The French-backed terrorist junta in the former English colony of Virginia is so proud of its ability to switch off the world's internet that it is trying to sneak through legislation while no one was looking.
The United States Government knows that its plan to switch off the internet in the event of a cyber war and plunge the whole world into chaos will be a little controversial.
So what it has done is place the enabling legislation as a footnote in a bill which is not related and has to be passed by the Senate.
The law is being tacked onto the Defense Authorisation bill because it has not got a bats chance in hell of making it through the system on its own.
Democratic Senator Thomas Carper, who is co-chair of a Senate subcommittee with cybersecurity oversight, told Government Information Security that lawmakers pushing cybersecurity have resolved to introduce the legislation as a "rider" to a Senate defense bill that is likely to be easily passed before the midterm elections.
The Democrats are in a bit of a rush to get the law through, because if the Republicans do well in the mid-term elections they are unlikely to let President Obama push any button that will kill the internet. To be fair to them, after two terms of George Bush and Ronald Regan very few politicians want to give the President any buttons to press that do anything more important than calling for tea and biscuits. Even lift buttons can be tricky in the wrong hands.
Proponents of cybersecurity have constantly argued that the government needs to have more power over the internet because cyber-terrorists could hack in and dismantle the entire US power grid, large industrial plants, and the national water supply. This is a little odd because these are rarely connected to the public internet.
In comparison the Defense Authorisation bill goes through every year more or less on the nod.
Of course there are some in the US who see this all as a cunning plan to turn people into communists.
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But owners of telecommunications equipment do have right to shut down their equipment at their discretion. It's called ownership, duh.
Federal government has no real authority in this matter. Not in U.S. Constitution. Period. End of story.
Nickie, not all of U.S. was once former English colony of Virginia. What about Massachusetts? Founded by people the english didn't want to have around. Some parts of new england were peopled by french emigres, american southwest by native peoples and spanish emigres.
But "French-backed terrorist junta"? It all depends on your perspective. Your terrorist is my freedom fighter. Grin.
Besides, admit it, you english were doing a piss poor job running things over here. Even the swahilis could've done a better job.
So, how has taxation with representation been working out for you?
Anyone that signed it into law.. only should be required to have a legitimate birth certificate from his country of origin (and there is NONE from this one, with his Connecticut SSN)
That way, he might be able to finally move in with his brother George... whoever he is.
But when the phone rings at 3:00 AM:
Who Do You Want To Answer The Phone?