Cispa

[Quiet Reflections]

passed in the House again yesterday.

[yodajazz]

"The controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) just passed the U.S. House, and will now head to the upper Senate chamber for further deliberation."

Had to look that up. Thanks much for the heads up. I cant understand why getting a warrant is such a difficult thing to do, in order to invade someone's privacy? If the bill is the same as what I think it would be pretty easy to abuse. All any current administration would have to do is to tell a company like Google to hand over all data on a political opponent, and they would have to hand it over.

Life is funny, that I get a great deal of my news from HA! Thanks QR!

[Dino Velvet]

Thanks from me too. Not a Right vs Left issue either. We need to stand together.

[Stavros]

The last Labour Government tried to introduce law on this and called it the Interception Modernisation Programme, justifying the right to access private communications on the grounds of anti-terrorism and fighting organised crime. The Conservatives opposed it and the Bill didn't make it very far but hey presto! Here it is again, this time the Communications Data Bill, which will enable law enforcement to access your email through your ISP -except that it had been revealed that 36 groups such as the Food Standards Agency will like the Police have the right to read your email if the law is passed -though this is the view in the Tory Daily Telegraph (see link below); and there is a view that if everyone's email, browsing history, twitter, skype and other electronic communication data is kept for a year (or years) that doesn't make intelligence gathering any easier. And the other article below from 2011 suggests that in the USA it is already possible for the Fed to access emails - viz. the order to Google and an ISP called Sonic to hand over data , as happened to emails belonging to Jonathan Applebaum in relation to the Wikileaks publication of data -it was handed over under order 2703(d) of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and you can read about these things here:

-Uk situation
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...of-others.html

US (2011)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...ads-your-email

[Ben]

[Ben]

Thanks from me too. Not a Right vs Left issue either. We need to stand together.

Dino, agreed.
Politicians serve institutions. And not people. And they have to. Noting the way our country functions... and taking into account who owns and runs the country.
People don't run the country. Large corporate institutions do. I mean, who has more power: you and I? or the bankers and ol' Warren -- ha ha!
It's pretty simple why politicians serve concentrated capital. Again, they have to.
I mean, if you put pressure -- excess regulation etc., etc. -- on people with extreme wealth they'll launch a capital strike. Meaning they won't invest. Corporations, large ones, are sitting on about $2 trillion in idle cash and won't invest. Why? They don't see demand.
http://blogs.reuters.com/david-cay-j...cash-piles-up/
And, too, investors will simply resort to capital flight if they deem public policy to be irrational. Meaning: caring about the people.
Military spending is good. It goes to the "right" people. But spending on public education is seen as bad, as irrational. As it simply doesn't serve the people who own and run the country.

[Ben]

Russian anxieties spark capital flight:

[Ben]

CISPA Goes Down in the Senate

[Stavros]

Lord Carlile, a lawyer and former Liberal Democrat MP has written a defence of the Communications Data Bill. As usual, fighting crime and terrorism is at the heart of it, but he never addresses the causes of the violent acts associated with 'terrorism' or the causes of crime, such as the drug addiction which finances the syndicates who profit from it. Meanwhile, the growth of modern telecommunications is needed to fight it all for our benefit, assuming the usual 'safeguards' will protect the innocent and punish the guilty....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/poli...ife-saver.html

[trish]

The poor drudges assigned to read my emails everyday all day long are going to be walking around the workplace with stained trousers and some embarrassingly persistent boners. I do hope the taxpayers are willing to spring for all the tissues the agency will be buying.