White House to Curtail Freedom of Speech

The White House that controls most of the media has been frustrated for some time by the ability of people to communicate freely on the Internet. This includes E-mail, blogs, and twitter...the ability of people to communicate, send each other information, the ability to do research on a topic to get the facts, look up information, communicate a contrary opinion, organize thoughts and efforts in opposition...you know, freedom of speech.

Now a bill is being put forward by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, who has spent months drafting it behind closed doors. The 55-page draft of S.773. which appears to permit the president to seize temporary control of private-sector networks of the Internet during a so-called "cybersecurity emergency". It is troubling, like most of the legislation being pushed through today by its vagueness. This is the new trick in legislation, make it voluminous and vague, this then gives the White House the power to make it anything they want to, very scary.

When Rockefeller, the chairman of the Senate Commerce committee, and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) introduced the original bill in April, they claimed it was vital to protect national cybersecurity. "We must protect our critical infrastructure at all costs--from our water to our electricity, to banking, traffic lights and electronic health records," Rockefeller said.

The White House is supposed to engage in "periodic mapping" of private networks deemed to be critical, and those companies "shall share" requested information with the federal government. "Cyber" is defined as anything having to do with the Internet, telecommunications, computers, or computer networks. There's no provision for any administrative process or review. This is very troubling and then you have the amorphous powers that go along with it.

Wake up, America!