CISPA - GOP House vote abolishes 4th Amendment

GOP House passes CISPA cybersecurity bill

• Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act passes by 288-127.
• The GOP first passed the bill out of committee behind closed doors.
• Search warrants and the Bill of Rights are being abolished and 98% of the media ignores the story.

Question  -  Does the Republican Party believe in anything?

Democrats are Marxist pigs.  That is a rule of life.  But I am God Damn pissed off that the so-called "small government" Republican Party keeps voting to spend like Socialists and pass bills to undermine the Bill of Rights.

Now the GOP controlled House of Representatives passed legislation meant to help companies and the government share information on cyber threats without a search warrant, even though concerns linger about the amount of protection the bill offers for private information.

The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (known as Cispa) passed 288-127, receiving bipartisan support as 92 Democrats voted in favor. But the White House threatened this week to veto the legislation if further civil liberties and privacy protections are not added reports the UK Guardian.

Using national security as the eternal excuse, "We have a constitutional obligation to defend this nation," said the bill's co-author, intelligence committee chairman Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican, on the House floor, arguing that cyber attacks and espionage, particularly from China, are now the top US national security and economic threats. "This is the answer to empower cyber information sharing to protect this nation, to allow those companies to protect themselves and move on to economic prosperity. If you want to take a shot across China's bow, this is the answer."

This Congressional dipshit does not explain how the U.S. managed to defeat the Axis Powers and the Soviet Union with an intact Bill of Rights.


What Privacy?  CISPA Passes in Closed Door Vote
CISPA, the controversial bill that greatly threatens the privacy of anyone online, is making its way to Congress after passing in a closed-door vote by the House Intelligence Committee by a huge margin. There were no changes to the language to protect personal privacy. How is this happening after the Internet so loudly cried foul, and why is it being ignored in the press?

Judge Napolitano on Obama's Extension of Warrantless Wiretapping
Judge Andrew Napolitano stopped by Fox Business Network's Varney & Co. to weigh in on President Obama signing a five-year extension of the government's warrantless wiretapping program. In doing so, the judge said Obama is continuing with a practice that is "absolutely unconstitutional" and a violation of the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable search and seizure.

However, the House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, reflected concerns shared by the White House and many civil liberties groups, arguing that the bill did not do enough to ensure that companies, in sharing cyber threat data, strip out any personal data of US citizens. "They can just ship the whole kit and caboodle and we're saying minimize what is relevant to our national security," the California Democrat said. "The rest is none of the government's business."

Trying to put some of the privacy concerns to rest, House intelligence committee leaders endorsed an amendment that made the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice – agencies that are civil, not military – the clearing houses of the digital data exchange. Nonetheless, the future of cybersecurity legislation in the Senate remains unclear, given Obama's veto threat and a lack of action from Senate Democrats.

Several influential industry groups had come out in support of the bill, including the wireless group CTIA, the US Chamber of Commerce and TechNet, which represents large internet and technology companies.

Everyone supporting a Police State raise your right hand.

As the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Mark Jaycox put it in an open forum on Reddit last week, here are some of Cispa's consequences:

Companies have new rights to monitor user actions and share data – including potentially sensitive user data – with the government without a warrant.

Cispa overrides existing privacy law, and grants broad immunities to participating companies.

Information provided to the federal government under Cispa would be exempt from the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and other state laws that could otherwise require disclosure (unless some law other than Cispa already requires its provision to the government).

Cispa's authors argue that the bill contains limitations on how the federal government can use and disclose information by permitting lawsuits against the government. But if a company sends information about a user that is not cyberthreat information, the government agency does not notify the user, only the company.

The House bill's sponsor, Michigan Republican Mike Rogers – the man who thinks you're a juvenile if you want to protect your privacy – has consistently made clear his contempt for anyone who objects to Cispa – opponents including every civil liberties organization that matters and more than 70 security specialists, academics and policy experts (note: I'm a signer).

When he dismisses common sense calls for fixing this bill in this way, you have to reach one of two conclusions: either he's ignorant of what he's doing, or he's contemptuous not only of opposition, but also of fundamental liberty.      (UK Guardian - cispa - Internet privacy)

Has the GOP heard of the Founding Fathers?
Judging by the Big Government bills the Republican Party rubber stamps, the GOP is only vaguely aware that something called a Constitution exists.  But Constitutions are so old fashioned.  So 18th Century.  We need Big Brother to take care of us.