This is absurd. If there's a valid reason justifying the kill switch, it should be clearly communicated by Lieberman. It is not the job of anyone here to ferret out Liberman's justifications; it is Lieberman's job to explain himself. He has a website. He makes frequent media appearances and he often communicates with journalists. If given all that, he remains completely incapable of communicating his ideas clearly, then he clearly is far too incompetent to be a US Senator.

Perhaps I'm wrong. Is there any reason to believe that Lieberman has been prevented from clearly explaining his ideas on his own website?

I'm not even a little bit interested in debating the merits of Joe Lieberman with you.

This is much more sinister, because people might let it slide.

If there's a legit reason to do this, can't Obama just ask the top tier ISPs to implement such a filter? Do we really need legislation to this effect?

Because the ISPs could just say "no".

This doesn't make any sense. We've already seen major telecoms roll over and participate in massive illegal government surveillance. And that didn't involve a war on American soil. We already understand exactly how this works: major telecom firms have enormous contracts with the federal government and/or pending regulatory issues before federal agencies. That gives them a huge incentive to do what the government wants, especially since the government can credibly promise to indemnify their illegal acts.

Given this history, WHICH JUST HAPPENED IN THE LAST FEW YEARS, there is no credible reason to believe that ISPs would "just say no" during a real national emergency.

In an actual war or emergency, what are the chances ISPs would refuse a presidential request? Are major ISPs typically stubborn and obstructionist in the face of major security threats, or cooperative?

To follow up on this point, a portion of revenue of most ISPs and telcos comes from contracts with the federal government.

In a time of emergency and war, a large multinational is not going to bite the (large and powerful) hand that feeds them.

A related current example is BP with the oil spill. BP could very well have said fuck you to the Obama administration and not set aside a compensation fund. However, this would have been done at the cost of current and future federal government contracts.

in an actual war or emergency, the president would issue one of those things called "executive orders" - basically laws that don't need to go through congress.

There is no justification for this bill to exist, other than because these senators decided "If China can do it, then why can't we?"

I'd rather we wait for this to actually occur before introducing new laws.

Wait for what? A nationwide calamity?

I'm kind of dumb....What type of calamity could possibly occur that would justify such an action?

Also, its frightening to see that people welcome the great firewall of america.

Yea that's a good question. What kind of event ARE we really talking about here? Do you have an example of something that might require this kind of response?