Ahrcanum

Voted Obama? Embarrassed Yet?

Internet Censorship is coming your way.

How embarrassing that this country elected President Obama.  I don’t care for the white part of him or the black part.  Throw the race card right out the window.  I do find it admirable that voters can see past a persons color, and disgraceful that they couldn’t see what Joe The Plumber warned of the socialistic tendencies coming down the pike.  I don’t mean those stupid Recovery Signs down the Turnpike either.

Will Ahrcanum and similar web sites now be black listed by Google and the government new Internet police for saying I disagree with the President?  Should I fire myself for expressing my opinion? Does that constitute an Internet Crime?  http://www.cyberlawenforcement.org/

From day one, President Obama’s campaign was an orchestrated masterful manipulation of the press and continues to this day, as the Administration seems to be working towards an all out government run media including the Internet.  Transparency my ass.

The right to free speech, the communication of ideas and opinions has its history in numerous documents. John Locke established the individual as the unit of value and the bearer of rights to life, liberty, property and the pursuit of happiness. It is supposed to be the role of  Government to protect these rights, not take them away.  The First Amendment to the Constitution states,  “Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press”.

You have to take your chances on the repercussions of having free speech though.  Can’t be yelling “Fire” in a theatre and common decency kind of things.  Helen Thomas broke protocol when sharing her personal views that the Jews in Israel should go home.  In response, she was forced into retirement as a columnist for the Hearst News Service. http://religionclause.blogspot.com/2010/06/helen-thomas-dean-of-white-house-press.html. 

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, a former black ops leader and commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan couldn’t keep his opinion to himself either.  Even prior to the Rolling Stone article put the end to his career, [sic, previous] “remarks earned him a smackdown from the president himself, who summoned the general to a terse private meeting aboard Air Force One. The message to McChrystal seemed clear: Shut the fuck up, and keep a lower profile.” http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/119236

McChrystal may have been unimpressed with the commander-in-chief from the start, but the General worked for him. Not always smart to disrespect the boss.  The President on the other hand, is supposed to work for you and I and defend the Constitution, not against us or it. 

Fighting homegrown terrorism by monitoring Internet communications is a civil liberties trade-off the U.S. government must make to beef up national security, the nation’s homeland security chief said Friday. 

As terrorists increasingly recruit U.S. citizens, the government needs to constantly balance Americans’ civil rights and privacy with the need to keep people safe, said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/06/18/napolitano-internet-monitoring-needed-fight-homegrown-terrorism/

I buy the nation’s security plea, not the censorship Kool-Aid sale. Not withstanding, I still hate referring to America as The Homeland.   Is there some sort of global conspiracy to limit free speech and on-line discussion?  There are Internet censorship bills in Australia, the U.K., and the U.S. with more to come.  Say nothing of the black holes where there is no Internet at all. 

Will America Turn into the Black Hole of The Internet?

 By a 3-2 vote, the FCC on June 16 — under the chairmanship of Julius “Caesar” Genachowski — moved the agency toward the power to regulate the transmission component of broadband Internet service. Genachowski — Obama’s Harvard law classmate — thus sets the table for regulating the Internet under rules that were written for the telephone company in the thirties. http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/vernon/100712

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) has received fleeting public attention, yet it has been quietly evolving for a number of years.  On it’s face ACTA is described as a countermeasure directed at the rise of counterfeit goods, medicines and pirated copyright protected material, including “piracy over the Internet”.

If officially ratified, however, ACTA would mark the formation of a major new global legal infrastructure with relation to standards on intellectual property rights enforcement.  It would also see the formation of an international governing body to oversee implementation of the agreement. http://truth11.com/2010/07/12/acta-flagship-of-the-growing-internet-censorship-armada/

Obama Administration regulatory czar Cass Sunstein is on the record in support of the latest in a series of proposals to regulate political speech on the net. 

“The site’s of one point of view agree to provide links to sites of the other point of view. So if you’re reading a conservative magazine, they would provide a link to a liberal site. And vice versa, just to make it easy for people to access to competing views. Or maybe a popup on your screen that would show you an advertisement or maybe even a quick argument for a competing view

If we could get voluntary arrangements in that direction, it would be great and if we can’t get voluntary arrangements maybe Congress should hold hearings about mandates.” http://deathby1000papercuts.com/2010/05/obama-czar-cass-sunstein-internet-mandates-spread-the-link-love/

Government mandates for the Internet?  In his book Democracy and the Problem of Free Speech Sunstein says there is a need to reformulate First Amendment law. And recall Sunstein, ” has a secret aim to push a radical animal-rights agenda in the White House. Sunstein supports outlawing sport hunting, giving animals the legal right to file lawsuits, and using government regulations to phase out meat consumption.   http://www.prweb.com/releases/Cass-Sunstein/Animal-Rights/prweb1868134.htm

No steak dinner, no unrestricted Internet?  Pop up ads for a competing point of view? Rewrite the First Amendment?  Where’s Ted Nugent when you need him?

Further challenging first amendment rights is the DISCLOSE Act under the guise of election reform.  http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h5175/show The DISCLOSE Act is a desperate attempt to influence the November elections, and minimize Democrat losses writes http://biggovernment.com/dbossie/2010/07/12/will-senate-democrats-stifle-free-speech/

Discussions, bills and laws like The Fairness Doctrine and Net Neutrality aren’t going away anytime soon.

There is some hope for keeping the First Amendment in tact and further limiting big brother with the Enumerated Powers Act that requires that each bill cite its authority under the Constitution. http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-s1319/show The sad thing about this bill is that it takes a bill or legislation to remind our elected officials to do something they should have been doing all along- you know, a little something called upholding the Constitution to which they were elected to and swore an oath to support and defend.

Oh that’s right, the President is after all a Constitutional Lawyer, I think.  I’ve never seen his diploma or birth certificate for that matter but numerous times he has made reference that the Constitution does not address social inequities. 

DC Downsizer Michael Mitchell of Alaska compiled this list from Article I of the U.S. Constitution. These are all the powers that the Congress has-

1. Borrow money
2. Regulate commerce among the states
3. Regulate naturalization
4. Regulate bankruptcies
5. Coin money
6. Fix weights and standards
7. Punish counterfeiters
8. Establish post offices
9. Establish post roads
10. Record patents
11. Protect copyrights
12. Create federal courts
13. Punish pirates
14. Declare war
15. Raise an army
16. Provide a navy
17. Call up the militia
18. Organize the militia
19. Makes laws for Washington, DC
20. Make rules for the Army and Navy

Mitchell continues, “According to the 10th Amendment, all else is controlled by the states or the people.” https://secure.downsizedc.org/etp/campaigns/87/background

Gee, I don’t see government mandate for health care in there.

In case you’ve forgotten what else The Constitution says, here’s a great link at http://www.upinjustice.com/knowyourrights.htm

Based on Constitutionality or a coming to their senses, Democratic governors are already complaining about the Obama administration’s first lawsuit against Arizona’s immigration enforcement law, Attorney General Eric Holder is already planning a second.  When setting one little pinkie toe on U.S. soil, one of the first things you have is the right to remain silent, thanks to the Constitution.

Perhaps President Obama should revisit his use of free speech by talking about things like the BP Oil Spill which he hasn’t bothered to mention publicly since June 22. http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-after-cabinet-meeting  Among today’s duties he will honor the WNBA champion team.  http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/president-obama-honor-wnba-champion-phoenix-mercury-white-house.  By the way we are about to begin war games off the Korean Peninsula.  Comment please?

When it comes to governments restricting the Internet I am reminded of George Carlin’s, “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television”.  Today, I take the opportunity to write:  Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, Cocksucker, Motherfucker, and Tits, just because I still can. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_dirty_words

How’s that for freedom of speech and freedom of religion too? Now I have to go to confession to saying and writing those dirty words.

Updated July 15- The federal appeals court ruled that the FCC agency’s ban on “fleeting expletives” unconstitutional. Great reading at http://reason.com/archives/2010/07/15/the-obsolescence-of-federal-ce/

God Bless America.

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