An Internet kill-switch sounds like something Iran or China would use to prevent its people from learning about the “lavish” freedoms we have here in the USA. But what do we do, here in the USA, when politicians want “to permit the president to seize temporary control of private-sector networks during a so-called cybersecurity emergency”?

If politicians have learned one thing from 9/11, it’s that you can legislate anything in the name of national security.

[For CNET, Declan] McCullagh reports, “The new version [of the bill] would allow the president to 'declare a cybersecurity emergency' relating to 'non-governmental' computer networks and do what's necessary to respond to the threat.”

I thought prevention was the best medicine. Shouldn’t our strategy by proactive and aggressive, just like the attackers? And shouldn’t our response to a threat match our motto?? (Our motto is, “If we change our way of life, the terrorists win,” right?

I’m not a fan of the slippery-slope style of persuasive rhetoric, but I still remember the presidency of G. W. Bush. If he’d had an Internet kill-switch when 9/11 happened, I’m willing to bet he would have pulled it under the auspices of preventing communication between other terrorists…

U.S. Senate bill would give Obama emergency control of Internet (via MacDailyNews)