I scrolled down but I didn't see this covered anywhere. Norm Coleman wrote an
Op-Ed item today for the Wall Street Journal online edition in which he positions himself as the defender of U.S. control of the Internet.
Did anyone else see this or diary on it? Point me to the diary and I'll delete this one.
Norm Coleman gives me the willies. It's bad enough this sad sack of a conservative is warming Paul Wellstone's seat in the Senate. The fact that the man is presenting this argument in a conservative publication like the WSJ makes me even more uneasy.
Since when did the likes of Coleman lay claim to title of Exalted Protector of Virtual Communication?
The Internet faces a grave threat. We must defend it. We need to preserve this unprecedented communications and informational medium, which fosters freedom and enterprise. We can not allow the U.N. to control the Internet.
I don't even know what to say about this item. I'm hoping others here in DKOS will know what the spin is and what the reality is and dissect it.
The threat is posed by the U.N.-sponsored World Summit on the Information Society taking place later this month in Tunisia. At the WSIS preparatory meeting weeks ago, it became apparent that the agenda had been transformed. Instead of discussing how to place $100 laptops in the hands of the world's children, the delegates schemed to transfer Internet control into the hands of intrigue-plagued bureaucracies.
The low point of that planning session was the European Union's shameful endorsement of a plan favored by China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Cuba that would terminate the historic U.S. role in Internet government oversight, relegate both private enterprise and non-governmental organizations to the sidelines, and place a U.N.-dominated group in charge of the Internet's operation and future. The EU's declaration was a "political coup," according to London's Guardian newspaper, which predicted that once the world's governments awarded themselves control of the Internet, the U.S. would be able to do little but acquiesce.
Norm Coleman reads The Guardian?
Coleman is evoking memories of World War II, using words like "appeasement" and calling Tunis "a digital Munich."
What the heck is the real story here?