Senator Cornyn (R., Texas) is a Liberty-snatching Luddite
Ass Clown
I do my best to keep politics off my blogs, but this does involve the tech community and I just can’t keep my mouth shut about this one. Senate Bill S.436, sponsored by Senator John Cornyn of Texas is just one more liberty snatch being attempted by our federal government under the guise of “child protection”. More specifically, S.436 is an amendment to Title 18 of the Domestic Surveillance Oversight Act of 2003 that would require “ISPs” to maintain records of all DHCP activity for two years and make those records available to “federal, state and local law enforcement agencies” without a signed court warrant.
Two parts of this bill are particularly onerous. First, the definition of an ISP is so loosely defined it could include virtually anybody with a router. Why? Because virtually every router includes a DHCP server service to hand out IP addresses to the users who connect to it. S.436 requires all “ISPs” to maintain records of all issued IP addresses for two years. Second, and the most disturbing, forcing anyone to hand over any information to the government without due process is tantamount to wadding up our Constitution and wiping their butts with it. I wonder if Senator Cornyn has ever read the Constitution. Do the first, fourth and fifth amendments mean anything to this guy?
A word of advice to anyone who cares to listen: Any time a politician starts talking about protecting children, look for more of your civil rights to disappear. The summary of S.436 on Senator Cornyn’s web site reads,
A bill to amend title 18, United States Code, to protect youth from exploitation by adults using the Internet, and for other purposes.
Did you catch the last four words of that summary? ”And for other purposes” is code for “anything the government damn well pleases”.
When I first heard about this, I wrote to Senator Cornyn politely explaining the implications of the bill he was sponsoring. Of course, I got the standard, automated response via email and the next week got a letter asking for a contribution to his campaign. I didn’t expect any more. After all, he’s a Senator and I’m just a reactionary kook, right?
Hang on folks. Just a few more pieces of legislation like this and we won’t be much better off than Jews running from Brownshirts.
Recent Comments