Obama To Give Commerce Department Authority To Create Internet ID for Americans

Rana said:
I still have to believe in law enforcement, I have several friends who are police or safety and they are very good people who truly wish to serve and protect.
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Wait until they have a make a choice between your rights and their livelyhood. what do you think they'll choose?
 
Rana said:
I still have to believe in law enforcement, I have several friends who are police or safety and they are very good people who truly wish to serve and protect.
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understandable, but the reality is that when it comes down to it, they will follow orders to violate any right of yours you have in order to keep their job.
 
SmarterThanYou said:
I realize that most people like to believe that law enforcement is actually out there to serve and protect, but that's just not the way it is anymore. Times have changed and government takes any and every step to encroach upon your freedoms. establishing ID's will be just a first step. Once they have the ability to track what you do, it's a simple matter of changing regulations to entrap you in to a crime, OR, the continued attempt at regulating the internet could then be used to filter out content on the net according to your internet ID.
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Even if the government clamped down on the internet things like WikiLeaks could be disseminated by mailing pamphlets or a video to radio/TV stations or underground newspapers. The point being news would get out. The internet just makes it quicker.

The anonymity offered is not used by legitimate people. Don't we insist on knowing who is saying what? People have to prove their identity and the legitimacy of what they post otherwise it's the rantings of a blogger. Or some scam artist.
 
apple0154 said:
Even if the government clamped down on the internet things like WikiLeaks could be disseminated by mailing pamphlets or a video to radio/TV stations or underground newspapers. The point being news would get out. The internet just makes it quicker.

The anonymity offered is not used by legitimate people. Don't we insist on knowing who is saying what? People have to prove their identity and the legitimacy of what they post otherwise it's the rantings of a blogger. Or some scam artist.
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Shit. If Obama proposed putting real time cameras in our homes, you'd find a way to defend it.
 
Good Luck said:
Shit. If Obama proposed putting real time cameras in our homes, you'd find a way to defend it.
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There are very few instances where anonymity is necessary. The vast majority of the time it's just people being assholes because no one knows who they are. If something is really important to get out people have ways to do that.

As I said before the government has ways to find out who people are anyway. It's the average person who doesn't have the resources.
 
apple0154 said:
There are very few instances where anonymity is necessary. The vast majority of the time it's just people being assholes because no one knows who they are. If something is really important to get out people have ways to do that.

As I said before the government has ways to find out who people are anyway. It's the average person who doesn't have the resources.
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this is the point of the whole issue. the government should not be able to do this. yet you want them to have the master keys to everything.
 
SmarterThanYou said:
this is the point of the whole issue. the government should not be able to do this. yet you want them to have the master keys to everything.
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So how do you keep law and order? The thieves and wackos use technology and the government shouldn't?

What danger is there to be had should the government know things?
 
apple0154 said:
So how do you keep law and order? The thieves and wackos use technology and the government shouldn't?

What danger is there to be had should the government know things?
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the idea of government is to regulate ONLY THAT WHICH THEY HAVE BEEN GIVEN POWER TO DO.

the danger is that government doesn't stop at it's limits. It stretches and violates anything and everything it can in order to assume control and power it's not supposed to have. this is born out by all of history.
 
SmarterThanYou said:
the idea of government is to regulate ONLY THAT WHICH THEY HAVE BEEN GIVEN POWER TO DO.

the danger is that government doesn't stop at it's limits. It stretches and violates anything and everything it can in order to assume control and power it's not supposed to have. this is born out by all of history.
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How could the Founding Fathers possibly comprehend something like the internet? If the Government has any responsibility whatsoever regarding crime then it has to have some form of control over the net. If child pornography is illegal and it's spread over the net then the government has to be able to determine who is spreading it.

As for governments assuming control and power one major reason is privacy. The prime example of that was Hitler picking off groups of people. Those who didn't belong to a specific group "minded their own business" until their group was targeted.

Injustice thrives the same way. Privacy. From undisclosed family violence to homophobia it's easy to get away with crap when things are "private".

Look at AIDS. When it was "nobody's business", kept private, discrimination abounded. When people realized it wasn't just one man in town who had AIDS, but dozens, the situation changed.

We know the government has the money, resources and manpower to do what it wants. For example, when the overseas wiretapping was exposed. To say the government doesn't have the right to intrude on privacy on the net is nothing but false security. They will if they want to. If denied, they will do it surreptitiously just like they did with the wiretapping and then make some claim it was necessary.

What penalty does the government pay when it does something it's not supposed to do? Maybe, maybe someone ends up in jail but they get a pardon before dinner gets cold.

Let's not fool ourselves. The government will do what it damn well pleases. The solution is to ensure the people in government use that power for the good and, most important, limit laws that people can be charged with.

It's not a case of the government knowing what you're doing. It's a case of ensuring the government doesn't have any laws against what you're doing.
 
SmarterThanYou said:
the idea of government is to regulate ONLY THAT WHICH THEY HAVE BEEN GIVEN POWER TO DO.

the danger is that government doesn't stop at it's limits. It stretches and violates anything and everything it can in order to assume control and power it's not supposed to have. this is born out by all of history.
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Do you advocate killing public officials?
 
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