Thread: capps 2
View Single Post
Old 01-12-2004, 05:50 PM   #5 (permalink)
nanofever
Huzzah for Welcome Week, Much beer shall I imbibe.
 
Location: UCSB
The January issue of Wired had a pretty cool article about this and why it is a horrible idea. Also, props to Wired for putting their magazines on-line in full.

"Big Brother's Keep

Beware a good PR man with a cause. Bill Scannell, an Austin, Texas, flack and self-proclaimed media whore, blew the whistle on JetBlue after it shared 5 million customer records for a test of passenger-tracking software. The airline's apology was the latest victory for Scannell, a former Army intelligence officer whose stint in 1980s Eastern Europe made him passionate about privacy. It was purely personal until last spring, when he declared war on Capps II, a homeland security program that surveils air passengers. When Delta agreed to test it, Scannell created www.boycottdelta.org and www.dontspyon.us. The goal: keeping our records off the record.

WIRED: Why take on Capps II?

SCANNELL: I read about Capps II and completely lost it. I started to think, well, what can I do? From a PR point of view I thought, man, how stupid can Delta be? They're out there on their own.

So you threw a boycott. Did anyone come?
I received over 17,000 emails supporting the boycott, and at least three Fortune 500 companies stopped using Delta as a preferred carrier. The airline's stock stagnated. The secret with Boycott Delta and now Don't Spy On Us is that we use monosyllables, a lot of humor, and a lot of nastiness. But it's 2004, so have a good team of lawyers to check your copy.

As a former soldier, does it feel unpatriotic to go after the government?
I had a sit-down meeting with [Homeland Security chief privacy officer] Nuala O'Connor Kelly in which she said, "You know, you're widely feared and hated in Homeland Security, but everyone has to admit that everything you have written has turned out to be true." One of the things that came out of the Delta situation was that I got adopted by all sorts of different groups. Liberals immediately assume I'm one of them because I'm beating up on the Bush administration. But I am now officially a poster child for the libertarians and the ultra-conservatives. The day [conservative activist] Paul Weyrich called to tell me what a fine patriotic American I was you could have knocked me over with a feather.

OK, but Capps II is just the government's way of trying to protect us, right?
It makes flying more dangerous. You've created a system that can be gamed. You send some people through, and if they're green, those are the people you wire up with explosives. For $150 you can buy yourself a good photo ID. Should there be an actual bad-guy watch list with 400 names on it? Sure. But Dr. Evil is not going to be flying under "Evil, Doctor" in seat 8B eating a special meal. I don't see why 19 mass murderers should make 280 million people into a bunch of raving, drooling-at-the-mouth lunatics. People are happy to fly naked, cathetered, and chained if they think that this will make them safer. It will not.

And if it could?
Some people are willing to give up their freedom and privacy for the chance to win a Snickers bar or a coupon for 25 percent off at Target. And you have the perfect right to make that choice. In the JetBlue case, you didn't have a choice. Don't decide for me. Once you do that, I'm going to get out my big can of you-know-what and cause some trouble."

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1...art.html?pg=11
__________________
I'm leaving for the University of California: Santa Barbara in 5 hours, give me your best college advice - things I need, good ideas, bad ideas, nooky, ect.

Originally Posted by Norseman on another forum:
"Yeah, the problem with the world is the stupid people are all cocksure of themselves and the intellectuals are full of doubt."
nanofever is offline  
 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360