CISPA: An end to your privacy?

CISPA: An end to your privacy online everywhere?

I am finding that our government is increasingly attempting to undermine our rights as American citizens to advance hidden agendas that benefit big business and slowly remove our freedoms that we hold dear.  According to the report hosted on Wired.com, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) was sponsored by Representatives Mike Rogers from Michigan and Dutch Ruppersberger from Maryland.

To read the CISPA Bill as a whole (available here), it doesn’t sound so bad.  Like something designed to help businesses and ISPs provide the government with information about the various internet security threats in this country — something I do not disagree with.  However, when the clauses such as:

(3) EXEMPTION FROM LIABILITY- No civil or criminal cause of action shall lie or be maintained in Federal or State court against a protected entity, self-protected entity, cybersecurity provider, or an officer, employee, or agent of a protected entity, self-protected entity, or cybersecurity provider, acting in good faith–

are added into a bill, it bothers me — especially when we have situations where other branches of our government are threatening a 4 year old with shutting down an airport!  This would give ISPs, Banks, or any other business that has your information the right to share it with the federal government without a court  order.   Not only that, if they do happen to share it with another company and your information becomes public, you are not allowed to sue the businesses since they have immunity against such losses.

It is one thing to have a business acting on your behalf and in good-faith.  But we all know there are certain businesses and industries that make it a point to lobby for laws that will allow them to do business the way they want, and lobbying for laws that will benefit them, rather than the American Public.

It is high time that these ‘Representatives’  of the American People go back to Representing American People, and quit trying to sneak bills that grant businesses immunity to anything.  And I don’t just mean the representatives from Michigan and Maryland — I mean representatives from all 50 states (voting record for this bill here).

If you are concerned about the eroding of your online and potentially even your physical privacy, contact your House and Senate Representatives to call attention to this freedom-threatening information.

A lot of this is left over from my distaste with our Congress trying to force things like SOPA down our throat.  So now, they are doing it slowly, and behind the scenes.  I see that I have some Representatives from my home state in the voting records above.  Guess who will not be getting my votes next time around!

I would encourage you to, even now, begin contacting your senators and let them know you oppose the CISPA bill.  And then when the voting records are made available, if your senator voted the wrong way, be vocal about it.  They should be representing  their constituents, American Citizens, not the businesses who “get a vote”.

Stand up and vote for your rights!  Make some noise so that others know what you think!

Note: I am generally not a political activist and prefer to avoid politics… but when it appears that my rights are going to vanish before my eyes, then I will make some noise!

As always, feel free to leave a comment, flamepost, whatever!  Glad  you stopped by!

By the People

Yesterday got me to thinking about how much I love our great country!  Sure, she’s not without her faults, but you know what?  I’m still glad I live here.

I generally stay away from political discussions simply because of the crap that you often have to wade through in order to get to the bottom of things.  In a conversation with someone, I once heard a point made that I whoeheartedly agree with:

When it gets to the point that it takes lawyers and judges to decide if a law is correct and constitutional or not, at that point the country is no longer run by the people, but by the politicians that make the rules.

I have to say that I agree with that completely.  My goal behind this article isn’t to talk about politics, really.  What I want to do is incite a movement among the people of America that will help us to return our country back into our hands.  I have begun laying out a plan that I think will work, and in coming weeks and months, I will be revealing and refining more of it as we go.

I am simply asking that you think about the things that you dislike about the way our country is run, and post back with things that you would do to fix it.  There are many things that I believe about the way our country should be run:

1. The Bill of Rights and our Constitution are the final law.  This pretty much covers anything that our country needs to deal with here at home.  We do not need congress trying to make amendments to this document.
2. We DO need laws and, like our current form of government, we need a system of checks and balances so that one part of the government cannot control the entire country.  What we don’t need are laws with wording so complex that it takes three hundred politicians and 5 supreme court justices to make a clear interpretation of that law.
3. I believe that the money needs to be in the hands of the American people.  Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t like taxes as much as the next person, but they are a necessary evil.  What we don’t need are our tax dollars wasted on government bail outs and keeping big business going.  I’m sorry… well, no, I’m not.  If you run your business into the ground, do what the rest of them do, and close up shop and go find a new job.  I don’t care if you are the biggest bank or car manufacturer in the world.  Go home.
4. I believe that big business should have no part in electing our country’s officials (yes, Labor Unions, this includes you!).  If a politician cannot get himself elected on his own — do you REALLY want them ‘representing’ you at the national level?  (At the state levvel too, even, but that is another topic).

I believe there’s a lot more to it than what I’m saying above.  And I believe a lot more than what I’ve written here.  I will continue this later.

Write back and tell me what you believe about the way our country is run, and tell me your ideas and why you like them.  Heck, comment on what I’ve written so far, just to let me know that there are still people out there who care!