FC: John Ashcroft's unintentional definition of irony

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Here's something I wrote on Ashcroft's privacy stance when he was appointed:
http://www.politechbot.com/p-01607.html

It's tempting to over-simplify and say he was great then and awful now, but 
Ashcroft's record in Congress was hardly spectacular:
http://www.politechbot.com/p-01114.html

Also remember that Bill Clinton and Janet Reno were around in the late 
1990s -- which is one big reason then-senator Ashcroft was railing against 
the Justice Department.

-Declan

---

From: "Paul \"Evil Genius\" Music" <evlpawl () cox net>
To: "DeClan" <declan () well com>
Subject: Senator Ashcroft unintentionally defines Irony
Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2002 13:22:53 -0600
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
        boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0020_01C29485.C2873FC0"
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal

[Senator Ashcroft takes issue with administration views on the Internet
and the use of encryption technology.]

. . . . . . . The Clinton administration would like the Federal government 
to have the capability to read any international or domestic computer 
communications. The FBI wants access to decode, digest, and discuss 
financial transactions, personal e-mail, and proprietary information sent 
abroad -- all in the name of national security.

. . . . This proposed policy raises obvious concerns about Americans' 
privacy, in addition to tampering with the competitive advantage that our 
U.S. software companies currently enjoy in the field of encryption 
technology. Not only would Big Brother be looming over the shoulders of 
international cyber-surfers, but the administration threatens to render our 
state-of-the-art computer software engineers obsolete and unemployed.

More:
 <http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/itgic/1097/ijge/gj-7.htm>http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/itgic/1097/ijge/gj-7.htm




-------------------------------------------------------------------------
POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list
You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice.
To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html
This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/
Recent CNET News.com articles: http://news.search.com/search?q=declan
-------------------------------------------------------------------------