Will The President Be Given A "Kill Switch" To Shut Down The Internet?

I am a movie aficionado and always recognize and find it ironic when life is imitating Art. I do not know if any of you who read this blog have seen the movie “Escaped From LA,” staring Kurt Russell. The plot basically involves an Apocalyptic/Orwellian future, where the anti hero, Russell, at the conclusion of the movie pulled, what amounted to a switch, sending the world back to the Stone Age without the advent of the modern technological amenities.

Sandra Bullock also starred in a movie, “The Net,” with aspects of and a similar theme like in “Escaped From LA.” CNBC on line is reporting that in our reality, that pending legislation, sponsored by Senator Lieberman, Senator Susan Collins, and Tom Carper is making its way up through the halls of power, which will empower and authorize the President of The United States to have sole access to a “kill switch” that will enable him to shut down the internet, if there were a national emergency. The problem is national emergency can be a relative term and therein lies the rub.

There has always been a balance sought when empowering someone or branch of our government with such enormous power. I am supposing that within the pending legislative language, the venerable “Checks and Balances,” used in our Constitution to prevent hoarding of power in one branch or one person, is pronounced. The utility of giving the President such a power over the Internet has its merits: they are weapons, which can be used in cyber warfare, such as an electrical pulse, which can cripple us.

In addition, there are millions of dollars that are stolen daily without the benefit of a gun or insiders assisting the bad guys… And what if our financial institutions can be affected, whereby instead of millions stolen, it could be our way of life as we know it? We have been told that several times in the past, as recently as last year, that our most sensitive secrets were hacked and data stored in our Pentagon were had.

All accusatory eyes looked at China, but the conventional and prudent thought is that even our enemies are trying to learn our secrets. What about our wanting to place all of our sensitive and personal medical data on line; being able to  access these files via the web also underscores why it may be prudent to give the President a so called “kill switch.”

What if a President decided to censor what bloggers are writing - providing that said bloggers are not shouting fire in a crowded theater - because he doesn’t like the contents of the blogs or criticism on how he governing? How are we going to juxtapose the dictates of our First Amendment Rights versus genuine fears about our National Security being breached? I suppos again that this too will be addressed and deterred by the “Checks and Balances” language in the pending legislation, which was discussed above.

In most cases, I am like Justice Scalia, preferring my Constitution “dead”, but advents in our society sometime merit having a Constitution that is “alive” to address these advents like our country being able to be subjected to Apocalyptic harm via the Internet, as seen in movies like "Escaped From L.A."  The one question that the world will ask: should the American President alone have carte-blanche in being the only one empowered to shut down the internet, presumably, because it was an American (Al Gore, pun intended) who invented it?