File Sharing — Harmful to Children and a Threat to National Security 342
jkrobin writes to mention that a recent report from the US Patent office calls peer-to-peer file sharing harmful to children and a threat to national security. "Interestingly, the report makes numerous references to RIAA and MPAA legal actions against file actions, as well as cites a 2005 Department of Homeland Security report that government workers had installed file-sharing programs that accessed classified information without their knowledge."
Stop the INSANITY! (Score:5, Insightful)
This is getting just stupid.
We live in a MEDIA driven State of Fear.
Re:Stop the INSANITY! (Score:5, Insightful)
Americans are so easily manipulated. They have been so conditioned by advertising it's not even funny.
Re:Stop the INSANITY! (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Stop the INSANITY! (Score:5, Funny)
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You mean freedom files, right?
Re:Stop the INSANITY! (Score:5, Insightful)
War on Drugs: Nobody uses those any more right? We're all clean and sober now, nevermind those pesky Californians and their "medicinal" marijuana. They're just tree-hugging hippies with glaucoma and don't count.
War on Poverty: We cured that long ago, the incredible wages we pay our hard-working CEOs have been trickling down into the economy for some time and no one is poor any more and we all have health care and social security.
War on Christmas: Won! Wal-Mart now uses the wholesome Merry Christmas instead of the godless heathen phrase "Happy Holidays". Santa Claus is no longer banned from spreading the gospel to children by teaching them the joys of rampant consumerism and owning a tickle-me-elmo.
War on Terror: We invaded Iraq, so no more terrorists, right? A reliable source told me that the insurgency there is in the last throes. However, this is only if the democrats don't ruin it by not supporting our troops by refusing to allow any more to die in the middle of the non-civil war.
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Re:Stop the INSANITY! (Score:5, Funny)
I'm Irish, you insensitive clod! How dare you give our national identity to the Russians!!!
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I don't think anybody has claimed potatoes yet, have they?
Drop the drunk image and take up potato chips instead.
Since my favorite band is the Corrs, you could also just start claiming that Ireland has the world's most beautiful women AND best bands (since you can claim U2 as well.)
Ireland has the world's best potatos, the most beautiful women, and the best rock bands!
Doesn't that sound better than "Ireland has the most drunks"?
(Even if Andrea has been caught on camera having to be helped out of a pub by he
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I was just trying to be funny... now where did I put my beer............
Re:Stop the INSANITY! (Score:4, Funny)
You're just jealous because I'm better than you.
Re:Stop the INSANITY! (Score:5, Insightful)
Senators who don't keep file sharing software away from classified files (or don't actively restrict the software from sharing those files) are a security threat?
hmmm...
Wording could be important on this issue too.
Maybe what we want is for people to RTFM on some of the software they install on their machines. Senators are being paid enough to have a work machine that does not have crap on it. This is a modern world, and if people being elected into office can't keep up with it, they shouldn't be elected. Once they are there, it's there responsibility not to screw up on something stupid like that.
Someone else figure out the RIAA MPAA problem. They're beyond me.
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"You're My Engineer" - The Last Mimsy
Re:Stop the INSANITY! (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, which is why they claim file sharing is harmful to children since they will be sued and therefore harmed. Similar legislation exists for marijuana. Most of the problems associated with marijuana are caused by the fact that it is illegal (gangs, prison, drug dealers, etc.). Make file sharing (or marijuana) legal and you eliminate the harm caused by both. Unfortunately the RIAA would not profit from this so it becomes a tough decision for them. They can profit and harm children, or not profit and not harm children. Hell, they may as well cut the middle man and just sell kiddie porn.
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Re:Stop the INSANITY! (Score:4, Insightful)
Now, some departments do- the NSA, for example, has their own chip-fab, and probably runs homebuilt systems for certain top-secret applications. But the NSA also did SE-Linux, so they've shown (at least to me, and who the hell am I to decide) that they can actually handle it.
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"that peer-to-peer networks could manipulate sites so children violate copyright laws more frequently than adults, exposing those children to copyright lawsuits and, in turn, make those who protect their copyrighted material appear antagonistic"
So the risk is being blamed on the P2P networks, when it's in fact the RIAA/MPAA that are the cause of these frivilous lawsuits.
"file-sharing software could be to blame for government workers who expose sensitive data and jeopardize national security af
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More to the point why is the Patent and Trademark Office making a fuss about this? Or can we expect the Copyright Office to produce reports vaguely related to Patents and Trademarks...
"file-sharing software could be to blame for government workers who expose sens
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I think its more like the media is the car, the State of Fear is powered by them, the government is the driver.
and the rest of us are being taken for a ride.
children (Score:3, Funny)
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Next up,
Websites, email, and ftp are also bad for children, and a threat to national security.
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Re:children (Score:5, Funny)
Do not leave your house, place your hands on the wall and wait, a mind correction team will be with you shortly...
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I got rid of my mind some time ago.
Correct away!
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And remember, kids, every time you kill a kitten, God masturbates...
Hmm (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Hmm (Score:5, Funny)
It's the bats. (Score:3, Funny)
Reminds me of when my brother got busted with pot. He lost his car and about $3k in fines and court costs. My parents blamed pot. Although pot didn't do that to him the government did. Pot only ever got us high.
Funny thing. A friend of mine smoked some pot and totaled his car. The police issued lots of fines but missed his stash. He did not blame the cops, government or pot. He blamed those damn bats that ran him off the road.
He first saw those bats on a Madonna video, which he watched on Youtube an
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good thing it's 80 pages (Score:5, Funny)
Re:good thing it's 80 pages (Score:5, Funny)
Re:good thing it's 80 pages (Score:5, Funny)
Pencils -- Harmful to Children etc. (Score:5, Insightful)
The Pencil manufacturing concerns of America, however, are resolved to work with the U.S. government to mitigate this crisis. Henceforth, all pencil purchases are tracked with a unique REAL ID-coordinated identifier. Authorized use of pencils will require a tiny microchip implanted under the skin of the right hand. A left-handed version of the chip is expected to be available before 2020--until then, pencil-using left-handed Americans will have to make the sacrifice of writing less legibly until the chip is available.
Wow, I'm really bored today.
Class (Score:4, Insightful)
If you produce that level of satire as a result, please be bored more often
Re:Paper -- also Harmful to Children etc. (Score:5, Funny)
If you take a heavy-stock piece of high quality paper, fold it into quarters, grasp the edges, and slam your arm down to force air through the middle flap, you can create a sound that will stop an airport in its tracks.
The Etch-A-Sketch brand has been revived and is being offered as a paper-replacement tool, but Microsoft has expressed doubt that the One Etch-a-Sketch Per Child program will work.
Re:Paper -- also Harmful to Children etc. (Score:5, Funny)
We need to abandon earth and become a space-faring civilization - otherwise our children's children will be plagued by potential weapons (rocks) to use against one another.
I call for a disbanding of the NRA (The national rock association)
Re:Paper -- also Harmful to Children etc. (Score:5, Funny)
Not true! You can bring a rock on an airplane, but try boarding with a pair of scissors...
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So we need to keep the rocks to defeat the scissors.
But wait, we need scissors to beat paper!
But wait, we need paper to beat rock!
Uh-oh.
Re:Pencils -- Harmful to Children etc. (Score:5, Insightful)
I mean, how dumb do you have to be to believe that because children could be manipulated into violating the law by some evil website designer, this has ANYTHING to do with national security?
Unless they think that when we fence off England and turn it into a giant prison island (I mean, they're already halfway there on the surveilance front) there won't be any young males left to fight our wars if we've put them all in jail for stealing copyrighted (copywrit?) items.
These MAFIAA people don't think like I do, and that scares me because they obviously don't have the same moral (in terms of what's right and what's wrong, not anything religious) standards that I do
Re:Pencils -- Harmful to Children etc. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Pencils -- Harmful to Children etc. (Score:4, Insightful)
Or MTV or Elvis or the Beatles or JRR Tolkien or William Powell or Jazz or Margaret Sanger or DH Lawrence or Mark Twain or Henry David Thoreau or Nathaniel Hawthorne, etc, etc, etc.
Your children really will grow up in the same world you did, populated with the same idiots. So will your grandkids.
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Your children really will grow up in the same world you did, populated with the same idiots. So will your grandkids.
The Singularity [wikipedia.org] can't come soon enough.
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or the more dastardly side of it that was used in the Vietnam draft era. Serve time or Serve your country.
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Welcome to the state.
This is the nature of the state: "You do everything we tell you and give us everything you have, and we'll protect you from the bad people inside and outside our borders. And if there aren't any bad people, we'll make some."
This is how it's done.
Not enough "drug dealers" in prison - so start making everybody who owns a gun, smokes, reads the Koran, or
They're going for the high score! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:They're going for the high score! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:They're going for the high score! (Score:4, Funny)
Don't forget greenhouse gasses. (Score:2)
Just as well: When you paint 'em green to save 'em from the fur market the mothers stop nursing them and they stave to death.
Or maybe they think they won't have to save as many now if the polar bears are going to have to swim farther go get between ice floes.
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So a baby seal walks into a club...
Security of what? (Score:5, Insightful)
[snip]
Re:Security of what? (Score:5, Insightful)
as always, personal responsibility is brushed aside in the name of hype.
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Where I work, having classified information on an "open" computer is a good way to have all sorts of fun with departments you don't want to have fun with
Maybe instead of blaming file-sharing networks, the report should have focused on the horrible security policies in place that allowed this to occur? But then, that wouldn't support special interests, would it? Bah,
Re:Security of what? (Score:4, Interesting)
Indeed, where I used to work (Pentagon), an Air Force officer used a floppy to transfer an unclassified Word Document from the isolated classified network to the open unclassified network. The Word document had scooped up random classified data from the hard drive in its buffers.
When DISA was done, they had scrubbed half a dozen "contaminated" systems, carted the guy off to Leavenworth, and left a mark on the section's record (too many of those and its *very* bad for everyone working in the section).
In these cases, I do not know why:
Requirements when we set up an off-site Secret test facility were no less strict and a single violation would have cost the right to operate it. I really have to wonder how lax things have gotten. It also makes me very nervous about the government's insistence of late on creating large integrated databases. Even if I trusted them to use the data ethically (I don't) I do not have confidence that they could secure it adequately.
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We had a blast when we declassified the source co
Wait-- children AND terr'ists? (Score:2, Insightful)
Not the real issue.... (Score:5, Insightful)
It sounds like the network administrators in said "governmental offices" should take the precautions neccessary to police the bandwidth. Furthermore, any environment in which said p2p applications are capable of leaking any private information need to be under closer scrutiny.
Don't blame the p2p networks for the actions and negligence of those in control of their own computer infrastructure.
Since when is copyright infringement, and not massively-propagating worms and keyloggers, the problem for national security. The latter causes FAR more breeches of personal identity information and credentials.
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Yeah, imagine if they had p2p in Star Wars:
FULL DEATH STAR PLANS!!!NO KIDDING!!!!.R2D | DroidFile | 5.1 Gb
deathstarschematics.r2d | DroidFile | 5.1 Gb
Death Star 1of20.r2d | DroidFile | 250 Mb
Classified info (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Classified info (Score:4, Insightful)
This is precisely what "trusted computing" is actually useful for.
There ARE times in which your computer should not trust you! These are times in which it's not really your computer - which is to say, when it belongs to your employer. And double-extra-when your employer is the government and you have access to classified information.
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NISPOM chapter 8 specifies the requirements for a classified machine.
Whenever I set up a classified net, one of the last things I do before I get certified is to yank the internet connection. All classified nets should be physically isolated.
Also, all software changes to a classified computer must be logged. Ordinary users should not have permi
Dumbass government workers (Score:2)
as well as cites a 2005 Department of Homeland Security report that government workers had installed file-sharing programs that accessed classified information without their knowledge.
"""
I don't think this is the fault of file-sharing programs. It's more the profound stupidity of the government worker. I mean seriously, making info public when secret docs are lying around!?!? Perhaps the government should work more on enforcing existing policies instead of putting the blame (falsely) elsewhere.
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Not only that..... (Score:5, Funny)
Also may cause dizziness, insomnia, psoraisis, and the Creeping Crimean Crud.
The cause of the fall of the Roman Empire? File sharing.
JFK's assassins? File sharers.
Besides, file sharing isn't mentioned in the Bible, so it must be forbidden by God.
Re:Not only that..... (Score:5, Funny)
(And the Feeding of the N-thousand, of course; if Jesus is going to go round making thousands of unauthorized copies of someone else's bread, he can hardly send you to hell for sharing a few tracks, now, can he?)
Re:Not only that..... (Score:4, Funny)
Chicken Little (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, and while we're at it, Wolf! Woooooooooooooolf!
There's no patch for human stupidity (Score:4, Funny)
How about changing the title to: Human Stupidity-a Threat to National Security?
Threat to our children? Did you read the summary? (Score:5, Interesting)
They say that file sharing is a "threat to our children", but did you read WHY?
So... it's file sharing's fault that the RIAA looks like profiteering litigious bastards for suing a dozen teenage kids. Somehow, file sharing made them do it
I can't believe I just read that.
gah.
I'm moving to the Czech Republic or something.
Stew
Patent Office? (Score:2)
bogus and reality check (Score:4, Interesting)
The second line is much most interesting. p2p really IS a threat to the nation state system. More generally, free information exchange will erode the power of the state significantly. Lots of people all freely sharing information will mean the whole concept of countries starts to break down. If everyone can get all the information they need from anywhere across the globe and across borders, why do we need those borders still? To protect the physical resources? Hardly. Information is the last (latest) great resource humanity has stumbled upon and now people are making Googles of money doling it out, just like the oil barons, and other folks who have controlled major resources in the past.
The really cool thing about information is that you don't loose it when you copy it, so there CAN NEVER be scarcity of information (at least long term) UNLESS the laws and the state artificially support systems to create information scarcity. WHY WOULD HUMANS CHOOSE THAT? Quite simply, they won't, when they fully understand the choice. p2p works directly against the idea that information should be artificially maintained as a scarce resource by laws, and hence, it gives the 'ole thhhhbbbtbtbtbt to the nation state and the lynch pins of it's power and ability to control the people.
Life is a such beautiful thing. It unfolds exactly as it should. This is good.
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Actual resources are far more important than information. Information won't feed or clothe me, it won't quench my thirst, and it won't give me materials to build a roof over my head.
Furthermore, people will chose to put artificial limits on information if there is a choice between having that information with restrictions, or not having the information at all. Whether the dichotomy exists and in what situations is very much up for debate.
And lets not forget that the "inf
Re:bogus and reality check (Score:5, Interesting)
The choice between ignorance and tyranny is a false choice, provided by those who wish to control your access to information in order to take money and energy from you.
I strongly disagree with the implication that just because some information has "entertainment" value that it is of a lower class or less important than other information. Who are you to judge what someone else values and why? You might consider reading more about myths and how they have evolved over time - and learn how stories are the transport layer for the structure of civilizations. Do you think people who make movies do so only to distract us from our "more important" business pursuits? Wow.
Re:bogus and reality check (Score:4, Insightful)
As for wars, information is a critical part of what people fight over. Ever hear of all the "intelligence" failures that lead to Iraq? The whole case for war and all the reasons the US attacked were based within information.
I agree, tyranny and ignorance exist along a continuum. There is a huge middle ground that we can rest in where people will be happy. There is no need to chose one to avoid the other. Copyright, in principle is sound as an idea, the way it was initially framed. But in practice today, (c) is completely out of control. To lose access to information for a time period of (life of the author + 70 or 95 years), given a median human lifespan of about 70 years... this is effectively information tyranny. The information is never available for use in your lifespan. Your assertions that statements I write are "rhetoric" seem childish and transparent - they do not help your case.
I never asserted that all information is equal. It is clearly not. You put relative value of information in one class that you defined as lower than other categories. There is not one axis of value, but even if there were, each person would get to assign value to information, as they want. Who defined what information is in what category? You? RIAA? ISP filtering software? I don't accept your categorization of "entertainment" and you shouldn't accept my categories or values. As such, I reject your relative value scheme. Each individual has their own values.
Most movies are both art and business: very big $ business, and a remarkable art form. I don't judge what information private individuals want to exchange with each other. Who said anything about any of this being noble?
priceless (Score:5, Funny)
- Windows XP SP2 - $83
- Mac Tiger OSX - $129
- Half life 2 - $29.99
- 20Gb of music - ~$2000
- Getting all of the above with p2p - Free
- Murdering children and bringing to a halt the fabric of modern society - Priceless
- ?????
- Profit!
For this and everything else, there's BittorrentHarmful to children (Score:5, Insightful)
Hmmm... well at least their glass houses get a lot of light.
everyone knows how stupid this is... (Score:2)
Or maybe they are just being deceptive, mostly to themselves.
Guess what, I just shared a file... the one this message is contained in.
what method of sharing has nothing to do with any arguement.
I've recently used FTP to download, http to download, even ssh to edit my own site which is sharing files eveytime someone access it.
I have also used bittorrent recently to download dynebolic and other linux distros as well as watched and sa
Hmmm... (Score:5, Informative)
"Government Employees - A Threat to Children and National Security"
Paper -- Harmful to Children etc. (Score:2, Funny)
Think of how many times you have cut your finger on the edge of rough paper. And now, can you tell me that paper is harmless to children and not a threat to national security? I don't think so.
I, for one, think this law will enable greater national security and protect the children from harm.
This is merely an example of iggerunce. (Score:3, Interesting)
Remember, Ted Turner, the founder of CNN, called the Time-Warner merger with AOL, "better than sex" [bbc.co.uk]. Immediately after, the combined company lost 88 billion dollars because of the deal. Quote from the linked article: "AOL reported a loss of nearly $100bn for 2002, after a loss of $44.9bn for the final three months of the year."
Ted Turner is a smart guy, but he was iggerunt about technology.
The proper response to "Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO" Jon W. Dudas is, "Dude, you're fired."
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How the hell does that work ? (Score:2)
Wait a second, does that mean the workers didn't know the file sharing programs accessed classified information, or that we don't even know what our own government workers are doing ?
Better drop windows as it (Score:2)
Give every reason but the real one, as usual (Score:5, Interesting)
"The US economy was once based on manufacturing. Our cars and buildings and aeroplanes and weapons were the best you could buy, and people bought them and America prospered. Lately people have stopped buying all those things, and we no longer manufacture anything for export but movies, music, and software.
Our economy has gone from world-leading to "service-based" in just a few decades, and our only hope of exporting something that people might want to buy is in movies, music and software. Unfortunately, all those things are now digital, and easily copied millions of times for free. Even more unfortunately, the more we try to protect our eroding export figures with DRM and IP enforcement, the more we realize that other countries don't have to play by the rules we make up. And it's those other countries that count most.
So it's time for education. Or perhaps Re-education. Time to teach everyone that, despite our own flagrant disregard for the Berne conventions and international IP rights from 1886 up until 1989 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_convention), it's vital that the world now all fall into the US party line on IP enforcement and DRM. And if we can't do it with WTO, IMF, WIPO, and Most Favored Nation status, we'll do it with propaganda.
File sharing kills babies! File sharing promotes pedophilia! File sharing is communist and fascist and Saddam-loving! File sharing destroys family values and promotes the gay agenda!
I've wanted to say this for a long time.
Thomas D. Sydnor (Score:5, Interesting)
just like rock'n roll in the 50s.. (Score:3, Insightful)
first, they ignore you
then, they laugh at you
then they fight you
then you win.
IN SOVIET RUSSIA (Score:5, Funny)
I'm going to have a heart attack... sigh. (Score:3)
We are so fucking powerless against these morons that use these silly trump card excuses to control us all....
Freedom is good for children!
Privacy is good for children!
Free speech is good for children!
A representative government is good for children!
Freedom of Religion is good for children!
Politicians and greed... are bad for children.
Either we kill the politicians... or we kill the children.
Take your pick.
The Horror (Score:3, Insightful)
Users (Score:4, Insightful)
USPTO? (Score:3, Informative)
Who is the author of the report?
Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States
Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
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That said, the Patent Office doesn't have a clue about how to evaluate software patents. The number of obvious (vs non-obvious) inventions that make it through is just incompetence. The fact that things that have existed in the open for decades can be patented as unique wouldn'
Re:Whereas: (Score:5, Insightful)
> into a specialized machine. Clearly a unique specialized
> machine should be patentable.
No the general purpose machine is the patentable invention. Specific information (ie: software) should be protected by copyright. Pure software is not patentable and all software is pure software.
Re:Whereas: (Score:5, Insightful)
To say that file sharing allows for children to have access to this or that harmful content, and be subject to other bad things, and to say that files can be put at risk and therefore risk the national security, it would not be a far stretch to understand that to allow one company to essentially enter every computer (as the computer is an extension of your home/business) as they are able to enter your home and business to search, inventory, and accuse (and ultimately with Vista shut down your home/business) then that company and it's product could be considered a threat to national security. P2P is not used solely by children and since it can be useful in business and government it is a lesser threat than that posed by one company having control of the computers of the world. You have unprecedented control and access which creates a major possibility of security threats, if not primarily by Microsoft then by some enterprising vicious terrorist hoping to exploit Microsoft's buggy OSes and buggy spy tools.
You can't go from P2P and the concept of access without going to Windows and WGA/WGN. Whatever applies to the concept of access over the Internet via P2P also extends to any product that could be used to yield the same type of invasive behavior that leads to stealing trade/national secrets be it by a controlling monopoly previously convicted in numerous nations of the world or by someone attempting to exploit the fact that exploits to tools like WGA/WGN could present unprecedented access to terrorists and the governments of other rogue nations.
When you pirate MP3s, you're downloading COMMUNISM (Score:5, Funny)
The "When you pirate MP3s, you're downloading COMMUNISM!" poster dates back to 2000; it only took us seven years to go from wacky parody to grim reality.
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Many (if not most) members of Congress have at least a Secret clearance. Depending on what panels they're on, their clearance may be a lot higher.
Scary, but true. It's not just geeks who have clearances ... it's people who wouldn't have a clearance in a million years if the Peepul(TM) hadn't given them their jobs.