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Even the Author of the Patriot Act Is Trying To Stop the NSA

Posted by Unknown on from the clinging-to-power dept.

Daniel_Stuckey writes "Republican Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner will introduce an anti-NSA bill tomorrow in the House, and if it makes its winding way to becoming law, it will be a big step towards curtailing the NSA's bulk metadata collection. Wisconsin Rep. Sensenbrenner, along with 60 co-sponsors, aims to amend one section of the Patriot Act, Section 215, in a bill known as the United and Strengthening America by Fulfilling Rights and Ending Eavesdropping, Dragnet Collection, and Online Monitoring Act — also known by its less-clunky acronym version, the USA Freedom Act."

23 of 322 comments (clear)

  1. And now they get credit for saving us by Gothmolly · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Just like CEOs who take the credit for the $ savings of outsourcing, then take the credit for improved service by bringing the work back, but somehow keep their jobs. Or the dorks who think centralizing IT assets (hello Mainframe) is good, then later decide that distributing all the computing (hello desktop) is good, claiming credit for being revolutionary twice.

    Do people really fall for this?

    --
    I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
    1. Re:And now they get credit for saving us by causality · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Do people really fall for this?

      To the ones pulling the strings, such an incredibly short memory and inability to draw contrasts is not a bug, it's a strongly encouraged feature.

      Most people are passive mentally and believe thinking to be a burden that should be avoided whenever possible. Therefore, if the TV news doesn't specifically highlight something in a nice ADD-friendly 10-second sound bite, it won't be widely known. If this sounds incredible or alien to you, it's because the Slashdot crowd doesn't represent mainstream America (though the way people keep arguing from emotion, that's changing).

      There is no one in power who wants a well-informed, smart, savvy, thinking population that has a long memory, is familiar with dialectic and able to easily perform critical thinking. No one running the show wants that at all. It's no surprise that within the little feudal system of a corporation that no one is forced to do business with, this goes unnoticed. It goes unnoticed with huge political changes that affect daily life.

      --
      It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
    2. Re:And now they get credit for saving us by SJHillman · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There was a time when mainframes were better, then there was a time when desktops were better, then there was a time when thin clients were better, then there was a time when BYOD was better... I'm not sure what you point is there other than "shit changes"

    3. Re:And now they get credit for saving us by artor3 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Would you prefer that they stick to their guns and continue doing harm? I prefer politicians who are willing to change their minds based on public opinion, thank you very much.

      I don't even care if he really believes in what he's doing now. Maybe he still thinks the Patriot Act is good and he's only doing this to attract more votes. But what difference does it make?

    4. Re:And now they get credit for saving us by s.petry · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The point was that the systems were only invented once, but every CEO (and some politicians) have claimed to have invent these concepts over and over again, and people are stupid enough to believe them.

      Mainframe = many users and departments on a system. Great invention

      Desktop = single user system. Great invention

      Grid/Cloud = many users and departments on a system. Not a new invention at all, it's using various components to mimic the Mainframe. The "system" is using different components and Operating systems now vs. then, but they are still trying to mimic the original system.

      BYOD fits into either the "single device" or "connected to something" architecture just like today's PC.

      If you try and nitpick the system, you will of course miss the analogy. The analogy is not about what is better, it's that it's not new.

      --

      -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    5. Re:And now they get credit for saving us by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The utopian future, where users won't be crying "fix my random device you have never seen one of before, I need it to work" to IT?

      Jesus. Don't blame the users. The CEOs are 98% at fault.

      When they don't have to buy desktops or cell phones, they count that as a plus. Sure, it shifts a huge burden to IT, but don't forget who is really the driving force behind this.

      I have a different take on it: if management wants to save money by "letting" me BYOD, rather than buying their own, fine. They can lease it from me during the workday, in addition to my pay. If they think they're going to get it for free, they can suck eggs.

    6. Re:And now they get credit for saving us by causality · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Would you prefer that they stick to their guns and continue doing harm? I prefer politicians who are willing to change their minds based on public opinion, thank you very much.

      If we had politicians who didn't give a fuck about public opinion and perhaps even had contempt for the way it was openly swayed and outright engineered by all the fearmongering, we'd have never had a Patriot Act to begin with.

      Amending the Constitution to make every Senator an elected official was a huge mistake. It's one of those things that sounds nice until you realize what it actually causes. You really do need state-appointed Senators who can and will halt rash and badly-written laws because they aren't vulnerable to "Senator X voted to make us less safe!" rhetoric at election time. It would also go a long way to curtailing the federal practice of bullying the States by withholding their own damned money if they don't do as they're told.

      --
      It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
    7. Re:And now they get credit for saving us by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 4, Informative

      "Well that isn't the only issue. BYOD also allows your company to avoid liability if the employee does anything illegal with it that you didn't authorize, such as using pirated software."

      Well, I can nip that rumor in the bud. First, if you have an agreement stating that you, rather than the company, are liable or your own transgressions, in most cases it would be binding. Second, do you mean downloaded apps? Downloading is not piracy, which is a legal term meaning something else. Despite the fact that the RIAA and MPAA have spent millions trying to get you to think it is. You do their work for them when you call it that. Simply downloading a copied app is not a crime. Piracy is. They are legally two very different things.

      "If your company saves money when you work from home instead of leasing more office space, you may as well argue that they're now responsible for your mortgage payment as well."

      Nonsense. That is a different situation. There are definite perks to living at home, which offset any lost revenue from "renting" the space to the company. Using YOUR equipment, however, is a different story. If they did it themselves, they'd have to buy or lease the equipment. If they hired a contractor, the contractor would buy or lease the equipment (and pass the cost on to them). In contrast, you're trying to say they can require an employee to buy or lease the equipment themselves, with no compensation.

      Just plain bullshit.

    8. Re:And now they get credit for saving us by clarkkent09 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I prefer politicians who are willing to change their minds based on public opinion, thank you very much.
       
      I prefer politicians who are willing to change their minds based on facts and new information, not based on public opinion. Public opinion is subject to all kinds of superficial things because majority of people don't have time to understand all the issues and therefore pick up their opinions from a few soundbites. Public opinion does not depend on reality but on the agenda of those who are the best at shaping it, and should never be trusted.

      --
      Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
  2. We also need... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We also need a law prohibiting all these fucking acronym law names... fucking seriously...

    1. Re:We also need... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Having not read the bill, or likely being able to even understand its meaning had I read it, I can only assume that, similarly to the USA PATRIOT Act, its acronym means the opposite of the abuses it will enable.

  3. I have a easier answer... by Lumpy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just repeal the damned PATRIOT act. IT was supposed to be a temporary measure and it needs to go away now.

    Why dont these senators have any backbone or honestly left in them and just repeal it?

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    1. Re:I have a easier answer... by sI4shd0rk · · Score: 5, Insightful

      IT was supposed to be a temporary measure

      Temporary or not, it was awful and it should never have passed.

      --
      Ignorance is a choice
    2. Re:I have a easier answer... by FridayBob · · Score: 4, Informative

      Just repeal the damned PATRIOT act. IT was supposed to be a temporary measure and it needs to go away now. Why dont these senators have any backbone or honestly left in them and just repeal it?

      Completely agree, but I fear that won't happen (not even the USA Freedom Act) because Congress doesn't work for us anymore: they work for rich folks and for the corporations. That's because bribery is legal these days and those in Congress have found that 94-95% of the time the candidate with the most money wins. Consequently, fundraising is what they do 60% of the time; "following the green," as they call it. So, if companies like Booz Allen Hamilton start instructing their stooges in Congress on both sides of the isle about what they want, the PATRIOT Act will remain and the USA Freedom Act will fail.

      To fix that and many other things, we first need to get money out of politics.

      If that makes sense to you, I would suggest signing this petition: WOLF-PAC. Launched in October 2011 for the purpose of passing a 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that will end corporate personhood* and publicly finance all elections**. Since Congress won't pass such an Amendment on its own, the plan is to instead have the State Legislators propose it via an Article V Convention. At least 34 States need to cooperate for this to work, but already many have reacted with enthusiasm, most notably Texas. If successful, we should see a much more respectable group of politicians emerge within one or two election cycles.

      .

      *) The aim is not to end legal personhood for corporations, but natural personhood. The latter became a problem following the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling, which grated some of the rights of natural persons to corporations and makes it easier for them to lend financial support to political campaigns.

      **) At the State level, more than half of all political campaigns are already publicly financed in some way, so there's nothing strange about doing the same for political campaigns for federal office.

  4. This isn't new by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This isn't new. The author of the Patriot Act (Jim Sensenbrenner) has been campaigning against Surveillance State since the beginning of the Snowden fiasco.

    He probably decided he doesn't want to go down in history as the man who turned America into a Dystopia.

    1. Re:This isn't new by DoofusOfDeath · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No, he was just the scribe. It was done by 536 traitors, backed by 300 million cowards.

  5. USA Freedom Act by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Isn't that what the Constitution is supposed to be?

    We don't need another Law. The Laws that made this garbage legal are unconstitutional and criminal.

    We don't need another Law. We need to hunt down and incarcerate the criminals who created this mess.

    We don't need another Law. We need to hold government officials personally accountable for their flagrant and criminal violations of the Constitution.

    We don't need another Law. We already have a USA Freedom Act. It is called "The Constitution of the United States."

  6. Ah Sensenbrenner by contrapunctus · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Isn't this the same guy and attached the Real ID act to some armor for soldiers bill so no one could oppose it?

  7. In other news by nytes · · Score: 4, Funny

    Several Congressmen were rushed to the hospital after suffering severe cases of acronym overdose.

    Acronym abuse has been on the rise in Washington lately. Many researchers attribute the problem to inflated egos, which most politicians also suffer from.

    --
    -- I have monkeys in my pants.
  8. Weasel bastards from hell by dbIII · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So they are calling it the "USA Freedom Act" - whatever the actual content that's as much of a lowdown weasel act as the naming of the "Patriot " act. If you question it the weasels will say you oppose freedom.
    How about getting these rat fucking weasels away from the process and give the acts numbers instead, and get rid of the bullshit of riders that have nothing to do with the bill while we are at it.

  9. Dianne Feinstein about face by six025 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    In related news Dianne Feinstein has turned around her opinion and stated she is now 'totally opposed' to NSA surveillance of US allies.

    Quite surprised at this, hopefully it is not empty rhetoric and actually goes somewhere. Very interested to see what the two leading goons of the NSA have to say for themselves in front of the House intelligence committee on Tuesday.

    Peace,
    Andy.

  10. Re:Spawn by bigstrat2003 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Posting as Anonymous for obvious reasons.

    Yeah, sometimes I forget my password too.

    --
    "16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
  11. acronymics by pupsocket · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "United and Strengthening America by Fulfilling Rights and Ending Eavesdropping, Dragnet Collection, and Online Monitoring Act — also known by its less-clunky acronym version, the USA Freedom Act."

    Actually, the acronym of that title is USA FREED COMA