Gross continues, “Senator Joe Lieberman and other bill sponsors have refuted the charges that the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act gives the president an Internet ‘kill switch.’ Instead, the bill puts limits on the powers the president already has to cause “the closing of any facility or stations for wire communication” in a time of war, as described in the Communications Act of 1934, they said in a breakdown of the bill published on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee website. The committee unanimously approved an amended version of the legislation by voice vote Thursday, a committee spokeswoman said. The bill next moves to the Senate floor for a vote, which has not yet been scheduled.”
“The bill, introduced earlier this month, would establish a White House Office for Cyberspace Policy and a National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications, which would work with private US companies to create cybersecurity requirements for the electrical grid, telecommunications networks and other critical infrastructure,” Gross reports. “The bill also would allow the US president to take emergency actions to protect critical parts of the Internet, including ordering owners of critical infrastructure to implement emergency response plans, during a cyber-emergency. The president would need congressional approval to extend a national cyber-emergency beyond 120 days under an amendment to the legislation approved by the committee. The legislation would give the US Department of Homeland Security authority that it does not now have to respond to cyber-attacks, Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, said earlier this month.”
Gross reports, “On Wednesday, 24 privacy and civil liberties groups sent a letter raising concerns about the legislation to the sponsors. The bill gives the new National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications ‘significant authority’ over critical infrastructure, but doesn’t define what critical infrastructure is covered, the letter said. Without a definition of critical infrastructure there are concerns that “it includes elements of the Internet that Americans rely on every day to engage in free speech and to access information,” said the letter, signed by the Center for Democracy and Technology, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and other groups. ‘Changes are needed to ensure that cybersecurity measures do not unnecessarily infringe on free speech, privacy, and other civil liberties interests,’ the letter added.”
Full article via Techworld: “Obama ‘Internet kill switch’ plan approved by US Senate panel; President could get power to turn off Internet”
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Judge Bork” for the heads up.]
Wow, two consecutive clickbait articles on the US President.
Obviously, some bills have just come in.
Imagine if you will MDN, that there was a site that when it got the chance, would post something disgusting or pointedly wrong about your family. It doesn’t matter that your headline is wrong, misleading, politically motivated (or financially motivated)…those people and things you attempt to decry, if brought to a very personal level would make you pause.
What if those posts about your family were so over the top wrong that they incited someone to hurt your family? You have no way of knowing if your headline will be misconstrued or taken as the last straw by a twiste mind. Think you have no responsibiilty for what people DO after they read what you post? Wrong.
And a typical attitude of people with short memories and limited political awareness.
That you use your platform to express your personal politics is your right but it’s STUPIDLY exercised. It will only serve to have me and other contact your advertisers directly and tell them as long as they continue to support you, they will get NO business from those who find your injection of partisan beliefs into what LOOKS like a NEWS site (hence the name) but what is all too often the bully pulpit of a bigot.
If you’d like to let the advertisers know you dislike MDN’s constant political bigotry contact these people with your complaint.
They are obviously the biggest advertiser here.
MacMall Sales:
sales@macmall.com
MacMall Customer Service:
customerservice@macmall.com
MacMall Technical Support:
mactech@macmall.com
*** ‘Macromancer’ ***
You’re a dips**t.
When Nobama signs his name to the bill it is HE who gets the power. If this had been during the Bush administration wankers like you would have freaked out.
Even the loony-left ACLU is against this despicable power grab.
Nobama has been a dismal failure. I have yet to talk to a supporter who is happy with him.
What is it with you people? Is the political system in America so screwed up that it is impossible to elect an honest person to office?? You really thought that you had elected a competent man because he is a negro didn’t you?? Do any of you even know one thing about his political history?????
You deserve this guy.
The only thing more entertaining than watching lefties bash a conservative administration is watching them scramble to defend a liberal one. Sucks having to run a country, doesn’t it?
Good! I wish Obama would use it <u>now</u> to cut China off from access to our internet. They stole much of our manufacturing so now all we have to sell is intellectual property. So now they’re stealing that left and right and laugh in our face as they do so. Death through a thousand cuts. The next to go will be manufacturing of airplanes (think Boeing). China is gearing up to produce a 120-seat airliner. (I won’t get on it).
Isn’t this a PRESIDENTIAL KILL SWITCH, and not Obama-specific?
The federal government can ground commercial airplane flights in the event of a national emergency. And most people wanted and expected better emergency response from the federal government with respect to hurricanes (Rita) and the recent oil spill. What is so upsetting about establishing a rational and centralized plan for responding to a national internet/networking emergency? You can argue about the details – for instance, I believe that Congress ought to be able to act authoritatively on a “cyber-security emergency” in far less than 120 days. But I don’t want to deal with emotional ranting or partisan flailing and labeling.
I am not a fan of big government or of a dominating federal government. Power should be delegated as low as possible in the chain of federal to state to local, IMO. But wouldn’t you rather have a coordinated plan for rapidly responding to a massive internet attack than to flounder impotently when faced with such an eventuality?
Great Article MDN!!!!! You commies crying about it need to move to China, Russia, Iran, etc.
I just purchased a number of macs for my business on the click through link from MDN. Keep up exposing these criminal democrats! November can’t come soon enough.
“You commies crying about it need to move to China, Russia, Iran, etc.”
= I don’t agree with you, so you are a commie.
All that certain right-wing leaders have to do is throw a few trigger words around – commie, unpatriotic and a couple of others, and the marionettes do their hate-filled dance.
Thanks for the astute thinking and penetrating insight, commie hater.
I’m also fascinated by the juvenile use of “handles”, in general — here and elsewhere. (How old are you? 14?) Can people not stand behind their opinions by putting their names? On the other hand, maybe putting my name is not such a good idea, with such vitriolic, unthinking hatred around.
Hey Nobama, theloniousMac, et al.
How does it feel to be on the same side of the issue as the ACLU?
Woohoo! Here’s the news release!
1st I want to say this whole bill is rather stupid.
2nd The internet is too big to control or “shut down”. So that kind of ability seems unrealistic and unfeasible. People seem to be forgetting that many many websites are not based in the US. So does that mean the government will go out and shut down foreign websites on foreign soil? Or would the government just block them like China does and put up an American version of the “great firewall?”
Hands up if you voted for one of these Senators so we can personally thank you.
The kill switch can be abused, but I can understand the necessity of it in a grave crisis.
Are you all a bunch of friggin’ retards? The government pulled out of the internet years ago. The reason? To DECENTRALIZE it. To make it able to function regardless of what emergency happened. They did that to get a national communications network that would function autonomously during a disaster or emergency. Now they are backtracking right into purely communist grounds by laying a foundation to kill any true free speech that isn’t controlled.
And you clusterf**k DipS**ts who blame it on the right or the left are blind. NO elected official is our friend or on our side. They are in it for themselves, and the power + wealth they can accumulate at our expense. To think otherwise is really naive and ultimately doomed
@everyone (and everyone similar) — What do you care about? Do you actually care about persuading anyone, or do you just want to blow off steam. IF you care about ever persuading a single other person, I can guarantee you that it will never happen with that kind of language.
People are persuaded to new points of view by logical ideas that are clearly, reasonable and respectfully articulated —- and when those ideas also show the listener that their self interest is best served by the new idea. NO-ONE is persuaded by this kind of base and sordid language.
One of the most famous speeches of all time was NOT, “I have a dream, you bunch of clusterf**k dips**ts. Listen up you friggin’ retard a**holes.” Hmmm. I wonder why not.
I’ve done the ranting – when I was MUCH younger and much more naive. It accomplishes nothing. So get your testosterone under control, and think whether you actually want to accomplish anything. If you do, change how you talk. If you don’t, then your words are much worse that a mere waste of space.
Again, nothing to do with Mac news…. just more MDN horseshit for hits.
Note to self. Don’t store anything in the cloud.
you republicans and democrats are such a bunch of morons.
In plain language, the federal government has no business
restricting anything that the Constitution does not permit it to. If we cede the authority to restrict and regulate the content of the Internet to the federal government, we are also ceding to it the power to completely shut
down the Internet. And this is exactly what Lieberman’s bill does.
The fact is, the Internet is the last bastion of free and unfiltered news
and information. And, yes, I understand that there is much misinformation on the Internet. But that is the price of freedom. The individual must be given
the liberty to discern right from wrong for himself. As a Christian, I
believe this is why God provided the Holy Scriptures and the Holy Spirit.
And I for one do not need the federal government to try and replace either.
And as far as objectionable material being available to children is
concerned, this is what parents are for! Good grief! It is bad enough that
the federal government has turned into Big Brother; are we going to allow it
to become Big Momma and Big Daddy as well?
Ladies and gentlemen, it is essential that the free flow of information be
allowed to continue over the Internet. The major news media is a finely
filtered, tightly controlled medium that works harder at blocking news and
information than it does at delivering it. Virtually every major television
and radio network, along with the nation’s major newspapers, is an equal
opportunity news-suppressor.
Just ask yourself, what would you have known regarding the MIAC report in
Missouri had it not been for the Internet? What would you have known about
the fiasco in Hardin, Montana, had it not been for the Internet? What would
you know about the NAFTA superhighway without the Internet? If not for the
Internet, would you ever have learned about the CFR’s plans for a North
American Community?
It is no hyperbole to suggest that the Internet is the modern patriots’
version of the colonists’ Committees of Correspondence that sounded the
clarion call for liberty and independence at the time of America’s founding.
And now, power-mad elitists in Washington, D.C., are attempting to provide
the federal government with the power and authority to shut it down at will.
It looks they’re getting ready for something, war with Iran maybe?
any excuse will do, wait for $6/gal of gas
let’s vote them all out this november, Republicans-Democrats=fraud
Constitution First!!!
end the (private) Federal Reserve
Cuckychan good to know someone still believes in the constitution.
I have no faith in political parties.
I can tell you now that anyone who thinks that we should have control over the internet does not know what they are talking about. Why? Please tell me why you feel its important for our Govt to control the internet other then to control freedom of speech.
George Washington If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.
Ben Franklin They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Such great leaders in our past such horrible leaders in our present. All our leaders bush, obama all of them care about is gaining control of our country.
I can’t wait until 2012 so we can rid this country of this communist psycho.
(Thankfully all the people I know who were bamboozled and voted for him won’t be making that same mistake again)