Free Republic

The American Left would like America to be more like China. Senator Joe Leiberman (I-Conn.) said as much when touting the need for his Internet Kill Switch bill, which would give the President the authority to shut down the Internet in a time of national emergency. Well, here is what goes on in China, as reported last week in London’s Daily Telegraph: Parents who believed their children died in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake because school buildings were shoddily-built petitioned the Chinese government to release its findings in a post-earthquake investigation. About 60 parents that were attempting to deliver the petition...

A new bill introduced in the Senate would give the president the equivalent of an Internet "kill switch" if passed. The concept has some communications companies hoping that legislators would rather kill the bill. The bill is known as the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act.

Two weeks ago, I wrote about my serious objections to Microsoft’s latest salvo in the war against unauthorized copies of Windows. Two Windows Genuine Advantage components are being pushed onto users’ machines with insufficient notification and inadequate quality control, and the result is a big mess. (For details, see Microsoft presses the Stupid button.) Guess what? WGA might be on the verge of getting even messier. In fact, one report claims WGA is about to become a Windows “kill switch” – and when I asked Microsoft for an on-the-record response, they refused to deny it. [SNIP] Currently, no one at...