Re: Feinstein wants controls on Internet, Books

[Alan Olsen <alano@teleport.com>]

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>From: Eric Murray <ericm@lne.com>
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>Subject: Re: Feinstein wants controls on Internet, Books
>To: tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)
>Date: Sun, 28 Jul 1996 11:17:38 -0700 (PDT)
>Cc: cypherpunks@toad.com
>In-Reply-To: <ae20e54404021004a690@[205.199.118.202]> from "Timothy C. May"
at Jul 29, 96 02:26:17 am
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>Timothy C. May writes:
>> 
>> 
>> One of my senators, Senator Dianne Feinstein, is now arguing on CNN for
>> controls on information put on the Internet, on censorship of books and
>> articles describing how pipe bombs work, and for making it easier to get
>> wiretaps against those suspected of committing thought crimes.
>> 
>> One or two more major incidents on top of the recent ones (World Trade
>> Center, Oklahoma City, Dharan, TWA 800, and Olympic Village) and I suspect
>> Congress will simply vote to repeal the Bill of Rights and just be done
>> with this whole experiment in liberty.
>
>Yes, but it won't be nearly that blatant.  In classic Orewllian
>Doublespeak, it'll be called the "Terrorist Victims Bill
>of Rights and Freedom of Information Act" and will merely
>'abridge' the Bill of Rights with the "right" of the government
>to investigate, wiretap, arrest and detain without trial
>any suspected "terrorists" and "drug kingpins".
>
>Cancelling the Bill of Rights would be too obvious, and probably
>isn't the outright goal of any but a few extremists in government.
>Rather, the majority of bureaucrats/elected officials want to
>redefine the Rights to only apply to "good citizens", for somewhat
>varying definitions of "good".  "They" won't suddenly stage a fascist
>coup, instead it will (and has been) a long step-by-step process.
>I don't think that most policy-makers are even aware
>of what they're doing (DiFi certainly isn't) they're
>just responding to preceived public pressure and trying
>to stay elected.
>
>The ugliest phrase in American lexicon: "There oughta be a law".
>
>
>
>-- 
>Eric Murray  ericm@lne.com  ericm@motorcycle.com  http://www.lne.com/ericm
>PGP keyid:E03F65E5 fingerprint:50 B0 A2 4C 7D 86 FC 03  92 E8 AC E6 7E 27 29 AF
>
>
---
Alan Olsen -- alano@teleport.com -- Contract Web Design & Instruction
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  "We had to destroy the Internet in order to save it." - Sen. Exon
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