Privacy...? We don't need no st-e-e-e-enking privacy...!

let's stop fooling around... if we're moving toward a police state, let's pass measures like this and get it the hell over with... the incremental approach is driving me crazy...

A House Republican is pushing a measure that echoes a long-sought Bush administration goal: to require all Internet service providers to keep records on their subscribers.

The measure, introduced by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.) last week as part of the larger SAFETY Act, would give the attorney general broad discretion to write the rules on what information companies have to retain and for how long.

[...]

The provision would require Internet service companies to provide at a minimum the Internet subscriber's name and address, which can be linked to an Internet protocol address -- an identification number associated with a particular computer at a given time. Law enforcement officials would have to obtain a subpoena to have access to the records and could not use the tool to track law-abiding citizens on the Internet, Smith said.

nothing can go wrong -- go wrong -- g-g-g-go w-w-w-w-wro-o-o-ong -- g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g -- g-g-g-g-a-a-a-a...

In Arlington County last summer, detectives thought they had tracked an Internet child predator to an apartment, only to find that their target was an innocent elderly woman whose computer's wireless router sent a signal throughout her 10-story building that could be easily hijacked.

Last fall, a child-porn squad in central Virginia led by sheriffs armed with semiautomatic pistols scared a farmer who was mistakenly targeted when his Internet provider gave authorities the incorrect IP address.

but, according to the wapo, it ISN'T the blatant violation of privacy or the targeting of innocent people that's the concern here... oh, no... it's this...

What concerns both privacy advocates and industry is the bill's open-endedness.

"open-endedness" AIN'T the problem, dipshits... it's the fact that such a bill could even be written, introduced, and given serious consideration in either congress or your newspaper...

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