Re: EFF on why they did it.

David Lesher writes:

> > Paid for "by the government"?!!  And just where does the EFF think the  
> > government gets its money?  
> 
> One difference -- the Hill must allocate money for "paid for by the
> government" as compared to "just rape the switch designer" financing.
> 
> No money, not wiretaps. That may {or may not} limit the effect of FBI
> Wiretap, depending on how [much/little] the Hill loosens the
> pursestrings.

It's certainly a good start, but the government *does* have other money.
For instance, when Clipper was first announced, they said they wouldn't
need Congressional permission, because they were paying for it out of the
DoJ Super Forfeiture Fund, which had about $2B in money stolen from
users of politically incorrect substances.  I realize that doesn't go very
far when you're talking about restructuring the Global Information 
Infrastructure.  But it's a lever to get stuff started, then they can
go demanding tax money because you *can't* shut down the Phone Companies!

		Bill

In article <9408182314.AA22475@anchor.ho.att.com>,
bill.stewart@pleasantonca.ncr.com +1-510-484-6204 <wcs@anchor.ho.att.com> wrote:
>David Lesher writes:
>> No money, not wiretaps. That may {or may not} limit the effect of FBI
>> Wiretap, depending on how [much/little] the Hill loosens the
>> pursestrings.
>
>It's certainly a good start, but the government *does* have other money.

Indeed.  I'd really like to see the wording about how they actually need
 to be paid for: namely, will allowing tariffs to be raised by RBOCs
 count as "paying for it"?

They could spend the money by doing two things:

	- Mandating the money be spent (the DT bill)
	- and then allowing the RBOCs to increase their tariffs.

Presto!  We've paid for the mechanisms, but not through the federal
 budgets.  The RBOCs have been pushing for high bandwidth R&D increases
 of their general tariffs for a really long time, so I could certainly
 see them playing along as long as there's room for other R&D in there.

Just a thought...
-- 
L. Todd Masco  | "Cowboy politicians sucking up to the aristocracy, not
cactus@bb.com  |  even sure if they like democracy..."  - TR-I