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C|Net Reporter Declan McCullagh Talks About Privacy (Video)
Declan Mccullagh, C|net's Chief political correspondent, has covered politics since the late 1990s for a variety of publications. He is a strong libertarian, privacy advocate, and long time Slashdot reader who is not happy about how the NSA and other government bodies are sticking their noses into our personal business. He and I originally talked about doing an interview based on a story he wrote for C|net on July 12 titled How the U.S. forces Net firms to cooperate on surveillance. Scheduling problems put the interview off for a bit, but here we are. Note that Declan has written millions of pixels worth of material about privacy, NSA spying, and related matters. With new revelations about unsavory government activities coming to light seemingly every day the interview delay is no big deal. And this question still remains: Can we repeal the Patriot Act? New Jersey Congressman Rush Holt wants to. What about your representatives? Are they willing to join Rep. Holt? Do you think they might if a bunch of people -- perhaps starting with you -- asked them to?
Any attempts to repeal the Patriot Act will be caught by the government with snooping and snubbed.
Not until you vote the D/R party out. However if it was to lose 20 or 30 percentage points, that might scare them into rethinking their platform, but right now there is no incentive to do so. It's easy for guys like these to stand up and make noise knowing full well nothing will come of it, but it will look great to the rubes back home who otherwise might start thinking of voting for someone else.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
The Patriot Act authorizes the US government to obtain secret warrants to investigate suspected terrorists. But what they are actually doing, is obtaining warrants for the entire US population. Repealing the Patriot Act will not stop this, because the Patriot Act is not their legal authority to seize these records. The US Government has NO authority to seize these records.
The author of the Patriot Act agrees
sudo make me a sandwich
Is that the same CNET that has recently become notorious for installing a bunch of adware with the software downloaded from their Download.com site? Yeah, I want a privacy lecture from some guy working for a company that keeps trying to install about a dozen adbars and popups to my browser every time I try to download anything from them.
The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
This is a Federal law that makes it a felony to deprive you of your rights "under color of law". And it applies specifically to government officials. Up to, and including, the President.
Also, I should point out that because of the way it is worded, if you read it quickly, you might get the impression that it applies only to racial prejudice and other such errors. Not so. It has been tested in courts and it applies to ANY of your Constitutional rights.
Here's a link in case anyone has no idea what I'm talking about.
The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
1. Repeal the USA PATRIOT Act and Homeland Security Act
2. Triple the budget of the reestablished US Border Patrol and direct it to hire at least 40k new agents for the southern border and at least 10k new agents for the northern border.
3. Double the size of the US Coast Guard.
4. Spend the remainder of Homeland Security's former annual budget on hardening the electrical grid against an EMP attack.
5. Suspend all travel visas from countries that have a serious problem with their citizens being recruited by radical Islamic countries.
See? No war, no torture, no idenfinite detention, no one's junk getting man-handled at the airport. Homeland security is 95% "keep the borders secure, keep the known problem populations away from our territory."
Of course, it'll never happen because even if the MIC and DHS could be overpowered politically, you'd have half the country saying "no sir, I'd rather maintain the status quo than be perceived to be discriminating against people from different countries."
"He is a strong libertarian, privacy advocate, and long time Slashdot reader who is not happy about how the NSA and other government bodies are sticking their noses into our personal business. "
That's hilarious. Does he completely ignore that the US government is completely controlled by corporations, i.e. the richest of the rich? You know, the exact people that the Libertarians worship and wish to emulate? PRISM was not designed to keep the government in power. It was designed to keep the rich people rich, and the poor people poor. You know, the logical consequences of unrestricted corporate freedom. And if that's not the Libertarian ideal, then what is?
The only thing worse than a Democrat is a Republican.