In the battle over media and communications freedom, no group poses a more serious threat to a free and independent press than the insultingly misnamed regulatory activist group Free Press. Along with their founders, the prolific neo-Marxist media theorist Robert W. McChesney and Nation correspondent John Nichols, Free Press has engaged in relentless agitation for a truly radical media and communications policy agenda, and their influence is now spreading throughout the Obama Administration.

The Free Press-McChesney blueprint for media “reform” reads more like a script for State servitude. On the regulatory side, they call for media ownership restrictions, “localism” mandates, “Net neutrality” regulations, price controls on broadband, advertising and copyright restrictions, and layers of additional regulatory edicts.  Once all that red tape smothers the life out the independent press and private communications providers, they plan to have the State step in become the primary benefactor of the Fourth Estate and high-tech infrastructure. For starters, McChesney and Nichols advocate a $35 billion annual “public works” program for the press modeled after the Works Progress Administration of the New Deal era. Their media WPA would include a “News AmeriCorps” for out-of-work journalists, a “Citizenship News Voucher” to funnel taxpayer support to struggling media entities, a significant expansion of postal subsidies, a massive new subsidy for journalism schools, corporate welfare for newspapers sufficient to pay 50 percent of the salaries of all “journalistic employees,” municipal government ownership of press and infrastructure, and many more bureaucratic programs. (more…)

We Will Not Be Silenced

Last year the Pelosi-Obama regime passed the most irresponsible and damaging piece of legislation in American history – the Trillion Dollar Stimulus Bill. They dumped a trillion dollars into a government sink hole with the promise that they would create jobs. We knew better. We were afraid for our families and our country. We were outraged and took to the streets. We spoke out. We came out. We protested the elites.

We will not be silenced.

On April 15th of last year we met in cities across this great nation. We protested the reckless spending, the record deficit, the bailouts, the careless decisions being made by this radical Administration and Congress. We came out in force, hundreds of thousands of us. We stood as one.

We will not be silenced.

We shocked the elites. We shocked the radicals and extremists. They couldn’t believe that we were speaking out. This wasn’t their plan. They knew they had to react and they lashed out at us. They called us mobsters, Nazis, radicals, and racists. They beat us, and smashed us in the face and bit off fingers. They wanted us to pipe down; to be good little drones as they continued to wreak havoc across this great nation with their radical agenda. But, we gathered on street corners and met them at town halls.

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The Washington Post reports that today at their national conference in Kansa City, MO the NAACP will vote on a resolution condemning the Tea Party movement as racist.

Of particular interest is a passage in the Post report that describes part of the reasoning behind the resolution:

As an example, authors of the statement point to reports by black members of Congress that they endured spitting and racial epithets before voting for the health-care overhaul.

Here is a quick reminder of our thorough debunking of the phantom racial epithets including video footage from five separate angles and perspectives at the very moment the racial slurs were supposed to have been yelled.

So it has come to this.  The charges first leveled by Rep. Andre Carson that fifteen protestors yelled racial slurs fifteen times at he and Rep. John Lewis have become part of the agenda of the nation’s oldest and most respected civil rights organization.  This proves Mark Twain’s famous adage, “ A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”

Here is the route this lie took on its travel around the world:

• Rep Carson tells reporters the infamous tale.
• It’s repeated endlessly by members of the media eager to paint the Tea Party as racist.
• Terrified GOP leadership rush to condemn the Tea Party for their racist behavior (how’d all that bending over backwards for the Congressional Black Caucus work out for you Mr. Steele?)

Then, slowly the truth put on its shoes:

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As the NAACP plans to use their group’s prestige to bash the tea party movement, members of the Project 21 black leadership network are urging delegates at the NAACP’s national convention not to turn the NAACP into a pawn for progressive political bosses.

“As a frequent speaker at tea party rallies around the country, I can assure the NAACP that the tea party movement’s concerns are about President Obama’s policies and not his race,” said Project 21 fellow Deneen Borelli. “I’m deeply concerned that the NAACP is being used as a political tool to do the dirty work of the progressive movement. Instead of criticizing tea parties, the NAACP would be better served denouncing the racist comments made by a member of the New Black Panther Party and their voter intimidation outside a Philadelphia polling place in the last presidential election.”

According to a report in the Kansas City Star, the NAACP, which is conducting its 101st annual convention in that city, will take up a resolution as early as Tuesday to urge “all people of good will to repudiate the racism of Tea Parties, and to stand in opposition to its drive to push our country back to the pre-civil rights era.”

Kansas City NAACP chapter president Anita Russell said the tea party movement is “really not about limited government.” The resolution reportedly dwells on “explicitly racist behavior” that relies upon anecdotal posters opposing President Obama and allegations of the use of racial epithets by tea party participants.

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The story of the Obama Justice Department’s questionable handling of the New Black Panther voter intimidation case of 2008 keeps gaining momentum and has taken a new turn today.

As congress is in recess, town hall meetings are taking place in districts all over America.  Not unlike last year’s environment with frustrated and concerned constituents wanting answers about the pending ObamaCare legislation, this summer’s town halls include citizens asking their representatives about the curious actions of Eric Holder and his team at Justice.

Witness the latest home video featured at Breitbart.tv:

Notice how the room erupts with anger and disbelief not at the congressman’s position, but over the fact that he claims to be ‘unaware’ of the case being dismissed.

The face of the Democratic Party is increasingly that of an out-of-touch elitist who knows what is better for the people than they know themselves.  And with Rep. Pete Stark’s dismissive attitude on the border issue, Rep. Ciro Rodriguez‘ angry eruption over skepticism over his remarks on ObamaCare, and now Rep. Brad Sherman’s supercilious smirk as he admits to his constituents that he is not aware of one of the top stories in America over the past ten days, the incumbent Democrats are showing themselves to be incapable of discussing issues with their voters without creating another “You Tube Moment”.

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From out of the email inbox, Tara sends along one of the funniest bumper stickers we’ve seen. Enjoy:

From The Hill:

A Texas congressman who got into a heated exchange at a town hall meeting this weekend blamed his opponent’s campaign for the incident, but also apologized for his conduct.

Video emerged Monday that shows Rep. Ciro Rodriguez (D) and an audience member getting into an argument over his vote for the healthcare reform law. The attendee suggested that the lawmaker stretched the facts about the Congressional Budget Office’s analysis of the provision.

He shot back, saying “Don’t accuse me of not saying the truth.”

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A situation involving voter intimidation caught on tape has now exploded, as a Justice Department lawyer resigns to be able to tell the truth to the American people that the Obama-Holder Justice Department is allowing voting-rights violations to go unpunished for political reasons. Those responsible must be made to answer for their betrayal of the public trust.

The Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has a noble mission: Make sure that no eligible citizen is denied their rights, especially the right to vote. That mandate has a special focus on race, because in darker days millions of American citizens were intimidated, threatened, or denied their right to vote simply because of the color of their skin.

Denying someone their civil rights because of race is a betrayal of the Constitution’s most sacred promises. We are all created equal, endowed with rights by our Creator, and the Constitution establishes a government to secure those rights for every American.

That’s why the threats caught on tape at a Philadelphia voting location are utterly deplorable. Several thugs of the New Black Panther Party stood at the door of a polling location with weapons in their hands, menacingly glaring at white Americans as they went by.

Fortunately, a couple intrepid patriots captured this illegal action on video. They even engaged them in conversation, confirming who they were and what they were doing.

In response to this clear and egregious case of voter intimidation, the Justice Department brought action against these Black Panthers. The defendants didn’t even have enough respect for the law to show up in court, and so the judge properly issued a default judgment against them.

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Jesse ‘Jacko’ Jackson is accusing Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert of behaving like a slave master.

“He speaks as an owner of LeBron and not the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers,” the reverend said in a release from his Chicago-based civil rights group, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. “His feelings of betrayal personify a slave master mentality. He sees LeBron as a runaway slave.

Jacko is responding to an open letter Gilbert wrote to Cleavland fans in response to learning his star basketball player will departing for Miami. Here are some excerpts of that letter, which is available in full here.

…. You simply don’t deserve this kind of cowardly betrayal.

….This shocking act of disloyalty from our home grown “chosen one” sends the exact opposite lesson of what we would want our children to learn. And “who” we would want them to grow-up to become.

It might be a poor business decision to write such a letter. You might even fairly characterize Gilbert of being a poor sport, but is there any evidence at all whatsoever that Cleveleand Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert is a racist? Has he ever purposefully insulted/attacked/or otherwise denigrated anyone based on their race? If Gilbert is some kind of Marge Schott of basketball, he should be outed.

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The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). the radical leftist group that labels black conservatives “Uncle Toms”, proposed a resolution at their 101st Annual Convention this weekend condemning the “tea party racists.” This far left organization will vote on the resolution Tuesday at their national meeting.

A racist NAACP leader recently attacked black conservative Kenneth Gladney for being “kissed on the forehead, by a European.”

Kenneth Gladney, who was injured in a scuffle at a health forum on Aug. 6, is greeted by well-wishers, including Jeff Tatum, during a protest Aug. 8 in St. Louis. The demonstration was held by members of the St. Louis Tea Party. (Robert Cohen/P-D)

The Kansas City Star reported, via Free Republic:

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People will propose a resolution this week condemning racism within the tea party movement.

The resolution, scheduled for a vote as early as Tuesday by delegates attending the annual NAACP convention in Kansas City, calls upon “all people of good will to repudiate the racism of the Tea Parties, and to stand in opposition to its drive to push our country back to the pre-civil rights era.”

NAACP leaders said the resolution was necessary to make people aware of what they believe is a racist element within the tea party movement.

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Today the Senate returns to session having not yet addressed Senator Chuck Schumer’s troubling legislation, the Democracy is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections Act (“DISCLOSE Act”).  Senator Schumer sought and failed to pass the DISCLOSE Act – a bill that would restrict the First Amendment rights of Americans – by the Fourth of July, the day on which we celebrate our nation’s independence.

The DISCLOSE Act is a desperate attempt to influence the November elections, and minimize Democrat losses.  Senator Schumer and the legislation’s other sponsors aim to have a law on the books that will take effect prior to November regardless of whether a regulatory system is in place to enforce the burdensome new reporting requirements.  The Act, its reporting burdens, and penalties are set to take effect 30 days after it has been signed by President Obama.

• The DISCLOSE Act will require small businesses, corporations, and non-profit organizations to electronically file burdensome financial disclosure reports within 24 hours of making an independent expenditure.  Without action by the FEC, these groups will have to electronically file a form that does not yet exist, and face a $10,000 penalty should their filing be found inadequate.

• Radically expand the length of disclaimers on televised political advertisements.  The Act will compel the head of an organization to appear on screen in a “stand by your ad” disclaimer.  The top donor to an organization will also have to appear on camera to stand by the ad.  The names of additional top donors to the organization must be listed on screen for a period of six seconds.  These disclaimers will be the end of the 30 second advertisement, because over half of the time will be devoted to disclaimers.

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What happened last month at the Brooklyn census office was indeed unfortunate. But let us not be naive: Data collection inaccuracies and falsifications are happening throughout the entire New York Regional Area and possibly the entire nation, though perhaps on a smaller scale than in Brooklyn.

There are many luxury rental and condominum buildings where real estate management companies have a strict “no enumerator” policy, as well as tenement buildings  and brownstones where it is impossible to gain access. There are also one or two family houses where it is unclear how many people live there and a knowledgeable proxy could not be located.

For these units, some enumerators went to public search records on the Internet or merely wrote the names off the mailboxes. The mid and upper level census managers encouraged field staff to use techniques to “guesstimate,” creating major operational ambiguity for the once in a decade headcount.

What was acceptable inside the questionnaire was another problem. Most enumerators tried to get all the information but those who went to a proxy who gave them little, no, or inaccurate information, finished their areas quickly. These same field staff were rewarded with more work and allowed to clean up districts that were lagging behind.

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I’ve often noted that I expect this to be a long, hot summer. The mid-term elections are inching closer and Democrats are having to finally admit that they are in real political trouble. For those keeping score at home, let’s recap; the economy sucks, there are no new jobs, the stimulus failed, the government is bleeding money, ObamaCare is unpopular, the Feds have screwed up the gulf oil spill and we are facing potentially the biggest tax hike in history at the end of the year.

If they weren’t trying to seize control of huge swaths of the economy, I might almost feel sorry for Democrat Congressman having to face voters with such a “record.” They blindly followed the Democrat leadership and listened to the chattering class in DC who assured them everything would be okay; the progressive agenda was secretly popular with the public. Instead, I’ll enjoy video snippets like this, which shows another Democrat House member losing his temper in the face of public anger with their agenda. Recently, Rep. Ciro Rodriquez (D-TX) met with some local constituents about our nation’s current state of affairs. It did not go well.

Wow.

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Recently, Big Government told of a proposed fiscal year 2009 federal budget earmark intended for the Save-A-Life Foundation (SALF), a Chicago-area nonprofit that went belly-up late last year. The article questioned why IL Democrat Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, who introduced the appropriation, wanted to fund SALF years after the charity was the subject of a string of media exposes, including four hard-hitting ABC7 Chicago I-Team reports.

Rep. Schakowsky eventually cancelled her earmark for SALF, perhaps in response to scrutiny last January from a conservative blogger, Doug Ross. She wouldn’t answer his questions then, and, according to Big Government, she still won’t now.  Here’s what Ross and Big Government wanted to know:

1. What was the dollar amount of Schakowsky’s intended 2009 earmark for SALF?

2. Why was Rep. Schakowsky funding a non-profit years after it was the subject of four ABC7 News Chicago exposes?

3. What’s the relationship between Rep. Schakowsky and the charity’s founder/president Carol J. Spizzirri, whose organization obtained “at least $8.6 million in federal and state grants”? (Chicago Tribune)

4. Does Rep. Schakowsky think SALF should be investigated in order to determine if those millions were properly spent?

Since Rep. Schakowsky’s 2009 SALF earmark didn’t get funded, do these questions matter? Why not let this sleeping dog lie and…move along, nothing to see here?  On the other hand, one might ask if this illustrates the degree of due diligence Rep. Schakowsky applies to all her funding requests.

But this article isn’t about those questions, it’s about this question: Since the money didn’t go through, why should Schakowsky refuse to disclose the facts or answer whether or not she thinks the organization should be investigated? Since the ABC7 series, others have raised more questions about SALF and what happened to all the money they received? (And so will we, in a later article.)

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Today, in 1804, Alexander Hamilton died after being shot in a duel with Aaron Burr. Rarely has so much been lost over so little.

At  Washington D.C. news conference, held at the Offices of the Center for American Progress,  archeologists working for the Smithsonian Institution have announced an incredible discovery, a revised copy of the U.S Constitution dated 1790. This document was passed by the original 13 States with the intention of  supplanting the version  ratified in 1788. The Chief Archeologist on the project called the document “the Dead Potomac River Scrolls,” because they were found in a previously unknown cave on the bank of the Potomac.

According to the scientists, a 13-year-old boy named Zach Emanuel was walking his dog near the river, threw a stick and and heard some glass shatter. He followed the noise into the cave and found the document amongst some broken beer bottles left over from some ancient beer summit. Scientists determined  the cave was once occupied by some ancient cult of prognosticators. Also found in the cave was and old mens-style  tutu and some leftover yarmulkes from Rahm Emanuel’s Bar Mitzvah.

The cult known in history books as the Progressenes, wrote the document in English and it begins with an amazingly prophetic preamble,

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a Union even more perfecter than we did two years ago, do ordain and establish this brand spanking new Constitution for the United States of America recognizing that the document approved in 1788 forgot to talk about social justice.

The over-all document is very similar to the Constitution passed in 1788, it just adds a few things:

• Under the census provision it adds, “if a large group of foreign nationals come into the country illegally, they are to be counted in the census as not to appear racist.”

• The executive branch articles include a provision that says, “The President is to enforce all laws equally except in the case of radical organizations such as the New Black Panthers or other African American organizations trying to intimidate voters from voting the wrong way. Housing organizations that commit voter fraud by registering illegible voters multiple times, cartoon characters, or the deceased are not to be prosecuted, as long as they are named after the seed of an oak tree.”

It is quite amazing the way these Progressenes were able to see into the future.

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Horror movie buffs may be surprised to know that the scariest scene in the history of cinema has no slasher or space creature or ferocious beast.  There’s a monster alright, but it’s a different kind of monster.  Not an imaginary monster, but a real one – the kind of monster that people choose to rule over them.

As the Book of Ecclesiastes explains: “There is nothing new under the sun.”  Throughout history, nations have fallen prey to charming, silver-tongued demagogues.  Once in power, they reveal their evil, tyrannical selves.  Too late does the subject populace feel The Leader’s boot on their throats.  Then comes time for the wailing and gnashing of teeth.

The 1972 movie Cabaret has the scariest scene in the history of the cinema.  An idealistic youth sings about change he can believe in.  Caught up by his vision for the future, people begin to sing along with him:

The sun on the meadow is summery warm
The stag in the forest runs free
But gathered together to greet the storm
Tomorrow belongs to me

The branch on the linden is leafy and green
The Rhine gives its gold to the sea
But somewhere a glory awaits unseen
Tomorrow belongs to me

Now Fatherland, Fatherland, show us the sign
Your children have waited to see
The morning will come when the world is mine
Tomorrow belongs to me

The babe in his cradle is closing his eyes
The blossom embraces the bee
But soon says the whisper, arise, arise
Tomorrow belongs to me

The audience then discovers that the young man is in the Hitler Youth.  Looking back at the rise of National Socialism, one can lose sight of the fact that back then Germany had one of the most advanced cultures on the globe.  Germans were too nuanced and sophisticated for a dictator to arise in the midst, right?  Wrong!

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According to Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unemployment benefits are the best way to create jobs, so why didn’t she get with Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and press him to schedule a pre-recess vote on the Republican alternative to the Democrat’s jobs/unemployment benefits bill introduced on June 30, 2010 by Senator Scott Brown (R-MA).

Brown’s bill is deficit neutral and could easily solve the current problems in passing the unemployment benefits package:

My compromise bill uses unspent stimulus funds and cuts wasteful and unnecessary spending in other areas to pay for these important programs. Believe it or not, there is about $37 billion in stimulus money just sitting in a Washington slush fund when it should be put to good use immediately.

While my bill pays for additional FMAP assistance for one more year, this phase-down provides states an opportunity to get their fiscal houses in order — but also makes it clear that they can no longer pass the buck to the federal government, which has budgetary problems of its own.  emphasis mine

Obama, Pelosi, and Reid should be called out on why they blatantly ignored Brown’s bill and also answer why they couldn’t fast track this one like they did with the  passage  of the original stimulus and Obamacare.  Of course, the answer is obvious:  Brown is a Republican and they couldn’t possibly give a win to the GOP.  So much for bipartisanship.

For the record, Democrats own this economy; they had the supermajority.  It’s their agenda, their stimulus, their failed policies.  Americans deserve and should be demanding answers from Obama and the Democrat leadership regarding their policies–Bush has been out of office for 18 months–there is no more childish blame shifting and finger pointing.

It is time for the Republicans to go on the offensive and force the Democrats to explain themselves to the American people on where are the jobs and why they squandered $800 billion of taxpayer money.  They need to stop fearing any backlash, because I’m not sure if there would be one, or maybe just from the left-wing MSM.  Americans are starving for someone to fight back and call out Obama and Congress for what they are doing to our country (paging NJ Governor Chris Christie).

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In tracking the response to the launch of the site and petition to draft Sarah Palin for the Chairmanship of the RNC, we have seen varied reactions ranging from enthusiasm, to curiosity, to skepticism, to racist bigotry, to deafening silence.

One common denominator in near uniformity, however, is the consensus that Michael Steele is, at best, ineffective as Chair of the RNC for one or more of the following reasons.

Steele V. Limbaugh
Praising ACORN’s Bertha Lewis
Steele Doesn’t Know If GOP Ready To Lead
RNC chairman doubts GOP will win back the House this November
Republican National Committee spent nearly $2,000 at West Hollywood strip club Voyeur
Harsh Criticism [Of Steele] Is Based on Race
Michael Steele: GOP “Has Not Been the Most Welcoming” to Immigrants (Video) …Update: Polls Prove Steele Wrong
Michael Steele’s Unwinnable War
RNC has still not been reimbursed for the $2,000 spent on entertaining donors at a lesbian/bondage nightclub in West Hollywood.”

The only questions remaining are when to replace Michael Steele, and with whom?

As to when, some people suggest that it should not be until the end of his current term. For our position, please see the petition:

THEREFORE, We, the undersigned, submit that Sarah Palin, as soon as is practicably possible, ought to replace Michael Steele and take over the reins as Chair of the Republican National Committee.

As to who, the answer can only be Sarah Palin. Why? Notwithstanding the reasons we have outlined here and here, it is because she will raise more money and command more control over the media narrative than ANY other Republican in the field. Seating Sarah would also set the Progressive-Democrats on their heels, forcing them to ratchet up their vile PR smear campaigns.

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