06/27/10

From Prison Planet

I don't usually quote material from Prison Planet or World Net Daily and that genre of far right-wing sites that see an all-powerful Obama and Congress conspiring to destroy the United States as we know it.

I see Obama as a feckless Chauncey Gardiner, placed in power by "them". The congress is a separate problem; these people would and have sold their souls (and the U.S.) to the Devil for the best offer.

The Prison Planet writers probably look under their beds for monsters at night. I sleep soundly, but keep a high capacity, laser-sited, automatic pistol within reach, and the alarm system is armed - against burglars or the government, I'm not sure which.

Here's a story about the end of the 1st Amendment.

 


Obama Can Shut Down Internet
For 4 Months Under New Emergency Powers

 


Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Friday, June 25, 2010

President Obama will be handed the power to shut down the Internet for at least four months without Congressional oversight if the Senate votes for the infamous Internet ‘kill switch’ bill, which was approved by a key Senate committee yesterday and now moves to the floor.

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.

They argued “That the President already had authority under the Communications Act to “cause the closing of any facility or station for wire communication” when there is a “state or threat of war”, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.

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.
 


While media and public attention is overwhelmingly focused on the BP oil spill, the establishment is quietly preparing the framework that will allow Obama, or indeed any President who follows him, to bring down a technological iron curtain that will give the government a foot in the door on seizing complete control over the Internet.

As we have illustrated, fears surrounding cybersecurity have been hyped to mask the real agenda behind the bill, which is to strangle the runaway growth of alternative and independent media outlets which are exposing government atrocities, cover-ups and cronyism like never before.

Indeed, China uses similar rhetoric about the need to maintain “security” and combating cyber warfare by regulating the web, when in reality their entire program is focused around silencing anyone who criticizes the state.

The real agenda behind government control of the Internet has always been to strangle and suffocate independent media outlets who are now competing with and even displacing establishment press organs, with websites like the Drudge Report now attracting more traffic than many large newspapers combined. As part of this war against independent media, the FTC recently proposing a “Drudge Tax” that would force independent media organizations to pay fees that would be used to fund mainstream newspapers.

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Would the Tanks Have Stopped If the World Wasn't Watching?
Tiananmen Square - June 1989

 

Are you old enough to recognize the names of "Voice of America", "Radio Liberty" or "Radio Free Europe"? Are you old enough to have ever listened to their broadcasts to countries behind the "Iron Curtain"? Do you remember the distinctive background buzzsaw drone of Soviet jammers drowning out the stations in Europe so that the people of the communist nations would not be able to hear any news and information from the free world.

Do you remember Border Guards whose job was to keep people in rather than to keep people out? - and they used live ammunition to enforce the law.

Did you ever hear the Moscow newspaper joke? They have two main papers there, Pravda and Izvestia, "The Truth" and "The News". The long-suffering Muscovites still find a bit of humor in their lives. They say "there is no news in "The Truth", and no truth in "The News".

Anyone remember HUAC? The House Un-American Activities Committee? They used to investigate prominent people who did unconstitutional stuff. I guess that kind of thing is just not done anymore because it might offend someone.

 

adieu until next time, Ladies and Gentlemen. Right now I feel like offending the shit out of someone.

EnemyoftheState