Political Fib of the Day - Privacy and Free Speech

Earl sent today's fib with a link to a recent Tom Tommorrow strip and a message about another kind of Bush mission creep - "Just as the rationale for invading Iraq seemed to flit about from reason to reason, every day seems to bring more and more light on the phone(y) adventures of the NSA, W, Dick et al..."

The
Truth
Unknown
The Story
Showing A Pattern
Being Revised to Fit The Known

Earl E Hart III, GnostiNews

I would like to add my two cents worth and do so in a more substantive way than is my habit with Earl's fibs.. CNet News has a story that worries the hell out of me and has an immediate bearing on the issues Earl's poem deals with. (Hat Tip - Kat)

Wisconsin Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, is proposing that ISPs be required to record information about Americans' online activities so that police can more easily "conduct criminal investigations." Executives at companies that fail to comply would be fined and imprisoned for up to one year.

In addition, Sensenbrenner's legislation--expected to be announced as early as this week--also would create a federal felony targeted at bloggers, search engines, e-mail service providers and many other Web sites. It's aimed at any site that might have "reason to believe" it facilitates access to child pornography--through hyperlinks or a discussion forum, for instance.

Now, regular readers will maybe have worked out by now that I consider pedophilia one of the very few crimes worthy of the death penalty and as far as that bit goes I am just fine with penalizing those who enable it. In fact I am plenty happy with other provisions of the bill:

In addition to mandating data retention for ISPs and liability for Web site operators, Sensenbrenner's Internet Safety Act also would:

Make it a crime for financial institutions to "facilitate access" to child pornography, for instance by processing credit card payments.

Increase penalties for registered sex offenders who commit another felony involving a child.

Create an Office on Sexual Violence and Crimes against Children inside the Justice Department.

However, the devil is in the details as ever and a major part of Sensenbrenner's bill reads like a Police State's wet dream.

One unusual aspect of Sensenbrenner's legislation--called the Internet Stopping Adults Facilitating the Exploitation of Today's Youth Act--or Internet Safety Act--is that it's relatively vague.

Instead of describing exactly what information Internet providers would be required to retain about their users, the Internet Safety Act gives the attorney general broad discretion in drafting regulations. At minimum, the proposal says, user names, physical addresses, Internet Protocol addresses and subscribers' phone numbers must be retained.

That generous wording could permit Gonzales to order Internet providers to retain records of e-mail correspondents, Web pages visited, and even the contents of communications. [Emphasis Mine]

Given this administrations viewpoint on mission creep - i.e. DO IT - it is no surprise that Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, called Sensenbrenner's measure an "open-ended obligation to collect information about all customers for all purposes. It opens the door to government fishing expeditions and unbounded data mining."

If Sensenbrenner's bill contained a proviso restricting federal access to those cases where the specific concern was child exploitation and where they could get a warrant to prove they had probable cause I would have no problems with the rest of it. Unfortunately, what it looks like right now is an attempt to use a highly emotive issue to slip yet more legislation for a Police State past the general public. Can you imagine any politician wanting to stand up to a bill demanding action on pedophiles or how such would be spun by the GOP? Political suicide unless more people are yelling about the devil in the details.