When Stalin commented about it is the vote counters that matters, he said nothing about the collusion of the free press into the corrupt process, because he understood that even a dictator need at least a facade of legitimacy via the voting process but that the dictator controls the press.
But I feel really sad for the US when the free press voluntarily take side in the political process. It is not enough that we demand a free press but that such freedom must be maintained by having the people as the last line of defense against the rise of a dictatorship.
Who shall watch the watchers ? We do. Without a politically neutral press, those who would corrupt the voting process will do it with the full knowledge that they will not be exposed.
You want to 'true the vote' ? Then 'true the press'.
You want to render the Justice Dept apolitical ? Then demand the press to be apolitical.
When will Americans realize, or recall, that for the Left, 'the end justifies the means' is a tool never been abandoned, never been considered morally abhorrent ? How many here remember the repugnant Journo-list ? That -- is 'the end justify the means' for Left leaning journalists. Radical environmentalists have their own 'the end justifies the means' tool in their toolbox. Academia have its own. But we rely on the press to monitor everyone, including itself, and we do nothing when it blatantly spits in our faces.
If you feel that voting in America have little meaning, it is because your free press made it that way.
Thanks for your reply, and I agree with you 100%. Our press is not free, and without such watchdogs, corruption in our government is allowed to run rampant. In fact, the corruption is even seemingly encouraged.
Andrew Breitbart famously said, "The media is EVERYTHING."
True words, and I strongly believe that he was executed for doing his job. If so, this not only silenced an actual media watchdog, it sent a clear and chilling message to the REST of the media: Fly too close to the sun, and you're next.
The so-called mainstream media controls the narrative in this country. The guerrilla media via the internet continues to do the job that the MSM can't, or won't, do, but most folks don't believe anything that isn't spoon-fed to them on the nightly TV news.
I notice that the pResident was "interviewed" (ha!) on Meet the Press this weekend. NBC has some nerve pretending to be an actual news organization, and Meet the Press should actually be called something like Playtime with Pravda.
As you say in closing above, I do feel that voting in America has little meaning anymore, and I agree with your statement that our "free" press has allowed this to be so.
When Breitbart said: 'The media is EVERYTHING.' It is because we do have a free press in America. The press is free to take sides if it want, and it did -- to Barack Obama.
The reason why TV is still a powerful influence in ordinary American lives, in terms of dissemination of information, is because it still requires some bit of work to seek out different opinions, even with the Internet where alternate views are plentiful.
An audience is a captive audience, whether the speaker is the TV news anchor or the teacher/professor. Those in the Left knew this decades ago. But since they cannot have the US government control the press, they will have the next best thing: To have the press and academia voluntarily be an arm of the US government whenever there is a Left leaning President, and when we have a covert Socialist/Marxist like Barack Obama and a black to boot, there is no reason for Left leaning professional journalists to maintain the pretense of being apolitical any longer.
Yes, the US still have a free press -- as an institution. But it is the journalists themselves who steered the ship towards Obama.
As usual, it takes the internet to expose the rampant corruption permeating the "news" on television:
quote:
MRC Study: TV Buries the Bad News on Obama's Collapsing Polls By Rich Noyes | September 8, 2014
It¡¯s no secret that television news has long been addicted to public opinion polls; decades ago, all three broadcast networks decided to partner with an influential newspaper (ABC News with the Washington Post; CBS News with the New York Times; and NBC News with the Wall Street Journal) to sponsor their own regular surveys for use in their political coverage. That¡¯s why it¡¯s so extraordinary that polling news has practically vanished from the Big Three evening newscasts in 2014 as President Obama¡¯s approval ratings have tumbled and the public opposes defining administration policies like ObamaCare. Just last Thursday, for example, Gallup found Obama¡¯s approval rating at a record low of 38 percent, yet none of the three broadcast networks bothered to mention this on their evening or morning newscasts. Such coverage is in stunning contrast to how those same newscasts relentlessly emphasized polls showing bad news for George W. Bush during the same phase of his presidency. Media Research Center analysts reviewed every reference on the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts to public opinion polls from January 1 through August 31, 2014, and from the same time period in 2006. Eight years ago, the networks aired 124 evening news reports which cited public opinion polls about either President Bush¡¯s overall approval rating or his handling of specific policies. In 2014, those same broadcasts produced only nine reports which mentioned public opinion surveys related to President Obama. In Bush¡¯s case, the networks routinely highlighted his falling approval ratings to illustrate his political weakness, and regularly cited polling data showing public disapproval of policies such as the Iraq war. This year, even as President Obama has suffered his own political meltdown, the networks have spared him from such coverage. ¡ö Presidential Job Approval: This year, the three broadcast networks have conducted 15 polls asking people to rate Barack Obama¡¯s performance as President; 13 of those showed at least 50% of the public now disapproving of how Obama is handling his job. Yet the Big Three evening newscasts have essentially ignored their own polls, plus the dozens of others conducted by news organizations and universities that are commonly cited in routine political coverage.
So far this year, there have been only two citations on an evening newscast of President Obama¡¯s national job approval rating. ¡°Obama has the lowest average approval rating of any President after five years in office,¡± correspondent Jon Karl announced on the January 28 edition of ABC¡¯s World News. Seven months later on the August 31 edition of the CBS Evening News ¡ª a Sunday evening on a holiday weekend ¡ª political director John Dickerson opined that Democrats are facing a tough midterm election because the President¡¯s ¡°approval rating is just above 40%.¡± For its part, the NBC Nightly News has failed to report Obama¡¯s overall approval rating during the first eight months of 2014, despite having conducted five nationwide polls on the subject. (While not discussions of Obama¡¯s approval rating, on the January 26 edition of ABC¡¯s World News, anchor David Muir noted a poll showing ¡°just 37% believe the President has the ability to make the right decisions for the country.¡± A month later, CBS¡¯s Scott Pelley told viewers that his network¡¯s latest poll found ¡°59% say they¡¯re disappointed¡± with Obama¡¯s presidency.¡±)
Rotten, maggot-infested tunafish smells better than the mainstream media. Sorry about the formatting gibberish in the copy and paste above. Follow the link...
Posted on Wednesday, September 10, 2014 - 08:58 am:
quote:
IRS Under Fire for Targeting Conservatives Again … and This Time It’s a Media Outlet Rob Bluey / September 09, 2014
The Internal Revenue Service, already under investigation for illegally targeting conservative and tea party groups, recently audited the conservative Breitbart News Network in a move that the company says was politically motivated.
The IRS sought the company’s financial records from 2012, Fox News reported earlier today. Brietbart.com relaunched that year with a more robust reporting team. Over the past two years, it has produced hard-hitting stories exposing scandals in the Obama administration.
The news drew a swift reaction from Breitbart’s leaders and prompted Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to fire off a letter to the IRS demanding answers about the audit.
“For the IRS to behave like a partisan political organization, targeting media organizations whose views differ from the president’s, would represent a gross abuse of power,” Cruz said. “It would undermine the statutory mission and integrity of the IRS. And it would likely subject IRS employees to criminal prosecution.”
Cruz said the IRS’ recent track record made the action against Breitbart “highly questionable.”
Fox News reported that the IRS “asked for a litany of documents, including logs of its receipts and expenses, but also its partnership agreement and a ‘written narrative’ of the business.” The agency told Fox News:
quote:
Federal privacy laws prohibit the IRS from commenting on specific taxpayer situations. The IRS stresses that audits are based on the information related to tax returns and the underlying tax law — nothing else. Audits are handled by career, non-partisan civil servants, and the IRS has safeguards in place to protect the exam process. [emphasis mine, and may I just add: BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!! - fb]
Cruz, in his letter to IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, appeared unmoved.
“This media audit, coupled with the recent proposal of 49 Senate Democrats to amend the Constitution to give Congress plenary power to regulate political speech, paints a disturbing picture of a coordinated assault on the First Amendment,” Cruz wrote.
Senate Democrats are currently debating a proposal that would amend the First Amendment by restricting political activity of Americans.
"Hi, I'm a Minion of Obama, and we'd like you to shut down your business all day so we can have your entire facility for us, the far more important than you."
Posted on Wednesday, September 10, 2014 - 09:19 am:
quote:
Senate Democrats No. 1 Priority After the Recess? Gutting the First Amendment Hans von Spakovsky / September 08, 2014
When the Senate reconvenes today, the No.1 legislative priority of Democrats is to pass a resolution that would gut the First Amendment, one of the few times in American history an amendment has been proposed to cut back on part of the Bill of Rights.
It’s probably no surprise they want to restrict political speech that could threaten their incumbency, but it is a bit ironic coming just a little more than one week before Constitution Day on Sept. 17.
So, the Senate and the House of Representatives return from a month-long recess and, with everything happening in the world at the moment, the legislative schedule set by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., for Sept. 8, available here on the website of the “Democrats in the U.S. Senate,” includes consideration of a few nominations but lists only one legislative item: a motion to invoke cloture (end debate) on S.J.Res. 19.
This resolution, sponsored by Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., and 47 other senators (without a single Republican member), would amend the First Amendment to give Congress the power to limit fundraising and spending on political speech and political activity. The relevant language says that “Congress and the States may regulate and set reasonable limits on the raising and spending of money by candidates and others to influence elections.”
As explained in a Heritage Legal Memorandum, the language of this resolution is so broad, and so unlimited, that it would give the government essentially absolute power to restrict spending on almost any speech and activity that it decides might “influence elections.” There would be almost no limit on what the government could do. If ultimately ratified and implemented, the amendment would restrict core free speech protections for all Americans.
Law professor Ron Rotunda of Chapman University, the co-author of a 6-volume treatise on constitutional law, says this resolution would “give political speech less protection than the First Amendment now gives to movies, novels, comic books and Nazis marching through Skokie, Illinois.” He says Thomas Payne, the anonymous author of the foundational Common Sense, “would be flabbergasted” that “the Government he helped create” would have “the power to ban the pamphlet that led to its creation.”
In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in June, Floyd Abrams, one of the foremost First Amendment litigators in the country, sounded the alarm about this amendment, saying it “is intended to limit speech about elections and it would do just that.” Abrams added that the resolution “would shrink the First Amendment and in doing so set a precedent that would be both disturbing and alarming.”
It is quite disturbing and alarming that nearly 227 years after the signing of the Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787, 48 U.S. senators led by their leader, Harry Reid, are proposing to restrict the First Amendment. This is an ignominious attempt by a group of senators to protect their own incumbency at the expense of a fundamental right guaranteed in the Bill of Rights to all Americans.
Posted on Wednesday, September 10, 2014 - 09:39 am:
This clip is from March 2012. At 2:02 into the interview Judge Napolitano is asked if he thinks this is one of those laws that is on the books but not enforced. Yeah, right.
Posted on Wednesday, September 10, 2014 - 10:23 am:
Who will reach the finish line first, 0bama (and Holder), or the truth?
quote:
IRS and DOJ Conducted Targeting With Illegally Obtained Conservative Donor Lists – The DOJ “Secret Research Project” Exposed Posted on September 10, 2014 by sundance
We first discovered it on June 28th 2014 as an outcome of another research project we were working on. We have tried to draw as much attention to it as we can. Thankfully the Daily Caller is closing in, The Wall Street Journal is stumbling in that direction, and The American Center for Law and Justice’s Jay Sekulow has finally connected the dots.
How can the DOJ conduct an investigation into unlawful aspects of the IRS targeting of specific 501(c)(4) groups, when the DOJ is the initiating body for the illegality they are seeking to investigate ?
The IRS scandal is NOT about the IRS. Yes, the IRS did indeed target conservative groups; however, they were NOT the originating entity in the overall plan to create a list of targets.
The U.S. Department of Justice was the originating governmental agency who constructed the plan to make a target list and then weaponize various government agencies against those on the list.
Posted on Wednesday, September 10, 2014 - 10:39 am:
We Conservatives have been saying the obvious since the traitors in Washington started destroying The United States of America. You MUST vote ALL Democrats out of office in November as they are a malignant cancer without exception. If you are a registered Democrat, I urge you to drop your Party membership as it will send a clear message. As a lifelong former Liberal Democrat, I woke up and did it.
Obamacare's bill for small businesses? Big bucks, fewer jobs Dan Manga 9 Sep 2014
Obamacare is taking a toll on small businesses, according to a new analysis of the effects of the health-care reform law, which found billions of dollars in reduced pay and hundreds of thousands fewer jobs.
Take-home pay at small businesses was trimmed by some $22.6 billion annually because of the Affordable Care Act and related insurance premium hikes, researchers at the American Action Forum, a center-right think tank headed by former Congressional Budget Office director Douglas Holtz-Eakin, found in a report released Tuesday.
Individual year-round employees at businesses with 50 to 99 workers lost $935 annually, while those at firms with 20 to 49 workers are out an average of $827.50 per person in take-home pay, the report found.
Read the entire report on the travesty foisted on the American People by the Democratic Party here --> http://www.cnbc.com/id/101981445
Posted on Wednesday, September 10, 2014 - 11:47 am:
My level of disgust with this administration, the media that supports it, and the American people that blindly just go about their day, increases every single day.
Posted on Wednesday, September 10, 2014 - 12:51 pm:
My level of disgust with this administration, the media that supports it, and the American people that blindly just go about their day, increases every single day.
Amen, brother. We are under siege, and I mean that literally.
Posted on Wednesday, September 10, 2014 - 10:08 pm:
Where'd my boy Fled flee to ? . . . I'd love his take on the idiot at the stick . . . . popularity, among democrats and republicans, is falling like a rock as he flails in the wind . . .
Posted on Wednesday, September 10, 2014 - 10:20 pm:
Didn't hear the Messiah's short speech tonight as I refuse to listen to this Jackass anymore. I have heard enough of this lying sack of sh*t who despises and is destroying America.
Impeach, Prosecute, and then tickle him with a feather.
Posted on Wednesday, September 10, 2014 - 11:05 pm:
Court,
I asked him to depart, and he's honored the request.
If McCain had manifested his current attitude during his 2004 campaign, he might have won. Instead he was telling us that "Obama would be a good president."
Posted on Thursday, September 11, 2014 - 01:10 am:
Unbelievable. Among the first words from his mouth is an attempt to deflect any hint of connection between the self-named "islamic state of Syria & Iraq" and islam.
