Attack On Free Speech

Watch what the other hand is doing, folks. While scenes of oil soaked birds and other wildlife and live shots of the gusher beneath the Gulf fill our television screens the Obama crowd is plotting to shut us down.

A controversial bill is being quickly moved though the Senate that will give President Obama the ability to close the internet for 30 days or more, whenever HE decides there is a “threat” to national security. The bill is loosely worded and does not specify criteria the president should use in determining just what such a threat might be.

Prison Planet reports:

The Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act, which is being pushed hard by Senator Joe Lieberman, would hand absolute power to the federal government to close down networks, and block incoming Internet traffic from certain countries under a declared national emergency.

Despite the Center for Democracy and Technology and 23 other privacy and technology organizations sending letters to Lieberman and other backers of the bill expressing concerns that the legislation could be used to stifle free speech, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee passed in the bill in advance of a vote on the Senate floor.

In response to widespread criticism of the bill, language was added that would force the government to seek congressional approval to extend emergency measures beyond 120 days. Still, this would hand Obama the authority to shut down the Internet on a whim without Congressional oversight or approval for a period of no less than four months.

The Senators pushing the bill rejected the claim that the bill was a ‘kill switch’ for the Internet, not by denying that Obama would be given the authority to shut down the Internet as part of this legislation, but by arguing that he already had the power to do so.

President Obama has been systematically hijacking our business and banking system since taking office. The mainstream media is in his pocket (and the pocket of any other politician they like). As a result many of us rely on internet sources to learn what is really happening. Citizen reporters, bloggers and film makers keep us up to date on news that the mainstream media filters and withholds.

The President already has far reaching powers that allow him to do whatever is necessary in a real emergency.

This bill makes it extremely possible for this or future presidents to close the entire internet system or parts of it based on his own interpretation of a “cyber emergency”. That could very well be sources of information revealing corruption in the administration, scandal that would cause an negative impact among voters, or simple a crack down on free speech in general.

Don’t believe me?  The Prison Planet also has this tidbit of interesting information.

Fears that the legislation is aimed at bringing the Internet under the regulatory power of the U.S. government in an offensive against free speech were heightened further on Sunday, when Lieberman revealed that the plan was to mimic China’s policies of policing the web with censorship and coercion.

“Right now China, the government, can disconnect parts of its Internet in case of war and we need to have that here too,” Lieberman told CNN’s Candy Crowley.

We should be like China? Please tell me I’m dreaming!

What can we do? Well, we can call and raise hell to our nonresponsive Senators. Of course, that may not work. they don’t seem to care what we want.

Secondly, any Patriots and Patriot groups should be considering and implementing backup communication plans in the event the President decides to shut down our primary means of communication. He would dearly love us to sit down and shut up. We can not do that, no matter what the cost.

We will resort to smoke signals if necessary. Of course, then the EPA will probably be after us too.