Posts in "czar"

John Floyd's picture
By John Floyd at 5:29PM

Back in the U.S.S.Czar

Obama is apparently going to create a "Cyber Czar." The new position comes from a compromise after a "turf war" between the National Security Council and the National Economic Council. Who would have thought that two government bureaucracies with such similarly constructed names would both believe themselves to be the sole arbiters of the affairs of the internets? From the Journal:

The moves come amid growing evidence that sophisticated overseas hackers are waging a widening assault on important U.S. networks. The Defense Department detected 360 million attempts to penetrate its networks last year, up from six million in 2006. The Pentagon alone has spent $100 million in the past six months repairing damage from cyberattacks.

Three hundred and sixty million attacks! That's 1.2 attacks for every American man, woman, and child! Luckily, the state seems to have been able to scrape together $100,000,000 for "repairing damage" caused by cyberterrorism. For the mathematically disinclined, that's $3.60 per attack. How many foreclosures could have been averted by bailing out bankrupt debtors were it not for this senseless campaign of cyberviolence?
Read more here
Caleb Kinley's picture
By Caleb Kinley at 7:16AM

Czar Wars

Slates Ben Zimmer writes; "On the American scene, czar was first bestowed on one of Andrew Jackson's foes: Nicholas Biddle, president of the Bank of the United States. [caption id="" align="alignleft" width="151" caption="Czar Nicholas I of Russia"]Czar Nicholas I of Russia[/caption] Jackson vehemently opposed the centralized power of the bank, which he called a "hydra of
Read more here