“The legislation says that companies such as broadband providers, search engines or software firms that the US Government selects ‘shall immediately comply with any emergency measure or action developed’ by the Department of Homeland Security,” McCullagh reports. “Anyone failing to comply would be fined.”
“That emergency authority would allow the Federal Government to “preserve those networks and assets and our country and protect our people,” Joe Lieberman, the primary sponsor of the measure and the chairman of the Homeland Security committee, told reporters on Thursday,” McCullagh reports. “Lieberman is an independent senator from Connecticut who meets with the Democrats.”
McCullagh reports, “Due to there being few limits on the US President’s emergency power, which can be renewed indefinitely, the densely worded 197-page Bill (PDF) is likely to encounter stiff opposition.”
Under Lieberman’s Bill, which is formally titled Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act, or PCNAA “the Federal Government’s power to force private companies to comply with emergency decrees would become unusually broad,” McCullagh reports. “Any company on a list created by Homeland Security that also ‘relies on’ the internet, the telephone system or any other component of the US ‘information infrastructure’ would be subject to command by a new National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications (NCCC) that would be created inside Homeland Security.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Numerous politicians have seized absolute power and muzzled the press. Never in history has the press seized absolute power and muzzled the politicians. – David Brinkley
When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace. – Jimi Hendrix
Their insatiable lust for power is only equaled by their incurable impotence in exercising it. – Winston Churchill
It is said that power corrupts, but actually it’s more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power. – David Brin
The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves. – William Hazlitt
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
MDN: “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace. – Jimi Hendrix”
Seems love is a dirty word these days….
Great quotes MDN!
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday, June 17, 2010 shows that 26% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-six percent (46%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -20.
http://bit.ly/IhrCW
I want to meet one of these 26-percenters who “strongly approve” of Obama. They have to be the most deluded, gullible saps on the face of the planet.
While the country drowns in debt and joblessness and the gulf coast drowns in oil, Obama has already played more rounds of golf in 18 months than Bush played in his entire two terms.
Obama voters: You were hoodwinked by an empty suit. It’s okay to admit it.
This is about the mac or Apple uh….how?
I’d give Obama power to delete political posts on MDN.
This should state “grant the *President*” not Obama. He’ll be out of office one day but the power will remain with the office. Stating it the way you have MDN is unnecessarily inflammatory.
Now, is this a necessary power to have? Given the state of US infrastructure security the answer is sadly yes.
Doesn’t matter what party – they both want more and more control and more and more of our money. They are all bums and should be thrown out.
Time for DarkNet.
=:~)
@MDN
Amen brother and/or sister, sibling, fellow human, … ah forget it!
Amen brother!
Who gives a shit? Where are the white iPhones?
MDN,
Could you please delete the post written by The Party of No? It seems to be completely unrelated to the topic and inflammatory.
And it’s just another power that’s eventually easier for the NSA (Masons, Illuminati, et. al.) to exploit.
Darkness:
“Given the state of US infrastructure security the answer is sadly yes.”
The necessary evils in a rapidly and senselessly hacked world.
Would recommend the books: Daemon and Freedom…
I tend to agree with the ‘Darkness’, at least partially. The internet has become one of the most critical elements of the infrastructure (not just for US, but the world). As such, it has become rather easy to exploit for extremely malicious deeds.
It doesn’t take too much imagination to picture a scenario in which the internet could be leveraged to launch a concentrated attack on key institutions in the US, and crippling of the communication infrastructure could easily cause collapse of all sorts.
Unfortunately, the ‘kill switch’ wouldn’t provide much relief, if any, except in very exceptional situations (when some malicious effort was siphoning critical sensitive data and disabling the network were to stop it). Otherwise, killing the communication infrastructure can easily kill all economic activity. The recession of past two years would be nothing compared to what could happen if the internet were ‘killed’ by such a switch.
Sponsored by LIEberman. ‘Nuff said.
Except, this is the inherent weakness of cloud-based computing. Someone or something can turn off the cloud.
Stupid George Bush… This is all his fault…
R2:
This is how you create and build such pent up demand that the astronomical sales of black iPhone 4s will only be a prelude to the second wave of record sales by sudden appearance of “missing in action” white phones….
Get over Obama, this is about any one in the White House. Lieberman has been siding with the GOP more these days. Don’t get me wrong, this bill is scary, and need to be stopped NOW. What the hell are they thinking. This bill will feed the crazies on both the left and right, and should. No President should have that much power.
“Power corrupts, absolut power corrupts absolutely.”
During time of war, the first thing China will do is try to shut down America’s electricity and disable as much of our information infrastructure as possible. They will also try to cripple military networks and those of key defense industries. The first thing we need to do when there is a serious outbreak of hostilities is pull the plug on traffic from China.
We will still have foreign nationals from China on our soil that will cause mayhem. Hopefully, the FBI is watching them.
To those who say the above is non-politically correct fear mongering, I say this: There have always been wars in human history and there <u>will always be</u> wars in the future. The government, fortunately, isn’t allowing nitwits with “flower power” to impede preparations for the next war.
agreed, great quotes… that said, I recommend adding “Cyber War” to your reading list.
It looks like MDN basically took the headline from the Drudge Report.
I wonder if anyone has read THIS bill….
@@Darkess: You say that as if MDN and Drudge aren’t one and the same person.
@ WetFX – Right, why tie it to Obama? He’s only got 30 months to go, right. Think about Sarah Palin having this power.
@GregL – So the way we keep our attackers from shutting us down via the internet is to shut down the internet ourselves? OBTW, China will never have to attack the US, they just have to raise the prices on manufactured goods a little and buy us with the profits.
And if there was a cyber attack from “brown people” somewhere in the world and Obama DIDN’T instantaneously diffuse/fix/cure the problem, he’d be called weak and ineffective.
MDN jumped the political shark. Again.