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US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano cut the ribbon on Friday on a state-of-the-art unified command center for government cybersecurity efforts.
The high-security new NCCIC facility is located in an Arlington, Virginia, office building and includes a long narrow room dominated by giant wall-mounted video screens displaying maps and threat data. Facing the screens are dozens of computer work stations with multiple screens.
"Securing America's cyber infrastructure requires a coordinated and flexible system to detect threats and communicate protective measures to our federal, state, local, and private sector partners and the public," Napolitano said.
The U.S. has a dark box of options for keeping Internet traffic flowing during a pandemic, including restricting the bandwidth capability of home modems.
The feds have already shown their willingness to impose their power on carriers because of national security, something that happened after 9/11 with the Patriot Act. If a pandemic keeps large numbers of the workforce at home and causes network congestion, the U.S. government will likely act again.
Last month, Mark Lloyd was granted the rather Orwellian title of "Chief Diversity Officer" at the FCC. In his 2006 book Prologue to a Farce: Communications and Democracy in America (University of Illinois Press), Lloyd recommended that private broadcasters be forced to, in effect, heavily subsidize their competition: those public broadcasters that already receive millions in taxpayer dollars each year.
This financially onerous combination of fines and fees -- amounting to an estimated $100-million and $250-million each and every year -- would essentially force many private broadcasters out of business. It's hard for some cynics not to wonder if that might not be the whole idea.
Lloyd has repeatedly stated that he opposes the reintstatement of the Fairness Doctrine, but that's only because he's come up with other ways to castrate conservative talk radio. Naturally, these strategies all come complete with the usual, harmless-sounding calls for "diversity" and "community