Western Rifle Shooters Association

Do not give in to Evil, but proceed ever more boldly against it

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

VDH On Anger

Victor Davis Hanson details a long train of abuses and usurpations.

I prefer John Robb's terse assessment at the end of this entry.

Two Words


Rick Santelli from CNBC condenses the fiscal issue to its essence; hat-tip to John Galt FLA.

Think the nominal "opposition party" will utter those two words, especially after 43's maniacal spending?

Me neither.

More On Gear

Along with the info in this post from last December, an old friend passed along this site as a go-to vendor for current gear with very fair prices.

Better to have and not need than vice versa.

You can always sell it or burn it once the skittles-crapping unicorns have saved us from the coming catastrophe.

The NRA Judenrat Rides Again

Mike cites to David and some NRA stooge.

Read 'em all, and consider what value, if any, a continued NRA membership has.

Remember that the Place Where Great Britain Used To Be has a National Rifle Association, too.

Just sayin'......

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Places, Everyone...

Please read both articles:

Bloomberg News: 46 US State Governments Facing Greek-Style Deficits

Evans-Pritchard: RBS Tells Clients To Prepare For 'Monster' Money-Printing By The Federal Reserve

Then direct your attention to the stages in your area.

The show is about to begin.

The “Overton Window” And How To Apply It

Hat-tip to Insty for this Chicago Boyz article on the political-science concept of the "Overton window", which begins as follows:

With Glenn Beck having discovered the “Overton Window” more than 2 years after I did, I thought this would be a great time to re-post my essay/post from Jan. 2008.

Being new here, I thought this might be an nice place to repost it.
Note that this was posted pre-Obama and pre-tea party. I think it is still wholly relevant, but I luxuriate in the fact that the “hand is on the other foot now.”
___

I found a good post over at a pretty good lefty blog. Apparently, some Champaign-Urbana blogger named “The Squire” started blogging again, and he posted something pretty significant here. (clicking the link will get you an interesting and polite discussion)

The poli-sci concept is called “the Overton Window,” and if you want the very short version of it, I can boil it down to five words.

“The Limits Define the Center”
***


Read it all, including the embedded links, and think about various applications of the concept as the Endarkenment accelerates.

Then go back and read this post and its comments.

Do you understand yet?

Monday, June 28, 2010

The McDonald Decision

Text here.

Thoughts later; Volokh synopsis here:


***
The Supreme Court holds in
McDonald v. Chicago that the Second Amendment is fully applicable to the states through the 14th Amendment. The opinion for the Court is by Justice Alito. All the opinions together are a whopping 214 pages. Justice Alito, joined by the Chief Justice, and Justices Scalia and Kennedy holds that the Second Amendment is incorporated through the Due Process Clause. Justice Thomas concurs separately (in a fifty-plus page opinion) and would hold that the right to keep and bear arms is a privlege of citizenship protected by the 14th Amendment. Justice Stevens dissents alone, and Justice Breyer dissents joined by Justices Ginsburg and Sotomayor. Justice Scalia has a concurring opinion responding to Justice Stevens’ dissent. [UPDATE: Justice Scalia’s concurrence is a strongly worded attack on Justice Stevens’ concurrence over matters of constitutional interpretation. So much for being nice to the guy on his last day at work. Those who love Scalia opinions will love this one. Those who don’t, well . . . ]

Obit

John Galt FLA delivers the news, as does Insty.

Good riddance.

UPDATE 1318 EDT 28 JUNE 2010: The Other McCain nails it.

UPDATE 1345 EDT 20 JUNE 2010: But Billy Beck gets the last word.

Muir Gets It

In his Sunday edition.

I wondering how many other folks do?

Advice From The Vice-President

Alvie covers the story, as does Powerline.

I agree with the Veep.

The time for snark and smart-assery is over.

Time to get serious.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Evans-Pritchard: Ben Bernanke Needs Fresh Monetary Blitz As US Recovery Falters


From the UK Telegraph:

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is waging an epochal battle behind the scenes for control of US monetary policy, struggling to overcome resistance from regional Fed hawks for further possible stimulus to prevent a deflationary spiral.


Fed watchers say Mr Bernanke and his close allies at the Board in Washington are worried by signs that the US recovery is running out of steam. The ECRI leading indicator published by the Economic Cycle Research Institute has collapsed to a 45-week low of -5.7 in the most precipitous slide for half a century. Such a reading typically portends contraction within three months or so.

Key members of the five-man Board are quietly mulling a fresh burst of asset purchases, if necessary by pushing the Fed's balance sheet from $2.4 trillion (£1.6 trillion) to uncharted levels of $5 trillion. But they are certain to face intense scepticism from regional hardliners. The dispute has echoes of the early 1930s when the Chicago Fed stymied rescue efforts.

Mr Bernanke is so worried about the chemistry of the Fed's voting body – the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) – that he has persuaded vice-chairman Don Kohn to delay retirement until Janet Yellen has been confirmed by the Senate to take over his post. Mr Kohn has been a key architect of the Fed's emergency policies. He was due to step down this week after 40 years at the institution, depriving Mr Bernanke of a formidable ally in policy circles.

The Fed's statement this week shows growing doubts about the health of the recovery. Growth is no longer "strengthening": it is "proceeding". Financial conditions are now "less supportive" due to Europe's debt crisis.

The subtle tweaks in language have been enough to set bond markets alight. The yield on 10-year Treasuries has fallen to 3.08pc, the lowest since the gloom of April 2009. Futures contracts have ruled out tightening until well into next year.

Yet the statement may understate the level of angst at the Board. New home sales crashed 33pc in May to an all-time low of 300,000 after the homebuyer tax-credit expired, confirming fears that the housing market has been propped up by subsidies. Unemployment is stuck at 9.7pc. Manufacturing capacity use is at 71.9pc. The Fed's "trimmed mean" index of core inflation is 0.6pc on a six-month basis, a record low.

"The US recovery is in imminent danger of stalling," said Stephen Lewis, from Monument Securities. "Growth could be negative again as soon as the fourth quarter. There is no easy way out since fiscal stimulus has already been pushed as far as it can credibly go without endangering US credit-worthiness."

Rob Carnell, global strategist at ING, said the Obama fiscal boost peaked in the first few months of this year. It will swing from a net stimulus of 2pc of GDP in 2010 to a net withdrawal of 2pc in 2011. "This is very substantial fiscal drag. On top of this the US Treasury is talking of a 'Just War' against the banks, which will further crimp lending. It is absolutely the wrong moment to do this."

Kansas Fed chief Thomas Hoenig dissented from Fed calls for ultra-low rates to stay for an "extended period", arguing that loose money risks asset bubbles and fresh imbalances. He recently called for interest rates to be raised to 1pc by the autumn.

While he has been the loudest critic, he is not alone. Philadelphia chief Charles Plosser says the Fed has blurred the lines of monetary and fiscal policy by purchasing bonds, acting as a Treasury without a legal mandate. Together with Richmond chief Jeffrey Lacker they represent a powerful block of opinion in the media and Congress.

Mr Bernanke has fought off calls from FOMC hawks for moves to drain stimulus by selling some of the Fed's $1.75 trillion of Treasuries, mortgage securities and agency bonds bought during the crisis. But there is little chance that he can secure their backing for further purchases at this point. "He just has to wait until everybody can see the economy is nearing the abyss," said one Fed watcher.

Gabriel Stein, from Lombard Street Research, said the US is still stuck in a quagmire because Mr Bernanke has mismanaged the quantitative easing policy, purchasing the bonds from banks rather than from the non-bank private sector.

"This does nothing to expand the broad money supply. The trouble is that the Fed does not understand broad money and ascribes no importance to it," he said. The result is a collapse of M3, which has contracted at an annual rate of 7.6pc over the last three months.

Mr Bernanke focuses instead on loan growth but this has failed to gain full traction in a cultural climate of debt repayment. The Fed is pushing on the proverbial string. The jury is out on whether or not his untested doctrine of "creditism" will work.

"We are now walking on deflationary quicksand," said Albert Edwards from Societe Generale.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

The Purificationist Dream

Please take the time to read this article from American Thinker.

Do you understand yet?

Friday, June 25, 2010

Collaborators

David explains.

And the beat goes on.....

Thursday, June 24, 2010

RTC Blog’s Discussion Of Vitriolage (acid attack) Picked Up By Global Guerrillas

Read it all.

Bayonetting The Dead

Jennifer III explains.

Do you understand yet?

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

The New Frontier Freedom Movement: Part II

John Galt's latest is here.

Prior chapter is here.

Enjoy.

More On Coercive Games

John Robb posts this follow-up entry to this post.

Read both pieces, please.

RIP

Jennifer III delivers the bad news.

To it, I suggest this theme:

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Sowell: Is America Now On Slippery Slope To Tyranny?

Sowell's latest begins:

When Adolf Hitler was building up the Nazi movement in the 1920s, leading up to his taking power in the 1930s, he deliberately sought to activate people who did not normally pay much attention to politics.

Such people were a valuable addition to his political base, since they were particularly susceptible to Hitler's rhetoric and had far less basis for questioning his assumptions or his conclusions.

"Useful idiots" was the term supposedly coined by V.I. Lenin to describe similarly unthinking supporters of his dictatorship in the Soviet Union.

Put differently, a democracy needs informed citizens if it is to thrive, or ultimately even survive.

In our times, American democracy is being dismantled, piece by piece, before our very eyes by the current administration in Washington, and few people seem to be concerned about it...
***

Read the rest.

The Dollar Falls By Fall

Read this article.

Prepare accordingly.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Coercive Games

The latest from John Robb's Global Guerillas:

Here's a bit of fun thinking about combining protest, games, and open source movements into a potent coercive tool for non-violent protest (in a post-Ghandi world). It's just some ideas that may or may not be of interest.

Traditional non-violent protest is dead as a means of reversing bad organizational behavior. It's so easily ignored in a media saturated environment and the methods of controlling and marginalizing it have become easy and widely practiced (from "free speech zones" to non-lethal weapons to crowdsourced identification of protesters). Further, shame doesn't work anymore as a means of dissuasion. Given these impediments, the revival of protest means rethinking how it is used as a coercive tool. It means going beyond attrition (boycotts, physical damage, etc.) and moral suasion (signage, marches, etc.) and into the realm of systemic disruption. Here's one approach.

In most large traditional organizations, whether they be corporations or bureaucracies, decision making is dominated by a small number of very powerful people protected by a phalanx of senior specialists. They are not democracies. Yet, in modern western societies, this elite group and their specialists are able to dissociate themselves from jobs when it comes to their private lives. They live unencumbered within our impersonal society. This window of vulnerability creates a yawning opportunity for innovative forms of disruptive non-violent protest. One that pierces the organizational and societal veil of anonymity for these individuals by turning them into systempunkts (vulnerable nodes within the targeted organization's network that would cause the most damage if disrupted)...

***

Read the rest.

Ethnically Cleansing The English

Anglophiles (and even Anglophobes) should read in full this essay from Gates of Vienna, which begins:


Ethnically Cleansing the English
by Paul Weston


“A West which has not yet understood that whites, in a world become too small for its inhabitants, are now a minority and that the proliferation of other races dooms our race, my race, irretrievably to extinction in the century to come, if we hold fast to our present moral principles”

— Jean Raspail, 1982,
The Camp Of The Saints

It is understandable that the vast majority of the heavily propagandised English populace remain unaware of the continental shift in immigrant demographics and birth rates that will relegate the indigenous population of England under the age of 40 to ethnic minority status in their homeland within twenty years.

Understandable, admittedly, but if these recipients of a progressive education and 24/7 cradle-to-grave state-sponsored brainwashing could remove their liberal blinkers and gaze in horror at their surroundings through the eyes of their grandparents, then they could only have themselves to blame, because their dispossession was carried out in full view of those that would not see, and in retrospect how could there be any other outcome than gradual extinction when one considers exactly what out socialist rulers have carried out over the last few decades?
***

Read the rest.

Then consider this post noted at Maggie's Farm last week, as well as the Ground Zero mosque now being planned in Manhattan.

Of course, what has already happened in what Tam calls "the place where Great Britain used to be" could never happen here, right?

Quote Of The Week

From Vanderleun's KA-CHING:

You can’t get good Chinese takeout in China and Cuban cigars are rationed in Cuba. That’s all you need to know about communism.

—P.J. O’Rourke

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Spoutings From The Idiot Dwarf

Go and read Geheime Staatspolizei Kommissar....uh, make that DHS Secretary Napolitano's "balancing" twaddle regarding internet monitoring.

Do a word search within the text of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights for that term "balancing".

Let me know what you find.

Remember Spooner?

I do.

But at least we still have this...

That's right.....once again, cue Lee Greenwood:

Jennifer III On The Bitter Fruit of Collaboration

Read it all.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Internet Control - Unintended Consequences

Professor Reynolds tees up his take on the story, and adds this follow-on report.

But the best thinking on the topic I've seen comes from the Cliffs of Insanity; read and then think through the whole thing in your AO.

Remember, boys: once you call the tune, you have to pay the piper.

Just you try to run Leviathan's mechanisms with no POL and the words "all .gov data nodes must die" on the lips, fingers, and soldering iron of every freedom-lover on the continent.

Good luck with that.

Especially if you know what a "recusationer" is.

UPDATE 0110 EDT 20 JUNE 2010: A rebuttal to concerns as expressed above, as posted on Instapundit.

Saturday Open Thread: How To Decapitate Your Enemy For Fun & Propaganda

All of this Leviathan-expansion and collaboration of late has raised the question:

Has anybody really thought through what it would take to sever your opponent's head efficiently for subsequent propaganda purposes?

A couple of chaps over coffee this afternoon were riffing on a variation on this theme.

Keep the comments on target, please; while it is true that a big honking chainsaw will do the job, let's focus for now on:

1) Hand tools, and

2) Best (i.e., effective and memorable) ways to repurpose the asset once removed from its former owner.

Other than that, be creative.

You might also to light up this vid as you cogitate:

Without Representation

Jennifer III does the "now and then" based on the Declaration's text.

Read it all, please, and pass to others.

Friday, June 18, 2010

Denninger: Social Security - Here's The Problem

(USG FY 2010 Budget - click to enlarge)

Karl takes everyone to school.

Default by the US Government is inevitable.

Make your plans accordingly (including the inevitable reaction by creditors who have a history of mass murder in their recent past).

Beck: How To Draw A Line

From Billy Beck:

Thu Jun, 17 2010

How To Draw A Line

"The entire effect — if not the purpose — of a jaywalking statute is to strip the individual of that which he is born with: the principal device with which humans are able and naturally authorized to make their ways through the world. This is a metaphysical issue that extends to politics. Beware of false equivocations with actual crimes that bring harm to others (contrast with those which are arbitrarily asserted by the state). Your question is sloppy. The matter is not whether an individual should be permitted to ignore the police so generally as you put it. If it were that simple, then all of politics is reduced to a binary solution set including only the alternatives of total rebellion on the one hand and total submission on the other, in every issue from jaywalking to murder, and anything else over which the state would claim authority. ('Whether you want to use one or two cups of flour in that recipe is not your choice: you will obey statute if we say so, or face the might of the state.')

Your question stipulates to the majesty of the law, without accounting that the law is almost always an ass.

Me? I know how to get across a street. My parents saw to that at an early age.

Fuck the police.

That is all."


(Comment@Radley's)


Related (also from Beck): This article from McElroy.

One more observation: Is there any doubt that the original "infraction" (jaywalking) was deemed citation-worthy based on the local Leviathan's lust for the resulting fine and court fees revenue?

Cue Lee Greenwood:

Sowell: Another Myth - Gov't Can Cure Economy's Ills

Thomas Sowell's latest:

Sometimes you can read a book that will change your mind on some fundamental issue.

Rarely, however, is there just one page that can undermine or destroy a widely held belief. But there is such a page — Page 77 of the book "Out of Work" by Richard Vedder and Lowell Gallaway.

The widespread belief is that government intervention is the key to getting the country out of a serious economic downturn.

The example often cited is President Franklin D. Roosevelt's intervention, after the stock market crash of 1929 was followed by the Great Depression of the 1930s, with its massive and long-lasting unemployment.

This is more than just a question about history.

Right here and right now there is a widespread belief that the unregulated market is what got us into our present economic predicament, and that the government must "do something" to get the economy moving again. FDR's intervention in the 1930s has often been cited by those who think this way.

What is on that one page in "Out of Work" that could change people's minds?
***


Read the rest.

Imagine what six more years of Obamastration will do to America.

Do You Understand Yet?

"Look at the Gulf oil spill, that's what happens when we let corporations just do their own thing without any accountability. We can't allow that to happen with the Internet. We won't allow it."

An FCC staffer, quoted here.

Related article here.

Limits on central government power such as those contained in Articles I and II of the Constitution mean nothing.

They will do whatever they want, whenever they want.

Only two paths forward - fight or submit.

Choose wisely.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Sissisõda: More Lessons From The Baltics

Please read this forum thread in response to Lessons from Lithuania, Part I.

Take good notes.

This material will be on the exam.

The New Frontier Freedom Movement

John Galt FLA begins another blovel at his Shenandoah blog.

More as John posts same.

Broken Arrow

Read these two pieces by John Venlet, along with their embedded links:

Broken Arrow

First Shot Justification Thoughts

Those questions are being debated, quietly, across the world by freedom-loving people.

Exam time is almost here.

Hope you've done the coursework.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Wake Up In Liberty... What Would YOU Do?

A wonderful and empowering essay from Kent McManigal (h/t to Ms. Wolfe) on vision and choice in freedom's pursuit.

Read it all, please.

Then implement Kent's suggestion in your life.

Empty Holsters

Cliffs of Insanity contributes the graphic and this coverage.

Codrea's piece is here, along with Mike's take here.

As a wise man once said to me:

"Come the crunch, the clueless and the semi-clueless will turn on and try to destroy the ones who understand."

And yes, that was with reference to the freedom movement.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

A Question For The Attendees, Supporters, and Minions Of The UN Programme of Action on Small Arms & Light Weapons

A question from Restore The Constitution for all international and domestic friends, allies, and apparatchiks of this UN meeting being held in NYC this week:


#1 “If you try and take my guns, I will shoot you” (we’ve all heard variations on this one)

and

#2 “If you try and take my guns, maybe you’ll get them and maybe you wont. I won’t risk my life then and there to stop you. But if you do manage to get any of my guns, I promise you that I will track you down afterwards and I WILL throw Sulphuric acid in your face.”

Which statement is more likely to give a would-be gun grabber pause?


Read the rest .

The transnational socialists, both here and abroad, have their Programme of Action and related materials.

So do the free people of the world.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Communism On The March

JR Nyquist posts this question:

Have you ever been to the Website of the Communist Party USA? It's worth studying, if only to compare the policy positions taken by the Communists with your own. Are you a fellow traveler? Are you a friend or ally of the left? Perhaps, up until now, you have been following the party line unwittingly. And what, pray tell, is the party line? "A better world is possible," says the Communist Party USA, "a world where people come before profits. That's socialism. That's our vision." The Communists also want us to support the elimination of America's nuclear arsenal through the observance of "Nuclear Abolition Day." They want to end the travel ban to Communist Cuba. They condemn Israel's brutality on the high seas, and support oppressed people everywhere. They are concerned about global warming, and hate the wicked machinations of finance capital.

Communists aren't likely to support the oppressed of Cuba, North Korea, China, Vietnam, or Zimbabwe. Understandably, the American Communist does not dwell upon the brutalities of Communist rule in other countries. He wants to establish a positive image in order to win new "friends and allies." As it happens, the Communists in America have countless friends and allies: in schools and universities, on newspapers and on television, even in government.

The leader of the Communist Party USA, Sam Webb, offered the following "verbal remarks" to the 29th National Convention of the Communist Party USA last month: He congratulated Communism's "friends and allies" on recent achievements. "What a difference between now and five years ago when we convened in Chicago!" he exclaimed. "At that time a Puerto Rican woman raised in the South Bronx didn't sit on the Supreme Court. Then the president didn't call for the abolition of nuclear weapons. Millions had no health care and no promise of it in the near future.... We weren't in a position to fight for a progressive agenda, but on the defensive. The pendulum of power didn't yet tilt in favor of working people, people of color, women and their allies. And, an African American wasn't president..."

Read the rest.

And remember to expand your analysis to include the "other" major political party in America as well.

One Day's Police Misconduct

From Wendy McElroy comes this post covering just one day's worth of police arrogance and criminality, as compiled by Injustice Everywhere.

Combined with David Codrea's essential "Only Ones" compilations, I'd ask readers to spread this information and this website far and wide.

The more people know about and publicly object to this kind of thuggish behavior, the more the current "blue wall of silence" system will be delegitimized in the eyes of Mr. and Mrs. Middle America.

Unacceptable

Watch the video above.

Then read:

Codrea's Gun Rights Examiner coverage

Sipsey Street coverage

"We Must Face Up To The Grim Fact That The Rulers We Elect Are Losing Patience With Us..."

Do you understand yet?

And if so, what are you willing to do about it?

Two From David Warren

Take the time, please, to read these two brief essays from David Warren of the Ottawa Citizen:

Before The Deluge

Backward, Ho!

Pithy, what?

Thomas Paine

Samizdata brings us this biographical post on Thomas Paine, proto-blogger and author of Common Sense, among others.

Read and enjoy.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Word

From Jim Sinclair's MineSet.

It Is Immoral To Not Resist Aggression

whether in matters personal, political, religious or in statecraft, ... , it matters not, ... , to not resist aggression is to aid and abet the aggressor, and to assure that after your demise at his hands, he will seek the conquest of another. whatever you may feel the worth of the stance to you as a personal matter, by adopting such a stance, you assure the suffering of another: no high blown assertion of morality can escape this essential fact, and to inflict this suffering on another, perhaps less capable of protecting him or herself than you, is immoral, unethical, and unforgivable.

and, it is cowardice.

by not resisting such aggression, to the death if demanded by circumstance or dignity or honor, is to assure that someone else will bear the brunt of your folly, and that you engender your own fate upon the will of another.

i spit in the face of those who blather about ghandi and passive resistance...
***


Read the rest, courtesy of Vanderleun.

Obamacare Über Alles

Also from Insty is this story on the true impact of Obamacare on existing health plans.

Supporting documentation is here.

You'll get used to it.

If you live.

Got MRSA?

Holder's Justice

Read all of this article from the Weekly Standard (via Instapundit) on the New Black Panthers voter-intimdation case from the 2008 election.

Do you understand yet?

Saturday, June 12, 2010

The Mighty Kenyan & His Internet "Off" Switch

CNET:

June 10, 2010 8:25 PM PDT

Senators propose granting president emergency Internet power

A new U.S. Senate bill would grant the president far-reaching emergency powers to seize control of or even shut down portions of the Internet.

The legislation announced Thursday says that companies such as broadband providers, search engines, or software firms that the government selects "shall immediately comply with any emergency measure or action developed" by the Department of Homeland Security. Anyone failing to comply would be fined.

That emergency authority would allow the federal government to "preserve those networks and assets and our country and protect our people," Joe Lieberman, the primary sponsor of the measure and the chairman of the Homeland Security committee, told reporters on Thursday. Lieberman is an independent senator from Connecticut who caucuses with the Democrats.

Because there are few limits on the president's emergency power, which can be renewed indefinitely, the densely worded 197-page bill (PDF) is likely to encounter stiff opposition.

TechAmerica, probably the largest U.S. technology lobby group, said it was concerned about "unintended consequences that would result from the legislation's regulatory approach" and "the potential for absolute power." And the Center for Democracy and Technology publicly worried that the Lieberman bill's emergency powers "include authority to shut down or limit Internet traffic on private systems."

The idea of an Internet "kill switch" that the president could flip is not new. A draft Senate proposal that CNETobtained in August allowed the White House to "declare a cybersecurity emergency," and another from Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) would have explicitly given the government the power to "order the disconnection" of certain networks or Web sites.

On Thursday, both senators lauded Lieberman's bill, which is formally titled the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act, or PCNAA. Rockefeller said "I commend" the drafters of the PCNAA. Collins went further, signing up at a co-sponsor and saying at a press conference that "we cannot afford to wait for a cyber 9/11 before our government realizes the importance of protecting our cyber resources."

Under PCNAA, the federal government's power to force private companies to comply with emergency decrees would become unusually broad. Any company on a list created by Homeland Security that also "relies on" the Internet, the telephone system, or any other component of the U.S. "information infrastructure" would be subject to command by a new National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications (NCCC) that would be created inside Homeland Security.

The only obvious limitation on the NCCC's emergency power is one paragraph in the Lieberman bill that appears to have grown out of the Bush-era flap over warrantless wiretapping. That limitation says that the NCCC cannot order broadband providers or other companies to "conduct surveillance" of Americans unless it's otherwise legally authorized.

Lieberman said Thursday that enactment of his bill needed to be a top congressional priority. "For all of its 'user-friendly' allure, the Internet can also be a dangerous place with electronic pipelines that run directly into everything from our personal bank accounts to key infrastructure to government and industrial secrets," he said. "Our economic security, national security and public safety are now all at risk from new kinds of enemies--cyber-warriors, cyber-spies, cyber-terrorists and cyber-criminals."

A new cybersecurity bureaucracy

Lieberman's proposal would form a powerful and extensive new Homeland Security bureaucracy around the NCCC, including "no less" than two deputy directors, and liaison officers to the Defense Department, Justice Department, Commerce Department, and the Director of National Intelligence. (How much the NCCC director's duties would overlap with those of the existing assistant secretary for infrastructure protection is not clear.)

The NCCC also would be granted the power to monitor the "security status" of private sector Web sites, broadband providers, and other Internet components. Lieberman's legislation requires the NCCC to provide "situational awareness of the security status" of the portions of the Internet that are inside the United States -- and also those portions in other countries that, if disrupted, could cause significant harm.

Selected private companies would be required to participate in "information sharing" with the Feds. They must "certify in writing to the director" of the NCCC whether they have "developed and implemented" federally approved security measures, which could be anything from encryption to physical security mechanisms, or programming techniques that have been "approved by the director." The NCCC director can "issue an order" in cases of noncompliance.

The prospect of a vast new cybersecurity bureaucracy with power to command the private sector worries some privacy advocates. "This is a plan for an auto-immune reaction," says Jim Harper, director of information studies at the libertarian Cato Institute. "When something goes wrong, the government will attack our infrastructure and make society weaker."

To sweeten the deal for industry groups, Lieberman has included a tantalizing offer absent from earlier drafts: immunity from civil lawsuits. If a software company's programming error costs customers billions, or a broadband provider intentionally cuts off its customers in response to a federal command, neither would be liable.

If there's an "incident related to a cyber vulnerability" after the president has declared an emergency and the affected company has followed federal standards, plaintiffs' lawyers cannot collect damages for economic harm. And if the harm is caused by an emergency order from the Feds, not only does the possibility of damages virtually disappear, but the U.S. Treasury will even pick up the private company's tab.

Another sweetener: A new White House office would be charged with forcing federal agencies to take cybersecurity more seriously, with the power to jeopardize their budgets if they fail to comply. The likely effect would be to increase government agencies' demand for security products.

Tom Gann, McAfee's vice president for government relations, stopped short of criticizing the Lieberman bill, calling it a "very important piece of legislation."

McAfee is paying attention to "a number of provisions of the bill that could use work," Gann said, and "we've certainly put some focus on the emergency provisions."


Wonder why Comrade Soetero wants to do something like that?