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Whats happening? Why the sudden rush of common sense? Sincerely hope that good sense prevails and continues to move forward.
In a surprising vote late Thursday night, a strong majority of the House of Representatives voted to cut funding to NSA operations that involve warrantless spying on Americans, or involve putting hardware or software "backdoors" into various products. The amendment to a defense appropriations bill was offered by Reps. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), and Thomas Massie (R-KY), passed 293-123.
The amendment ( http://repcloakroom.house.gov/uploadedfiles/massie.pdf ) [PDF] specifies that, with a few exceptions, "none of the funds made available by this Act may be used by an officer or employee of the United States to query a collection of foreign intelligence information acquired under section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1881a) using a United States person as an identifier."
In addition, "none of the funds made available by this Act may be used by the National Security Agency or the Central Intelligence Agency to mandate or request that a person...alter its product or service to permit the electronic surveillance...of any user of said product or service for said agencies." Since Edward Snowden began leaking documents about the NSA's tactics in June of last year, security experts have worried about reports of intentional weaknesses left in widely-used cryptography specifications.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Friday June 20 2014, @04:10PM
It's not news because it's a routine budget vote, it's news because so far Washington DC has been closing ranks on spying against the citizenry. We have not heard anyone in the government calling Snowden anything but a traitor, despite repeated polls that show an overwhelming majority of Americans consider him a hero. So when the House votes to defund an entire swathe of the NSA's activities it means something fundamental has changed. government has entirely become an agent of the corporations, by the corporations, and for the corporations and they do nothing unless corporations tell them to. They never do something like this unless regular people force them to. remember when they shut down SOPA? They only did it because it was the highest spike of public fury in recent memory. this time, unlike that time, there is no google- and wikipedia-led charge, so I am surmising that the general level of anger at the government has gotten high enough to penetrate the beltway bubble and compel them to act.
I personally am not looking forward to a breakdown in public order, but to a restoration of law and order. when top executives at HSBC launder billions of dollars for the Zetas, I want them to find themselves on death row. when it's discovered that wall street traders are front-running trades with FPGAs, I want them to serve life sentences in a supermax. when the Director of National Intelligence openly lies to Congress, I want him to be thrown in jail. I don't think that makes me unusual among Americans nor a person who lives in a bunker, but one of millions of citizens who wants justice.
Some people think that America is immune to the civil unrest that is sweeping the globe because it has not happened here yet, but the fundamental social trends are all there. in fact we're overdue. and civil unrest in the US has happened, can happen, and will happen. I choose to be prepared and recommend others do likewise to better weather the storm, but it's perfectly fine by me if you and yours choose not to.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Lagg on Friday June 20 2014, @05:20PM
I don't know how serious you are but you sure do make complete revolution seem romantic. I like it and subscribe to your newsletter. Does also remind me that I really need to stop dragging ass on buying this handgun I've had my eye on. Not necessarily because of said unrest but because where I live is commonly called the Meth Capital and things have been getting worse since the DEA's recent harassment. So home defense is certainly something to invest in. Funny you mention cars though, I physically can't drive due to a surgery but love bikes. So I'm already ahead of the curve. Heh.
http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿
(Score: 2) by cafebabe on Sunday June 22 2014, @07:53PM
Circumstantially, banks and corporations certainly look like the paymasters here. To me, it looks like the rules are being changed because the NSA's antics are adversely affecting the profits of Boeing, Microsoft, Cisco and Google.
1702845791×2
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Monday June 23 2014, @05:33PM
There's your problem right there. This vote is standard political theater, nothing more. They're not defunding the NSA. They're passing a couple sentences cutting off a portion of funding provisioned through a single bill, for a limited time, with enough loopholes to float a freakin' oil tanker though. And it's only the House -- gonna be even more watered-down IF it ever passes the Senate (as is standard practice.)
At most -- Congress is telling the NSA not to screw with Congress. That's all.
Even if this passes, the NSA can simply redirect other funding sources (this bill's money just pays for the electricity; that OTHER bill's money paid for the actual spying equipment!) or hire independent contractors (It wasn't government employees who did the spying; it was Microsoft! We just bought the data!)
Nothing to see here; just the usual games...