So, where was this guy when the Patriot Act was passed?

[justalurkr]

J. Grant, one the creators behind my new favorite webcomic, went on a rant this morning (or whenever he writes his blog portion of the post.) Future readers may need to back up to the 6/10/2013 strip about lonesome losers cleaning guns and scroll down to the blog post.

The focus of Mr. Grant's ire is the recent revelations about NSA programs, specifically PRISM, which I'll admit to not understanding quite a clearly as I do "phone record metadata." Why do I understand phone record metadata? Because it's what I use every single day to troubleshoot subscriber tickets. The friendly voice answering your call about your phone service at any wireless carrier has access to your metadata. Of course, we ask at the top of a call if we have your permission to use data specific to you (though we mean it to market new goods and services.)

Of course, the government asked when they ran the Patriot Act up the flagpole and everyone saluted. Me, I remember a lot of shouting down of mealy-mouthed civil rights people who did object because we hadda catch bad guys!

Anyway, my point is that (a) if you didn't see this coming with the passage of the Patriot Act, you weren't paying attention; (b) if you expected Obama or any other administration following the Bush crowd to do things differently with respect to the Patriot Act, you're either too young or too naive and I'll give you maybe one more administration before you get it and (c) the phone calls at least shouldn't worry you because all metadata tells the government is the same thing it tells me: who made a call at a specific time in a general area of a specific market. It gives them a place to start looking for bad guys. Federal and local governments have had permission to seek warrants for phone tapping through CALEA since years before the Patriot Act was even a fever dream.

Comments

[captain-tiv.livejournal.com]

I'm thoroughly ticked about this. I said this was what they were doing way back in 2001 when the Patriot Act was passed. That act is unconstitutional (don't care if the Supreme Court has said it was or not, that's what I'm saying).

[justalurkr.livejournal.com]

I had a bad feeling in 2001. I've never read the Patriot Act, but had a strong feeling that if it was equipped to do what they wanted it to do in terms of detecting terrorist communication before it was too late, it had to be grossly invasive. Ergo, no on who voted for it could possibly have read it, or they wouldn't have put their name on it.

I am intrigued by the opinion of a libertarian that I work with who says that the act just brought existing legislation into the 21st century, specifically the one that set up the FISA courts (the secret court that pretty much rubber stamps anything the the government feels is necessary for national security) 35 years ago. Well, that legislation and some stuff from 1986.

In other words, the government has had implicit power to do pretty much whatever it thinks is necessary to stop terrorism in the US since 1978, as long as it can get a warrant from the FISA courts, which turns out not to be that big a challenge. The Patriot Act simply included cell phones and electronic communication on the first iteration, then conversations where one party isn't in the USA or sponsored by a specific government in subsequent amendments.

As for Mr. Grant's outrage that the President actually tried to justify it, I remain unsurprised. I recall cringing every time I saw a "Hope and Change" logo in the first campaign; I've been through too many of these guys (starting with Carter) swearing to God and three other White men that this time it will be different and they're totally going to change the way Washington operates to do anything else when a New Guy talks change. Or, I had no expectations of Obama actually closing Gitmo, let alone not taking advantage of the statutes in the Patriot Act.