And the crunch day is today.

From Yahoo.com:

US prepares to cede key role for internet

by Rob Lever

Washington (AFP) – The US government is set to cut the final thread of its oversight of the internet, yielding a largely symbolic but nevertheless significant role over the online address system.

Barring any last-minute glitches, the transition will occur at midnight Friday (0400 GMT Saturday), when the US contract expires for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which manages the internet’s so-called “root zone.”

When the agreement with the US Commerce Department runs out, ICANN will become a self-regulating non-profit international entity managing the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, the system for online “domains” such as .com.

US and ICANN officials say the change is part of a longstanding plan to “privatize” those functions, but some critics complain about a “giveaway” that could threaten the internet’s integrity.

That’s putting it mildly.

Let’s listen to Senator Ted Cruz:

Then, let’s watch Senator Ted Cruz with ICANN CEO and President Goran Marby regarding ICANN in the Judiciary Subcommittee:

Is it just me, or does Mr Marby veritably reek of dripping condescension, equivocation, superiority and aloofness? Yes. It’s just me.

To whom are we ceding, essentially, control of the internet? From Breitbart.com:

Meet the New Authoritarian Masters of the Internet

by John Hayward

President Barack Obama’s drive to hand off control of Internet domains to a foreign multi-national operation will give some very unpleasant regimes equal say over the future of online speech and commerce.

Let the massive significance of that paragraph roil around in the fetid recesses of your brainulus for a bit.

Equal. Say.

I wonder: what other nation possesses a First Amendment? Oh. That’s right: no other.

In fact, they are likely to have much more influence than America, because they will collectively push hard for a more tightly controlled Internet, and they are known for aggressively using political and economic pressure to get what they want.

Consider: Russia, China, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Turkey — all countries that have either already censored, taken down or negatively impacted the internet on numerous occasions. To them, uncensored speech is a danger and not a core freedom.

The rest of the world, taken in total, is very interested in suppressing various forms of expression, for reasons ranging from security to political stability and religion. Those governments will never be comfortable, so long as parts of the Internet remain outside of their control. They have censorship demands they consider very reasonable, and absolutely vital. The website you are reading right now violates every single one of them, on a regular basis.

As does my blog. There are already persons in the United States who believe I should not be able to write what I write here. That I should need a “license to blog” and that I and others should be forced to operate under the former FCC “fairness doctrine” which had no fairness attached whatsoever. If you wish to take down my blog you’ll certainly not care for my upcoming radio show on SHR Media.

As my headline indicates, the US under Barack Hussein Obama has determined to surrender control of ICANN and turn it over to a conglomeration of interests that have a history of little or no interest in free speech.

That begs the question: why? Why, indeed. This is another in a continuing series of capitulist, surrender-monkey moves where the United States, under Obama, manages to give away power and control under the guise of “negotiation” for little if anything in return; witness Guantanamo, witness Bergdahl, witness Iran.

For the answer we must, in my opinion, hearken back to Obama’s formative years under, literally, Communists (“Communism is not love.  Communism is a hammer which we use to crush the enemy.” -Mao), Muslims and Socialists. Mr Obama was taught that America’s “colonialist ways” have damaged the entire planet and, for that, we must atone.

This country, the United States of America, shames Mr Barack Hussein Obama. There is little, in his mind, of which to be proud. Hence, his endless hammering on the various wedges that divide our country. Mr Obama has become and is the Divider-In-Chief.

From Obama’s spiritual advisor Pastor Jeremiah Wright, to his mentor (and co-author) Bill Ayers, to his idols Saul Alinsky, Richard Clower, Frances Fox Piven, Che Guevara and more.

Atonement, you see, now comes in the form of Mr Obama purposefully attempting to minimize the role America plays around the globe — leading from behind, if you will. He believes you are lazy. On this one I must agree, but with the appellation applied to those generational parasites sucking Free Cheese from my American Taxpayer vein. Odd, coming from a person who has built nothing in his life, managed not one payroll or even started a lemonade stand.

Obama is weakening our defenses. He is weakening the defenses of our allies. Mr Obama is dismissed as a buffoon by our enemies, Russia, China, North Korea, much of the Middle East, because they realize he is a true Paper Tiger and means little of what he says, particularly at this juncture. He emboldens our enemies and undermines our allies.

It is no shock, therefore, that he continues in the fine capitulist tradition he began in 2008.

To the most free internet you’ll see in this lifetime, wave “buh-bye.”

“There are no existential threats” to the US today, Mr Obama says.

Except himself.

BZ