Gore invented it, and now Congress wants ability to kill it
Yes I am talking about the Internet. Of course I say it tounge-in-cheek when I say that Al Gore invented it but I am not kidding when I say Congress wants the ability to kill it.
On the very day that the Egyptian government shut down an overwhelming majority of the country’s Internet servers, Republican Senator Susan Collins began floating a piece of legislation which, if passed, would grant the President the power to do essentially the same thing in the U.S.
Why does anyone in our government, Republican, Democrat or Independent think they can regulate and control something they don’t own. We (the USA) do not own the internet, nor can we control it. Does the Congress and even more so, does the President think they can get away with shutting off hundreds of millions of Ameicans from the itnernet? The internet is not just a fun thing to do at night or a place to catch up with friends, it has woven itself into the fabric of many of our lives.
Think of the “shock” and “disgust” many Americans had when we heard that Egypt and Iran (remember a few months back) had shut off internet access to the people of those countries. Imagine the uproar in this country if people could not update status, tweet or even surf the web. It would be on the scale of Red Dawn. I am just in awe that anyone with any kind of common sense would even think of doing this.
The timing of the bill’s resurgence is also curious, as the Obama administration continues to urge Egypt to open up the Web and online social networks. National Post’s Matt Gurney acknowledges that Congress isn’t “wrong” to take strong measures against cyberattacks, but argues that “the irony of the U.S. debating how to kill the Internet while we all rely on the very same technology to keep us up to date about how other people are using social media to change the world is inescapable, and groan-inducing.”
And come to think of all the people who said that President Bush, Vice-President Cheney and SecDef Rumsfeld were bad guys trying to take away our rights as Americans. HA, they would have never tried something like this. And in fact the patriot act looks like nothing compare to this when you look at squashing the freedoms and liberties we enjoy as American citizens.
Read the whole story at http://www.switched.com/2011/02/01/internet-kill-switch-bill-what-it-is-wont-die/
Posted on February 9th, 2011 by Bouhammer
Filed under: Abuse of Power, Congressional branch
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by bouhammer, MilitaryPundits. MilitaryPundits said: New blog posting, Gore invented it, and now Congress wants ability to kill it – http://tinyurl.com/6xxbyj3 #sot #militarymon [...]