Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Obama administration wanted warrantless access rights to most US email

news.cnet.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 100 posts

Re: Obama administration wanted warrantless access rights to most US email

#31

Post by protomyth »

weaksauce wrote: post #29
roc wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Particularly when those cuts are delivered by people wrapped in the flag, promising safety. It seems we have healthier debate over the government's ability to pass blanket public-space no-smoking laws, than the executive's new-found legal ability to ignore the constitution, the judicial and the legislative at its whim. You can get tens of thousands to protest the deficit, or health care reform, or gay rights - but th…

It's the whole "I'm not doing anything wrong, why should I care if they are watching me" standpoint that most people have. The problem of course is that the people watching you are the ones who decide what's wrong. Of course there is the famous other quote: "If I have nothing to hide then why do you need to watch me?" or something like that.

with a complicated enough legal system, everyone is a criminal

Re: Obama administration wanted warrantless access rights to most US email

#32

Post by redsymbol »

kunley wrote: post #27
ytilibitapmoc wrote: post #2

If only the silence meant that people were sharpening their pitchforks. Unfortunately, this is the USA -- we would rather die by a thousand paper-cuts than stand up and say "No!"...

On the contrary, living in Europe I see you in the US as a great example of society which dares to stand up and say "No!". By comparison, you are exceptionally well-educated, conscious and actively taking care of your rights.

Thanks for these kind words, I appreciate that! (I'm a US citizen.)

Re: Obama administration wanted warrantless access rights to most US email

#33

Post by justlearning »

kunley wrote: post #27
ytilibitapmoc wrote: post #2

If only the silence meant that people were sharpening their pitchforks. Unfortunately, this is the USA -- we would rather die by a thousand paper-cuts than stand up and say "No!"...

On the contrary, living in Europe I see you in the US as a great example of society which dares to stand up and say "No!". By comparison, you are exceptionally well-educated, conscious and actively taking care of your rights.

how so? if I may ask.

Living in the US, I accept the claim that not many get together to say "No". Compare to Asian/European countries where the slightest rift creates huge protests. To cite UK as an example, we always hear British Airways going on strikes(not saying it's a good/bad thing); When was the last time we heard such a thing in the US? I often bring this up in conversations and a common argument thrown at me is that US is an individualistic society - neighbors are strangers to each other. Not all are interested in the big picture to change things. The common man in the US, lured by the media is content in accepting stories on the face value. I have this friend who listens to the radio archives of 60s/70s and often cites "Weather Underground" as an example of changing face of US.

could you provide some cases where in the last 20 years you see "US as a great example of society which dares to stand up and say "No!""

Re: Obama administration wanted warrantless access rights to most US email

#34

Post by btilly »

jdrock wrote: post #28

"For its part, the Justice Department has taken a legalistic approach: a 17-page brief it filed last month acknowledges that federal law requires search warrants for messages in "electronic storage" that are less than 181 days old. But, Assistant U.S. Attorney Pegeen Rhyne writes in a government brief, the Yahoo Mail messages don't meet that definition. "Previously opened e-mail is not in 'electronic storage,'" Rhyne…

Lawyers who don't understand technology are trying to convince a judge who doesn't understand technology that technology works in impossible ways. News at 11.

Re: Obama administration wanted warrantless access rights to most US email

#35

Post by ahoyhere »

kunley wrote: post #27
ytilibitapmoc wrote: post #2

If only the silence meant that people were sharpening their pitchforks. Unfortunately, this is the USA -- we would rather die by a thousand paper-cuts than stand up and say "No!"...

On the contrary, living in Europe I see you in the US as a great example of society which dares to stand up and say "No!". By comparison, you are exceptionally well-educated, conscious and actively taking care of your rights.

As an American living in Europe, I can tell you your impression is sadly mistaken.

I've never seen so many people exercising their right to free speech as in Vienna and Berlin, for example.

And I used to live 15 minutes from the Capitol Building.

Re: Obama administration wanted warrantless access rights to most US email

#36

Post by [deleted] »

kunley wrote: post #27
ytilibitapmoc wrote: post #2

If only the silence meant that people were sharpening their pitchforks. Unfortunately, this is the USA -- we would rather die by a thousand paper-cuts than stand up and say "No!"...

On the contrary, living in Europe I see you in the US as a great example of society which dares to stand up and say "No!". By comparison, you are exceptionally well-educated, conscious and actively taking care of your rights.

[deleted]

Re: Obama administration wanted warrantless access rights to most US email

#37

Post by ahoyhere »

protomyth wrote: post #30
RevRal wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry for the misunderstanding. Just to be clear I wasn't actually disagreeing with you. Just adding to what you said. So you don't like the phrase "tea-bagging" and you don't like someone seemingly decreasing a group of people's relative value. I'm on your side. Saying "tea-bagging" was lazy. Forgive me. As for the second cause for offense (perhaps too strong a word), well someone has to be qualified to make decisio…

I tend to get a little touchy about this type of "word" stuff.... Your right, mobs are often ignorant, but some of the key moments in our history of civil rights were described by one side as mobs. I am not sure technical understanding is really the necessary item. I think it comes down to understanding the implications on your daily life. I know I get caught up in explaining the technical workings of things, but the…

I appreciate why you're touchy, but think about it:

GOVT DEATH PANELS!

That's all you need to know, to realize that the assessment of "semi-facts, lies, and emotion blended into an easily palatable gruel" is, in fact, the majority of Tea Party-er thinking.

Not all of the people who are against socialized healthcare believe the "death panel" idiocy. Not all of them pretend they're doing some revolutionary act by joining the Tea Party.

But they're all hopelessly ignorant of how socialized medicine really works. And what the word "socialism" means.

Re: Obama administration wanted warrantless access rights to most US email

#39

Post by yummyfajitas »

ahoyhere wrote: post #37
protomyth wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tend to get a little touchy about this type of "word" stuff.... Your right, mobs are often ignorant, but some of the key moments in our history of civil rights were described by one side as mobs. I am not sure technical understanding is really the necessary item. I think it comes down to understanding the implications on your daily life. I know I get caught up in explaining the technical workings of things, but the…

I appreciate why you're touchy, but think about it: GOVT DEATH PANELS! That's all you need to know, to realize that the assessment of "semi-facts, lies, and emotion blended into an easily palatable gruel" is, in fact, the majority of Tea Party-er thinking. Not all of the people who are against socialized healthcare believe the "death panel" idiocy. Not all of them pretend they're doing some revolutionary act by joini…

Many of the people you believe are stupid tea partiers are actually posers attempting to make the tea party look bad.

http://crashtheteaparty.org/

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/04/tea-party-crasher...

http://michellemalkin.com/2010/04/15/crashers-they-came-they...

Re: Obama administration wanted warrantless access rights to most US email

#40

Post by alexgartrell »

eplanit wrote: post #10

I'll echo the advice I heard from Phillip Zimmermann back in the early 1990s: If everyone consistently used encryption for all their email (that's 'everyone', and 'all'), then the effectiveness of government access to email would be lowered to a near-moot level. The sheer complexity and resource requirements to decrypt _all_ email traffic would exceed the government's capabilities. I know the NSA has incredible capab…

I think the obvious problem is that encrypted email is hard. key signing parties and stuff do not appeal to someone who wants to jot off a quick note. What we really need is encrypted webmail (to the point that the plain text never lands on the google server) and that's hard.
Post reply on HN