Anyone remember 9-11, Iran?

Oh, (Big) Brother: The President's proposed Internet Kill Switch would cripplenews in times of crisis

President Barack Obama

I was immediately creeped out when I heard about the new Senate bill that would create a government agency devoted to cybersecurity and grant the President power to assume control of, or completely shut down, the Internet in a national emergency.

The Protecting Cyberspace as National Asset Act (PCNAA), backed by Joe Lieberman (shocking), would give the President the authority to declare a "cybersecurity emergency" and shut down or limit Internet traffic in "critical networks." (Critical networks are, of course, undefined.) Furthermore, the bill would grant the Secretary of Commerce access to any data on public or private networks without regard to privacy laws, according to some interpretations.

I usually balk at encroachments of basic rights in the name of national security, but this is not only terrifying, it is incredibly stupid.

Ron Callari makes a good point when he asks — what if this bill had existed September 11, 2001? I couldn't think of a more sudden and unanticipated breach of national security than the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers. Would we have hit the Internet Kill Switch, as many outlets are terming it, effectively eliminating communication from the ground?

What would we have done? Waited for the next day's newspaper to hit doorsteps so people could figure out what was really going on? How about all the people in the Towers who communicated with their loved ones online? It's insanity.

One needs only look to the enormous role social networking sites like Twitter played during the Iranian elections last year. People used 140 characters or less to organize protests, relay information and update each other on incidents of police brutality when their text messages were blocked by the government.

Do we want to live in a nation with the means or the desire to squelch communication? In the United States, Twitter was one of the few insights we had into what was going on in Iran — what would this mean for journalism?

Also at stake are the implications for personal privacy. The Center for Democracy and Technology says the bill could easily undermine privacy acts and may even threaten the constitutional promise against searches without cause. (Think authorities happening upon illegal activities while trolling the "relevant data" they have near-unmitigated access to.)

What do you think? Would the passage of a bill like the PCNAA make you feel more secure, or more scrutinized?

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Thanks, Queen Bey

Pop icon Beyoncé donates $100,000 to University of Houston Law School

Photo by Erza Shaw Getty Images

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Pop megastar Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has donated $100,000 to the University of Houston Law Center Criminal Justice Clinic through her BeyGOOD Foundation. The gift will allow the clinic to hire fill-time faculty to head it, benefiting the students who study there.

“I am delighted that the BeyGOOD Foundation has made this very generous gift to the UH Law Center,” said Leonard Baynes, dean of the UH Law Center. “Not only will this funding help establish a full-time criminal justice clinic that provides pro bono legal services in our community, but it will also supercharge our already excellent criminal law and justice programming.”

The clinic is one of nine at UHLC. It helps students learn to navigate the criminal justice system, especially on behalf of clients that are underserved by skilled attorneys. People of color are affected disproportionately by a lack of good, ethical representation.

Beyoncé, the most decorated artist in Grammy history and easily the biggest musical star native to Houston, has a long history of advocating for criminal justice reform. She was a staunch supporter of the police reform following the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, asking law enforcement to “stop killing us” in a web post. In 2020, she penned an open letter to the Kentucky attorney general asking for justice in the death of Breonna Taylor.

Through her BeyGOOD Foundation, established in 2013, Beyoncé has focused mostly on expanding the prospects of Black-owned business and offering education opportunities to students. Forwarding the cause of legal representation in Texas while also helping out marginalized communities compliments her other philanthropic work.

“At UH Law, we envision a legal profession where ‘everyone has the opportunity to prosper,’ as BeyGOOD envisions, and we will achieve this vision by providing access to strong and effective legal representation in criminal proceedings,” Baynes said. “And together, through this gift, the BeyGOOD Foundation and UHLC will shepherd the next generation of criminal justice attorneys in the city of Houston, the state of Texas and the nation.”