WHAT? Mother Jones and World Net Daily Share Concerns of Cybersecurity Act (Updates)

You would be hard pressed to find more left (Mother Jones) and more right (World Net Daily) websites. Yet, here they are asking the same questions of the Cybersecurity Act of 2009.

WorldNetDaily
Will bill give Obama control of Internet?
Proposed new powers called 'drastic federal intervention'

..."Senate bills No. 773 and 778, introduced by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.V. [also Olympia Snow], are both part of what's being called the Cybersecurity Act of 2009, which would create a new Office of the National Cybersecurity Advisor, reportable directly to the president and charged with defending the country from cyber attack....

"The whole thing smells bad to me," writes Larry Seltzer in eWeek, an Internet and print news source on technology issues. "I don't like the chances of the government improving this situation by taking it over generally, and I definitely don't like the idea of politicizing this authority by putting it in the direct control of the president."...

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.printable&pageId=93966

Mother Jones
Should Obama Control the Internet?
A new bill would give the President emergency authority to halt web traffic and access private data.

"...The Cybersecurity Act of 2009 (PDF) gives the president the ability to "declare a cybersecurity emergency" and shut down or limit Internet traffic in any "critical" information network "in the interest of national security." The bill does not define a critical information network or a cybersecurity emergency. That definition would be left to the president.

The bill does not only add to the power of the president. It also grants the Secretary of Commerce "access to all relevant data concerning [critical] networks without regard to any provision of law, regulation, rule, or policy restricting such access." This means he or she can monitor or access any data on private or public networks without regard to privacy laws...."

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/04/should-obama-control-internet

Links to the working drafts of the legislation are available on either of the above sites. Click on the title to read CHAIRMAN ROCKEFELLER AND SENATOR SNOWE INTRODUCE COMPREHENSIVE CYBERSECURITY LEGISLATION, a senate document.

Please take the time to contact Senators Bingamen and Udall and make your voice heard.

Update 4/8/09: The media blitz has begun and it is all about fear. First, the Wall Street Journal 4/8/09 Electricity Grid in U.S. Penetrated By Spies http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123914805204099085.html followed by "General: Growing threat from cyber attacks..." a Breitbart link on DRUDGE that appears to be broken. Oh, no! It is already happening, heh, heh.

Update 2: Noon MST, it is now being reported on nationally syndicated radio news. They picked up the WSJ story, the one where we should be afraid - this has been going on for over a year - nothing has happened, hype. Good job, Rockefeller and Snowe.