From: John Francis
On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 09:57:45PM +0200, AlunFoto wrote:
>
> So it's on that background I'm a bit puzzled as to why this (legal)
> bill emerges now. It made me wonder if someone, somewhere, perceive
> the current situation much more threatening (to the US) than I do from
> up here in the Frostpit...
I think you're making more of this than it warrants.
While it's possible that this is a blatant powergrab by extremists in
the government, this view is largely espoused by the same folks who,
six months ago, were claiming that GW was going to invoke some wartime
emergency powers to suspend the constitution so he could serve a third
(and fourth, and ...) term in office.
My take in it is that it probably started out as a response to some
earlier attempt to coordinate interception of VOIP calls or the like,
where it was found that existing legislation didn't really address
the issue (having mostly been written before the internet came along,
let alone VOIP, text messaging, and so forth). Then the lawyers got
hold of it, and the scope was broadened excessively so that almost
any forseeable circumstance would be covered.
The wording of the proposed bill is rather troublesome in parts, but
mostly it doesn't offer any new powers that are not already available
to the president in a declared emergency. And any extensions will
need to stand up to constitutional challenge before the supreme court,
which has generally not been over-eager to favour imperial presidency.
Have to read the ENTIRE text of the bill. Somewhere in the swampland
section, in that small fine print, somebody's getting a payoff.
Might not even be in there yet. Maybe they're planning to wait until the
bill is passed and add it in during the conference, just before the
final voice vote to approve the conference report ... but some big
telecommunications corporation is getting something they want out of it.
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