Posted on 08/30/2010 4:54:56 PM PDT by mlizzy
Sensing Senators don’t have the stomach to try and pass a stand-alone bill in broad daylight that would give the President the power to shut down the Internet in a national emergency, the Senate is considering attaching the Internet Kill Switch bill as a rider to other legislation that would have bi-partisan support.
“It’s hard to get a measure like cybersecurity legislation passed on its own,” Senator Thomas Carper (D-Del.) told GovInfoSecurity.com. Carper is chairman of the Senate subcommittee with cybersecurity oversight.
Under instructions from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Senators Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) are working to combine their separate bills into one that can be attached to another piece of legislation, such as the Defense Authorization Act.
While proponents say an Internet Kill Switch is needed to protect the nation’s power, water and banking grids, what it really is is a way to control the flow of information. Experts have said that the nation’s power and water grids are not connected directly to the Internet.
Lieberman let slip his real thoughts on the Internet Kill Switch in an interview with CNN’s Candy Crowley when he said, “Right now China — the government — can disconnect parts of its Internet in a case of war. We need to have the ability to do that, too.”
For more on Lieberman’s interview, go here. And the idiot Rockefeller is no friend of the Internet either. He has said he wished the Internet had never been invented and we were back to communicating with pencil and paper.
China and other totalitarian regimes readily use their power over the Internet to deny their citizens the free flow of information. And that’s what in store for the United States if this bill comes to fruition.
The President — Democrat or Republican — can now use almost any excuse to declare a state of emergency and that would give him the excuse to shut down any and all parts of the Internet. The target of the shutdown could be sites that express dissenting views or entire sections of the country the President — or his puppet master — is displeased with.
The Senate will soon be back in Washington, D.C., for a four-week session before adjourning until the November elections. This is the window that provides the most danger to our freedom.
Hat tip: PrisonPlanet.com
Well it is the most “Transparent” administration ever...Transparently evil, that is.
bttt
In the event that this type of “shut down” passes...it likely would only be for selected news and info sites...like Free Republic and FoxNews. There are far too many business dealings online and in the “cloud” for the government to shut down the whole thing. Flipping the switch would cause widespread financial DISASTER and a very bad things would begin happening. China doesn’t close down the internet, they just control the content.
Vote the bounders out of office!
“How I hate this current dark administration? Let me count the ways ..”
This kind of authoritarian perversity has been building for years, through both Democratic and Republican administrations. Do you actually think that is the Republicans (I didn’t say conservatives) win big that they will roll back all the unconstitutional, anti-liberty legislation? Fat chance.
With all the dictatorial powers arrayed against Free Republic and sites like it, it seems obvious that we must seek out some other ways of communicating once TSHTF.
I have seen threads on this topic before but I never got the feeling that anything concrete had been done, not even that famous fall-back, a commission to study the matter and make recommendations.
Our Senate in UCOD mode once again!
Yes, you’re right. I’ve exchanged e-mail addresses with some folks on Free Republic for that reason ... I can’t imagine Facebook going down completely, however, maybe it would ... it’s awful to even think this could possibly happen in the US.
These men in power right now are the ones our forefathers warned us about, and why the wrote the Constitution and the Bill of Rights the way they did. Our day has come, we must stop them or our Republic will be dismantled and sold for parts. Oligarchy verses us. Slavery or freedom. Let’s Roll!
cell phones will go at the same time... looks like it's time to break out the old CB radio
Dark administration? Careful — that could be construed as racist and threatening, and get FR shut down.
I mean dark as in proponents of baby-killing, etc.
Good graphic!
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