Give Internet over to U.N.? No thanks!

Deal reached on managing the Internet."

That's the good news.

And the bad news.

A number of countries that don't share American values with regard to freedom of speech have been pressing for the United Nations to "govern" the Internet.

If that doesn't scare the heck out of you, nothing will.

Ultimately an agreement was reached at a U.N. technology summit this week in Tunisia to continue to "allow" the United States to sort of govern the Internet through the quasi-independent Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

Can you imagine turning responsibility for Internet "governance" over to the fine folks who brought you the Oil for Food scandal; Libya in charge of a human rights commission; and a resolution equating Zionism with racism?

No, thanks.

How ironic, too, that the U.N. summit was being held in Tunisia - hardly a den of free-speech mania.

"Several countries have called for taking Internet oversight powers away from the U.S. government and establishing a separate U.N. agency to handle the job," an Associated Press story reported before the start of the summit Wednesday.

The idea has been scrapped for now, in return for the establishment of an Orwellian-sounding "Internet Governance Forum," which will have no real powers except to sniff the air.

Kind of like a camel's nose.

The fight for free speech has never ended in America.

It is only beginning in the rest of the world.