White House Reiterates Plans To Veto CISPA In Its Current Form; Though For The Wrong Reasons

from the amendments-not-convincing dept

As I'm sure you remember, the House passed CISPA with a few amendments -- some of which may have limited the possible abuses, while at the same time expanding the scope. Right before the bill went up for a vote, the White House stated that it would veto CISPA, if it got to the President's desk. It appears that, even with the amendments, the White House is still not willing to support the bill. White House "Cybersecurity Coordinator" Howard Schmidt appeared on CSPAN reiterating the White House's objections to CISPA, specifically calling out the problematic privacy issues.

That said, the White House is still supporting the Lieberman cybersecurity bill in the Senate, which isn't quite as bad as some of the other proposals, but still has plenty of problems. And, most importantly, still doesn't include any clear explanation for why it's needed. It's bizarre and troubling that no one in the federal government seems willing to provide a real justification for any of these bills others than "oooooh, it's scary out there on the internet!!"
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: cispa, cybersecurity, veto, white house


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Privacy is NOT a crime, 4 May 2012 @ 8:48am

    So Obama uses "haggling" as a tactic against the people.

    The option proposed was to kill you.... But that's extreme , We will just torture you instead.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 4 May 2012 @ 9:19am

    So from this statement from OMB:

    "However, for the reasons stated herein, if H.R. 3523 were presented to the President, his senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill."

    You conclude, "the White House stated that it would veto CISPA, if it got to the President's desk"

    It's like you took Journalism 101 from Joseph Goebbels. Funny how the C-span (real journalists) have a different take: "The White House recently announced it may veto the House's key cybersecurity bill, which was authored by Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), and passed in late April. "

    What you also ignore is the fact that the bill in it's current form (which the President's advisors would recommend vetoing) is very far from a finished product. The bill they may veto is NOT the final bill. This really amounts to election year grandstanding. Of course they can quiet critics by saying they may veto this bill because they know full well that this bill won't be the bill that hits the President's desk. I'd look for something very similar to CISPA to pass right before winter recess when all of the election year bullshit has ended.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 4 May 2012 @ 9:27am

      Re:

      " I'd look for something very similar to CISPA to pass right before winter recess when all of the election year bullshit has ended."

      I'd look for another internet shit storm around the same time.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      John Fenderson (profile), 4 May 2012 @ 2:17pm

      Re:

      It's like you took Journalism 101 from Joseph Goebbels.


      Thanks for tossing that in. Your post started off looking like it was going to make a point worth hearing and I was planning on reading it. I'm glad you made that comment early, to tip me off that the rest of your thoughts aren't worth reading before I wasted the time to actually read them.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        abc gum, 4 May 2012 @ 4:15pm

        Re: Re:

        I didn't realize Glenn Beck read this blog.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Jeremy Sutton, 5 May 2012 @ 8:56am

        Re: Re:

        You posted exactly what I was thinking, John. I clicked report as soon as I read that first sentence and didn't bother reading the rest. Just another Anonymous Coward (emphasis on coward) whom gives us an insight into the kind of people supporting copyright and liberty crushing lawmaking. All he/she succeeded in doing was to reaffirm my decision to continue boycotting them, content in the knowledge that no matter what they say or do, there is absolutely nothing they can do about it. It's so reassuring to know their days are numbered. Viva la revolución!

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    rubberpants, 4 May 2012 @ 9:21am

    Reasons

    1. It's an election year and this is a way to be seen "doing something."
    2. "Cybersecurity" contractors are a good source of campaign contributions and cushy post-public jobs for reps and staffers alike.
    3. To try and prevent/prosecute the next Wikileaks or other online data leaks of politically damaging information
    4. Both parties agree on it
    5. It falls under the cynical umbrella of "protecting the children"
    6. It's unlikely to actually fix anything so it will no doubt need to be "shored up" in the future, giving further opportunities to be seen doing something and give/recieve favors.
    7. The public is largely unaware and uninformed on these issues.

    Given the above, some form of this bill passing is as inevitable as a Techdirt troll coming back after proclaiming that they are done with this site forever.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 4 May 2012 @ 9:39am

    Liars, damned liars and politicians.

    Obama May 2012: "Vorsicht! Halt CISPA Immediately!! Election ahead!!"

    Obama December 2012: "Achtung! Election won!! Full speed into FREEDOMSUPERCISPA!! Hey, count your blessings - the other side wanted to gas you and then take all your money - we just take way your rights and then take all your money!"

    Resistance is futile.

    That's all.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      gorehound (profile), 4 May 2012 @ 9:53am

      Re: Liars, damned liars and politicians.

      Resistance is not futile ! It will grow and grow as more become aware of what is going on.And more people will in time.Revolution or Big Changes take time to happen.
      A lot of people in this Country are getting very angry at Washington and these people are from all sides of the Political Spectrum.
      Righties & Lefties hate being controlled and a large percentage of all Citizens are not happy with the Government.
      Internet gives Washington the Cancer a good excuse for taking even more Rights away from Citizens.
      We have Patriot Act,NDAA, and we have these bozos who lie and swear that we do not ever torture people.They even debate Waterboarding and stuff like that is not Torturing someone.
      Many of us realize that when you put all these losses of Rights together they add up to a very bad picture.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 4 May 2012 @ 10:11am

        Re: Re: Liars, damned liars and politicians.

        When are the sheeple going to realize that all this right and left garbage is just a smoke screen for fascism?

        Politics in the US (and many other countries) has been completely co-opted by business dollars and businesses rule the peoples' lives through sham politics and sham politicians and by stoking distractions while they rob people blind.

        The whole caveman left/right fer us/agin us game these days is just a part of a ploy to keep the sheeple distracted while they're robbed of everything by (and enslaved by) the Oligarchs.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 4 May 2012 @ 9:48am

    What really exposes what this bill is about is the fight over disagreements in the different versions of the bill.

    Republicans in the house (and a lot of republicans in the senate to) strongly oppose the Lieberman version of the bill, specifically because it would add federal cyber security standards for businesses to adhere to in order to protect their data better.

    Why do they oppose the security standards? Because it's a 'job killing big government regulation' on businesses in their own words.

    So... how exactly can CISPA protect us from cyber security attacks if big businesses with lots of data about consumers on their servers (the kind of data CISPA is met to protect) continue to have weak security guarding that information because the businesses decide it's just too expense to spend the extra money protecting it properly?

    Sure, it might make it a bit easier AFTER a cyber attack for the government to get the information necessary from those companies to find out who did it, but it won't stop the attack from happening in the first place! And really, if a big corporation is hacked and has lots of data stolen do you really think they'd tell the federal government "we're not giving you information you need to catch the hackers who did this to us" without CISPA being passed?

    To me, this all looks like a blatant attempt by some big businesses to shift blame for any cyber attacks away from the business being attacked and onto the government, with as little work for the business as possible. That way if a company gets attacked they can point to CISPA and say "it's the governments fault for not stopping them, we've been sharing lots of information with them to prevent something like this from happening".

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 4 May 2012 @ 10:23am

    Bad law vetoed by the right or wrong reason, I don't care as long as it's vetoed.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Chilly8, 5 May 2012 @ 3:17am

    CISPA is very much like one law in one alternate history timeline, where fascists take over America. Their "Enemies Of The State Act" and CISPA are quite similar. Both provide for complete government monitoring of the Internet and both allow the government to silence its critics.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    fjpoblam, 5 May 2012 @ 7:03am

    I don't fully understand your title

    I took the link, hoping for an explanation. You mention, "for the wrong reasons". What, in detail, are the "wrong reasons"?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anon, 5 May 2012 @ 4:31pm

    The cake is a lie >:O

    Obama is going to pass CISPA. Remember when he said that he will veto NDAA? Well he did, and he signed/pass the NDAA. What makes people think that he won't sign it? It's like believing a lie. CISPA is going to make it easier for the United States government to know everything about you. If they don't like you because of your political views, who you vote for, if you believe in conspiracy theories, ext. They can always always use the NDAA bill and assassinate you. People of all ages need to wake up and look at what the United States Government is doing and compare it to Nazi Germany. America is much like Nazi Germany now because people are dumb and don't understand what is actually happening and not realizing that this is a Government take over.

    U.S.A
    FEMA camps
    Re-Education camps
    False Flag
    Monitoring
    surveillance
    President: Fascist & Socialist
    Secret Prisons
    People spying and reporting on their neighbors.
    Assassinations
    Black Bagging (Kidnapping)
    The list goes on...
    Just like Nazi Germany, Hitler had people bagged or killed if they did not agree with him. He had concentration camps (FEMA camps USA) he had camps that people go their not liking Hitler or not know who he is and after their out they loved him as if he was their hero. Hitler did false flag (9/11 USA) to go to war. Hitler told People to spy and report their neighbors if they feel they are a threat. (The U.S Gov is doing the same thing).

    I highly encourage every one to look around and look at back at history.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      McLovin, 5 May 2012 @ 6:36pm

      Re: The cake is a lie >:O

      Totally agree.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 6 May 2012 @ 4:09pm

      Re: The cake is a lie >:O

      soooo, you have internet access in your fortified redoubt in Idaho?? Better stock up on tinfoil along with more ammo

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    BobJones123, 7 May 2012 @ 8:34pm

    The NDAA-style Veto

    I wonder if Obama will give CISPA the same type of veto that he promised to place on the NDAA: aka "I really oppose this bill that I'm now signing into law."

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.