Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

EDITORIAL: Senators push app censorship
The Washington Times ^ | March 23, 2011 | The Washington Times

Posted on 03/24/2011 10:53:53 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks

A quartet of Democratic senators expressed out -rage Tuesday at the thought that Americans might object to being stopped and interrogated while going about their daily business. The hard-left solons - Frank R. Lautenberg of New Jersey, Harry Reid of Nevada, Charles E. Schumer of New York and Tom Udall of New Mexico - are pressuring technology companies to censor a popular software feature available for Android phones, Blackberries and iPhones that enables drivers to avoid a warrantless search by police during their drive home.

@-Text.normal:It wasn’t so long ago that “Papers, please” checkpoints could only be found in Eastern European countries under the thumb of the Soviet Union. They were tools of oppression designed to keep the populace in check. In 1990, the Supreme Court decided that such techniques could be used in the United States because of the “carnage” caused by drunk driving - the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures notwithstanding. The advent of smartphones has enabled drivers to note the locations of these stops and dispatch a warning notice to anyone who may be in the vicinity. It’s the digital equivalent of flashing one’s headlights to warn of an upcoming speed trap - a form of free speech as old as the automobile itself.

Mr. Reid, Mr. Schumer, Mr. Lautenberg and Mr. Udall don’t see it that way. They wrote a letter pressuring the chief executives of Apple, Google and Research in Motion (makers of the Blackberry) to “remove these applications from your store unless they are altered to remove the DUI/DWI checkpoint functionality.”

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: chuckschumer; franklautenberg; harryreid; tomudall
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-29 last
To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Apps on our smart phones is none of the business of Congress, You would think theses leftist democrats would at least be failure with the text of either the 1st or 4th amendment.

But leftist care not for speech nor rights, only the effectiveness of their power and control.


21 posted on 03/24/2011 11:26:44 AM PDT by Monorprise
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

tyrants just hate it when advancing technology renders them irrelevant


22 posted on 03/24/2011 11:32:14 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: hoosierham

The Statist’s answer to that would be to lower the DUI threshold to a BAC of .02 assuring more “bang for the buck”.


23 posted on 03/24/2011 11:41:34 AM PDT by WOBBLY BOB ( "I don't want the majority if we don't stand for something"- Jim Demint)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: hoosierham

“10 or 12 cops at $40 an hour overtime for 4? hours to catch maybe one drunk is real cost-effective. “

They had one near my house once and caught 42 people for various crimes, mostly driving without a license.

One guy said to me “There were so many Mexicans, I thought it was a day labor pickup point”. It seems illegals rarely have a license that matches an insurance card.


24 posted on 03/24/2011 11:44:43 AM PDT by AppyPappy (If you aren't part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

later


25 posted on 03/24/2011 11:50:45 AM PDT by preacher (A government which robs from Peter to pay Paul will always have the support of Paul.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Monorprise

The business of congress is largely ignored while congress searches endlessly for new excuses and ways to take away our ever dwindling supply of money and rights. Under the Federal Constitution of 1787 Congress should be concerned with neglected matters like:

* The wars and associated policy’s in: Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya.

* The gigantic 1.3+ trillion dollar federal deficit they have allowed to develop and their poultry efforts to cut that down by mere factions of a penny on the dollar.

* As Donald Trump and others have pointed out (and American business has felt for a great many decades) the trade policy & practices of the United States and our trading partners is anything but fair for Americans. Our businesses are excluded from foreign markets while our intellectual property is regularly stolen from us overseas. It is one of the prime duties of congress to stop this. Yet again Congress does little to nothing.

* The invasion of the South West is an ongoing and most pressing of concerns that congress should be dealing with, yet it does little to nothing.

* Like in our active wars both economic, and military we also have political wars of extortion being waged against us by country’s like North Korea attempting to make the American Taxpayer foot the bill of their country in exchange for peace. This is just another insult against America that Congress continues to neglect in favor of other less constitutionally authorize matters.

* The Federal reserve continue to utilize congresses coining money capability to recklessly bail out bad banks and company’s while inflating our currency thus taxing our people. This matter too is something congress constitutionally should be addressing.


America faces a great many threats from almost all directions our lives, liberty, and property are threatened, while congress wastes valuable time and our resources attempting to deal with the domestic matters constitutionally the province of our States if not reserved to our individuals.

Believe It or not We NEED a Federal government, not two redundant State Governments much less a Nanny.


26 posted on 03/24/2011 12:07:17 PM PDT by Monorprise
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Lautenberg is terminally stupid.

Publication is a REQUIREMENT of DUI/DWI checkpoint! They HAVE to be publicly state in order to be valid.


27 posted on 03/24/2011 12:09:54 PM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Navy Patriot

The USSC made it the rule.

They also have to have WRITTEN guidlines in addition to the public notice requirement.

The public has to have the right to avoid per the USSC.


28 posted on 03/24/2011 12:13:18 PM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: longtermmemmory
The public has to have the right to avoid per the USSC.

That's the way I would interpret it.

I would view the attempt to limit "publishing" (I consider the app to be a form of publishing) as contempt of SCOTUS, common among DemoRats.

29 posted on 03/24/2011 12:57:32 PM PDT by Navy Patriot (Sarah and the Conservatives will rock your world.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-29 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson