Obama to use executive power to enact CISPA...

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http://rt.com/usa/news/congress-executive-actions-president-958/

Obama to 'bypass Congress' on CISPA with cybersecurity executive order

Unable to reach a deal with Congress, President Obama plans to use his power to exert executive actions against the will of lawmakers. The president will issue orders addressing controversial topics including cybersecurity.
Although President Obama has issued fewer executive orders than any president in over 100 years, he is making extensive plans to change that, Washington Post reports quoting people outside the White House involved in discussions on the issues. Due to conflicts with a Congress that too often disagrees on proposed legislation, Obama plans to act alone and is likely "to rely heavily" on his executive powers in future, according to the newspaper.

Obama’s first executive order is expected to be issued this week when the president calls for the creation of new standards on what private-sector companies must do to protect their computer systems from a cybersecurity breach.
The order is a direct response to Congress’ refusal to pass the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) last year, which the administration deemed crucial to prevent crippling attacks on the nation’s infrastructure. But members of Congress who opposed the legislation cited serious privacy concerns with giving the government greater access to Americans’ personal information that only private companies and servers might have access to.

Despite opposition from lawmakers, the president will use his executive powers to issue an order addressing cybersecurity initiatives.
“It is a very dangerous road he’s going down contrary to the spirit of the Constitution,” Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) told the Washington Post. “Just because Congress doesn’t act doesn’t mean the president has a right to act.”
But the president has increasingly been issuing executive orders, including 23 actions addressing gun violence after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The 23 orders angered lawmakers who are opposed to tighter gun legislation. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) accused the president of demonstrating a “king complex” by exerting so many orders.

Major executive actions implemented by the president also include orders delaying deportations of young illegal immigrants and orders to lower student loan payments.
The president plans to have a greater impact during his second term by increasing his number of executive actions. He is currently considering extending anti-discrimination protections for homosexuals employed by the government and working with the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate carbon emissions. He is also planning to allow nearly 11 million struggling homeowners to refinance their mortgages at low interest rates.

The White House has made it clear that if Congress continues to disagree on issues that Obama considers important, the president will go ahead and use his power to pass new laws on his own.

And even though the president has passed executive orders at a lower rate than most of his predecessors – including former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, doing so has not come without criticism.
"Obama's increasing reliance on executive orders to push policy and skirt congressional deliberation is worrisome," tweeted Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).
The president is expected to reference some of his imminent executive actions in his State of the Union address on Tuesday.

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The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) is a proposed law in the United States which would allow for the sharing of Internet traffic information between the U.S. government and certain technology and manufacturing companies. The stated aim of the bill is to help the U.S government investigate cyber threats and ensure the security of networks against cyberattack.[1]

CISPA has been criticized by advocates of Internet privacy and civil liberties, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union, and Avaaz.org. Those groups argue CISPA contains too few limits on how and when the government may monitor a private individual’s Internet browsing information. Additionally, they fear that such new powers could be used to spy on the general public rather than to pursue malicious hackers.[2][3] CISPA has garnered favor from corporations and lobbying groups such as Microsoft, Facebook and the United States Chamber of Commerce, which look on it as a simple and effective means of sharing important cyber threat information with the government.[4]

Some critics saw CISPA as a second attempt at strengthening digital piracy laws after the anti-piracy Stop Online Piracy Act became deeply unpopular.[5] Intellectual property theft was initially listed in the bill as a possible cause for sharing Web traffic information with the government, though it was removed in subsequent drafts.[6]

[Irongrip400]

Countdown to shit. You can't escape it. The only way is to go off the grid to some Central American shithole, but then you have not interwebz or getbig. I guess it's the price you pay to be in a well developed country. Eventually, ages from now, there will be no difference between America now and the Third Reich.

[Soul Crusher]

I fucking hare ovomit 

[syntaxmachine]

1. The utilization of executive orders is an unfortunate trend and one that oughtn't be necessary if our government functioned properly, but it's not like these instruments don't face the usual test of constitutionality.

2. Practically speaking, the government seems to always be behind the curve efficiency-wise, technologically, methodologically, financially, etc. For example, despite the fact that Roth IRA's (retirement accounts which accept after-tax income) were implemented in 1997, the DOD just 4 months ago made this sensible retirement vehicle available for military personnel. They literally had their thumb up their ass for 15 years on a relatively easy to implement aspect of employee compensation.

In the context of CISPA, that the government is so far behind means that any potential abuse of the statute -- which, honestly, would probably involve highly isolated incidents -- ought to be relatively easy to avoid. In this instance, a privacy conscious citizen can simply employ a combo of one or more proxies, VPN, and a proxy switcher.