Posted by
KsReaganite on Tuesday, February 24, 2009 12:33:26 AM
Usually a bright fellow, Texas Senator John Cornyn has evidently learnt little from the debacle of 2006 and 2008. This should give us pause since he is the guy in charge of leading the Senate Republicans back to the majority in 2010. With libertarians simply abandoning the GOP in the last two cycles, young techies laughing at its utter ignorance of basic modern technology, and small government types shaking their heads, you would thick that the campaign chief of Senate Republicans will get a clue.
Well, think again. Having little to do other than run around aimlessly looking for good candidates, John Cornyn has come up with the brilliant idea to force Internet Service Providers of all kinds-even the smallest start up ones-to keep log in records for all their users for two years (right now it is 90 days). His reasoning for the so called Internet Safety Act? Well, to help law enforcement of course, never mind that no major national law enforcement organization has remotely called for it. Cheap popularity from the MADD kinds, a kind word or two from ultra feminist groups, free publicity, and a dangerous encroachment of civil liberties..that’s all the Cornyn bill does. It will also push up the cost of broadband access specially in rural areas, making the digital divide wider between Blue and Red America, and further turn off the tech savvy young crowd. Barack Obama is raising a toast to John Cornyn right now.
If Cornyn keeps on pushing the bill, it is he who needs a challenger in the primary and deserves to get beaten and never be elected for any other job outside of the county commission in whichever county he resided in Texas.
Whatever party you belong to, please call your senator and ask him/her to vigorously oppose John Cornyn’s Internet Safety Bill of 2009. The government, even with all its noble intentions, does not need to know where you and I spend our hours surfing the internet. There are strong existing laws to track those down who would mean others harm, and prosecute them. Crafting fancy new laws that gut constitutional safeguards, do little to improve public safety, and serve as campaign props for lazy politicians and lazier prosecutors, is good for Senator Cornyn and bad for the Constitution.