Obama Signs Patriot Act Extension: MSM and the Left Silent

President Obama signed the renewal of the Patriot Act in the quiet of a slow-news Saturday–the Act was set to expire Sunday, February 28–as reported by The Hill.

Photo Credit: AP Photo

The reauthorization did NOT include any reforms to the current Patriot Act–an odd display of agreement and submission to Bush-era policy–even though the Democrats had the numbers to reform the Act. The continuance of the current Patriot Act signals that Democrats are fearful of further controversary in light of American’s distrust and poor approval ratings of the Democrat-controlled Congress. From the Hill:

The House approved the bill 315-97 on Thursday, a day after the extension passed the Senate.

The provisions, including roving wiretaps, records access and tracking terror suspects not affiliated with any group, were set to expire on Sunday. Democrats opposing the extension were unable to add desired civil-liberties protections.

The Patriot Act was first passed by Congress after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as a defense mechanism against terrorists.

The House and the Senate, behind the scenes of the healthcare fervor, quietly passed this bill with little oppostion and outrage. Democrats could have modified the Patriot Act, but didn’t.

(more…)

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Tags: ACLU, Barack Obama, civil liberties, far-left, George W. Bush
Posted Feb 28th 2010 at 8:34 am in Congress, Defense, News, Obama, Politics | 81602123 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/sahiller/2010/02/28/obama-signs-patriot-act-extension-msm-and-the-left-silent/Obama+Signs+Patriot+Act+Extension%3A+MSM+and+the+Left+Silent2010-02-28+16%3A34%3A59SusanAnne+++Hiller

America Betrayed President Bush

It’s almost hard to believe but Wednesday, January 20 marks exactly one year since President Bush left the White House.

During his last public ceremony as commander in chief, he was booed by thousands of Americans who simutaneously cheered for Barack Obama as he was sworn into office on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.

Except for a June 17 speech in Erie, Pennsylvania in which Bush defended his policies and criticized Obama’s, the former president has been remarkably silent about his successor. He has not fired back at Obama despite the new administration inappropriately blaming Bush for all of their failures.

One year after taking office however, Obama has done a total reversal on his isolationist, non-interventionist foreign policy, and is now pushing President Bush’s neo-conservative philosophy as a justification for starting a new war in Afghanistan. What the Democratic Party once criticized as an over-simplified good vs. evil argument has become the cornerstone of Obama’s reasoning.

(more…)

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Tags: 911 attacks, Afghan War, Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, Barack Obama
Posted Jan 20th 2010 at 10:30 am in Defense, Open Threads, Politics | 62902291 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/jsshapiro/2010/01/20/america-betrayed-president-bush/America+Betrayed+President+Bush2010-01-20+18%3A30%3A01Jeffrey+Scott+Shapiro

Michael Moore Fails to Call Out Keith Olbermann’s Hypocrisy

Michael Moore discussed his new film on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann last week, which excoriates the 2008 financial bailouts, corporate welfare and various other flaws in a system in which the government gives favor to corporations that can afford lobbyists in Washington DC. Moore also calls capitalism “evil,” even when you strip away all the sweetheart deals with the government.

While his initial frustration with crony capitalism may be justified, while on Olbermann’s show, Moore completely failed to mention that General Electric, the company that keeps Olbermann on the air, received billions in bailout money last year. He also neglected to point out that Olbermann received a  $3.5 million pay raise around the same time that taxpayers paid to keep General Electric afloat. (Olbermann regularly scolds corporate employees who receive bonuses from bailed out companies.)

Despite calls to put his money where his mouth is and return his own bonus, Olbermann has remained silent. And while Moore is usually so quick to attack anyone benefiting from government-backed corporate profits,  he didn’t even mention his host’s own hypocrisy.

You see, to guys like Moore and Olbermann, it’s perfectly okay to make millions from taxpayers and capitalism, so long as it’s their bank account getting filled with the cash.

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Tags: bailout, capitalism, Capitalism: A Love Story, corporate welfare, crony capitalism
Posted Sep 28th 2009 at 6:30 am in Congress, Culture, Media Criticism | 951042 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/cmoody/2009/09/28/michael-moore-fails-to-call-out-keith-olbermanns-hypocrisy/Michael+Moore+Fails+to+Call+Out+Keith+Olbermann%27s+Hypocrisy+2009-09-28+13%3A30%3A53Chris+Moody

Slate: Two Cheers for Andrew Breitbart

Sometimes it takes an outsider to show the press corps the way.
By Jack Shafer

Among the many glorious things about American journalism is that no credentialing organization or regulatory body stands between an individual who wants to break a story and his public reporting of it.

In the old days, one significant barrier did deter aspiring reporters: If they couldn’t find a publisher for their piece or afford to self-publish, they were SOL. But now, thanks to the free-for-all environment created by the Web, those publication and distribution worries have evaporated. Anybody can be a journalist in the new regime, we’re told, and on some days, it seems as if everybody is.

Last week, thanks to the sponsorship of Andrew Breitbart’s new site BigGovernment.com, self-described activist filmmaker James O’Keefe, 25, and his colleague Hannah Giles, 20, brought national scrutiny to the progressive Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, with a series of guerilla videos that are one part 60 Minutes, two parts Punk’d, three parts Ali G, and four parts Michael Moore, all bubbling under a whipped topping of yellow journalism. (more…)

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Tags: "60 Minutes", ACORN, acorn scandal, ACORN videos, Ali G
Posted Sep 23rd 2009 at 5:25 pm in Uncategorized | 7654102 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2009/09/23/slate-two-cheers-for-andrew-breitbart/Slate%3A+Two+Cheers+for+Andrew+Breitbart2009-09-24+00%3A25%3A58Publius