A Senate committee unanimously approved major cybersecurity legislation which would allow Brother O to shut down Internet networks, block incoming Internet traffic from certain countries, and force private websites to comply with broad cybersecurity measures.

Last Thursday the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee agreed to send the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010 to the Senate floor for a vote. The Act will create a White House Office of Cyberspace Policy and a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) center to adopt cybersecurity policies related to federal and private sector networks.

The legislation, crafted by Senators Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Tom Carper (D-DE) is aimed at bringing the Internet under the regulatory power of the federal government. Lieberman’s “Kill switch” bill parallels last year’s legislation by Senators Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) granting the government power to disconnect certain websites.

“We need this capacity in a time of war…. for the president to say, ‘Internet service provider, we’ve got to disconnect the American Internet from all traffic coming in from another foreign country, or we have to put a patch on this part of it’.” –Joe (Droopy Dog) Lieberman on CNN’s State of the Union with Candy Crowley

Droopy Dog’s “Kill switch” bill would hand Brother O absolute power to shut down the Internet for at least four months without Congressional oversight. His loosely worded bill also gives DHS’ new National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications (NCCC) “significant authority” to monitor the “security status” of private websites, ISPs and other U.S. net-related business, and critical internet components in other countries.

“Companies would be required to take part in ‘information sharing’ with the government and certify to the NCCC that they have implemented approved security measures. Furthermore, any company that ‘relies on’ the internet, telephone system or any other part of the U.S. ‘information infrastructure’ would also be ‘subject to command’ by the NCCC under the proposed new law.” — Andy Chalk

Privacy and civil liberties groups fear that Droopy Dog’s “Kill switch” bill would grant Brother O the power to declare a “national cyber-emergency” at his discretion, which could force private Internet service providers and search engines to limit or cut off a whistle-blowing or political site’s connection to the Web for blaming or criticizing the Bread and Circuses administration.

“We have seen through recent history that in an emergency, the Executive Branch will interpret grants of power very broadly.” –Gregory Nojeim, from the Center for Democracy and Technology, a group that promotes Internet freedom

“The way it seems to be worded, the bill could easily represent a threat to free speech.” –Wayne Crews, vice president of the Competitive Enterprise Institute

Droopy Dog is pushing his “Kill switch” bill “at lightning speed” because he says the country’s “economic security, national security and public safety are now all at risk from … cyber-warriors, cyber-spies, cyber-terrorists and cyber-criminals.”

“The need for this legislation is obvious and urgent.” –Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT)

“We cannot afford to wait for a cyber 9/11 before our government realizes the importance of protecting our cyber resources.” –Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME)

Ginning up fears to rush legislation helps to mask the “Kill switch” bill’s real purpose, which is to keep the alternative Internet media from exposing the mainstream media propagandists in their whitewashing of government favoritisms, cover-ups, and atrocities. After all, the fear card worked to rush through and hide the real agenda behind the Wallstreet/Automotive industry bailouts, the Porkulus package, and the ObamaCare bill.

Interestingly, the communist Chinese also claim the need to police and censor the Web to maintain security and combat cyber warfare, but the totalitarian government’s real agenda is to silence those who criticize it. It would appear that Droopy Dog, whom Glenn Beck heralds as a man of honor, wants to add a technological iron curtain to quell America’s ambiance.

“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 Crowley

First Iran shuts down the Internet to quash a revolution, then Pakistan shuts down Facebook and Google to blackout “Everybody Draw Mohammad Day,” and now members of the U.S. Senate are mimicking communist China’s censorship and coercion policies to stifle Internet media outlets and bloggers who are quickly displacing the statists’ mainstream press organs.

Lieberman, whom Sean Hannity embraces as a friend and a “good guy,” declares his bill is “not a big deal,” and that his critics are over reacting and “intentionally peddling misinformation.” According to the conscience of the Senate, the President already has the authority under the Communications Act to close any facility or station for wire communication, “So I say to my friends on the Internet, relax.”

In the wake of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC’s) floating of the Drudge tax as a way to fund mainstream newspapers and to tax out of existence their competitors in the alternative media, George Orwell’s discernment might be better suited for Lieberman than either Hannity’s or Beck’s.

“Political language … is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”

Lieberman: China Can Shut Down The Internet, Why Can’t We (2:04 Video)

Competitive Enterprise Institute — Lieberman-Collins-Carper Bill Threatens Nation’s Cybersecurity

Congress is using the myth of global warming to force another tax-and-spend bill on the over-burdened American public. Sponsored by Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Barbara Boxer (D-CA), it is popularly called the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act of 2008.

Grassfire president Steve Elliott describes it this way:

The U.S. Senate is right now teetering on the brink of passing a $1.2 trillion Carbon Tax that would trigger a sharp rise in gas prices, raise taxes and most assuredly cripple our economy. But that isn’t stopping Sen. Barbara Boxer from attempting to ramrod this incredibly irresponsible bill down the throats of unsuspecting Americans.

In an email, Elliott further noted:

Passage of this tax would have a devastating impact on our economy–sharply increasing the price of gas (by as much as $1.40 per gallon), raising taxes and creating a new, bloated government bureaucracy.

We just heard that Majority Leader Reid is rushing this bill forward — ending debate today and forcing a vote Friday.

Here’s a graphic to consider as you ponder making the effort to email, fax, or phone your Senators. You can get the contact information for your senators here.

Says Charley Reese of the Fayette Daily News in this article:

Global warming has ceased. In 2005, it was .45 degrees centigrade above the 1961-1990 global average temperature. In 2006, it dropped to .42 centigrade, and in 2007, to .41 centigrade….

The world is as it is regardless of what we think. It never conforms to our beliefs; we have to conform and adapt to its reality.

Today, all day, in D.C., pompous politicians pontificated ponderously about pullouts and projections concerning Iraq and the greater Middle East.

What a day of contrasts. Two great men suffer fools in committee hearings. Our President bestows the Medal of Honor for the incredible bravery of Navy Seal Michael Monsoor. Hypocrites demand retreat just as the battle tide turns. The heroic and the not-so-heroic are on the same stage in stark contrast for all to see.

A General and an Ambassador doing miraculous work under extremely complex and challenging circumstances had to sit for hours and be subjected to the likes of Ted Kennedy and Co.

Always the inspirational leader and optimist, Harry Reid proclaimed defeat once again, insisting the surge has been a failure.

And in the end, the General and the Ambassador had to listen to an irrational, illogical, meandering sermon from Sen. Biden, the arrogant so-and-so, who last week (timing!) proclaimed the surge hasn’t worked (despite all evidence to the contrary), but told the General and the Ambassador this evening, they are “doing a great job.”

Thank you Sen. Biden, esteemed chair of the committee, who earlier insulted the General and the Ambassador saying:

“In the second round we will ask the question again which you still have not answered”

implying clearly the men were intentionally evading the question.

And what was that question, posed by Boxer and Clinton and Biden and the rest of the Defeatocrats?

“When we can get out of Iraq?”

Supposedly, the General could have replied: “February 27, 2009.” (But timetables tip our hand to the enemy. Even my 3rd grader understands that basic concept.)

Time and again the General and the Ambassador calmly told the Senators the end game is complex, the pace of troop reductions conditional on multiple unpredictable variables.

“It is calculus, not arithmetic,” the General stated, patiently. Senators could be seen scratching their heads.

The Ambassador: “We have to have a sober discussion of what will happen” if we exit Iraq prematurely.

Asking Ted to have a sober discussion may be akin to asking Ahmadinejad to demilitarize. Why bother?

(Yes, the same Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who announced today his Islamic Republic has started installing 6,000 new centrifuges at a nuclear plant. The same Ahmadinejad who wants to overrun Iraq, install another Islamic Republic, and use that springboard to crush Israel. The same president of a terror state who makes no secret of his desire to crush America too by the way. Anybody listening to the sound of marching boots?)

The General to the Senators: “We have made significant progress but it is fragile and reversible.”

Translation: The surge has worked as designed and intended, and is working, and we are handing more security responsibility over to the Iraqis as we draw down our troops but we must be careful and not withdraw too quickly or we will leave our friends high and dry and lose the ground we have gained because Al Qaeda and Iran are drooling to claw their way back in and cause rivers of blood to flow.

Of course, the Senators, who have been wrong about Iraq from the beginning, don’t want to hear the General and the Ambassador say these things. It shows them up. So the good Senators harp about budgets and constituents to provide themselves cover.

Senator Boxer: “My constituents are fed up. They want out. Iran has more influence in Iraq than ever. I give up. We have spent too much in blood and treasure.”

Senator Clinton, demanding retreat: “It is irresponsible to continue with this failed policy.” (How did you vote in October 2002 on the question of the use of force in Iraq?)

Biden: “We need $150M right now to support Pakistan. We can”t even get that right now. We have to have a matrix if you will, the end game, or we won’t get any support for anything.” (Ask Kerry, Mr. Biden. I’m sure he has a mere $150M lying around somewhere. Perhaps he’ll “Report for Duty.”)

What kind of support, Sen. Biden? Support from the American people for what? For your earlier positions calling for the removal of Saddam and the threat of WMD?

Most of these hapless senators voted to authorize the use of force in October 2002, most of them called on both Presidents Clinton and Bush to use force if necessary to contain and remove Saddam. Most of them voted to fund the war on more than one occasion.

And now, when propaganda has wearied the American people to the point of capitulation, they read the polls running up to elections, and hammer a good General and a good Ambassador on national television only to wrap themselves in the garb of righteous indignation all for the sake of political posturing.

How long have these senators been in office, spending money like drunken sailors, refusing to fix Social Security?

How may earmarks and pork barrels and rat holes have they squandered money on, for years and years and decades? How long have they done nothing about border security and immigration reform, all of it costing the American people untold billions?

And now they have the audacity to blame shift and decry the national debt and expenditures on the war on terror being fought to preserve our very survival?

The national debt?

This is to be laid at the door of the General and the Ambassador for doing what they’ve been asked to do, without partisan considerations?

Perhaps all this serves to explain why 70% of the American people disapprove of the job Congress is doing, disapproving the machinations of Senators grinding political axes instead of putting their shoulders to the wheel of progress.

Thank goodness for courageous people like Sen. Lieberman who said today, addressing The General, The Ambassador and The Senators:

“What I’m about to say, with respect to my colleagues who have consistently opposed our presence in Iraq, as I hear the questions and the statements today, it seems to me that there’s a kind of hear no progress in Iraq, see no progress in Iraq, and most of all, speak of no progress in Iraq.

The fact is, there has been progress in Iraq, thanks to extraordinary effort by the two of you and all those who serve under you on our behalf.

I wish we could come to a point where we could have an agreement on the facts that you are presenting to us, the charts you’ve shown, the military progress, the extraordinary drop in ethno-sectarian violence, the drop in civilian deaths, the drop in American deaths, and the very impressive political progress in Iraq since last September.

Hey, let’s be honest about this: The Iraqi political leadership has achieved a lot more political reconciliation and progress since September than the American political leadership has. So we’ve got to give credit for that. I repeat, I wish we could have an agreement on the facts which you presented. You work for us. I don’t distrust those facts.

And I wish we could go from an agreement on those facts to figure out how we can move to more success so we can bring more of our troops home. That’s apparently not going to happen in the near future.”

Here’s to the day the Defeatocrats acknowledge the facts and begin cooperating to achieve the success needed to bring the troops home.

(Don’t hold your breath: it’s campaign coffer time . . .)