US Government to Have Only 50 Gateways

Narrative Fallacy brings us a story about the US government's plan to reduce the roughly 4,000 active internet connections used by its civilian agencies to a mere 50 highly secure gateways. This comes as part of the government's response to a rise in attacks on its networks. "Most security professionals agreed that the TIC security improvements and similar measures are long overdue. 'We should have done this five years ago, but there wasn't the heart or the will then like there is now,' said Howard Schmidt, a former White House cyber security adviser. 'The timetable is aggressive,' he said, but now there is a sense of urgency behind the program. Small agencies that won't qualify for their own connections under TIC must subcontract their Internet services to larger agencies."

Comments

Re:Is it just me...

[smittyoneeach]

We've been trained by 27 years of "Conservative" control of government and media to see "government" as some alien entity over which we have no control and which only acts to make our lives unpleasant. St. Ronald was the first to really market this erroneous notion, and it really disrespects the clever and elegant plan our founding fathers laid out for us.

"'Conservative' control of government and media" is some sweet flamebait. It clearly explains why, to drop just a couple of examples, you had Dan Rather pushing bogus documents about National Guard service during the 2004 election, or this current departure from reality that supposes Karl Rove was inciting investigations in the South.
If anything, the internet has revealed that there is a certain unstated orthodoxy (and certainly not a conservative one) driving things along a definite path.

This meme of "drowning government in a bathtub" is so ubiquitous that even some smart people are lazily spreading it, as you have done.

The meme I've sought to spread is one of "reading the Constitution as written", not as some would re-write it according to whim, without proper review.

If you've recently driven on a US highway, or if you're one of the unlucky ones under whom a bridge recently collapsed in Minnesota, you know first-hand what happens when "the commons" are neglected.

I realize that the whole Blame BeelzeBush angle is diminished, but some findings of fact did come out about Minnesota.
I'm not sure if its a bug or a feature that, after the "mixed results" of the Big Dig, that the Fed seems to be taking a more cautious look at funding projects, e.g. the Dulles Metro Extension in my area.
This real question is: What is the appropriate level for funding this stuff?
It is simply Un-American to me that the Fed be treated as the only source of leadership in the country.

The strangest thing about this whole story is that we are constantly told that the US is a "Christian Nation" yet the idea of "care in common" which is anathema to Republicans is a most Christian notion. But I guess it's to be expected when hypocrisy is the new black.

I suppose we could scuttle the First Amendment and set the Fed up as God, and then have "care in common" aplenty.
Because the State loves you and will hug you and pet you and offer a life free of fear pain.
Typically, Ben Franklin is invoked against the Bush Administration in general, and the Global War on Terror in Particular. But let's review those oft-quoted words again, anyway:

He who would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will lose both and deserve neither.

These words would also seem a caution about the Imperial Fed.

Thanks for dropping a quarter in me, boss.

Re:Is it just me...

[schnikies79]

"Care in common" should be done by the common people, not mandated by the government.