30,000 more signatures needed, then Obama will have to take a position on warrantless access to email and texts

boing
21

In an undisclosed location trying to re-grow their fingernails?

22

GnuPG is dying with everybody moving to Webmail. Even if I wanted to use it, almost nobody I know has a reasonable way to set it up. HTTPS everywhere is already starting. VPNs don’t help against this kind of attack, but can help against certain other kinds, it’s a tossup if they’re a win overall given their cost and complexity.

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23

Hey, Dick Cheney made SURE they had GREAT manicure and pedicure facilities at the Undisclosed Location. . . you’ll look MARVELOUS!!

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24

Where “Administration will have to take a position” means “some low level staffer will eventually pen a tangential response that doesn’t really address any of the issues.”

25

You have a point: I already assume that PGP itself is compromised since Symantec took it over. . . What we need is an app that generates random texts and emails. The old “Jam Echelon Day” writ large. . .

26

Let’s all do nothing then. That’s sure to be exactly as effective. FTFY.

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27

Where are the crowds of angry peasants with pitchforks and torches when you REALLY need one ??? (grin)

Have you met the Tea Party?

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28

Sorry :’( I keep forgetting we have a Special Abusive Relationship…

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29

Just like everything else :frowning:

30

Why, yes, I have. In fact, Guilty as charged. And as a long time Washingtonian, allow me to wax eloquent on the one distinguishing feature of Tea Party Rallies in DC, as opposed to other political rallies in DC.

  1. We pick up our trash. In fact, the place is usually CLEANER after we’ve been through: we pick up OTHERs trash, and carry trash bags with us.
  2. No random destruction during/after the rally. This happens quite a bit when protests against the World Bank/IMF/etc are in town, and most of the other left-of-center rallies leave everything: trash receptacles, light poles, Metro stations, covered in their stickers.

But do NOT take my word on it, look for photos. I’ve conveniently linked a comparison. . .

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2010/08/a-tale-of-two-rallies-on-the-mall-clean-conservatives-vs-filthy-libs-video/#!

31

PGP has sound fundamentals, I wouldn’t count it out yet, the problem is with key distribution and mail client integration. No major webmail provider supports it for various reasons, and that’s a huge blow for making it generally usable, because the majority of people use webmail these days.

If Google figured out some way to integrate it with Gmail (encryption/decryption handled by JS in your browser? JS in browsers has a pretty checkered history with security…), then this would become a much more reasonable solution. This would undermine Google’s business model though, so it’s probably not going to happen anytime soon, not unless they get really really mad at the NSA for spying on their internal networks.

32

Yes, I signed the petition. No, it’s probably not going to do anything right now. Yes, it’s still important to sign it, if only to keep this up in the public consciousness. At some point, all of the discontent, all the Occupy Wall Streets and petitions and Daily Shows and facebook posts will force the issue, one way or another. As frustrating as it is to be living here right now, think of how much worse it was living on a cotton plantation… or any other previously-accepted form of life.

Change happens. It’s just slow (until it isn’t).

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33

We’re certainly now in a position to prove to the White House that there isn’t significant momentum behind this, if we can’t even register a 100k signatures to a web petition promoted by the ACLU and the EFF.

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34

77217 so far. Not looking so good.
(And, yes, I’m one of them)

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35

Yes, I signed it. No, I don’t expect that to have any positive effect, except making the petition organizers look slightly less ineffective. My Congresscritter’s pretty good about privacy issues, which is not surprising since this is Silicon Valley. My Senators are Dianne Feinstein, who’s on the side of Evil rather than Good, and Barbara Boxer who’s much better, but pretty ineffective about reining in Feinstein.

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38

The reason why reasonable people often associate the Tea Party movement with violence is because Tea Party members and ‘spokespersons’ often embrace violent rhetoric and displays. As I am sure you know, the original Boston Tea Party incident was a non-violent protest action. However, the modern-day Tea Party as a whole eagerly embraces calls to violently overthrow of the federal government. The fact that it grew out of the same networks that fuel the Minuteman and paramilitary militia groups in this country (whose members brag about shooting illegal immigrants and have conducted high-profile terrorist operations and killed innocent U.S. civilians, respectively) adds to this impression. So does the fact that many Tea Party members bring firearms to public events.

Reasonable people in the U.S. at this moment in history are and, frankly should be, much more concerned that Tea Party members are willing to physically hurt people to accomplish ideological aims than Occupy protesters.

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39

Are you offended by people exercising their constitutional right to peacefully brandish their weapons? What are you insinuating?

41

If PGP was integrated into gmail you would use it?

Also, I’d like to add that perhaps the best thing we could do would be to sign ALL whitehouse.gov petitions. Every single one.

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42

I don’t know why people complain about you guys. I’m not the least bit threatened by a movement that’s so efficiently shepherded.

43

more signatures needed, then Obama will have to take a position on warrantless access to email and texts

Uh, hasn’t he already spoken to the issue several times? I know he’s spoken on the issue of the NSA, is his Electronic Communications Privacy Act position supposed to be any different?