Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later…

With the government’s insatiable thirst for more power and control, it was eventually going to collide with the ultimate freedom of expression for American citizens. That being the Internet. And now thanks to some clueless Republicans (an oxymoron if there ever was one), we have a Porkulus-sized bill that, if passed, would make everyone guilty of any crime the government could think up off of the top of their heads.

While past legislation that has been passed regarding the online world have been limited in scope (due to the more limited technology of the time), what is being proposed here is straight out of Maoist China or 1984.

Courtesy of cNet (Hat tip: Red State)

Bill proposes ISPs, Wi-Fi keep logs for police

Republican politicians on Thursday called for a sweeping new federal law that would require all Internet providers and operators of millions of Wi-Fi access points, even hotels, local coffee shops, and home users, to keep records about users for two years to aid police investigations.

The legislation, which echoes a measure proposed by one of their Democratic colleagues three years ago, would impose unprecedented data retention requirements on a broad swath of Internet access providers and is certain to draw fire from businesses and privacy advocates.

“While the Internet has generated many positive changes in the way we communicate and do business, its limitless nature offers anonymity that has opened the door to criminals looking to harm innocent children,” U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, said at a press conference on Thursday. “Keeping our children safe requires cooperation on the local, state, federal, and family level.”

Joining Cornyn was Texas Rep. Lamar Smith, the senior Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, who said such a measure would let “law enforcement stay ahead of the criminals.”

Two bills have been introduced so far–S.436 in the Senate and H.R.1076 in the House. Each of the companion bills is titled “Internet Stopping Adults Facilitating the Exploitation of Today’s Youth Act,” or Internet Safety Act.

Each contains the same language: “A provider of an electronic communication service or remote computing service shall retain for a period of at least two years all records or other information pertaining to the identity of a user of a temporarily assigned network address the service assigns to that user.”

Granted, the actual mission of this proposal is totally unworkable, as it is 1) 100% unconstitutional and 2) would be impossible to implement in any workable way. But what it would do is to gum up the works, add more layers to the bureaucracy and end up having scores of innocent (and non-tech savvy users) be targeted and worse by law enforcement agencies.

Imagine if you will, someone researching the history of The Third Reich and accidentally clicking into a Nazi hate-group site, or someone researching breast cancer and stumbling into an adult site with questionable content and then hear a “friendly” knock on the door by the local cop shop. These are the type of stories that are inevitable when such poorly-thought out and overreaching policy is passed off as “security”.

Not to mention that mountain of paperwork and costs that would accrue to ISPs and other entities by having to comply with such heavy-handed rules and regulations. A shame that these same politicians are not as aggressive when it comes to border enforcement or even filling potholes. No, just come up with another Orwellian bill that is “for the children” (Marxist Cloak Word #1) and wrap in a pretty package. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

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