• the NSA at it again with new bill!
    20 replies, posted
[url]http://www.scmagazine.com/opponents-...rticle/388185/[/url] [QUOTE]Rep. Justin Amash (R.-Mich.) called the act “one of the most egregious sections of law I've encountered during my time as a representative.” The Congressman contended that the legislation “grants the executive branch virtually unlimited access to the communications of every American.” That's a premise that doesn't sit well with some members of Congress and the American public, still stinging from revelations from Snowden documents on widespread government surveillance. The Senate passed the bill, which the House had already okayed in May, on Wednesday but Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) added an amendment, sending the act back to the House for a vote. In what a report in The Free Thought Project termed “a sneak attack on civil liberties,” the House was scheduled to give their ayes and nays in voice vote which would pass the bill with no record being made of who voted for and against it. The hasty vote also left little room for debate.[/QUOTE] Bill can be found here [url]https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-...ouse-bill/4681[/url] *Queue massive argument*
i would love if the republicans would throw a shitstorm, the article seems to have a republican swing, but the fact still remains... the republican controlled house already passed this almost 6 months ago
Does it matter? No programs have been discontinued or even modified. They already have de facto access to the communications of every single person in this country, and nothing is actively stopping them. The American people responded to the revelation that the government reads all their e-mail with a resounding "eh" and went back to watching TV. Nobody cares.
Feinstein had to throw in her fucking agenda as the cherry on top.
The link you gave is seemingly unavailable/relocated/whatever, but going by the provided excerpt... ...well, [I]shit.[/I]
[QUOTE=Used Car Salesman;46723324]Does it matter? No programs have been discontinued or even modified. They already have de facto access to the communications of every single person in this country, and nothing is actively stopping them. The American people responded to the revelation that the government reads all their e-mail with a resounding "eh" and went back to watching TV. Nobody cares.[/QUOTE] no they've always been modified, just never rolled back in scope
[QUOTE=ilikecorn;46723354]Because the government came back and used the same arguments everyone uses: Because we need to spy on you so that the terrorists don't win, and think of how many children we'll save if we can just take a peek at your phone records, just think how many criminals we'll catch if we can just take a peek at your internet history. Shit like that. We're just as much to blame as the politicians though. We've pretty much told the government it's A-OK to look at our shit, restrict our liberties, and do what ever the fuck they want, as long as its for "muh children" or to fight "terrorism". [/QUOTE] Problem is there are very few people who actually believe this. Very, [I]very[/I] few. The real reason is because people, especially the younger generation, have become incredibly apathetic to politics. Many people recognize that Congress is pretty much rampant with interests other than the peoples' (Congress, last time I checked, had at most 15% approval across the whole United States, probably less). We can't do anything because we're essentially powerless against lobbyists and the interests they represent, and a lot of us have our own problems that we can actually fix, so sometimes it's not even worth giving them any attention since "what can we do" is a question without a definitive answer for at least 90% of Americans. You can say "vote" but that doesn't seem like it's really fixed anything yet.
Both links are broken. Please re-add them.
[QUOTE=ilikecorn;46723491]I completely agree. I think that until things start to change for the majority of Americans, "muh children" and "terrorism" are going to continue to be wonderful excuses for the government to do what ever the fuck they want to do. Voting isn't going to change much because the odds of a candidate making it past the primaries and not being supported by metric tons of PACs are slim to none.[/QUOTE] Honestly, they could come up with pretty much any excuse at this point. They could say it's to protect us from the frog people from the moon. Don't get me wrong, nobody would buy it and they'd say they're crazy, but it wouldn't stop anything. Maybe they'd get voted out and replaced with someone, maybe, but lobbyists would be waiting right for them, willing to buy them out in all sorts of fun ways, and the cycle'd just continue. Lobbying is pretty much the downfall of our democracy.
[QUOTE=ilikecorn;46723354]Because the government came back and used the same arguments everyone uses: Because we need to spy on you so that the terrorists don't win, and think of how many children we'll save if we can just take a peek at your phone records, just think how many criminals we'll catch if we can just take a peek at your internet history. Shit like that. We're just as much to blame as the politicians though. We've pretty much told the government it's A-OK to look at our shit, restrict our liberties, and do what ever the fuck they want, as long as its for "muh children" or to fight "terrorism". And they will. Without hesitation. People seem to be perfectly fine giving up liberties as long as they get to think they're safe at night.[/QUOTE] The government is going to do what it wants. All there is to it. Hell, to elect the president the electoral college casts their votes, and most of them don't have to cast their vote for their state's popular vote if they don't want to, making our votes more or less just a waste of time to make patriotic people feel good
The fact that congress has the people that it does now shows that voting isnt that effective
Unlimited access?! so while i'm playing skyrim the govornment pops on and looks at my history i'm not voting for this
[QUOTE=TheTalon;46723516]The government is going to do what it wants. All there is to it. Hell, to elect the president the electoral college casts their votes, and most of them don't have to cast their vote for their state's popular vote if they don't want to, making our votes more or less just a waste of time to make patriotic people feel good[/QUOTE] Please cite the last time the electoral college actually did that. I'm not saying the system isn't shit, but everyone saying the electoral college means your vote doesn't matter are talking out their ass.
[QUOTE=ImperialGuard;46728396]Please cite the last time the electoral college actually did that. I'm not saying the system isn't shit, but everyone saying the electoral college means your vote doesn't matter are talking out their ass.[/QUOTE] The 2012 election?
[QUOTE](Sec. 309) Requires each element of the intelligence community to adopt Attorney General-approved procedures for any intelligence collection activity not otherwise authorized by court order or subpoena that is reasonably anticipated to result in the acquisition of nonpublic telephone or electronic communications to or from a U.S. person, including communications in electronic storage, without the consent of a person who is a party to the communication. [/QUOTE] This looks like the amendment....
Do we really need [URL="http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1441441"]another[/URL] [URL="http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1441520"]thread[/URL] on the same thing? Do people search before posting anymore?
[QUOTE=Rakmon;46731605]The 2012 election?[/QUOTE] What? Please cite your source that the 2012 election was in anyway rigged by the electoral college.
[QUOTE=ilikecorn;46723354]Because the government came back and used the same arguments everyone uses: Because we need to spy on you so that the terrorists don't win, and think of how many children we'll save if we can just take a peek at your phone records, just think how many criminals we'll catch if we can just take a peek at your internet history. Shit like that. We're just as much to blame as the politicians though. We've pretty much told the government it's A-OK to look at our shit, restrict our liberties, and do what ever the fuck they want, as long as its for "muh children" or to fight "terrorism". And they will. Without hesitation. People seem to be perfectly fine giving up liberties as long as they get to think they're safe at night.[/QUOTE] It just kinda goes with the whole "You must be doing something illegal if you dont let us see what you're doing"
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