FISA – LonelyMachines

Chilling Effects

The email service Lavabit recently shut down rather than release all their records to the NSA. Lavabit’s mission was to provide private and secure encrypted email services. Following that, a similar service called Silent Circle closed their doors as well. A spokesperson for Silent Circle issued a statement that nothing was truly anonymous, and that if you want privacy, “you may wish to avoid email altogether.”

As of today, Pamela Jones has shut down the Groklaw blog for the same reasons.

The issue is twofold. The first problem is that the NSA can get a rubber stamp from a FISA court to collect metadata on electronic communications. Sure, there’s a court order involved, but it’s from a star chamber. You won’t know if you’re being monitored.

The second problem is the blanket abuse of National Security Letters. Under Section 505 of the Patriot Act, the FBI can issue a letter to a website owner demanding any sort of information they want on users’ communications.

Continued...

Civil Rights

This Is Where Party Loyalty Gets You

I’m sure everyone’s heard that FISA granted the NSA authority to collect Verizon call records. Let’s all do jazz hands and scream at the top of our lungs. Oh, the indignation!

Now let’s calm down and look at who voted to extend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Here are the tallies for the House and the Senate. That’s an awful lot of red in the yea column, isn’t it? There’s Chambliss and Isakson voting for it. There are Kingston, Westmoreland, Price, Linder, Broun, Deal, and Gingrey.

Blasted Democrats! I mean…oh, wait. The only Georgia representatives to vote against it were Hank Jones and John Lewis.

This is proof that party loyalty gets us nowhere when it comes to civil liberties. You have to know your legislators’ records, you have to vote intelligently, and you have to hold their feet to the fire. That, or you can check the pretty boxes by color and see where that lands us.