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Nanny State

I Am Not Surprised

Jesse Walker | 6.23.2009 1:45 PM

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The frontrunner to be the next cyber security czar has the views on privacy that you'd expect from a czar.

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Jesse Walker is books editor at Reason and the author of Rebels on the Air and The United States of Paranoia.

Nanny StatePrivacy
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  1. Jeff P   16 years ago

    He's wearing a plaid tie with a striped shirt.

  2. mr simple   16 years ago

    FTA
    Given his role in REAL ID, Tom Davis would not be a good choice for privacy, which is something that President Obama specifically promised to protect in his remarks on the cyber security strategy," says Jim Harper

    Right. That's the promise Obama will keep.

  3. Pro Libertate   16 years ago

    What do you expect from a guy who used to hang out with Al Franken?

  4. monkey on juice   16 years ago

    Great; another czar - just what we need. We've now got more czars than the Soviet Union ever had. A privacy czar, a drug czar, a car czar...whats next, an interior decorating czar?

  5. Peter   16 years ago

    I first read it as views on piracy, so I was happily surprised by the article.

  6. John-David   16 years ago

    We've now got more czars than the Soviet Union ever had.

    ???

    Also, does this guy have a bad rug, cut his hair with a spoon, or simply sport a horrendous comb-over?

  7. Pro Libertate   16 years ago

    If everyone in government is a czar, who are the serfs? And what about the Patriarchy?

  8. monkey on juice   16 years ago

    BTW - I call dibbs on the position of hot lingerie model inspection czar.

  9. libertymike   16 years ago

    Just another republican party politician all too eager to continue to feed at the public trough. The fact that he mooched off of us for 14 years as a statist solon (redundant, yes, but okay in the service of alliteration)is an automatic disqualifier-for any position.

  10. R C Dean   16 years ago

    If everyone in government is a czar, who are the serfs?

    If you don't know who the rube serf is, then you are the rube serf.

  11. libertymike   16 years ago

    monkey on juice-

    Can I be the deputy hot lingerie model inspection czar?

  12. Episiarch   16 years ago

    If he had tapped a woman for czar (are there any female "czars" in our government?), would we refer to her as "czarina"?

    Otherwise, as per Jesse, color me unsurprised.

  13. Pro Libertate   16 years ago

    R C,

    Very well, I want to be a czar, then. I guess that explains the sudden explosion in the title.

  14. SugarFree   16 years ago

    whats next, an interior decorating czar?

    Sure. Go ahead a make fun, but the Interior Decorating Czar keeps disasters like this from happening.

  15. brotherben   16 years ago

    OOH OOH OOOOOH,

    I wanna be the beef curtains czar!

  16. SugarFree   16 years ago

    Too late, brotherben... you got assigned to be the Junk Tunnel Comptroller.

  17. brotherben   16 years ago

    Suge, no thanks. That job's the shits.

  18. Jeff P   16 years ago

    From now on, please refer to me as the Love Czar.

  19. brotherben   16 years ago

    When I grow up, I wanna be a rock n roll czar.

  20. Episiarch   16 years ago

    How far we've come since the days of "bikini inspector". You start out as a simple, bikini-inspecting civil servant and before you know it you're hot lingerie model czar.

  21. monkey on juice   16 years ago

    "How far we've come since the days of "bikini inspector". You start out as a simple, bikini-inspecting civil servant and before you know it you're hot lingerie model czar."

    You see...now thats change I can believe in.

  22. Enjoy Every Sandwich   16 years ago

    monkey on juice-BTW - I call dibbs on the position of hot lingerie model inspection czar.

    If the government takes over production of models a la GM, ya might wanna think twice...

  23. Pro Libertate   16 years ago

    I want to be Sea Czar.

  24. Warty   16 years ago

    Look at his eyes. They're dead.

  25. Citizen Nothing   16 years ago

    I come to bury Pro L, not to praise him.

  26. Bronwyn   16 years ago

    I'd like to be crowned the Czarina of Chocolate, so I can outlaw those disgusting blue M&Ms and bring back the good old-fashioned light browns.

  27. Rich   16 years ago

    Warty, they only look that way because the government is protecting his privacy.

  28. Nooge   16 years ago

    "Given his role in REAL ID, Tom Davis would not be a good choice for privacy, which is something that President Obama specifically promised to protect in his remarks on the cyber security strategy," says Jim Harper.

    Found the problem.

  29. 24AheadDotCom   16 years ago

    Put on your collective, tattered libertarian thinking cap and answer this: would RealID have succeeded as it has if we hadn't had so much IllegalImmigration? That's a yes or no question. To help you answer it, suppose that we had very little IllegalImmigration (noting that OpenBorders isn't the solution since the vast majority of Americans would oppose that.) If someone pushed RealID when we didn't have an IllegalImmigration problem, wouldn't it look a bit odd? (Once again: OpenBorders isn't the solution since the vast majority of Americans would oppose that.)

    Reason's policies have led to a backlash that led to RealID. And, they don't have the brainpower or the integrity to figure that out.

    P.S. In case anyone replies to this, their responses will almost assuredly be ad homs delivered through sockpuppets, thereby conceding my points and showing the cowardly, childish, anti-intellectual nature of libertarians.

  30. Pro Libertate   16 years ago

    Ah, I see that you wish to be the Mark Antony Czar, Citizen Nothing.

    The Lay Czar is still unclaimed.

  31. The Widow White   16 years ago

    Can I be the Buzz Czar? I'll bring snacks.

  32. Rich   16 years ago

    That's *Senator* Czar!

  33. Rich   16 years ago

    Who will step up as Bee Czar?

  34. plisade   16 years ago

    24Ahead,

    So you know we'll say that if we had open borders then there wouldn't be illegal immigration, thus no need for Real ID. And you say we can't have open borders because the people would oppose it. But you still want to say that the open borders policy we support leads to illegal immigration, and thus the call for Real ID, even though open borders is not possible.

    Somewhere along the line you learned to spot an ad hom argument. Good for you. But look up the term "non sequitur" then re-read your post.

  35. SugarFree   16 years ago

    Can the truth really be considered an ad hominem attack?

  36. hmm   16 years ago

    It's getting more and more important to make friends with the IT nerds and leech some info and how-tos.

    Anytime someone states something is a yes or no question they are incapable of defending their argument against what they know is most likely the next answer. It's fail from the get go.

    Fuck Real ID, fuck invasion of privacy, fuck this potential tard of a czar, just fuck.

  37. hmm   16 years ago

    Maybe they can get Joe "the plumber" to take the job. I hear the the internet is a series of tubes and plumbers know tubes. Then again so do prostitutes and they are already familiar with politicians and privacy.

  38. TrickyVic   16 years ago

    """would RealID have succeeded as it has if we hadn't had so much IllegalImmigration?"""

    Yes. It was/is/whatever important to keep terrorist from getting fake IDs.

    9/11 did more to support the RealID concept than illegal immigration ever will.

  39. Gimlet   16 years ago

    "Fuck Real ID, fuck invasion of privacy, fuck this potential tard of a czar, just fuck."

    Tard Czar. I could handle that.

  40. R C Dean   16 years ago

    Tard Czar.

    So close, Gimlet.

    I propose that, rather than calling all these jumped-up playground monitors "Czars", we refer to them as "Tards".

    Thus, we have a Drug Tard, an Energy Tard, etc.

  41. TrickyVic   16 years ago

    """"Fuck Real ID, fuck invasion of privacy,"""

    Sadly, we give willlingly via social networking sites.

    """Tard Czar. I could handle that."""

    Obama is playing that role in conjuction with his presidency.

  42. TrickyVic   16 years ago

    I like RC Dean's idea, if it catches on maybe people won't want the positions.

    Although, It gives new meaning to fucktard.

  43. monkey on juice   16 years ago

    "Tard Czar. I could handle that."

    Wouldn't that be Obama's job?

    (yeah Geithner, I'm looking at you...)

  44. brotherben   16 years ago

    p.s. ad-hominem tard?

  45. monkey on juice   16 years ago

    (damn you, TrickyVic...beat me to it)

  46. Derek Ashworth   16 years ago

    Goddammit, why does Obama always have to pick the biggest loser shit-heels from the Republican party to show his bigger-than-politics bipartisanship? Jim Leach. Tom Davis. Who's next, Virgil Goode? Bob Goodlatte? Fuck.

  47. 24AheadDotCom   16 years ago

    plisade writes: But you still want to say that the open borders policy we support leads to illegal immigration

    I'm sorry you're confused. Libertarians don't just advocate for an OpenBorders policy as a whole platform, all of which must be done at one time. What they advocate for is MassiveImmigration - including of the illegal variety - completely without making ending welfare a pre-condition. And, they do that by things like smearing and lying about those who support our laws. IOW, they support the current situation where a small number of elites does things that most Americans don't want and that has huge costs for 99% of Americans. They are, in effect, using force against the vast majority of Americans (i.e., MSM-distributed lies and smears).

    TrickyVic is correct to a certain extent, but concerns about terrorism that occurs inside the U.S. is largely not concerns about the home-grown variety; the 911 perps came here due to a lax VisaSystem.

  48. Plisade   16 years ago

    24 Ahead,

    It's difficult to avoid going ad hom on you. So, which came first, illegal immigration or Libertarian support of it? I have another homework assignment for you (though you disregarded the first one). Learn the difference between causality and correlation.

  49. troy   16 years ago

    Nobody has claimed the porno czar, the marijuana inspection czar, or the fried chicken czar I claim these.

  50. Troy   16 years ago

    And as you can see, I am not at all interested in the punctuation czar.

  51. Jonas   16 years ago

    from monkey on juice:
    A privacy czar, a drug czar, a car czar...whats next, an interior decorating czar?

    Sadly, I think some states actually already have these...

  52. TrickyVic   16 years ago

    """Nobody has claimed the porno czar, the marijuana inspection czar, or the fried chicken czar I claim these."""

    Bill Clinton beat ya to it.

  53. TrickyVic   16 years ago

    """TrickyVic is correct to a certain extent, but concerns about terrorism that occurs inside the U.S. is largely not concerns about the home-grown variety; the 911 perps came here due to a lax VisaSystem."""

    And some of the 9/11 crew did have drivers licences. I believe New Jersey was slammed for it.

    I do agree that the immigration issue helped keep the momentum going.

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