I think a cyber attack would be far more safe than the government willy nilly shutting down parts or all of the internet.

The federal government has far too many powers that were never granted them. They most certainly do not need this one. If they are worried about government leaks then the government should move off of the internet and set up their own government network that is completely separate from the public internet. That way they can protect themselves without infringing on more rights of the citizens.

What would such a large scale cyber-attack seek to accomplish?

More than likely, the complete and total shut down of the internet – commerce and communication – within the United States.

What would this bill give the President the power to do?

Mandate a complete and total shut down of the internet – commerce and communication – within the United States.

This sort of thing goes on in China and Venezuela. It shouldn’t happen in America. Give them an inch, they take a mile.

What happens when we give them a mile?

there is no way that this bill can be created to preserve people’s freedoms. the bill it’s self is an attack on people’s freedoms. You say it’s important to protect against attacks on the internet. This bill will allow the government to take down the internet within the US, disrupting communications in a way that most cyber attackers could only dream of.

As a liberal, I have to tell you that you are misinformed. We do not want this bill, and this bill is not one based in liberal principles. I believe that this bill follows conservative principles, and it honestly reminds me of Bush and the PATRIOT Act.

this bill is the cyber 9/11 that it is supposed to defend against. i think it is an absurd idea that could and probably would be abused horribly.

Indeed, shutting down the internet in the US is the same logic as nuking new york to make sure it’s inhabitants aren’t killed by terrorists (i admit i added some comic exageration, but the principal is the same)

In the ideology of our founding fathers and the Constitution this bill is a travesty. As it reads a company doesn’t have to comply if they are willing to pay a fine. Everyone knows the government loves to put thier foot in the door, often mis-using the new powers they obtain, and hardly ever respond fast enough to prevent a catastrophy… they only show up after the damage is done. The bill might look good on paper but the government has never proven themselves to be competant or trustworthy enough to have such powers. And they are going to ‘create’ anther agency. Government is too big as it is, many agencies never play nice or coordinate with each other as it is. Even in this oil spill they have no central figure of authority. Government needs to be limited to merely providing opportunity for its citizens and protect us from obsticals in our path. Past that, they need to get the hell out of our way and let citizens enjoy thier liberties and freedom without favoritism to any one group.

Sure is fascism in here.

I’m not entirely sure how this is a push by liberals. lieberman isn’t particularly liberal.

The logic behind this is identical to the logic in every war against civilians: “We had to kill the Internet in order to save it.”

wow.

the government is out of control on ALL LEVELS.

This bill is a threat to our freedom, and provides the government with too much power over one of the last truly free mediums. First, government passed the PATRIOT Act, a shameful piece of American legislation. This is a bill that is being proposed out of irrational fear and it needs to be stopped.

As a liberal, I vehemently oppose this bill. This is not a bill based in liberal principles, but follows the conservative approach to defense. This is an extension of the abuse of power we saw with the PATRIOT Act. This is unconstitutional and needs to be stopped.

The internet is used more widely than landlines. It is used for personal banking, our shopping centers use it for each purchase in connection with their accounting, our news and media use it. Shutting the system down would be turning off the world. It would be in essence, turning off the power to humanity and business. There isn’t an act that would justify such action outside a world war. People can’t quit living because terrorists and international espionage exist. These things have existed millennia. Believe me, our government has the means to protect itself and each of us are responsible for protecting our own information and not sharing information that would put our identity at risk. The government is there to protect our boarders, that its citizens may enjoy freedom. If you want any other kind of government, hand over your all your belongings. They’ve all but got them now. We need sensible smaller government, not a Dictator. This bill will give us exactly that.

Right, because liberals are always the first to limit freedoms. Try again.

this bill expands executive power, and obama is just another slimy politicians. hes gonna sign it.

that’s because you’re an idiot who doesn’t understand how the internet works. You can’t just “turn off” the internet, even if it were possible (it’s not) doing so would cause catastrophic damage to the economy, All our financial systems, all our security systems … we’re so reliant on the internet that if you shut it down there’s a question of whether society will continue to operate normally anywhere in the Western world. Also the internet does NOT operate via international borders, turning off the internet in the US would turn it off all around the world. That’s like giving a single country the right to poison the ocean or the atmosphere. IT DOES NOT BELONG TO US.

I agree completely. If it makes it through Congress, I think Obama will veto it. I think we need to make it clear to him and everyone in Congress that we are opposed to this. Let them know we aren’t fooled by the fear tactics.

With all due respect, your faith in Obama is naïve. Any POTUS seems to want to accumulate as much power as possible for himself and the office in that order.

the internet is not based in the US, it has no true base.

lieberman is a centrist.

as for this being a push by liberals, it’s not.

The problem with bipartisan politics is that it encourages the group mentality with respect to politics (“either you’re on our side or you’re the total opposite to us”). In reality politics is much broader than just a simple line from left to right. As well as left to right there is also a scale from authoratarianism to libertarianism. It’s possible to be both conservative or liberal and in favour of personal freedoms. Just as it’s possible to be both conservative or liberal and against personal freedoms (hitler and stalin).

To clarify – I mean that it is physically possible. I am absolutely against the government having the authority to do this.

that’s because you’re an idiot who doesn’t understand how the internet works. You can’t just “turn off” the internet,

How the hell do they plan to do this? I mean, specifically how would you go about shutting down the internet? Good luck.
I’m writing a paper for school right now about this. I will probably post it. I told my entire class and my professor about this bill and they all laughed at the idea. This is a joke right?

i hate to break it to you but the red sea is still very much full of water

1) Im a a long time computer tech and work for a small ISP.
2) They are able to do it, although it is not exactly easy. They would have to find a way to force private companies to shut down their DNS servers.
Shut down the majority of US based DNS servers and relays, and 95% of the internet is dead around the world. So many countries outside of the US rely on the DNS servers within the US that it would likely shut down the internet.
Yes this is a liberal socialist ploy to control the people. Lieberman is a liberal that claims to be a centrist, his voting record puts him in line with the Democrats 99% of the time.

This would cause a massive Civil War within the US as well as massive world war from countries now shut out from the internet.

STOP THIS BILL NOW, CONTACT YOUR SENATORS!

Shutting of ALL of the interet?? U mean not just united states but 100% of internet??? If so, united states definetly shouldn’t have right to shut off the internet!! But if it would be JUST united states, it would still be wrong for the country itself and the other countries because over 50% of websites are from united states and lots of people are dependent from internet. It’s like that because our world is all build around electricity and almost everything works with electricity, we are depend from electricity. If all electricity would suddely have taken off, what would we have? Dead people (without electric devices that keep them alive), junk, crap, sucides, broken cars (because lights doesn’t work), out of order-hospitals, no defense-systems against criminals….. Closing internet is smaller thing than closing electricity, but effect would be still breaking for many many systems….

As an AMERICAN (it matters not if I have conservative, liberal, independent, centrist or “other” political beliefs), I oppose this bill.

Labeling this as a conservative or liberal mandate is ridiculous. It is communism.

Look who is sponsoring the bill. We have Mr Israel Joe Lieberman and Jay Rockefeller who is Rothschild and Bilderberg related.

Both these clowns should not be allowed in our government.

This bill must be defeated. The president can shut down the internet in an emergency if necessary. This is an attempt to take control and censor the internet and establish commercial control by corporations leaving average people without a voice, thereby eliminating free speech and our right to access the truth of what is happening. This is the only media we have that is not government controlled propaganda and we cannot allow them to take it away.

A bad idea from an even worse sponsor
http://news.antiwar.com/2010/06/18/senate-bill-would-give-obama-power-to-shut-down-internet/

well this may be along the conservative approach…. but the liberals are pushing for it now.

I lived in Siberia for 2 years just after the collapse of the USSR – the communist party maintained just such a “kill switch” on the phone lines connecting our entire region to the outside world. They made all lines go through this one single point, so they could flip the switch if the natives got restless… (they had experienced uprisings in my region before)