The totalitarian senator Joe Lieberman wants the US dictator-in-chief to  be able to “seize” and even “shut down” the internet in a national emergency. What sort of emergency? Well, for example, if people are getting news that the government does not want them to have, about some planned Middle East war of aggression, or a putsch in DC.

UPDATE from Scott Evans:

It’s always heartening to hear that yet another of the beltway criminals is completely ignorant of how the internet works.  I strikes me as hilarious to hear politicians, particularly the current marionette occupying 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, bloviate about “shutting down” the internet, an organism that is the very definition of the word “decentralized” and thus beyond ANY politician or nation’s control.  As the Chinese government is finding out (and I’m sure the Cuban and probably North Korean have found out as well, although we’re unlikely to hear about it through “official” media), the internet reacts to censorship attempts in much the same way that the human body reacts to a virus: it isolates the attempt and creates alternate paths to the sources of information being sought after.  Ditto for any attempts by Washington to seize control of ISPs.  There are ALWAYS alternative gateways to the worldwide web that are beyond Leviathan’s control, and tech-savvy Americans will ALWAYS find ways to exploit them.

It will be interesting to see what ridiculous and desperate (and ultimately futile) attempts at information regulation the Establishment tries in the future.  As their power and influence continues to wane, look for the technoignoramus Liarman and his fellow kleptoplutocrats to grow ever more reckless in their attempts to save themselves.

The Best of Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.