ambrellite 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (97)

• On the post: Anti-Whistleblower 'Ag-Gag' Law Ruled Unconstitutional

  

  ambrellite ( profile ), 04 Aug, 2015 @ 08:29am

  Thanks, Judge Lynn Winmill! It's great to know there are judges with integrity who genuinely try to be good stewards of the law. Though it's disturbing that Gov. Butch Otter vehemently disagrees: http://blogs.idahostatesman.com/otters-blast-at-judge-winmill-hes-not-one-of-us/

• On the post: Spanish Cops Use New Law To Fine Facebook Commenter For Calling Them 'Slackers'

  

  ambrellite ( profile ), 03 Aug, 2015 @ 09:02am

  Response to: Anonymous Coward on Aug 3rd, 2015 @ 8:26am

  Keep in mind the historical context. Authoritarian attitudes have never been unusual, only shaped to fit the values of the society they exist in. In an age where technological progress is so rapid, and "scary" ideas spread instantly, age-old institutions are scrambling to maintain control.
  
  These laws only represent some of the most pathetic and counterproductive attempts to do that.

• On the post: UK Prevent Strategy For Identifying Potential Terrorists Identifies 3 Year Old Because Of Course It Did

  

  ambrellite ( profile ), 31 Jul, 2015 @ 12:31pm

  Whew!

  Close call! If the British government had identified this kid only 15 years later, it could have been too late! /s
  
  Jokes aside, the extent of preemption assumed to be necessary tells you a lot about how long they think these measures will be implemented: forever.

• On the post: Study Of Spain's 'Google Tax' On News Shows How Much Damage It Has Done

  

  ambrellite ( profile ), 29 Jul, 2015 @ 11:01am

  I doubt the Spanish publishers will humbly ask for the law they asked for to be repealed. Instead, they'll ask the Spanish government to pay aggregators' snippet fees, or create a public news aggregating service that serves the largest publishers only and pays their fees.
  
  How would the taxpayers protest, now that anti-dissent laws are in force?

• On the post: General Wesley Clark: Some WWII-Style Internment Camps Are Just The Thing We Need To Fight Domestic Radicalization

  

  ambrellite ( profile ), 20 Jul, 2015 @ 12:47pm

  Nothing unexpected here

  As one might expect, those in positions of authority tend to be (what else?) authoritarians, and so take seriously the idea that we just need to put all the bad guys (anti-establishment "radicals" especially) in a cage, or kill them outright.
  
  That's the entire premise of the GWoT, and Clark is only acknowledging it explicitly.

• On the post: Senators Up In Arms Over State Department Plan To Deliberately Ignore Malaysian Mass Graves Just To Get TPP Deal

  

  ambrellite ( profile ), 16 Jul, 2015 @ 08:09am

  All about oil again

  And why is it so important that Malaysia is part of the deal? Because it would solidify US influence over the strait of Malacca, which is a major route for oil supplies to reach China, North Korea, and Japan.
  
  It's obstruction wouldn't threaten the U.S., but controlling it would provide us with a significant advantage if a conflict with China broke out. It's the same idea behind putting missile systems closer and closer to Russia, just in case.
  
  Just as in the Middle East, we see the U.S. vying for control of oil routes to get leverage, and allying with totalitarian regimes to do it.

• On the post: White House So Desperate To Get TPP Approved, It Agrees To Whitewash Mass Graves & Human Trafficking In Malaysia

  

  ambrellite ( profile ), 13 Jul, 2015 @ 01:38pm

  Move along, nothing to see here

  To be fair, the U.S. routinely turns a blind eye to human rights (or actively violates them) when our National Interests (TM) are at stake.
  
  As Obama would say, look forward, not backward, nor to either side, and certainly not at what the TPP is going to do. Keep your blinders on and mind your own business, capiche?

• On the post: EU Moves To Create Internet Fast Lanes, Pretends It's Net Neutrality By Redefining Basic Words

  

  ambrellite ( profile ), 30 Jun, 2015 @ 10:07am

  Wouldn't customers who use those "specialized services" simply purchase a higher connection speed from their ISP if they needed it?

• On the post: The Pulitzer Prize In Bullshit FUD Reporting Goes To… The Sunday Times For Its 'Snowden Expose'

  

  ambrellite ( profile ), 15 Jun, 2015 @ 07:42am

  Response to: cypherspace on Jun 15th, 2015 @ 6:30am

  That speculation makes sense. We've seen similar CYA attempts before. Getting everybody distracted, and getting informed journalists to waste time debunking this may give them some breathing room to spin the OPM hacks in the media circuit.
  
  But I don't think millions of government employees are going to forget overnight.

• On the post: Feds Who Didn't Even Discover The OPM Hack Themselves, Still Say We Should Give Them Cybersecurity Powers

  

  ambrellite ( profile ), 12 Jun, 2015 @ 02:20pm

  This story illustrates another fatal flaw of the collect-it-all intelligence strategy: all the information in the world can't fix stupid. Every expert worth their salt (and many non-experts too) told them encryption is very important, but they couldn't connect the dot.

• On the post: Federal Election Committee Tries To Shut Down 'Stop Hillary' PAC Because Donors Might Think Hillary Clinton Is Behind It

  

  ambrellite ( profile ), 12 Jun, 2015 @ 10:16am

  Thanks, FEC, for warning us that you're too incompetent to regulate elections, and then proving it by behaving stupidly.

• On the post: House Votes To Change Law Due To Trade Agreement, While Insisting That Trade Agreements Don't Change Laws

  

  ambrellite ( profile ), 12 Jun, 2015 @ 07:40am

  Everything's ok!

  Don't worry, everybody, foreign investors will be greeted as liberators. These are just the birth pangs of capitalism! The TPP will turn things around within six months! The surge (in campaign donations) will work! It will be worth it to have deposed the unions! 9/11!

• On the post: CIA Boss Claims That Merely Debating Surveillance Is Helping The Terrorists

  

  ambrellite ( profile ), 01 Jun, 2015 @ 09:45am

  Bureaucratic stupidity

  It's reasonable to assume that the intelligence community has adopted it's "collect-it-all" mentality for purely bureaucratic reasons. It inflates their budget, has a lot of non-terrorism-related usefulness to the government (so long as the DOJ is on board with the necessary felonies), and is very useful for politicians as a political football. National security isn't much of a consideration (as the unending demands for backdoors illustrate).
  
  The only problem here, as far as they're concerned, is public awareness and opposition, which threatens the whole enterprise.

• On the post: An Innocent Pressure Cooker Pays The Price In The War On Terror

  

  ambrellite ( profile ), 28 May, 2015 @ 09:30am

  SOP stupidity

  It's standard practice--and it's pointless.
  
  Let's be frank: for someone motivated to build an explosive device, it isn't hard, even with all of the barriers that have been put in place. That's precisely what the Boston bombing demsonstrated. Like the restrictions on carry on luggage, these activities only provide an illusion of security, but we accept them because the impact is limited to those who bumble into the security net.

• On the post: Why Is The Attorney General Making Claims About PATRIOT Act That Her Own Agency's Report Says Are Not True?

  

  ambrellite ( profile ), 22 May, 2015 @ 08:56am

  Lying, or telling a different truth?

  Does parallel construction make it possible for both the IG's statement and Lynch's to be true? I.e., the program is ostensibly useless, but secretly (and illegally) being used to prosecute many cases where such evidence would ordinarily be thrown out.
  
  And if this illegal program is so relied upon, how atrophied are the traditional investigatory tools that *aren't* being used?

• On the post: FBI Spied On Activists Because Protecting Corporate Interests Is Roughly Equivalent To Ensuring National Security

  

  ambrellite ( profile ), 15 May, 2015 @ 01:15pm

  These investigations (supposedly) only collect information that the FBI doesn't intend to use in court, but what assurance do we have that the FBI isn't providing that information to third parties, such as the corporations that they're explicitly trying to protect?
  
  We need to treat all such illegally-obtained data as violations when they happen, not just when they're used against us in court. The data must be erased, and thosee responsible subjected to personal consequences (even a simple fine would do).

• On the post: Fast Track Bill Back On The… Fast Track After Senate Deal

  

  ambrellite ( profile ), 14 May, 2015 @ 05:37pm

  Re:

  Technically, they don't give up their authority by giving the president FTA--they just choose to legislate in the most half-assed way imaginable. That's their prerogative, even if it betrays the fact that they simply don't care what's in the TPP. Huge, multinational corporations can reward them immediately, while their constituents won't realize they've been screwed until years later, by which time the consequences can be blamed on the next president and the opposing party. At worst, all they'd have to say is, "Knowing then what we know now, I would have voted differently."
  
  The worst thing is that there are some representatives who loathe this kind of politics, and feel forced to participate in order to compete against their opposition. The whirlpool of corruption sucks hard.

• On the post: UK Plans To Do Away With Free Speech… In The Name Of Free Speech

  

  ambrellite ( profile ), 13 May, 2015 @ 12:16pm

  Response to: Nastybutler77 on May 13th, 2015 @ 12:03pm

  A large number of our representatives here in the U.S. share the same authoritarian mindset, and are only thwarted (partially) by constitutionally-guaranteed rights.

• On the post: Senate Rejects Fast Track Bill For TPP Agreement: Back To The Drawing Board

  

  ambrellite ( profile ), 12 May, 2015 @ 03:58pm

  Not dead yet

  Fast track authority is far from dead. It' be back up for a vote, maybe with a few goodies attached (which the TPP could render moot anyway)

• On the post: Huge Win: Appeals Court Says NSA's Bulk Phone Records Collection Not Actually Authorized By PATRIOT Act

  

  ambrellite ( profile ), 07 May, 2015 @ 10:22am

  Refreshing!

  A thorough, legally rigorous ruling, the likes of which are far too rare when the government's national security programs are involved. It begs the question: what prevented many other judges from noticing these fatal flaws in the government's arguments?
  
  That's the great value of these rulings. Laymen may justly complain, but judges are the stewards of jurisprudence, and when some finally decide to confront the obvious, the rest are compelled to answer why they couldn't see it.

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