Strikingly similar styles

Egypt basically shut down all Internet access to and from that country last night in an apparent last-ditch attempt to save the regime of Hosni Mubarak from being brought to an abrupt end by his long-suffering peasants.

Just four days ago, we here in America were informed of Dear Leader's wish for a similar "Internet kill switch" to be put into place for this country, one which would naturally be unconstitutionally out of the reach of any judicial oversight:

"A controversial bill handing President Obama power over privately owned computer systems during a 'national cyberemergency,' and prohibiting any review by the court system, will return this year. (Emphasis ours)

Only despots (Mubarak) or wannabe-despots (Obama) express a desire to have absolute power with no governmental check against abuse at their disposal, all because they know what's best for the rest of us.

Reading the CBS story, we learn that if this legislation passes the president could pretty much call anything he wanted a "national cyberemergency", allowing him to flip that switch and take over privately-owned communications networks with impunity without fear of sanction or repudiation from a court of law, which is pretty much dictatorial-level power.  This would leave Americans with no other recourse than to regain their electronic liberties by force.

How similar this sounds to what's going on right now in the streets of Cairo.

No wonder Joe Biden refuses to label Mubarak a dictator.  His boss aspires to have the exact same level of complete control over our country's communications in a "crisis" to be determined solely by him, with no way for citizens to legally challenge that decision.  The Vice President understandably doesn't want any of us citizens to confuse the president's agenda with that of a tinpot Third-World strongman.

Oops, too late.