DHS Has a Seizure Disorder

[+ quoththeraven]

Turns out DHS (or more precisely, ICE) has been seizing domains accused of copyright infringement without any due process. (Why ICE and not the FBI isn't clear, although at least one site owner is from outside the US.)

 

A few sites were returned to their owners recently. The discussion may shed some light on the high-handed tactics used in the Rentboy raid.

 

After Illegally Censoring Websites for Five Years on Bogus Copyright Charges, US Gov't 'Quietly' Returns Two Domains (Techdirt)

[rvwnsd]

Living less than 20 miles from the US/Mexico border, I can tell you that ICE has plenty of other things with which to occupy itself than pursuing and seizing website domains. Another ridiculous waste of money. I do not advocate defunding the agency, but I do advocate purging their management ranks, replacing them with competent people, and then ridding itself of incompetent rank-and-file.

[+ honcho]

I like that QTR brought it to our attention, even though I don't like what happened.... Thank you!

[+ Keith30309]

I'm scratching my head over this - it doesn't make any sense.

From what I can tell the recording industry lobbying arm asked ICE to shut down some content providers who weren't part of the cartel (like the hip-hop site). ICE did this under forfeiture laws which means no due process. This sounds like more heavy-handed incompetence from DHS.

 

I blame Dick Cheney - betcha there's a Halliburton-authored section of the Patriot Act that declares 50-cent a dire threat to national security.

We'll be smelling his sulphurous fingerprints for a long time.

[+ glennnn]

Ill always remember the interview with Chaney where the reporter nailed him with every low, despicable, illegal act he had ever pulled from Iraq to puppy euthanasia. Instead of denying or defending or explaining, Chaney just smirked and asked, "So?". Interview over. He is the most amoral American politician ever. Nixon at least felt bad when he was busted if only out of whiney self-pity. Chaney really doesnt give a shit about any one or anything including his reputation or the survival of the world.

[+ quoththeraven]

Living less than 20 miles from the US/Mexico border, I can tell you that ICE has plenty of other things with which to occupy itself than pursuing and seizing website domains. Another ridiculous waste of money. I do not advocate defunding the agency, but I do advocate purging their management ranks, replacing them with competent people, and then ridding itself of incompetent rank-and-file.

 

ICE has never been good to deal with. I dealt with them when it was still INS, and their attitude has always been that of a county clerk trying to find any excuse to send you away, as opposed to being helpful. (It's not as though immigrants vote or have a political constituency, after all.) Folding them into a larger agency -- the largest in the government, which tells you something (the revenue-generating arm of government should be the largest if we were proceeding on business principles) -- has only made things worse.

 

There's civil service protection, which is important because it keeps the higher-ups from using the agency for patronage. The problem isn't just the people doing the work; it's the whole philosophy of it, the tendency for bureaucracies to become, well, bureaucratic, and the fact that general public disdain for government work results in more, not less, incompetence. Also the fact that as a Board of Directors, Congress sucks and that getting quality software and the like is like pulling teeth because of the lengths one has to go to in order to accept bids on any basis other than the least costly. That results in government infrastructure being far behind what's in the private sector (with the likely exception of the NSA).

 

That said, I'm sorry to disabuse people of their strongly-held beliefs, but of all the places I've worked, the one with the highest standards and producing the highest quality work was the Internal Revenue Service. I didn't work in DC; I worked in one of the satellite legal offices. And while some of the agents who audited returns did so more aggressively than they needed to, I never encountered a SINGLE PERSON in the agency who was incompetent.

 

Not only that, there were bombing threats and even the ambush and murder of a revenue officer within the Northeast Region (where I worked) during my time there. So we were targets of terrorism and the like.

 

Whereas I observed plenty of incompetence, laziness, and favoritism at a private law firm. And stupid office politics in a non-profit and an occasional lack of ethics a top-tier accounting firm (as in being willing to fudge dates so a tax return would appear to be timely).

 

I realize this is all anecdotal, and some government agencies are more likely to harbor deadwood than others (state and county level especially, where, especially at the county level, positions still operate like a patronage racket), but generalizations made out of frustration aren't helpful.

[+ quoththeraven]

I like that QTR brought it to our attention, even though I don't like what happened.... Thank you!

 

You're welcome. Despite my defense of government service above, there is a lot of government overreach going on. But that is directly blameable on higher-ups and stupid policies. Also, possibly, on a need to show numbers without regard to what those numbers mean.

 

Not sure what Cheney has to do with it. The point is that while forfeiture provisions are well-meant and may even have a purpose, human nature being what it is, they are abused. We need to pressure the government into stopping that abuse. In some cases, that might even mean lobbying for repeal of forfeiture provisions entirely. In most cases, it would mean ending the collateral advantages to forfeitures.

 

In every case where there is a forfeiture, however, there must be a right of restrospective review by a court, or reviewed by a court, not within the agency. It may even rise to a level that as policy (though not required by the Constitution as interpreted) the person whose property was forfeited has a right to pro bono representation at the government's expense, seeing as the forfeiture itself may leave them destitute. It's precisely those cases that are the most egregious.

[gallahadesquire]

Ill always remember the interview with Chaney where the reporter nailed him with every low, despicable, illegal act he had ever pulled from Iraq to puppy euthanasia. Instead of denying or defending or explaining, Chaney just smirked and asked, "So?". Interview over. He is the most amoral American politician ever. Nixon at least felt bad when he was busted if only out of whiney self-pity. Chaney really doesnt give a shit about any one or anything including his reputation or the survival of the world.

 

One thing he does care about is his Halliburton stocks' value. At least, I think he does.

 

What ever happened to Rumsfeld? Why are none of them up on charges?

[Moondance]

...Cheney really doesn't give a shit about anyone or anything including his reputation or the survival of the world.

 

The role model, perhaps, for Candidate Trump?

[rvwnsd]

ICE has never been good to deal with. I dealt with them when it was still INS, and their attitude has always been that of a county clerk trying to find any excuse to send you away, as opposed to being helpful. (It's not as though immigrants vote or have a political constituency, after all.) Folding them into a larger agency -- the largest in the government, which tells you something (the revenue-generating arm of government should be the largest if we were proceeding on business principles) -- has only made things worse....

 

Several years ago, Jan Schakowsky (who happened to be my representative at the time, as I lived in Evanston, IL) showed up at the local INS office to see for herself whether claims of mistreatment and long lines were true. When she did, she marched into the INS director's office and proceeded to hold congressional hearings into the office's operations. That's not likely to occur given the current composition of the House of Representatives.

That said, I'm sorry to disabuse people of their strongly-held beliefs, but of all the places I've worked, the one with the highest standards and producing the highest quality work was the Internal Revenue Service. I didn't work in DC; I worked in one of the satellite legal offices. And while some of the agents who audited returns did so more aggressively than they needed to, I never encountered a SINGLE PERSON in the agency who was incompetent.

 

Not only that, there were bombing threats and even the ambush and murder of a revenue officer within the Northeast Region (where I worked) during my time there. So we were targets of terrorism and the like.

 

Whereas I observed plenty of incompetence, laziness, and favoritism at a private law firm. And stupid office politics in a non-profit and an occasional lack of ethics a top-tier accounting firm (as in being willing to fudge dates so a tax return would appear to be timely).

 

I realize this is all anecdotal, and some government agencies are more likely to harbor deadwood than others (state and county level especially, where, especially at the county level, positions still operate like a patronage racket), but generalizations made out of frustration aren't helpful.

 

I have not worked with the IRS in my professional career, but I have dealt with them in conjunction with my late father's estate. I found everyone I worked with to be knowledgeable, courteous, and helpful. The much-maligned Social Security Administration was equally easy to work with. Had his credit card company and bank been as easy to work with I would have saved much heartache and legal fees.

 

Many past lives ago, I worked very closely with the US Department of Education during the student loan program reform efforts and subsequent move to direct lending. They were another bunch of dedicated, hard-working people. They also earned less than market wages for their jobs.