President Obama has given the Department of Homeland Security, new powers to take over the telecommunications industry and internet systems in case of emergency.
Obama signed an executive order meant to prioritize government communications over privately-owned communications in the event of a national emergency or devastating terrorist attack.
Signed on June 6 the order “gives DHS the authority to seize control of telecommunications facilities, including telephone, cellular and wireless networks, in order to prioritize government communications over private ones in an emergency,” said Amie Stephanovich, a lawyer with the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC).
The new law builds on important precedents. The administration claims the legal basis for the order is Section 706 of the 1934 Communications Act, which authorizes the president to “cause the closing of any facility or station for wire communication” and gives him “control of any such facility or station” if a state of war, or the threat of one, exists.
Obama’s updated version extends these powers to the internet. It is an extreme, dictatorial, wartime power that can give the president the power to shut down or control all means of communication on his say so. Modern America is so reliant on these communications systems, like cellular wireless networks and the internet, that if they were controlled by the Executive Branch, it could lead to chaos.
And who, pray tell, still believes this bastard is somehow different from the other one?
To cut a long story short: This regime is wary of its citizens, and spies on them to prevent a revolution such as “American Spring”. We will now have to change the motto of the 1984 to read:
Big brother is watching you, reading you and hearing you. You’re toast!!!
"in case of emergency”…..! what and where emergency, now emergency tomorrow emergency…,! this is just a beginning You American people haven't see nothing yet, you are to busy working hard supporting your families not wanting to know about these little “emergencies” here and there, but it will pile up and you will see the result after the election…, in that time is not a question of Mitt Romney or Barack Hussein Obama they both will screw you one way or the other.., wake up.
William, S Lind recently said on the Scot Horton show…………………
"[" All this election stuff is just kabuki for the rubes in fly over land. There is one party and it's the establishment party. [It] Doesn't matter which party wins the election. What you're going to get is more of the same because they're both part of the same crew. Because if you are a member of the establishment and you propose anything more than five degrees rudder change from current policy, you instantly cease to be a member of the establishment.
Regardless of who's in, regardless of what power, what party, all the rest of it. You are going to get more of the same because thats all the establishment is capable of doing. They insulate themselves from, reality by making sure that no one is ever heard who has a contrary opinion"]
http://scotthortonshow.com/2012/07/09/william-s-l…
And, remarkably, despite the glaring obviousness of its truth, it's all still treated as some kind of paranoid phantasm. And if any of this concerns you, you're treated as an extremist nutcase- Henny-Penny, running around madly declaring that the sky is falling.
Freedom-loving people will just have have to go back to less sophisticated, but tried-and-true forms of communication once the internet and cell phones are shut down, such as underground publishing, pirate radio, and leaderless resistance cells.
I've got multiple tin cans and a lot of wire stashed for this "emergency".
Actually, you can still use your local wifi for a web-type computer network. It's slow and dependent on how a neighborhood's wifi routing is distributed, but it's off the internet and will still be functional when (not if) DHS takes over the DNS controllers.
While the thought of adding one more dictatorial power to his quiver full of dictatorial powers is chilling, I suspect this latest one is wishful thinking.
In the process of 'controlling' electronic media, he will basically shut down commerce. Every company, every person, is connected to the flow of electrons through their written, verbal, and numeric communications. A mere delay in exchanging info freezes everyone's ability to function. The economy as we know it would cease to exist, and the government would find itself without funds and without support very very quickly.
On the other hand, one should never underestimate the stupidity of an autocrat.
We don't need no stinkin' "economy", we got GovCo
We don't need to stinkin' economy, we got China! They're happy to help dig the hole even deeper.
He needn't shut down commerce. He'll just turn off those sites he's deemed to be less than supportive.
> in order to prioritize government communications over private ones in an emergency
This is of course complete bullshit. The gummint sure has enough comms gear to prioritize the hell out of everything. These ain't 1914 when somebody down the street had a phone. The last 20 years were all about communications buildup in the military and civilian spheres, right?.
Sounds like just another Nero's Perk in order to have an arbitrary legal backing for implementing a blackout to keep the rubes in line when SHTF so that one can fiddle in peace.
Additionally, I'm sure the phones in the bureaucrats' hallowed offices can already force the priority field of the data packet to 3, preempting any other connection.
prioritize government communications over privately-owned communications in the event of a national emergency or devastating terrorist attack. Sounds to me like the internet itself is to stay-on-message during/after some psychologically significant event. Like when they finally whacked Elvis then tossed out the evidence –the only harm that really did to them is that GWoT-suckers had to have felt a little embarrassed at the low standard of proof they do, indeed, impose on the Feds. They wouldn't even have felt that if not for hundreds, maybe thousands of people telling them that if that's really the standard they'll accept, they're about as much use to their country as that grumpy truther at Starbucks says they are. So, quick scenerio. USrael nukes a US city and TV blames Iran. Those same people won't be able to urge caution about drawing conclusions. Within about two weeks they'll be marginalized and we'll all be gleefully sucked dry by yet another never-ending war on their behalf. All but the cheerleaders (and purveyors of the faux antithesis) will be sidelined.
"…will be sidelined…"
or locked up. If you believe they have the stones to nuke one of their own cities then locking up dissenters is a no-brainer.
The more I learn about those in control, the more I realize there is no bottom to how low they will go to maintain and further their agenda. They need to cull the herd anyway, dissenters would be a natural first target.
I think of the last big trigger, then ask how necessary that'd be. But another may be a long way off, like other uses for the current president's expansions of power.
An example of an increasingly intrusive government built on the public's paranoia or perception of a non-existent threat of terrorism, itself created and crafted by endless, self-serving government propaganda and mindless go-along-to-get-along journalism.
'McCarthyism' pales by comparison.
To quote Tom Waits, "the stiff is froze and the case is closed, on The One That Got Away."
Mandatory Health Insurance to this, what is next? Day by Day the government seems to be taking over our lives as though they ***OWN*** US…and it started long before you and I were born.
If any deluded Progressives still believe in O's goodness, maybe this will take off the shine.
Recall that most of the dictatorial powers of Nazi Germany were enforced as a result of "terror" and "war time" emergency laws Hitler used. That terrible place started out as a democracy, recall.
If and when the Net and broadcast media are seized by the feds, it will be time to start burning down buidlings owned by them. And any places seized by federal police. Just like in other tin pot dictatorships. Emergency my ass…
There was this guy named Turner, and he wrote some Diaries a while back, and…..
In case of emergency. Old big brother has a whole encyclopedia set of "emergencies." The sheeple will probably fall for it. Much like Saddam's 45 minute spray drones over Hoboken. Duct tape…ha ha. FOOLS !
The one thing our "brown shirts" are expert at doing is creating emergencies for pre-existing remedies .
Look, the police, paid for with our money, is already equipped to fight invaders from the planet Zeon, certainly no longer to "protect" us — we are seen as foreign objects to be sprayed and "cut off."
Remember – as per Obama – "every emergency is an opportunity" – an opportunity to expand the dictatorship.
Big Brother is watching you