Right of Privacy Threatened

Censorship & Federal Ban on Anonymous Posting
Couch’s bill would require anyone contributing to a web site to file their real name, physical address and email address with the site. Your full name would be displayed with your comments.Fines for anonymous posting would be $500 for the first offense;

That is the Real Clear Politics citation to a blog post I made last night. Rep Couch wants to make anonymous posting illegal, punished by a $1000 fine after the first offense.  

    His excuse: 'bullying', an emotion charged bait which could slide this wedge of censorship through the Congress quickly & silently unless we put a stop to it now.  

    My blog post begins with citations of the latest Iranian kvetching about Geert Wilders' film about Allah's murder manual.   Read on to the  information about the proposed law. A link to the original article is included.

    This issue is not receiving much attention, it only got 4 votes at RCP.  

 

Would you kindly link us to your sources?

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YNET News:  http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3517960,00.html

First Amdt.: http://www.law.cornell.edu/constituti...

Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html

WTVQ: original report of the introduction of Couch's anti-anonymity bill :

http://www.wtvq.com/content/midatlant...

All of those and more are active hyperlinks in the blog post, located here:

http://snooper.wordpress.com/2008/03/...

The link at the top of my forum post above is fully functional, it will take you directly to the blog post. Links within that blog post are bolld & blue.  

 

And who is going to check up and see that "names" are real, "addresses are real" etc.  And what shows up on a posting would depend on the website owner, wouldn't it?  After all, when I signed up with FS, I gave a full name, but only my "user name" shows up.  Ditto for other sites.  If someone is going to have a job checking every single website in this country where one can post, check that their names are showing, verify it's a real name, etc., just stop and think of the staffing and funding required for such an endeavor.  Makes no sense at all.

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Patsy, the net effect would be to shut us down completely. That may not be Couch's intention, but I have no doubt that others will be in full sympathy with that outcome.

I just don't see how he'd ever provide for enforcement of it.  Imagine having the daunting task of just finding every post-able website???  Let alone dictating to each website owner what can and can't and must and must not show, verifying it's all real, etc.  I can just see a little box on FS next to the "go" button that says, "I do solemnly swear under pains and penalties of death by clicking GO, that Ishkabibble Van Gorgeshnobben is my real name, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, DC is my real address and president@whitehouse.com is my real email, and 1-888-EATCRAP is my real phone number."

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Now isn't that what your wonderful Real I.D. would provide for them?  It would certainly make it easier for them to log in your name to a data base and come up with your name, address, phone number, physical description? I know you think they need that card!  They would make it a law that the website owners would have to hand over the information they have on you when you sign up.  By the way, they can track you through your IP #. 

Sean, how 'bout it?  I would like your input.  I know you are out there somewhere in cyberworld.

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All of our rights to privacy are being taken away if you look at everything that is being processed under the radar of the citizens.  Take a look at  this bill...

HR 1955 which is now S 1959 -  This is an attack on Internet freedom, and is part of what they would use to curtail the posting that they don't want to have posted for everyone to read. 

There are causes for concern in HR 1955 (now S 1959) because this legislation specifically targets the Internet for facilitating violent radicalization, ideologically based violence in the so called homegrown terrorism process inside the U.S.  This could be the first steps toward the U.S. government controlling what we are allowed to access on the Internet.  This is also why they want to know who is posting, (name, address, and e-mail address) That would save them the trouble of trying to find you themselves. 

 

Legislation like this gives them rights to use governmental laws against American citizens even when no crimes have been committed.  This is nothing more or less than another attack on our civil liberties. 

 You  can read about S 1959 at this address:

 http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s110-1959

 

Representative Couch did say that enforcement of this particular bill would be a challenge.  (no kidding?) 

Want to let Rep. Couch know how you feel about this bill?  He is in Kentucky but I'm guessing that if he gets his way that it will affect more than just that state.  So let him know how you feel about this. 

KY House District 90 Representative, Republican Tim Couch

Mailing Address
PO Box 710
Hyden KY 41749

Frankfort Address(es)
702 Capitol Ave
Annex Room 432B
Frankfort KY 40601

Phone Number(s)
Home: (606) 672-8998
Home: (606) 672-8998 (fax)
Annex: (502) 564-8100 Ext. 632

 

http://www.lrc.ky.gov/legislator/H090.htm

 Internet Identity, Internet law, KY, KY District 90, Rep Tim Couch

Now isn't that what your wonderful Real I.D. would provide for them?  It would certainly make it easier for them to log in your name to a data base and come up with your name, address, phone number, physical description? I know you think they need that card!  They would make it a law that the website owners would have to hand over the information they have on you when you sign up.  By the way, they can track you through your IP #. 

But we don't have the real ID, do we?  And if I've given them a phoney name, they can log my name into anything they want, and won't come up with jack?  The IP # isn't going to track me...it's going to track the computer.  Again, who's going to track down every website owner? 

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Haven't you tried a whois query?  There is something called domain name registration.

Okay, perhaps I should word that differently....who's going to track down every website that has posting capabilities and THEN the owner of each? 

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Ben Powell, Patsy, Lady Jane, elaina, 

That would be a "look at me, I'm doing so much" bill. 

My husband was in IT before he couldn't work anymore, but there have been times when he wants to know a little more about a person and he amazes me.  In about 2 or 3 minutes he can come up with most facts that anyone would be curious about on any given indivudual and sometimes much more than would satisfy the curiosity.  For anyone who has ever used a connection like Yahoo or AOL - - there is no privacy.  My call name for this site can be googled and come up acurately.  My real name will show up because my church sends their newsletter via the internet to those who have email and so my name is there every so often for something that I do at church - - I'm on the 1st service praise team and I am the leader for the evening prayer chain, etc.

My point is this - most people just do not realize how often they put information on the net that others can readily pick up.  Any time you volunteer for your system to be checked on a regular basis for updates or reminders on something, there are cookies saved from your life and what you do and what you like, etc.  Have any of you done any on line surveys - - guess what - - they were collecting information and NOT just what you gave them in answers - - they were connected to your computer for how long during the time you were answering their questions????  How many seconds do you think it takes to download a huge amount of your information?  

If you think that you can keep secrets - - think again.  The only thing that saves most of us is that we just are not important enough for anyone to actually DO ANYTHING with the information that they garner.  Welcome to the world of reality. 

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Some of us have received death threats in forums and chat rooms.  One family in N.J. was murdered in Islamic Ritual style after being threatened in a chat room.

I get angry, and publish profanity. I have recently cursed Allah & Moe in the most explicit possible terms.  I sure don't want my physical address associated with those posts! Neither do I want to be stuck with a $1000 fine.  

There is a great deal of international pressure to censor criticism of Islam.  The U.N. G.A. passed a resolution to that effect Dec. 24, '07.   Politicians like McCain & Obama want their critics silenced.  The Supreme Court  did nothing to protect us from McCain-Feingold.  We are threatened with the loss of our first amendment rights. We must prepare to take grass roots political action to prevent the imposition of censorship under the guise of protecting children from bullying.

 

 

Aside from the opportunity this will create for massive identity theft, it reminds me of gun registrations, which can be the first step to banning them.  First, they will say we have to use our real names but that they won't regulate speech, just like politicians talk about registering guns but not banning them out right (like a thief asking for the keys to your house but promising not to go in).  Then, once the registrations are securly in place, they will find it necessary to regulate or ban whatever it was that was registering.  So once everyone is using their real names (and getting their identities stolen), the government will begin to monitor what people are saying to make sure they are not criticizing the government, Islam, or saying anything they don't like.

Sorry, Ben.  But with 85 - 90% of our politicians being traitors, despots, globalists elitists, etc. and the judges the same and the President and his Cabinet, etc the same - - - the only way for us to change this is not going to be through our current corrupt system.  When "We, the People" finally get fed up enough and start voting, en masse, with our bullets - we might get somewhere.  We must start by purging our towns, then the cities and then the state governments and then move it on to DC.  I've said this before and I am ready whenever I see that the populace is in agreement and ready to actually DO something instead of just talking.  That, BTW is why our government doesn't consider us important enough to attend to - - just so much rhetoric and no DO.

 

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AmericanWarrior - It sounds like you did not read my posts.  I am already prepared to acknowledge monitoring - - they have electronic monitoring set to pick up certain words.  Much of my last post probably has those "key words" in it.  And the guns in this household are registered.  I'm not worried.  I am not such a fool as to give up my guns just because some despot says I must.  I will honor the 2nd Amendment and already know that my neighbors will as well.   So whoever they send to collect our guns will find themselves in a cross fire.  After the first few go down, it may be much more difficult for the enemy to find anybody fool enough to volunteer to come into our neighborhood to try again.  If the rest of you out there fortify your neighborhoods as well - then the issue becomes that the despots cannot fight all the gun owners (the federal Bureau, ATF says that there are over 300 MILLION registered guns in the US).  That makes us the only armed Nation on the planet and the very largest army ANYWHERE.  It's time we Americans stop letting the propaganda from the despots effect us.  We are the BOSSES.  The way our Declaration, Constitution and Bill of Rights was written - - and IF WE FOLLOW THEM - - We, the People are to tell the Government what to do and how to do it - - NOT the other way around.  That is why the 2nd Amendment was written in the first place!!!

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