By Bedford After a series of recent reports exposed the FBI’s fleet of domestic spy planes, Congress is demanding answers. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, a Republican, wrote a letter calling on FBI Director James Comey to give the public the skinny on how much he is invading Americans’ privacy with his fleet of small spy planes….
By Casey Harper Majority Leader Mitch McConnell suffered a serious embarrassment over the weekend when Congress let certain key provisions of the Patriot Act expire at 12:01 a.m. Monday morning. At the end of a chaotic weekend and with a new bill likely to pass in the next few days addressing the vast and complex federal surveillance…
By Matthew Crist If you owned a private business and 89% of your customers did not approve of how you ran the business, did not like your product, and did not like you, then you would promptly go out of business. Furthermore, if you continually missed deadlines, harmed your clients, and ignored your clients requests…
By Rachel Stoltzfoos Republican senator and presidential candidate Rand Paul vowed Saturday to force the Patriot Act to expire Sunday night. The Senate will reconvene with just hours to either extend the law used by the NSA to justify bulk collection of domestic phone records, or to pass the USA Freedom Act, which would stop…
You Should Check Out Voice & Exit Conference in Austin: Here’s 7 Reasons Why By Avens O’Brien This June 20th & 21st, a large community of innovative, creative individuals will be gathering in Austin, Texas to attend the Voice & Exit festival. Here’s seven reasons you should get your ticket, book your flight and “Exit”…
By Matthew Crist Aesop’s fable of the Tortoise and the Hare has something to teach us about the current showdown between Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul regarding the PATRIOT Act and USA FREEDOM Act. Back in April, I wrote about Mitch McConnell’s attempt to squeak through an extension of the PATRIOT Act. Since that article, a great deal…
By Ramez Naam Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking, and Bill Gates have recently expressed concern that development of AI could lead to a ‘killer AI’ scenario, and potentially to the extinction of humanity. None of them are AI researchers or have worked substantially with AI that I know of. (Disclosure: I know Gates slightly from my…
By Rachel Stoltzfoos The Senate blocked reauthorization of the Patriot Act early Saturday, and left for Memorial Day recess without a clear plan to reauthorize the bill before it expires May 31. Senators rejected both a two-month extension of the bill the National Security Agency uses to justify its bulk collection of phone data, and a reform…
By Ivan Plis A recent report on The Guardian’s “Tehran Bureau” blog suggests that young Iranians are starting to bypass Internet controls and find love on the popular dating app Tinder. The article, written by an anonymous British-Iranian, chronicles his attempts to meet women using Tinder during a two-week visit to Tehran. In that timespan, he finds…
Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky took to the floor yesterday to mount an epic filibuster in defense of civil liberties. Paul’s 11 hour speech ended just before midnight, and placed him center stage in the debate against the NSA’s unconstitutional warrantless wiretapping programs. Paul was joined in his filibuster by some Democrats who helped him…