> At 10:32 PM -0700 7/24/00, Bill Stewart wrote:
> >I just turned on the TV, and the Carnivore hearings are going on now in
> >C-Span.
> >
>
> In my view, what I heard did far more bad than good. Witnesses were
> babbling about the need to see what the Carnivore system did, so that
> the rights of the unpersecuted whom the warrants did not apply to
> could be protected.
>
> Fuck that noise.
>
> --Tim May
>
The players were interesting : for the most part both Democrats and
Republicans were extremely suspicious about the potential for abuse. Asa
Hutchinson ( R-Arkansas? ) was the odd man out in that he seemed ready
to accept the word of the FBI that everything was proper and that
safeguards were in place. Bob Barr, who I really do not care for, seemed
to have the best grip on the technological view and a strong bias
against allowing this to be used.
The best analogy that I heard was that the installation of Carnivore was
like a trunk-side phone tap, something that is not allowed under the
law. Also there was some discussion of how the current relevance
criteria for trap and trace is too low a standard and gives far more
info to enforcement than it used to.
They're going to talk and talk about this thing, then we have elections
coming up and the game will have to start all over again with a few new
players. Further delay. Finally, if it somehow looks like the law will
be updated to limit the capabilities of law enforcement they will play
their old trump cards of terrorism et al and something that looks OK
until you read it and find out it's much worse than what you had before
will be cooked up and passed by Republocrats and Demicans alike.
It's worse than noise. They're up to no good. I like gridlock the best.
They do their finest work when they're gagged and their hands are tied.
We should give them a bonus whenever they can maintain a state of
inaction for an entire session.
Mike
