“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.]
“I Have Sworn Upon the Altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.” – Thomas Jefferson
This isn’t a bill giving Obama power. It gives power to the duly elected President of the United States, who currently happens to be Obama, but once was Reagan, Bush 1 & 2, Nixon, etc.
As I see in in the rare circumstances of a National emergency this level of control is already the President’s responsibility, not a power, and need not be made explicit by a new law.
@R2
President Obama hates white iPhones.
This is crazy, all they need to do is to disconnect US networks from the rest of the world.
Don’t worry, MDN…President Palin will have that same power in 2013…
MDN Try anger management therapy. You exude BITTERNESS.
Homeland Security is widely regarded as the most dysfunctional agency of the US government. The same DHS that thinks terror is a “man made disaster”, that can’t (or won’t) defend our borders, that isn’t allowed to use the word “jihad”, that can’t properly maintain a no-fly list, that chose to standardize most of its computers on Windows – this is the agency that will help protect our electronic infrastructure?
The threat to that infrastructure is however quite real. cf. Richard Clarke’s “Cyber War”. Scary stuff.
I think the Teabaggers that run this site should start a political blog and leave this one for Apple related news.
WTF! are you kidding me, what is this CHINA!?!
There goes freedom.
Let’s see.
1. Take over the auto industry.
2. Take over the financial industry.
3. Take over the student loan industry.
4. Take over the housing industry.
5. Take over the healthcare industry.
Now, take over the internet.
Thank you Obama and Democrat party voters. You guys have helped in the transformational change of this country. From liberty to tyranny.
No POTUS should have this power, let alone Obama. I had a friend who once called W the worst President ever. Might have been right; I didn’t agree with him, because I think W had some competition for that honor, but Obama may be the most dangerous and least competent.
Are we really waterboarding the Internet? Other media can be misled on what to air but they should not be able to shut down this venue to free speech
“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.”
I would love to see evidence of this. And no you can’t quote Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh.
You teabaggers are wrecking our country. Obama can’t address any of our serious problems because you wingnuts are in complete denial of reality.
Teabagger: “Drill, baby, drill! Get the gubment out of the way!”
Obama: “Um, we probably should move away from oil, it’s not good for the environment. And in the mean time we should probably heavily regulate drilling to make sure nothing bad happens.”
Teabagger: “Shut up you communist fsckstick! Get out of my America!”
** Oil spill obliterates the gulf coast **
Obama: “Um, see? Drilling is dangerous and should have been regulated. And we really should move away from oil.”
Teabagger: “Shut up you socialist! Why don’t you DO SOMETHING!!! WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU?”
Obama: …
Anyone actually reading this bill?
One observation off the bat that I find terribly fascinating is that William Gibson’s term Cyberspace is now officially part of American Federal Legislation.
—————-
(3) CYBERSPACE.—The term ‘‘cyberspace’’ means the interdependent network of information in- frastructure, and includes the Internet, tele- communications networks, computer systems, and embedded processors and controllers in critical in- dustries.
——————
(4) DIRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means the Director of Cyberspace Policy established under section 101.
——————-
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010’’.
——————-
I know the impetus for this legislation. “Cyber-warfare” is what they are afraid of. We are constantly being probed and attacked by the likes of North Korea, Iran, and our loan counselors in China to name a few.
The fear is that in the even of a war, the Internet will be one of the main battle theaters and they want to be able to defend it.
My fear is that the “emergencies” cited by this legislation are relatively vague and left open to interpretation by whichever administration is in office.
(7) INCIDENT.—The term ‘‘incident’’ means an occurrence that—
(A) actually or potentially jeopardizes— (i) the information security of information infrastructure; or (ii) the information that information
infrastructure processes, stores, receives, or transmits; or (B) constitutes a violation or threat of violation of security policies, security procedures, or acceptable use policies applicable to information infrastructure.
Violation of policies? Acceptable Use?
Well.. I’m only on page 7.
Were all you right wing bozos as fired up when Bush suspended habeus corpus and illegally tapped phones?
Didn’t think so.
PCNAA
PC is synonymous with Windows and naa means no.
Coincidence, I think not.
So all of you Obama haters on here are still going to be calling for this power to be revoked if a Republican takes office in 2012….
right?
The lucky thing for the Internet is that it’s relatively easy to bypass any such “shutdown” controls, unless the government shuts down all forms of electronic communication whatsoever.
Time to start building my encrypted spread-spectrum digital radio. Unless they shut down all the electricity as well.
(Yet another reason to support your local amateur radio operator.)
@Macromancer
I’m a registered Republican.
I don’t trust anyone with this kind of power. Not Obama, not Bush, not Palin, not Reagan if he were still around, not the Pope, not the Dalai Lama…
not even myself.
It’s a Bad Idea™.
And, btw, we don’t hate Obama. We just love this country as it was, and is meant to be, and we oppose those who want to change that, and we hope they fail in doing so.
Clear enough?
Without proper restraints and controls this could provide limitless opportunities for abuse by Machiavellian, opportunistic politicians.
The proposed bill needs very careful scrutiny by the press and the citizenry.
“China has defended its tight controls on the use of the Internet, vowing to continue blocking anything considered subversive or a threat to its national unity.” – Press TV, June 17, 2010
“The Iranian regime has developed, with the assistance of European telecommunications companies, one of the world’s most sophisticated mechanisms for controlling and censoring the Internet, allowing it to examine the content of individual online communications on a massive scale.” See the full article in the Wall Street Journal, June 22, 2009 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124562668777335653.html
Do we really want to cede this kind of power to current and future government leaders with its potential threats to our freedoms?
We need a Kill Switch for Congress.
@The Real Rob
Reality check time.
Drilling is already highly regulated. In fact, it is the fault of these regulations that the drilling took place in water over a mile deep, because (at least) one of those regulations made sure that the ugly old oil rigs didn’t clutter up the view of the gulf, apparently because certain people believe more in their privilege than in safety.
It is also, BY LAW, the responsibility of the Federal Government to clean up these spills, and BP’s responsibility to pay for the cleanup. The government has not lived up to its responsibility; BP has committed to far more than they are legally responsible for (i.e., they are trying to live up to their moral responsibility).
No one questions that some regulations were bent, broken or ignored; no one seriously believes that this spill is a pure accident. But that very fact argues that more regulation would have done little or nothing to prevent this spill, given that those who would ignore existing regulations would likely ignore new ones.
Reasonable regulation is in the best interest of everyone. Forcing companies to drill in mile-deep waters for no good reason, limiting their ability to address problems, is in NO ONE’S interest.
I can’t believe that you would be in favor of arbitrary regulation; that is, regulation to no purpose. You shouldn’t believe that we conservatives are in favor of drilling with no regulation whatsoever.
Once the Teabaggers take over the Net, I hope they use Spell-Check.