Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Could The Feds Seize The Internet?
IBD Editorials ^ | September 2, 2009 | INVESTORS BUSINESS DAILY Staff

Posted on 09/02/2009 5:34:24 PM PDT by Kaslin

Security: A Senate bill lets the president "declare a cybersecurity emergency" relating to "nongovernmental" computer networks and do what's needed to respond to the threat. Didn't they just collect our e-mail addresses?


We wish this was just a piece of the fictional "Dr. Strangelove" that fell to the cutting-room floor, but it's not. It is a real piece of disturbingly vague legislation sponsored by Sens. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine.

Senate Bill 773 would grant the administration emergency powers (where have we heard that before?) in the event of a cyberemergency that the president would have the power to define and declare.

Wait a minute. Didn't the left recently weep and gnash its teeth over President George W. Bush's wireless surveillance of communications between real, live terrorists who want to kill us and their American contacts? Would Congress have given Bush such a sweeping power?

Have we already forgotten the administration wanting Americans to spy on their neighbors and report "fishy" communications opposing health care to flag@whitehouse.gov? Didn't oodles of our e-mail addresses wind up in the White House from which then came unsolicited e-mails supporting ObamaCare?

A working draft of the legislation, which is in its second incarnation, obtained by an Internet privacy group, would grant the secretary of commerce access to all privately owned information networks deemed critical to the nation's infrastructure "without regard to any provision of law, regulation, rule or policy restricting such access." Where's the ACLU?

(Excerpt) Read more at ibdeditorials.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial; Front Page News; Government
KEYWORDS: 111th; aclu; agenda; bho44; bhofascism; bhomedia; bhotyranny; bigbrother; billnelson; broadband; computers; computersecurity; constitution; constitutional; cultureofcorruption; cwii; cyberattack; cybersecurity; cyberwar; cyberwarfare; dearleader; democraticcorruption; democraticscandals; democrats; donttreadonme; email; emails; facebook; fishy; fishygate; flaggate; freespeech; frrespeech; givemeliberty; gmail; google; hackers; ibd; impeachobama; internet; internetsecurity; jayrockefeller; jayrockefller; laptops; liberalfascism; mediacontrol; myspace; netneutrality; obama; obamabrownshirts; obamaregime; olympiasnowe; opression; personaldata; privacy; propaganda; rapeofliberty; rockefeller; s773; snowe; spam; spamalot; spamgate; spammerincheif; trickortweet; twitter; tyranny; websites; whitehousespam
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-29 next last

1 posted on 09/02/2009 5:34:24 PM PDT by Kaslin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: bareford101; BerniesFriend; blaveda; Bookwoman; Celeste732; dsc; FrdmLvr; FreedomPoster; ...

2 posted on 09/02/2009 5:35:15 PM PDT by Kaslin (Acronym for 0bama: One Big Ass Mistake America)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

We should get into alternate communications


3 posted on 09/02/2009 5:36:06 PM PDT by omega4179 ( -11)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Makes my Amateur Radio license (Ham) seem oh so valuable—once again.


4 posted on 09/02/2009 5:36:46 PM PDT by devane617 (Republicans first strategy should be taking over the MSM. Without it we are doomed.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

“Didn’t they just collect our e-mail addresses?”

They collected some email addresses. How many are real?


5 posted on 09/02/2009 5:37:36 PM PDT by dynachrome (I am Jim Thompson!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

If they do that, even the teenagers will revolt! Don’t mess with my Playstation 3, Wii or XBox 360.


6 posted on 09/02/2009 5:50:22 PM PDT by pray4liberty (http://aroodawakening.tv)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

And this just in... The White House is hinting that there may be a “civil emergency” declaration if the self-styled forecast of a “swine flu epidemic” gets out of control this fall.

The CDC, however, has issued a statement that directly contradicts the WH assertion that tens of thousands of people will be stricken with the flu.


7 posted on 09/02/2009 6:01:38 PM PDT by snowrip (Liberal? YOU ARE A SOCIALIST WITH NO RATIONAL ARGUMENT.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Look at it from Hitlers point of view...Clear sailing from then on...no one will have access to any contrarian information.


8 posted on 09/02/2009 6:02:22 PM PDT by Don Corleone ("Oil the gun..eat the cannolis. Take it to the Mattress.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
Where's the ACLU?

Hah. You're kidding, right?

9 posted on 09/02/2009 6:02:59 PM PDT by Steely Tom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
Sounds Like Gmail Had a Case of the Tuesdays

A dry run perhaps?

10 posted on 09/02/2009 6:03:12 PM PDT by Mr_Moonlight
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

I keep telling myself that this is along the lines of Clinton using the “Y2K emergency” to declare martial law.

Lather, rinse, repeat...


11 posted on 09/02/2009 6:08:56 PM PDT by workerbee (If you vote for Democrats, you are engaging in UnAmerican Activity.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: omega4179

Yep.


12 posted on 09/02/2009 6:10:59 PM PDT by Eagles6 ( Typical White Guy: Christian, Constitutionalist, Heterosexual, Redneck. (Let them eat arugula!))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Mr_Moonlight

That was my thinking too.


13 posted on 09/02/2009 6:22:53 PM PDT by elizabethgrace (WORLD CHAMPIONS - Park View Little League - Chula Vista, CA !!!!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Far easier would be to do what the Australians have done, pass a law to block access to “objectionable sites” ostensibly to block child porn. Then Internet censorship is just a mouse click away.


14 posted on 09/02/2009 6:31:15 PM PDT by The Great RJ ("The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money." M. Thatcher)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: elizabethgrace
The IT guy tries to explain it away as a mere 'technical glitch' using all sorts of IT jargon, which is reasonable on the surface ... but if this was such a rare anomaly, then why has it happened several times in recent weeks? And how come GMail never had a problem until only recently?
15 posted on 09/02/2009 6:38:14 PM PDT by Mr_Moonlight
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

For years we thought the day they took the guns would be the day the revolution started. But considering sedentary bovine America today, it’ll be the day they take the net. Imagine a hoard of millions of zitfaced virgins decending upon the White House because Maobama pulled the plug on their World of Warcraft.


16 posted on 09/02/2009 6:43:40 PM PDT by RAO1125 (Neoconservatism:Failed. Socialism:Failing (again). Next up: Libertarianism)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Mr_Moonlight

Exactly and quite a coinkdoink, don’t ya think that Google’s CEO and other company executives are huge Obama supporters?


17 posted on 09/02/2009 6:46:09 PM PDT by elizabethgrace (WORLD CHAMPIONS - Park View Little League - Chula Vista, CA !!!!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Why would the FedGov want to shut down the internet?

A few ports at the local gigapop and you get to read everyones mail - and everything else.


18 posted on 09/02/2009 6:48:09 PM PDT by ASOC (Cave quid dicis, quando, et cui)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

The global open source community would hack the internet back open within 24 hours and then cyber attack the offending government. And I doubt if every geek running a node would obey Obama’s orders in a timely manner.

Also, in many parts of the internet, phone calls and data traffic are mixed. He would have to shut down all telecom to shut down the internet.

It would very nasty very quickly...


19 posted on 09/02/2009 6:56:26 PM PDT by Andy from Chapel Hill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: elizabethgrace
Exactly and quite a coinkdoink, don’t ya think that Google’s CEO and other company executives are huge Obama supporters?

I think that I've read on these FR boards that they are ... thru candidate contributions and such. Never done the research myself, but have read often on these boards that the principle Exec's of Google contribute primarily to Dem candidates.

20 posted on 09/02/2009 7:07:39 PM PDT by Mr_Moonlight
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-29 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson