CONGRESS BERATES HOMELAND SECURITY WHILE REFUSING TO PASS DATA PROTECTION LEGISLATION

While it is completely justified that the U.S. Congress should attack the Department of Homeland Security for 844 cybersecurity mishaps over the past two years, it is also this esteemed body that has refused to bring to the American public user-friendly legislation that will protect the individual’s name and personal data. More on this later. In an InformationWeek article, Jim Langevin, (D-R.I.) chairman of the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity and Science and Technology, says these security leaks are “one of the most critical issues confronting the country…” On the other hand, Bush is pushing for additional clout to do more of the same surveillance conducted by the NSA in the past which ended up spying on Americans’ phone calls. We’ve just learned that the NSA spying was much broader than admitted by the administration, and now Bush wants to bypass FISA again. I plan a post on this recent development by next week. Whether it is the NSA, Homeland Security, the FBI, or whatever agency pops up next looking into the innocent lives of our citizens, it is obvious that the infrastructure of this administration has become obsessed with turning this country into another Big Brother state as depicted in George Orwell’s 1984. Any intelligent human being knows that every country must do its share of spying to protect its security, but in the past it has always been directed toward the bad guys. What is needed is a law that will be the bulwark of human rights in the protection of individual privacy. Congress won’t do it; they are pathetically mired in debate they say is over how to protect their constituents, but it really is about how not to curb business interests.