impression that what was done was hard—something like recovering data from an erased disk. In reality, the complexity of the government's error and the technique to reveal the hidden information was more akin to putting yellow post-it notes over the "sensitive" stuff, and then accusing people of crackery when they peeled off the stickies.

      By the way, I thought that from a purely aesthetic and theoretical perspective, the ATF badge was the one with the clearest resolution. Not that I am suggesting anyone make such a badge from the image...except as art, of course.

  20. Re:I would think the first amendment would cover t by MozeeToby · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Despite what some would have you believe, there are other (and more important) laws than copyright laws. If the document in question is appropriately labeled confidential, secret, or top secret, it's possible that those who leaked the document inappropriately could face serious consequences, and I'm not even sure that it is so labeled in this case. As to those who received and posted the documents for the world to see, unless they have a security clearance themselves (and have been appropriately briefed) I don't believe they are liable (obviously IANAL) so I don't see what exactly the congress-critters are asking for in this case.

    To me, it sounds like they are saying "B- B- But they're doing something wrong, surely we can lock them up or something". In other words, "I don't know what law they're breaking, but I don't like what they're doing so find one that applies and enforce it." And that, even to someone who doesn't really buy into all the police state fears that go on around here, is a bit scary.

  21. Wait, what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I am not from USA and don't know how large the variety is inside your parties (probably quite large as everyone has to choose one of two options). However, why would a liberal politician choose the republican party?

    Aren't republicans against gay marriage, drug legalization*, legalizing prostitution*, women's right to abortion and pretty much every other thing that has ever been debated on the "liberal-conservative" axis?

    Not trying to bash republicans here (though it might be clear that I wouldn't vote for them were I to live in USA, I acknowledge that some people disagree and the party is no doubt good for them) but I really am interested in why would they be called liberals.

    (*I know many or most democrats are against that too, yes)

    1. Re:Wait, what? by MozeeToby · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I really am interested in why would they be called liberals.

      Basically because he would prefer a world where everyone equated liberal to bad (or even better, evil). There are two reasons someone would want to do this; to label the opposing party as evil, and to distance politicians he disagrees with from the party he supports. The former goes like this: all democrats are liberal, all evil politicians are 'liberal'. Therefore, all democrats are evil politicians. And as for the Republicans he doesn't agree with, they are all secretly liberal, not real republicans at all. He and he alone defines what makes a liberal/conservative, democrat/republican which makes it much easier to blindly continue forward without being forced to reevaluate decisions made long ago, like which political party is 'right' (as if there is such a thing).

    2. Re:Wait, what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Most Americans I know have significant problems with the existing political parties. Specifically, that most Americans I know prefer a financially conservative economic policy, peaceful foreign policy, and liberal social policy. This is a big problem because neither major party embraces all three. The Republicans are very much interested in imposing Christian social policy and generally have a fairly belligerent and aggressive foreign policy. The Democrats are socially liberal and have a more moderate foreign policy. Neither party, regardless of rhetoric, is remotely financially conservative in practice.

    3. Re:Wait, what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Some republicans are against all those things. But legislators are individuals, and despite what the party leadership would like to believe, a good representative will not tow the party line on all issues. Republicans have also traditionally claimed to be the party of small government, low taxes, free-markets without interfering regulations. The "liberal" republicans may have chosen that party because they agree with that part of the party platform. The Republican party does appear to currently be in the process of enshrining anti-gay marriage, anti-aborition, anti-immigration, anti-national health policy as the core of their party platform, driving out any purely fiscal conservatives and any moderates (which is becoming as dirty a word a liberal)

    4. Re:Wait, what? by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 1

      If a politician does not act in concert with the direction of party leadership, they get labeled and, if possible, marginalized as to their role in shaping events. When this happens in the Republican party they are called "RINO's" and when it happens in the Democratic party they are called "Blue Dogs". Sometimes it is a single issue that causes the label, a conservative that supports the right to an abortion or a liberal that wants lower taxes. Their party would like to minimize the impact of their views, so the label helps them to assure the faithful that those people with the contrary ideas are "not REALLY a [party_affiliation]", and should be ignored. These people are often the moderates of both parties, and there are more of them that are afraid to stand up to party pressure. I wish they could form a coalition to codify a moderate party platform that leaves both religion and social engineering out of government... but that I fear is just a dream.

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
    5. Re:Wait, what? by Cajun+Hell · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I really am interested in why would they be called liberals

      Ok, let's look at gay marriage, drug legalization, prostitution.

      A conservative would channel ***PRE***-president Reagan, and say government is the problem and freedom is the solution. They would say that people have to do things for themselves, let the market decide, etc. A liberal, on the other hand, will have a (well-meaning) vision for how a Great Society should be, and think about what actions government policy should take in order to cause that vision to become reality.

      Marriage. The conservative will say, "whatever people wanna do, let 'em do it and face the consequences." Some of them will add, "I hope those homos some day figure out that no matter how much they buttfuck, they're not going to create a baby. Too bad, their loss when they grow old and don't have a family to support them." Other conservatives will say, "What consequences? Spending your life with someone you love? Ha!"

      A liberal will say, "I think we all share a vision of what marriage should be, and the polls even in 2009 bear that out. Government should enact policies enforce the will of the people. That's democracy and the way forward to the world that we want to live in." But then they split on what the will of the people is (damn polls keep changing), so some try to allow gay marriage and some try to outlaw it.

      And so on, the same sort of thing with drugs and prostitution (and healthcare!), The Rs are liberal on some of these, and conservative on others. Same with the Ds. Neither of those parties adopts a consistently liberal or conservative platform. (See the Libertarians or the Communists for consistent ideology.)

      Abortion is a little different. A conservative is going to uphold the woman's right (just like they would for marriage and prostitution) but some of them believe that a fetus is a person and therefore needs its rights upheld too. And really, a liberal can also have that same position too. So abortion isn't really a liberal/conservative conflict. It's a conflict between people who think fetus' rights are in dire jeopardy (babies are being murdered, the most egregious civil rights violation imaginable), versus people who think "fetus' rights" is just as much as a nonsense oxymoron as "rock's rights," so the woman's rights aren't in conflict with anyone else's rights at all. Neither side is really taking the position that a progressive vision-of-society should trump rights, although each side thinks the other side does, since they disagree about whether or not a fetus can have rights.

      --
      "Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
    6. Re:Wait, what? by tmosley · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Liberals are for big government, and these types of government intrusions into the public and private spheres serve no purpose save to increase the size and power of the government. He isn't speaking as a conservative, but as a libertarian.

      Currently, libertarians are attempting to regain control of the Republican Party, which used to be the more progressive of the two parties, with Democrats mostly coming from the south, and being filled with bigots and warmongers. During the time between 1970 and 1990, there was a change in that the bigots and warmongers jumped ship, and ran to the Republican Party, which was asserting itself as the dominant power after running on libertarian issues (Goldwater followed by Reagan). Reagan was corrupted by these people, and gave us the Republican party we have today, on filled with neoconservatives, with the word neoconservative being literal, those people used to be liberals, but the meanings got all twisted around.

      The issues you mentioned are simply wedge issues that were used to separate the largely libertarian base of the United States into "liberals" and "conservatives", both of which campaign on one half of the good of society (with liberals pushing social freedom, and conservatives pushing economic freedom), but once in office, they instead focus on taking away rights and freedoms (with conservatives attacking social rights and liberals attacking economic freedoms). They are two sides of the same coin, both representing the deep pit of injustice and corruption that US politics has become.

    7. Re:Wait, what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He and he alone defines what makes a liberal/conservative

      No, I'm sure he's happy to let people like Rupert Murdoch, Karl Rove and Rushbo decide; all he needs to "think" about is how many sites he can parrot-troll the information on. Go teabagger go!

    8. Re:Wait, what? by Yamata+no+Orochi · · Score: 2, Funny

      a good representative will not tow the party line on all issues.

      Where do they want it towed, exactly?

    9. Re:Wait, what? by dwiget001 · · Score: 1

      In truth, both of the major parties, as a whole, are quite a bit less than angelic.

      They both blame and demonize the other party as a continual game "gotcha".

      The result is ever increasing national debt, ever increasing mandated financial obligations (Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid) that have already factually bankrupted this country.

      Both Democrats and Republicans (as parties) are hell bent on doing *everything other than" being responsible and honorable stewards of this country and its citizen's hard won tax money.

      Per my last check of the Government Accountability Office, each U.S. citizen is on the hook for about $400,000.00 if the current national debt was divided by our citizenry. Horrific and criminal are the only words I can use to describe what current and past Administrations, Houses and Senates have done to this country economically. And, with the recent request to raise the debt ceiling, it is only going to get worse.

    10. Re:Wait, what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, recent administration excepted, the republicans are generally the more isolationist party. Democrats tend to court identity politics which might make them sound more socially liberal, but on the most important issues of social justice in America (race) it was democrats that were obstructionists, not republicans. IMHO both parties are far too wedded to centralized power - too bad we don't have an viable alternatives.

    11. Re:Wait, what? by Chyeld · · Score: 1

      Red vs blue goes deeper than just platforms, there are also geographic lines biases involved.

      Don't you dare admit to being a "dirty republican" in the farm belt of America, in some places that's almost a lynching waiting to happen (note: this is hyperbole, but just a little). Despite this, if you heard any of the esteemed residents of this area pontificate on their political opinions, you'd be hard pressed not to label them dyed in the wool neo-conservatives.

      Conversely, there are more than a few places on the Eastern seaboard where admitting you are a Democrat is the equivalent of walking around dressed like an Appalachian hillbilly. You'd be taken more seriously by some if you claimed to be an escaped mental patient from the planet Xandu. (note: again, hyperbole, maybe)

    12. Re:Wait, what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Personally, I want it towed to the junk heap and then buried with the rest of the 2 party system. On a different subject, I hate English; anyone know where I can get a better language?

    13. Re:Wait, what? by fugue · · Score: 1

      A liberal, on the other hand, will have a (well-meaning) vision for how a Great Society should be, and think about what actions government policy should take in order to cause that vision to become reality.

      I think it's a little more complicated than that. When one person's decisions affect everyone else, what then? Is it liberal or conservative to try to control greenhouse gases, carcinogenic and toxic waste in the water table, deforestation, overpopulation, etc? I guess that wanting to control those things qualifies as a vision of a Great Society (or at least a marginally sustainable one)--and at least the late behaviour of the two parties is pretty consistent with your description. But if that's true, then the conservative platform is literally the platform of doom.

      A liberal will say, "I think we all share a vision of what marriage should be, and the polls even in 2009 bear that out. Government should enact policies enforce the will of the people."

      Interesting, but that's not my read of "liberal" intent. Republicans (not your "conservatives") are constantly trying to tell people what to do. The liberals often do as well, but not here. The problem is that it is impossible to enforce the absence of a law: you can't just say "let's not make a law." The winner of the fight over whether to control marriage or not is the one who passes a law saying "Marriage is defined as [blah blah blah] ...". If liberals were trying to control people in the way that conservatives are, they would tell you whom you must marry. Instead, they are trying to create a law that guarantees you the power to make your own choice. Is that conservative?

      [Abortion:] Neither side is really taking the position that a progressive vision-of-society should trump rights, although each side thinks the other side does, since they disagree about whether or not a fetus can have rights.

      Interesting... but Ch. 4 of Freakonomics makes a strong case that if your Grand Vision of society values low crime rates, then access to abortion is critical. So, yes, if you believe Levitt and Dubner, then this debate too can be cast as you've cast the ones above. I can't do their argument justice here--the very short and vegetarian version is that women tend to be good judges of whether they're in a position to raise children--but you might enjoy it.

      See the Libertarians or the Communists for consistent ideology.

      I'm not sure, but I have a hunch that that's because they don't have enough power in the USA to have to deal with actual issues. How would a libertarian handle global warming / ozone hole / etc? How would a communist handle human laziness?

      --
      "The biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place."
    14. Re:Wait, what? by Svartalf · · Score: 1

      It is only a dream if you don't act upon it.

      I'm pretty sure your assessment is on the money there- and there'd be quite a few people that would sign up as they're sick and tired of the flip sides of the coin we've been "enjoying" for the last handful of decades or so.

      --
      I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
    15. Re:Wait, what? by peragrin · · Score: 1

      I agree on two out of the three points a conservative fiscal policy needs to cut taxes as well as spending. The republicans only cut taxes. It is why everytime we have a republican in office we have a recession by the time they leave.

      --
      i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
    16. Re:Wait, what? by NeutronCowboy · · Score: 1

      Really?Conservatives say that? I have to admit that I don't know any pre-Reagan conservatives, but any one who calls him/herself a conservative these days says the exact opposite of what you're saying. As for liberals, I was unaware that there was a poll-requirement in there. Is that an official party platform? Philosophical stance? As far as I can tell, it's actually a contradiction in terms - on the one hand you're claiming that liberals have grand visions, but on the other hand they're blindly following polls. Polls are the anti-thesis of grand visions, because they're an amalgamation of millions of small visions.

      I'm utterly confused. It'd be nice if everyone wouldn't try to redefine words in political discussions.

      --
      Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
    17. Re:Wait, what? by FlyingBishop · · Score: 1

      You're equating conservatism with libertarianism and liberalism with totalitarianism. You're wrong to do so, since it does not fit with any modern definition thereof. Conservatism is about keeping things the way they always have been, liberalism is about making beneficial changes. Obviously it's absurd to talk about either group as an absolute, but that's the essential definition.

    18. Re:Wait, what? by GryMor · · Score: 1

      Most of the pre reagan conservatives could be considered some brand of libertarian, the particular form dependent on the value weights assigned to competing freedoms. As far as I can tell, most post reagan conservatives are can be considered some brand of authoritarian.

      --
      Realities just a bunch of bits.
    19. Re:Wait, what? by Reziac · · Score: 1

      Keelhauling might be more appropriate.

      --
      ~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
    20. Re:Wait, what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's a conflict between people who think fetus' rights are in dire jeopardy...versus people who think "fetus' rights" is just as much as a nonsense oxymoron as "rock's rights," so the woman's rights aren't in conflict with anyone else's rights at all.

      I get a little sick of this view of the argument, as it's exactly how those who are anti-abortion want people to view it. It's not about the rights of the expectant mother versus the rights of the fetus, it's about not letting government control what you do with your body. Do you really need a hypothesis and how saying a woman loses rights to her body because "think of the fetus" can go wrong?

      Just think Demoltion Man, where you couldn't smoke (bad for you -- cancer), there's no salt (bad for you -- blood pressure), and you can't swear (bad for others -- hurt feelings).

    21. Re:Wait, what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      By that logic ( the government shouldn't be able to control what you do with your body) you should be against laws on assault. If I want to punch someone in the face, that's my right and the government shouldn't be involved. My rights and the punchee's rights are irrelevant. It IS about whether or not fetuses have rights.

    22. Re:Wait, what? by NiteShaed · · Score: 1

      What? Can you name any actual *current* conservatives that are saying these things?

      Marriage. The conservative will say, "whatever people wanna do, let 'em do it and face the consequences." Some of them will add, "I hope those homos some day figure out that no matter how much they buttfuck, they're not going to create a baby. Too bad, their loss when they grow old and don't have a family to support them." Other conservatives will say, "What consequences? Spending your life with someone you love? Ha!"

      Funny, it seems to me that the conservative viewpoint is that marriage is under attack, and that same sex marriage would destroy the institution. Every major (albiet stupid) argument against same-sex marriage I've heard has come from the conservatives. It's either social conservatism (preserving the status quo), or based on religious values, but either way, it's coming from the conservatives. Liberals are far more likely to be in favor of same-sex marriage, but unfortunately liberal politicians are generally too weak-knee'd to follow through on it.

      And so on. Drug war? Liberals are generally against it, with, once again, liberal politicians too weak-knee'd to do anything about it for fear of being called "soft on crime" by.....wait for it....conservatives.

      Abortion: again, most staunchly opposed by conservatives. And why is that? The hardest core against abortion is the religious right, which is purely a conservative institution. You don't have a "hardcore religious left" trying to call the shots in politics, religion is much more marginal for the liberals than the conservatives.

      Now, I noticed you specified "Pre-Reagan", but really, at this point who cares what the conservatives were like 30 years ago. What matters is what they are now. And really, are you nostalgic for Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford? If not, we're really talking about almost 50 years ago to Eisenhower....
      I don't know if you were going for one of those "these guys now aren't REAL conservatives" positions, but they're here now, and they're the conservatives.

      --
      Some bring out the best in others, some the worst. Some bring out far more.
    23. Re:Wait, what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A conservative would channel ***PRE***-president Reagan, and say government is the problem and freedom is the solution. They would say that people have to do things for themselves, let the market decide, etc. A liberal, on the other hand, will have a (well-meaning) vision for how a Great Society should be, and think about what actions government policy should take in order to cause that vision to become reality.

      I love Slashdot, I really do. There are a lot of bright people here, and it's why I spend time in the comment threads. That said, I'm really tired of this kind of post. I know there's a conservative ("libertarian") leaning among the younger nerd crowd (can you tell I'm getting old?), and I accept that conservative posts will abound (and be +5 moderated). But you can really do better than this.

      With no offense intended, your argument first defines "conservative" as something it's not, something it's probably never been outside of a very small niche of free-thinking folks (who have been overwhelmingly rejected by the folks calling themselves conservative today), and then goes on to through up a strange strawman argument about how much better this non-existent movement is than the g*ddamned liberals pushing their will on the population.

      This is just foolish: liberal politicians are hardly pushing gay marriage onto the population. From what I can tell, there's one state that's done this by itself, and many states where the courts have ruled in favor of marriage as a right (and the legislature has reacted as required by law). But that's what you get when you live in a constitutional Republic.

      (Of course if you brand all judges who support gay marriage as "liberal" you get where you need to go, but is this really an argument?)

      What I get from your post is that you dislike the Republican party and think it's betrayed all conservative ideals, and yet you're sufficiently in their pocket to spout weird Republican talking points and strawman characterizations about liberals.

    24. Re:Wait, what? by kramerd · · Score: 1

      Like most members of the mass media, you are continuously confusing conservative and christian. These are very different things. Parent is correct.

    25. Re:Wait, what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You sure present a rosy and highly inaccurate picture of the belief system of conservatives.

      Sadly, the reality is far, far, far more hate-based.

    26. Re:Wait, what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Post Limbaugh, Beck, et al, "liberal" means "bad", regardless of political viewpoint. A Liberal is the name of the strawman for a point of view nobody actually holds. It's used to rally the faithful closer to the True Cause (tm).

  22. The usual... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The problem doesn't get fixed, instead the whistle-blower gets to be treated as a criminal.

    WOW! Pass the message: the U.S. isn't intent on fixing problems, instead they're intent on suppressing free speech!

  23. Re:I would think the first amendment would cover t by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 1

    Government works are never copyrighted, but the government has some limited ability to declare information to be so critical to national security that it must be kept secret for our own safety. For example, if you happen to find a nuclear weapon design document, with detail technical specifications, the government can bar you from publishing it.

    It used to be that this law only applied to nuclear secrets and information related to the location of nuclear subs (and so forth), but these days terrorism is an excuse to keep all sorts of other things secret.

    --
    Palm trees and 8
  24. More important question is who TSA fired for this by Tangential · · Score: 2, Informative

    Seems to me that the Congress ought to be more concerned about the levels of security and training maintained by the TSA than with sites that replicate publicly available information. Sounds to me that in addition to firing the redactor of the document for incompetence, several heads should roll in their IT, security and training organizations.

    --
    Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of congress. But then I repeat myself. -- Mark Twain
  25. Grammar Appears Correct To Me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The grammar in the OP's quote was correct, it is in the present-perfect tense. Read it again without [sic] in the middle and it will sound fine:

    How has the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration addressed the repeated reposting of this security manual to other websites, and what legal action, if any, can be taken to compel its removal?

    Link for reference: http://grammar.about.com/od/basicsentencegrammar/a/prperfectense.htm

    1. Re:Grammar Appears Correct To Me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think it should be "have" instead of "has". Plurality and all that stuff...

    2. Re:Grammar Appears Correct To Me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The subject is "Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration", i.e. plural, so "have" should have been used instead of "had". (English isn't my native language, so don't take my word for it, but the document you referred to agrees: "The auxiliary verb--has or have--changes to agree with its subject".) HTH

    3. Re:Grammar Appears Correct To Me by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      I think he was referring to the use of 'has' with a plural subject (due to there being two agencies involved).

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    4. Re:Grammar Appears Correct To Me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      From the link you provided:

      The auxiliary verb--has or have--changes to agree with its subject

      In this case the subject is plural and you want "have", not "has". Consider this:

      How have/has the dog and the cat been doing?

  26. Anonymous Coward by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't think Congress will ever understand the nature of the internet...

  27. Both parties are bad, so vote Republican! by FatSean · · Score: 1

    Vote for the party that failed in a two-front war! They're just as bad as the Dems, amirite?

    --
    Blar.
  28. Re:I would think the first amendment would cover t by dwiget001 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You are correct.

    Only the person(s) covered by a security clearance that disclosed the information are the ones liable, as they signed the documents agreeing to be bound by the rules/laws governing the handling of such classified material.

    A person receiving such disclosed material (a third party), is under no obligation to protect or otherwise not distribute the information. Oh, sure, they could turn the material over to the authorities and turn the person in, yeap.

    This all sounds to me like certain members of the government are afraid that somethings they do not want disclosed are going to be, and all hell is going to break loose as a result.

    I know from reading data about past disclosures, that the security classification system is used and abused to *deny* information to the people that should know what the heck is going on in this country, namely its citizens.

  29. Sic? by kevin_conaway · · Score: 1

    From the summary:

    How has [sic] the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration...

    Why was the sic added to this statement? I'm not an English major but I don't find that sentence to use any archaic or incorrect spellings nor do I find the grammar to be wrong.

    1. Re:Sic? by natehoy · · Score: 1

      "has" in that sentence should be "have".

      How has Jon and Bob been acting?
      How have John and Bob been acting?

      [sic] Heil!

      Signed,
        - Goermer, proud member, local Grammar Nazi Union #242 :)

      --
      "This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
    2. Re:Sic? by Ltap · · Score: 1

      Since it's two organizations being referred to (DHS and TSA) it should be plural: "how have ..." If it was only one, "How has ..." would have been correct.

      --
      Yet Another Tech Blog
      (but so much more, including game and movie reviews)
      http://yanteb.peasantoid.org
    3. Re:Sic? by macaddict · · Score: 1

      The sentence is referring to two separate agencies: DHS and TSA. Rewrite the sentence to "How has they addressed the repeated posting..." vs. "How have they addressed the repeated posting...", and you'll see the error.

    4. Re:Sic? by babblefrog · · Score: 1

      I'm thinking that should have been plural: "How have..."

    5. Re:Sic? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because the subject is so long, it is easy to lose track of the fact that it is plural: "the Department of Homeland Security" and "the Transportation Security Administration". The auxiliary verb should be "have", not "has". If, for example, you replace the subject with something simpler but grammatically interchangeable, it becomes easier to see, thus:

      How has Bob and Mike addressed this?
      How have Bob and Mike addressed this?

    6. Re:Sic? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Editor/submitter may see DHS as a plural (a collection of individuals), thus changing that 'has' to a 'have'. Personally, I'm not sure which is grammatically correct, but it looks alright to me.

    7. Re:Sic? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Whoops, same ac here. 'DHS and TSA' would be plural. Maybe I should try getting out of bed before posting to /.

    8. Re:Sic? by Tim+C · · Score: 1

      No - the summary speaks of *two* agencies being involved, and so "have" is correct.

  30. What about news orgs? by joeszilagyi · · Score: 1

    Why don't they say anything about going after news agencies that reposted the documents? Or is that a battle they don't want to fight? I don't get it.

    --
    Dude, where's my packet?
  31. I agree. by FatSean · · Score: 1

    More heads inside TSA need to roll. Don't punish the citizens for wanting to know WTF their security theater troop is doing to protect them.

    --
    Blar.
    1. Re:I agree. by DrVomact · · Score: 1

      But it's so much easier to accuse the evil hackers who created a threat to national security by exposing all this stuff than to fire cousin Billy. Plus, it's a good reason to demand more and stricter laws; and when has a government not liked that?

      --
      Great men are almost always bad men--Lord Acton's Corollary
  32. So think pre-computer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So if a government agency sent a printed press release out with Post-It notes stuck over sensitive bits, would they be surprised if someone pulled off the Post-Its and read what was underneath?

  33. How do they feel about the CRU leaks? by jfengel · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So, Republican representatives... when WikiLeaks is being used to post information you object to, you want it investigated.

    I trust the same outrage applies to the emails stolen from the CRU and posted on WikiLeaks? Or does your interest in privacy only apply to issues you care about?

    1. Re:How do they feel about the CRU leaks? by cdrguru · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Maybe document stolen from England need enforcement action from England rather than promoting the US as the World Police Force(tm).

    2. Re:How do they feel about the CRU leaks? by gander666 · · Score: 1

      Team America will be right on that...

      --
      Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress ... but I repeat myself. - Mark T
  34. CNN, FOX, etc...? by xirusmom · · Score: 1

    I first learned about the leak on CNN. They may have not showed the text on TV (I did not look on their site for it), but they sure talked about some of the contents and now I know that if I have a prosthetic leg I can bring, say, some maple syrup from Canada. If Wikileaks is hosting the content, so is CNN, and FOX, and....

  35. It doesn't matter that we screwed up. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just don't let anyone talk about it.

  36. not a substitute by nten · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Obscurity is not a substitute for security. But people forget that it *is* a very useful supplement to security in many cases. By all mean publish the plans to the safe, but don't tell people where you put the safe, that serves no purpose. Likewise, if you have a method or technique that you already know is flawed but have not found a way to remedy, keeping the badguys in the dark longer is a good thing. However the real point of this story is that people who really need to know better don't realize leaks are unrecoverable once they hit the internet. The letter seems to hint that they suspect there is nothing to be done at this point, but they aren't sure. Maybe a class on such topics would be useful. Wouldn't it be nice if all legislators used the time they weren't in session to educate themselves on such things?

    --
    refactor the law, its bloated, confusing and unmaintainable.
  37. A wikileaks not covered by US laws(?): by kandresen · · Score: 1

    By having one wikileaks in a place not covered by US laws and another covered by US laws. What is the law for placing subdomains with a separate hosting provider broad by the way? Lets say us.wikileaks.org was hosted in France and www.wikileaks.org was hosted in the USA?

    Another option might be to place a wikileaks on Freenet, and simply place references to the content on the wikileaks website.

  38. Very Dangerous by DJRumpy · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This equates to Digital Book Burning. This is an essential liberty.

    1. Re:Very Dangerous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Kids, don't breath in the Digital Smoke.

    2. Re:Very Dangerous by brkello · · Score: 1

      Uh, no it doesn't. Some documents aren't created for everyone to see. If they were trying to ban all digital versions of Twilight...that would be a digital book burning since it was meant for public consumption. And I don't think that would be very dangerous...but that's just my biased opinion ;)

      --
      Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
  39. Hey here's an idea... by Lord+Dreamshaper · · Score: 1

    Now three Republican lawmakers are asking what's being done to prosecute those hosting the document

    Why don't you ask what steps are being taken to make us trust our politicians and corporations so that sites like Wikileaks become moot?

    Hint: Going after Wikileaks et al. ain't one of those steps and shows a shocking lack of understanding of the purpose of the first amendment or the ephemeral nature of the internet...

    --
    When all of your wishes have been granted, many of your dreams will be destroyed - Marilyn Manson
    1. Re:Hey here's an idea... by Jimmy+King · · Score: 1

      I think you're giving them too much credit in saying that they lack understanding of the purpose of the first amendment. I'm normally a fan of the old "Never attribute to malice that which can just as easily be attributed to ignorance" (or something like that) quote. When it comes to politicians, especially at the upper levels of our national government, I do tend to find it far more likely that they're willfully malicious. I'm sure they understand the first amendment perfectly, they just don't like it and know they can just ignore it and will probably be long since dead before the nation's people start fighting back in any way that could seriously hurt them (or whoever is in office at that point, since these guys are supposed to be long since dead).

  40. that was predictable by Tom · · Score: 2, Insightful

    And there I was, thinking I was funny:
    http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1470306&cid=30363244

    And now they're doing it.

    Can we please re-introduce the death penalty for stupidity? Back in the days, before the whole "civilization" nonsense, fuckers like these wouldn't have survived long enough to demonstrate that there is a perfect vaccuum in this universe - inside their heads.

    --
    Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
  41. So if you fail... by Hurricane78 · · Score: 1

    ...you prosecute others because they laugh at you?

    You know what’s great about this?

    1. That way, they won’t ever learn from it, and continue to make stuff available for us.
    2. Since they can by definition never remove it from the Internet, once it’s out in the public, their chase will never stop.

    The stuff is already floating though the P2P nets. Just wait until someone creates a distributed Wikileaks site inside a darknet. Try to shut that down! ^^

    I hope they get even more arrogant, and start putting their whole database in the open, with a redaction system based on black rectangles. ^^

    --
    Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
  42. Better process is the solution, not censorship by valderost · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The genie is out of the bottle on this one. The document won't disappear, and even if it becomes illegal to host it, it'll continue circulating. The legislators need to accept this as a "teachable moment" and figure out ways to prevent it from recurring, perhaps through improvements in process and education of the folks producing the secure content.

    Beyond "use better redaction", process improvements mean inserting a few steps between redaction and publishing.

    The redacted document should go through a QA/review process that ensures it contains only content appropriate to the intended audience. The administrative review was undoubtedly done, but not a technical review. It's no secret that electronic documents have hidden data, whether it's redacted or whether it's document metadata, and there's no excuse for these not be examined as part of the release process.

    The process should also ensure that the document is being posted only to the appropriate audience. If the document is meant to instruct contractors on security practices, then restrict access to the document so only those contractors can get it.

    And now that some of the TSA's security practices are public knowledge, we'll have an opportunity to analyze and share concerns. A lot of this stuff is easily written off as security theater, but when decisions on who and who not to screen hinge on politics, something's clearly wrong and perhaps the legislators need to look at that instead of trying to undo this leak through unenforceable legislation.

  43. RINOs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A majority of that party are RINOs, then. Maybe the small-government members should leave that party and join a small-government party instead. Like it or not, when I think "Republican," I think of people who want a larger, more expensive, more powerful, more authoritative, more FDR/LBJ-esque style federal government than their chief rival in the voting booth.

    These people aren't even the fringes of the Republican party; they had a president recently, and his proposals were overwhelmingly supported (by voting on bills) by a strong, near-but-not-quite-unanimity of members in the House and Senate. All of your big guys are liberals. Saying that the Republicans who believe that government (and not just any government, but the federal government) knows what is best for everyone, are Republicans "in name only" is like saying Halo was published by Microsoft "in name only" but was really published by a small Mac gaming company, Bungie.

    Wake up, people who use the word "RINO." Conservative Republicans (e.g. fringes like Ron Paul) are the actual Republicans In Name Only. You are members of a party who thinks the Democrats are too timid and slow-moving about making America more Soviet-like. You are members of the party that the "tea baggers" are really complaining about but are too afraid to admit. You are members of a party who would repeal the 1st, 4th, and 5th Amendments if they could, and also want to subvert the 2nd amendment too, but don't have the balls to actually speak out against that right.

    Why do they all want this? One reason is that the bigger and more distant (Washington DC vs state) the government, the more easily to hide corruption. The other reason is that they're scared and want Nanny to save them. Sure, the Democrats do it too, but at least it's to a lesser degree, and without the hypocrisy.

  44. Excuse me, but how is Wikileaks responsible? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    I know that not knowing a law does not protect from not being prosecuted under it, but isn't there some provision that if you cannot know that you break the law (e.g. because, say, you don't even know that distribution of the information is not allowed) you cannot be prosecuted? I know it applies to buying stolen merchandize in good faith, it also applies to distributing information that someone else broke an NDA for (say I'm under an NDA to not give out information, break it and tell it to you and you publish it), why is this supposedly different?

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  45. Screw TSA by DustoneGT · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I will not fly in a commercial flight until TSA is dismantled. The 9/11 attacks did not warrant federal intrusion into air security. You may disagree, but that's fine. I will continue to vote with my dollars as I see fit. I'd rather drive several days than go through airport security.

    1. Re:Screw TSA by the_fat_kid · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Amen to that!
      I have sworn off airports.
      I love to fly. Airplanes are just cool. going from Chicago to Denver in 3 hours is great.
      I will not, however, put up with the bullshit that goes on in airports and with airlines.
      We are no safer than we were 10 years ago.
      That time and date printed on your ticket? Well it doesn't mean anything. you bought a ticket that said you would be in North Carolina thursday night? Well, not this thursday, the conecting flight has been delayed. Yeah, the plane isn't ready to fly. How long have we known? We found out 6 hours before you got on your first flight. We will TRY to get you out of here tomorrow. In the meantime here is a voucher for a "free" sandwich, now go sit down.
      The next year I drove. Less time, 10 hours vs. 16. Less money, $300 in gas vs. $700 in air fare. Less hassel, I can bring nail clippers and a bottle of water in the car.

      --
      -- Sig under construction...
  46. Please, your help is needed! by rickb928 · · Score: 1

    Please, please mail to your representatives a copy of the United States Constitution.

    They clearly need one to refer to when this legislation ceoms before them for consideration.

    --
    deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
  47. Huh? by windex82 · · Score: 1

    I don't get it.

    Why would action be taken against the sites with the document and not the person who was responsible for sanitizing the document before putting it out there for the world to see?

  48. If wikileaks accepted submissions through freenet by kandresen · · Score: 1

    Then there may be no way to determine who and from where someone posted the content.

    On the other side: oppressive regimes are likely to block sites like this to begin with, if they could access through for example Freenet, blocking the content from the citizens is likely much harder. This include content like in these cases where information is about supposed free countries.

    --
    9/11 - Also known as the day US helped overthrow the Democracy in Chile inserting the dictator Pinochet as head of state.

  49. Re:More important question is who TSA fired for th by Petaris · · Score: 1

    I work in IT as do many here. There are a number of reasons this could have happened that have nothing to do with incompetence of the IT department. As for training it can be difficult to find time and or money to train employees, and many don't pay attention anyway. I would hesitate to suggest firing a bunch of people without knowing the details first. If no one gave that person proper training then it really isn't their fault. If they were trained and ignored the training then it is. Was that person even in the IT dept? Maybe they were just a normal office worker and they have a simple way to upload requested documents (CMS type of system). Maybe the administration didn't want to spend the money on training or didn't have money for training. I'm not saying that no one should be held responsible, I'm just saying that you need to know the whole story before saying who should be fired, if anyone.

    --
    ~Petaris "The world is open. Are you?"
  50. Oh yeah, this'll work. by Anonymous+Meoward · · Score: 1

    The net effect of this affair will be to burnish the reputations of these particular Congresscritters in their districts as "patriots". (Does that word have any meaning anymore in this country?) Not much else.

    It's 100% grandstanding, and they know it. And anyone who observes US politics should know it.

    Someone will catch hell for the leak, if they haven't already. But otherwise, this will have the consequences of most other bullshit: None.

    --
    --- The American Way of Life is not a birthright. Hell, it's not even sustainable.
  51. Congratulations! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Congratulations to Wikileaks! You know you're doing something right when the authorities are scared!

  52. What do they always say when this happens??? by CannedTurkey · · Score: 1

    Oh yeah, "If you've done nothing wrong, you've got nothing to fear."

    --
    Ingredients: Turkey, Mechanically Separated Turkey, Water, Salt, Flavour.
  53. That's Right, Kill The Messenger by Toad-san · · Score: 1

    Messrs. Charles Dent (R-PA), Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), and Peter T. King (R-NY):

    Bite me.

    Of course I mean that in the nicest possible way, you being our duly elected representatives and all.

    Wait ... no, I don't. I mean that really meanly, viciously, pettily.

    Bite me.

    Yes, that's about it.

  54. Re:I would think the first amendment would cover t by thejynxed · · Score: 1

    Hell, it's even used and abused to intentionally deny information to people such as the President, Vice President, Secretary of State, etc. by those who bow down to that which is the Military-Industrial Complex.

    How do you think shit gets done and then the rest of them who are to blame, can cry, "No prior knowledge!" (Plausible Deniability), and say it with a straight face?

    --
    @Mindless Drivel: 100% of Twitter posts ever Tweeted.
  55. Where is Wikileaks hosted? by Locke2005 · · Score: 1

    If Wikileaks is hosted outside of the US, then I suspect there is very little the US government can do about it, short of calling in an air strike. And while I'd expect GW might have considered that option, I'm pretty sure Obama isn't that stupid.

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  56. action against pager intercepts by wkk2 · · Score: 1

    The pager data was released long after 9/11. Did the interceptor wait for the expiration of some statute of limitations?

  57. Surely they're right to ask by Cederic · · Score: 1

    Curiously nobody has suggested that they're acting correctly.

    "Secret" information has been leaked. Sources on the internet are hosting that leaked information. It's perfectly sensible and legitimate to ask how that information can be suppressed, and whether legal action is (or should be made) possible against those that disseminate it.

    The answer is obviously that it'll be extremely difficult (and for certain types of information, impossible), but I would expect people in their position to at least ask the question.

    Whether the information should be suppressed, and the extent and severity of the actions appropriate to suppressing it are irrelevant to the main point. Should they implement new laws and start arresting and extraditing foreign nationals, seizing foreign servers and invading/bombing foreign countries (as has already happened) then quite rightly they should be criticised, but merely asking what can be done is appropriate and proportionate.

    1. Re:Surely they're right to ask by cciechad · · Score: 1

      I must have missed the part of the 1st amendment that allows an exception for "Secret" information. These people swore an oath to uphold the Constitution. By even bringing this up they are breaking their oath.

      --
      https://www.fsf.org/associate/support_freedom
    2. Re:Surely they're right to ask by Cederic · · Score: 1

      So you support full disclosure of US Army operations, order of battle, the schematics for nuclear weapons, submarine patrol routes, ongoing anti-terror investigations, Iranian spy networks (including informant names and addresses) and any other information that might be considered "Secret".

      Forgive me if I find your first amendment argument a little fatuous.

    3. Re:Surely they're right to ask by fluffy99 · · Score: 1

      There are laws that can be applied to suppress classified information. The issue here is that the info was not classified, but sensitive unclassified. Unless it was privacy act information, there's virtually no laws that can be applied. There's not much that can be done to suppress it after it's become public knowledge in any case. At this point supressing the document itself is only part of the problem, as some many news agencies have posted summaries of the sensitive info.

    4. Re:Surely they're right to ask by cenc · · Score: 1

      It is not even clear a crime was committed here, or at least the DOJ would be on fairly shaky ground to try and prosecute the person that ultimately published it or wiki leaks.

      If the organization that released it did not see fit to fully black out the information it was suppose to, then would it not be the idiot that failed to fully black out the secret information that is legally on the hook. It was their negligence that lead to the secret information being published in to the public domain.

  58. Re:I would think the first amendment would cover t by Jawn98685 · · Score: 1

    Despite what some would have you believe, there are other (and more important) laws than copyright laws. If the document in question is appropriately labeled confidential, secret, or top secret, it's possible that those who leaked the document inappropriately could face serious consequences, and I'm not even sure that it is so labeled in this case. As to those who received and posted the documents for the world to see, unless they have a security clearance themselves (and have been appropriately briefed) I don't believe they are liable (obviously IANAL) so I don't see what exactly the congress-critters are asking for in this case.

    I should think that would be obvious. It's just yet-another thing to bitch about for the party who had their asses handed to them by the electorate in the last two elections. Having failed when it comes to properly running the country, and having continued to put forth the same failed ideas (tax breaks for the wealthy, privatizing critical military and security functions, etc.) they are reduced to bitching and, wherever the can, obstructing the party that was elected to clean up their fucking mess.

  59. Microsoft did it by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

    Win2k source code. Let me know if you can find any (comments don't count).

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    1. Re:Microsoft did it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Win2k source code. Let me know if you can find any (comments don't count).

      Really? All I had to do was Google search "Win2k source code +torrent"

    2. Re:Microsoft did it by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      Well whaddaya know:

      http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4149808/Windows_NT4_source_code

      http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/3497574/Windows_2000_source_code

      Couldn't find it for a while after the leak, but there it is now...so MS was only temporarily successful at best...

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  60. You mean they don't want us knowing? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You mean they don't want us knowing what they are doing? Surely, you jest, sir! On the other hand, to use their oft repeated mantra, "If you have nothing to hide, then it won't matter, will it?" So which will it be? Openness or secrecy?

  61. you must be new here. by nimbius · · Score: 1

    when we encounter something like this on slashdot, we say, "Im an independent you insensitive clod!"

    note: this method invalid for the following descriptors: scientologist, creationist, comcast executive

    --
    Good people go to bed earlier.
  62. Re:I would think the first amendment would cover t by Jason+Levine · · Score: 1

    I don't think that the government can copyright documents. They can declare them Top Secret, Classified or give them some other security designation that means general dissemination of the document could land you in hot water. However, in this case, the TSA themselves posted the document. They just drew some black boxes over the redacted parts, not realizing that PDFs don't care about black boxes. So it isn't WikiLeaks' fault that the information is out there. They didn't hack into the TSA's systems and make this document public. The TSA made the document public. Now the genie is out of the bottle and you can't just cram it back in.

    --
    My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
  63. Re:I would think the first amendment would cover t by locallyunscene · · Score: 1

    Despite what some would have you believe, there are other (and more important) laws than copyright laws. If the document in question is appropriately labeled confidential, secret, or top secret, it's possible that those who leaked the document inappropriately could face serious consequences, and I'm not even sure that it is so labeled in this case.

    You're off on a bit of a tangent, the document was released publicly with "redacted" statements that were not actually redacted. I would argue that it was improperly released intact, and that's not the fault of wiki-leaks.

  64. Re:I would think the first amendment would cover t by locallyunscene · · Score: 1

    Hell, it's even used and abused to intentionally deny information to people such as the President, Vice President, Secretary of State, etc. by those who bow down to that which is the Military-Industrial Complex.

    How do you think shit gets done and then the rest of them who are to blame, can cry, "No prior knowledge!" (Plausible Deniability), and say it with a straight face?

    All classified material is authorized by the president(who can pass that authority on to others with limitations). By definition, the current POTUS has access to ALL US classified material at all times.

  65. This Is Similar To Online Piracy by webguy07 · · Score: 1

    They try to crack down on people illegally downloading on the internet but it is very difficult because there is so many places to monitor. Every time they do succeed in shutting down a site which is very hard because they are often in places where the u.s. can't infiltrate unless declaring war. Obviously they don't want to got this far and at this point its not that important. So they will most likely just complain a lot and not really do much to change the situation but make it a bit harder on leaks. http://jonk1234.storeblogs.com/

    1. Re:This Is Similar To Online Piracy by Dan541 · · Score: 1

      Obviously they don't want to got this far and at this point its not that important.

      Tell that to the MPAA

      --
      An SQL query goes to a bar, walks up to a table and asks, "Mind if I join you?"
  66. Yeah by SmallFurryCreature · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Because the US cares about borders and others countries laws.

    --

    MMO Quests are like orgasms:

    You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.

  67. wikileaks is run by US Intelligence by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wikileaks is run in cooperation with the US intelligence apparatus. It will not be shut down. This investigation will just go away.

  68. Re:I would think the first amendment would cover t by MozeeToby · · Score: 1

    There are procedures in place when it comes to releasing classified or confidential documents, not following the procedures will get you into serious trouble regardless of whether you did it on purpose or not. My basic point was that if the document is confidential or classified, it was released improperly and the people who made the mistake face consequences.

    Even if the document is marked top secret, the good people at wikileaks are (I believe and someone else has backed me up) not liable unless they hold a security clearance (not to mention the fact the wikileaks isn't hosted in the US, but I digress). If the document isn't marked as classified or confidential, then the situation is even more clear cut in favor of Wikileaks, since it is going to be very difficult to say what law they could possibly be breaking.

  69. This was flamebait? by Svartalf · · Score: 1

    I don't know about you, but it was cogent and didn't do any inflamatory remarks intended to draw flames to him.

    The truth of the matter is, the parent post here might just be closer to the truth than many would like to own up to. I don't wholly agree with the "bigots and warmongers" remark as I can't verify that- but there's been a shift not unlike what was described in the post towards something I wouldn't want to be a part of within the current makeup of the Republican party.

    --
    I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
    1. Re:This was flamebait? by mog007 · · Score: 1

      I'd partially agree with the bigots part. It was the Democrats who fought tooth and nail against integration during the 50s. I'm sure the GP didn't mean to imply that the current Democrat party is full of bigots. Things change. The Democrats used to be big fans of slavery back in the 1840s, but even the racist Democrats of the 1940s were against the idea, at least most of them.

    2. Re:This was flamebait? by tmosley · · Score: 1

      Yes, that is what I meant. The bigots mostly moved to the Republican party. Of course, that sentiment has died down a great deal over the last twenty years or so as society has rightly begun to focus less on race.

      That post was merely an explanation of some of the history of the R and D parties, and what is going on now. I'm not sure why it was modded flamebait. Well, I do, R's and D's are uncomfortable with the truth, since both parties fester in partisan lies. Hope on the Republican side comes from people such as Ron Paul, while hope on the Democratic side comes from people like Dennis Kucinich, both of whom have been sadly marginalized by the "mainstream" elements of each party. Paul is making headway, however, and that is why the libertarian side of that party is rising once again.

  70. Security procedures manual by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Secret information is only secret if it stays that way. Once the cat is out of the bag there is no putting it back as (un)fortunate as it may be for the secret holders there is no working around reality.

    All shutting down crytome/wikileaks will do is prevent millions of disinterested but curious folks from downloading the same information bad actors already have obtained through other means. Its a political formulation not a reality based concideration which in fact improves anyones (Excluding job security of the fuckups who are cought red-handed of course) security.

    The TSA document was distributed to how many people? How much of it is then distributed to "GED honor students"? To even suggest terrorists are helped by the release of such material is to admit the material is flawed in the first instance. It only helps the bad guys when the maximum amount of light does not shine brightly on the weakest link of any security protocol. Security by obscurity is as foolish and unworkable in the real world as it is in the computer world.

    In terms of the pager leaks...WTF do you expect broadcasting one-way messages out in the clear? Again if you have something important to say for crying out loud don't use a one-way pager system as your pager might not receive the signal and you can count on your advasaries getting the message loud and clear.

    More importantly than any of that is the effect on the media which relies on leaks for critical reporting. Any country without a truely free press is doomed to drown in incompetence, corruption and censorship.

  71. Will they never learn? by Orgasmatron · · Score: 1

    Thank you Barbera Streisand! I was going to let this one go, but now I'm going to download and keep a copy.

    --
    See that "Preview" button?
  72. Re:I would think the first amendment would cover t by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You are missing the whole point, a government agent working FOR the TSA LEGALLY posted the document online, it was legally available to all. The fact that it was not supposed to be available to all is irrelevant. It was just incompetently censored. Anyone with a high school education (average computer knowledge) could have removed the censoring. This "cryptome must be punished" is being pursued purely for revenge. The government was embarrassed so someone must pay.

    Don't think for an instant that the terrorists don't have people that could figure this stuff out. Do you really want people to be afraid to publish these stupidities so EVERYONE knows, or would you prefer only the terrorists know? Remember the government has shown, time and time again, that it will not listen to this kind of information if its privately put forth that they did something stupid. Publicity usually forces them to correct the problem instead of just ignoring it.

    It is my (not so humble) opinion that if anyone gets punished it should be to government worker that posted the document, not Cryptome, and certainly not the American people.

  73. Source??? by hackingbear · · Score: 1

    I just read through all TSA security manuals and don't find anything about this road being dangerous. Can you post your source of proof to Wikileak?

    1. Re:Source??? by hackingbear · · Score: 1

      Oh.. it must be in either the FAA security manual or Coast Guard security manual. Please post them to Wikileak. Thanks a lot!

    2. Re:Source??? by Shakrai · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I just read through all TSA security manuals and don't find anything about this road being dangerous.

      I read the TSA manual. I didn't see anything that was particularly dangerous. Most of it SOP for anybody involved in the security (public or private) business.

      I would wager that they are more worried about embarrassment than security. The part of the document that stuck out in my mind was the list of exemptions from enhanced security screenings. Your friendly local Congress-critter need not worry about dealing with security in the same manner as us mere plebs. All he or she has to do if selected for the enhanced screening is show a Congressional ID and the TSA folks are supposed to fold like a cheap suit. So much for all citizens being equal under the law.

      Another thing I could find to bitch about is the practice at certain airports of giving first class passengers their own special queue to the security checkpoint. How is it that the Government tolerates this practice when it's our tax dollars funding the security system? TSA's answer on this is cute too, "We aren't in charge of the line, the airport is". Nice little cop out, isn't it?

      All animals are equal but some are more equal than others.

      --
      I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
      We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
    3. Re:Source??? by hackingbear · · Score: 0, Troll

      Couldn't believe nobody has marked me as Funny. boring crowd!

  74. and for everything else ... by Krishnoid · · Score: 1

    What can they do ... nothing

    ... priceless.

  75. Re:More important question is who TSA fired for th by DrVomact · · Score: 1

    I work in IT as do many here...I'm not saying that no one should be held responsible, I'm just saying that you need to know the whole story before saying who should be fired, if anyone.

    I totally agree. Let's have a thorough investigation—and then fire the entire TSA.

    --
    Great men are almost always bad men--Lord Acton's Corollary
  76. Re:I would think the first amendment would cover t by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hah. I would recommend you search google for the DHS copyright policy.

    Yes, there is one.

    Don't ask how I know.

    Also, the law includes FOUO/SSI material, it just has rarely been used on the scale the DHS does. It should be noted, though (having actually looked at the leaked document) that whomever was redacting the document really should be fired. (And likely will be.) Everything outside of the red boxes was INTENTIONALLY released into the wild, towards a targeted audience, but still publicly released. The information in the redacted portions is laughable, and easily learned by observation of a working checkpoint. I would have expected significantly more of the document to have been redacted. The actual damage (beyond the "tarnishing" of TSA's already atrocious media image) is not truly significant. The document is over a year and 9 months old, and has very likely already undergone changes. (This also neglects the exemptions, special circumstances, and just general variability from one airport to another, without mentioning the wide variance in individual viewpoints on how to implement the guidelines.)

  77. Re:I would think the first amendment would cover t by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You are correct.

    Only the person(s) covered by a security clearance that disclosed the information are the ones liable, as they signed the documents agreeing to be bound by the rules/laws governing the handling of such classified material.

    Then let's give the TSA traitor a fair trial and hang 'em.

  78. Exploitive by omb · · Score: 1

    So are these exploitive Congresscritters, anything for 5 minutes TV time!

  79. Re:I would think the first amendment would cover t by steveb3210 · · Score: 1
  80. They are oh so brilliant people. Inconceivable! by kegon · · Score: 1

    You fools! Stop wasting your time debating liberty and freedom of speech.

    This is clearly a cunning plan. Now the terrorists think they know which nationalities are not checked and how to beat the scanners they will swarm into the country. However, super intelligent TSA operatives will spot them a mile away and arrest the lot.

    I guess the plan was too good; you all bought into it.

    It's the only way that makes sense.

  81. Wait a sec ... by PinkyGigglebrain · · Score: 1

    Isn't this the same crowd that is always saying "If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear"??

    Since they are now trying so hard to hide things one has to wonder what they have to fear.

    I think my sig is particularly relevant in situation like this.
    For those not logged in;
    "Beware those who would deny you Knowledge,
    for in their hearts the dream themselves your Master."
    (yes it is a paraphrase from SMAC)

    I think one of the things those in power fear the most is an educated population.

    # start conspiracy theory
    This would explain why education budgets are some of the first to get trimmed or looted and why things like "no child left behind" seem to be designed to fail. Keep the population ignorant and distracted and the government can get away almost anything. This would explain why the US educational system has gone from one of the best to almost dead last in the world.
    # end conspiracy theory

  82. Bilirakis, Dent, King by $beirdo · · Score: 1

    There is, in fact, a technical term for these legislators:

    Douchebags.

  83. Re:I would think the first amendment would cover t by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nope its worse. They are saying that "you made us look bad so we're going to put you in jail." They don't think about the Constitution or your freedoms, they are a bunch of fascist thugs.

  84. DHS by csartanis · · Score: 1

    What does the department of homeland security have to do with prosecuting people hosting the document?

  85. Sorry, but, you ARE ALL WRONG! by gbutler69 · · Score: 1

    There are two political parties ALWAYS under ANY system. Those parties are as follows: 1) "For the Status Quo/Those In Power", 2) "For those who do not currently have power". Once party two succeeds in taking power from party 1, the roles reverse. Plain and simple. Classic case of HAVES vs HAVE NOTS. It always has been and always will be this way. Naturally, you will choose to align yourself with whichever party is fighting for you. So, if you are part of the power-structure and/or are mostly benefitting from it, you will be aligned with 1. If, on the other hand, you do not feel you are getting enough benefit, you will be aligned with 2. It's that simple. There really is nothing else to consider.

    --
    Over-the-top Response Guy! Giving "Over-the-Top Responses" since 1970.
  86. Re:I would think the first amendment would cover t by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    why do you think there are so many laws that you need someone to advocate on your behalf when you go to court? it's obviously so that the state can always keep you at the disadvantage of having broken their laws giving them the moral high ground for their injustice. (i know a lot of you will say but i dont' break laws, yea you do, who here always drives the speed limit? how about sodomy? there are a lot of illegal things that aren't enforced. i've had this conversation irl several times.

  87. Re:More important question is who TSA fired for th by Tangential · · Score: 1

    Sadly though, no one is apparently interested in the answers to those questions...

    --
    Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of congress. But then I repeat myself. -- Mark Twain
  88. Personal Experience by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You know what I never seem to see getting leaked?

    Serious intel. Like the names of RL Seals and CIA operatives. Names of prisoners, locations of forward bases and code names for those missions. We never seem to hear about leaks of THAT sort of thing. For example, there's a lot of code names for stuff that if it hit the news, people of this nation would literally shit themselves on the spot, right where they're standing. It really is that scary.

    But that sort of thing never seems to find it's way out.

    I can tell you from experience, its not protected any better? I saw a LOT of mistakes made with material that probably shouldn't have existed outside of a SCF. But like I said, none of it makes it out.

    What DOES make it out-with alarming regularity-is the stuff that will destroy America if it is allowed to go unknown, unseen and unchallenged.

    So. Here we have oodles and oodles of juicy, scary, genuine intel that would feed the media for the better part of a month as people begin to understand just how deep in the shit our government/military really is... ...and stuff like this is all that comes up?

    There's something odd about that. And I'm not sure how to put it into words as to what it means. For America, but also for humanity in general.

    But I do know that it makes me feel good inside.

  89. Well, no, that is also how insurance works. by ReedYoung · · Score: 1

    And the only reason that the primary method of providing healthcare is insurance is because of government tax laws for businesses.

    Other modernized countries have either government-guaranteed private health insurance (insurers not allowed to refuse customers) or they just have an all-government system, and it is really not breaking their banks.

    There is a problem with people who have chronic, recurring problems. The thing is, at that point that person is essentially a charity case - whether it's charity through higher premiums everyone else pays or through a government mandate, they are someone who costs more to keep alive than they will produce with their life. The insurance model breaks down.

    No, that does not break the insurance model. Risk analysis is about figuring how many people need to be charged what to pay for everybody, and averaging out costs, informed by probability theory. Some losses are part of the model. Quantifying them is the challenge. Eliminating losses from insurance is fraud, because if insurance pays for no losses then insurance provides no value.

    --
    "I can't imagine how things could get any worse!" (some guy) "That could just be failure of imaginatioÂn on your p
    1. Re:Well, no, that is also how insurance works. by ReedYoung · · Score: 1

      insurers not allowed to refuse customers nor to withhold from their customers any care prescribed by doctors, in the civilized countries

      --
      "I can't imagine how things could get any worse!" (some guy) "That could just be failure of imaginatioÂn on your p
    2. Re:Well, no, that is also how insurance works. by mdarksbane · · Score: 1

      There are two situations with chronic health problems - one where a person has been on a health insurance plan and paying it, and one where they haven't.

      In the first case, their payments to the insurer were the expected value of their health, essentially - if they had a 1% chance of getting cancer that cost $100,000 to treat, they would be paying roughly $1,000 for the insurance - simplified of course, but it's the basic premise. So when they happen to be in the 1%, it doesn't matter, because that's what they paid for, and yes, it fits the insurance model.

      When someone hasn't had insurance and has a chronic condition, though, it's more like asking someone to insurance a house that has already been washed away by a flood, and is built three feet from the water. There is a 100% chance that the insurer will have to pay more than they take in from the customer. If the insurer is forced to take these people in, the affected person must be subsidized by the rest of the insured. They are not paying the expected value of the cost of their care, because the probability is such that they *cannot* pay the expected value of their care. This is no longer insurance, it is charity. The closest working model that still looks like insurance would be, essentially, "insurance insurance" that everyone has to start buying to pay for the ability to continue buying insurance after you would stop being eligible for it. But again, that doesn't work for the people who haven't been paying that fee to begin with.

      My point being, trying to buy insurance *after* you get an expensive disease is the same as buying car insurance after you crash, house insurance after it burns down, or life insurance after you die. Insurance is about balancing possible future payments, not certain ones.

  90. Re:I would think the first amendment would cover t by thejynxed · · Score: 1

    Of course he does, but that doesn't mean he's made aware that it even exists until well after the fact.

    --
    @Mindless Drivel: 100% of Twitter posts ever Tweeted.