Vitriol in my veins...

[alexpgp]

It wasn't enough to run across the following:

Operation TIPS, administered by the U.S. Department of Justice and developed in partnership with several other federal agencies, is one of the five component programs of the Citizen Corps. Operation TIPS will be a national system for reporting suspicious, and potentially terrorist-related activity. The program will involve the millions of American workers who, in the daily course of their work, are in a unique position to see potentially unusual or suspicious activity in public places.

While there's a part of me that would like to believe that this initiative is motivated by the best of intentions, there's another part of me that views the historical record and thinks that a national system such as this can all too easily become a convenient mechanism for creating the kind of atmosphere in this country that I only experienced as an outsider in the former Soviet Union.

What is even more interesting is the utter, complete lack of any coverage from so-called journalists, who are more interested in promoting their gang of thugs to be in charge of programs such as this one. The unpleasantness that Clinton arranged for his critics (tax audits, etc.) will seem a quaint memory once the folks in charge of this "Citizen Corps" get comfortable with the heft of the instrument.

In other news, the House has apparently passed a measure that provides for up to life imprisonment for computer hackers. Most folks will think this is a fine idea, although "hacker" is such an amorphous term. Will a reluctance to acquiesce to the rapacious intent of Big Computing (and Bid Entertainment) be considered grounds to be considered a "potential" hacker? or perhaps a hacker sympathizer?

As you can probably tell, I've been having a Really Bad Day.

Cheers...

Comments

[bandicoot.livejournal.com]

I've seen people get all excited about this, but it seems more like a terrorist-specific 911 number than anything else. Although one never knows when a government program will build and mushroom and transform into something else altogether...

[tamaraland.livejournal.com]

From TIPS, to the pack of Congressmen who are trying to shut down funding to PBS for having an HIV positive muppet to the ICC, the US Government is making me proud to be an expat marrying a dutchman.

[brenk.livejournal.com]

Scary, yeah, having spent a whole lot of time in the former USSR (including the trick of running a transistor radio down walls: feedback=somebody was listening). I have this horrible feeling that the famous Citizens Corps are even going to find it all fun. Also scary. Amateur James Bonds are a frightening thing.

The whole law enforcement world is busy trying to change its rules and to get around data protection and exchange issues - for the right reasons or the wrong ones depending on your perspective, as you say. On an international level (or at least of my Supercops from Lyon) the legal issues are huge and so far it's only individual countries like... er... yours who can get something pushed through. Little by little, though, the bilateral and multi-lateral agreements to exchange and process the 'data' (note inverted commas) will happen, soon followed by the international scene. Meaning a vast, unreliable mass of information. Ugh. So far, even the Web as an open source is bad enough as trying to distinguish 'reliable' from less so is no easy matter, but when Joe Public in general starts joining in even more...

Horrible, horrible thought. And on a practical level imagine what it's going to mean in terms of information analysts? Even with a whole fistful of dollars, where is George W going to find the people? They're already thin on the ground.

Mustn't rant. Hope today is better.