motherjones.com — The proposed bill gives the president the ability to "declare a cybersecurity emergency" and shut down Internet traffic "in the interest of national security." It also gives the Commerce Dep't power to access any data on private or public networks without regard to privacy laws. The definition of "cybersecurity emergency" is left to the president.
Apr 2, 2009 View in Crawl 4
h8f8kesApr 3, 2009
The government obviously knows what is best for you and will protect you from yourself and that nasty free speech thing.
ljoreillyApr 3, 2009
This thing goes way beyond FISA in its power to invade our privacy. This would allow the federal government to take over and shut down any private network in the US as well as have complete carte blanch in the ability to look at private information. What kind of an emergency would be big enough to justify the panic that would ensue if the entire internet were off limits to the citizens of the US? Why is it that when the government is trying to protects us, their first step is always to infringe upon our rights? This is a huge power grab and yet where is the outrage?
muckemuckApr 3, 2009
If there's a massive public uprising against the government then the government will need to control the information and shut down the communication networks that are used by the public. Not a conspiracy theory - it's standard, smart military planning.But it's much more sensible to say this is about protecting critical infrastructure like power, water, banks, etc.. (none of which should not be connected to an insecure network used by the masses).
burningsandApr 3, 2009
s**t!
tastywheatApr 4, 2009
Their common disregard for the Constitution and civil liberties makes you wonder if they're really the ones in charge...
iruntherace4himApr 6, 2009
Enough already with our freedoms being under attack!