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Video: Democrats Censor GOP Lawmakers On What They Say About Health Care
I would just ignore the corrections and send my constituents whatever the hell I wanted. I don’t think Democrats can legally do that, at least not to that extent.
White House: President Obama Opposes Reinstating ‘Fairness Doctrine’
After murky statements by Obama’s chief henchman David Axelrod and other administration cronies in recent days about whether the president supports bringing back the censorship doctrine ‘fairness doctrine‘, it looks like we finally have an answer:
President Obama opposes any move to bring back the so-called Fairness Doctrine, a spokesman told FOXNews.com Wednesday.
“As the president stated during the campaign, he does not believe the Fairness Doctrine should be reinstated,” White House spokesman Ben LaBolt said.
I’m certainly willing to take the president’s word that he doesn’t support bringing back the ‘fairness doctrine’ but we all know the left-wing kooks in congress tend to go off the reservation and pursue their own agenda even if it runs counter to his holiness president Obama.
Sharpton “Got Beef” With Degrading Rap Lyrics
NEW YORK — Protests were held in more than 20 cities over the use of degrading lyrics by the music industry, the Rev. Al Sharpton said.
The so-called Day of Outrage, organized by Sharpton’s National Action Network, included protests Tuesday in New York; Los Angeles; Detroit; Chicago; Houston; Richmond, Va.; Jacksonville, Fla.; and other cities.
Sharpton, who led a demonstration at the Motown Museum in Detroit, said, “I’m here in Motown in Detroit as a symbol of when music was not denigrating and was entertaining.”
He announced an initiative in April to combat the use of gutter terms in rap music.
Sharpton called Tuesday for the withdrawal of public funds from entertainment companies that “won’t clean up their act.”
Some people in the music industry have defended rappers’ free-speech rights but say the degrading words at the center of the debate should be treated the same as extreme profanities and consistently blanked out of clean and radio versions of songs.
AT&T censors Pearl Jam’s anti-Bush lyrics
NEW YORK (Billboard) – Pearl Jam fans and Internet watchdogs were up in arms Thursday after it was revealed that AT&T Inc. censored portions of the rock band’s live concert cybercast on Sunday.
While performing “Daughter” during the annual Lollapalooza festival in Chicago, the band segued into a portion of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall,” during which frontman Eddie Vedder sang, “George Bush, leave this world alone” and “George Bush, find yourself another home.” Those lyrics were missing from the broadcast.
Vedder also railed against oil giant BP during the set, and later, brought a disabled Iraq War veteran onstage to call for an end to the conflict. Neither of these segments were edited.
In a statement, AT&T attributed the bleeping to “a mistake by a Webcast vendor” that was “contrary to our policy. We have policies in place with respect to editing excessive profanity, but AT&T does not censor performances. We very much regret that this happened in the first place.”
The company also said it was “working with the band to post the song in its entirety,” a sentiment echoed by Pearl Jam on its official Web site (http://www.pearljam.com). “In the future, we will work even harder to ensure that our live broadcasts or webcasts are free from arbitrary edits,” read a statement on PearlJam.com.
The incident has generated hundreds of posts on the band’s Web forum as well as a response from the Future of Music Coalition, a strong advocate for “net neutrality” laws that ensure free speech online.
“This event shows that companies like AT&T will risk the appearance of censorship by turning off the sound on a webcast that’s being viewed by thousands of people, just because it works counter to their financial interests,” said FOMC executive director Jenny Toomey. “What do you think they will do to protect their financial interests on the web when no one is looking?”
[Reuters]
Carmona says administration muzzled him
WASHINGTON – President Bush’s most recent surgeon general accused the administration Tuesday of muzzling him for political reasons on hot-button health issues such as emergency contraception and abstinence-only education.
Dr. Richard Carmona, the nation’s 17th surgeon general, told lawmakers that all surgeons general have had to deal with politics but none more so than he.
For example, he said he wasn’t allowed to make a speech at the Special Olympics because it was viewed as benefiting a political opponent. However, he said was asked to speak at events designed to benefit Republican lawmakers.
“The reality is that the nation’s doctor has been marginalized and relegated to a position with no independent budget, and with supervisors who are political appointees with partisan agendas,” said Carmona, who served from 2002 to 2006.
Responding, the White House said Carmona was given the authority and had the obligation to be the leading voice for the health of all Americans.
“It’s disappointing to us if he failed to use his position to the fullest extent in advocating for policies he thought were in the best interests of the nation,” said Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto. “We believe Dr. Carmona received the support necessary to carry out his mission.”
Confirmation hearings are scheduled to be held Thursday for Dr. James Holsinger Jr., the Kentucky cardiologist Bush nominated as the nation’s 18th surgeon general. The nomination has been criticized by gay rights groups.
Carmona testified Tuesday at a hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Also appearing were Drs. C. Everett Koop, who served as surgeon general from 1981-1889, and David Satcher, who served from 1998-2001.
“Political interference with the work of the surgeon general appears to have reached a new level in this administration,” said committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif.
Koop is probably the most recognized former surgeon general. He talked about AIDS as a public health issue rather than a moral issue, which won him many admirers and some critics. He said President Reagan was pressed to fire him every day, but Reagan would not interfere.
Koop said that after he left office he had more access to the secretary of Health and Human Services than his successor, Satcher, and that embarrassed him. “Dr. Carmona was treated with even less respect than Dr. Satcher,” Koop said.
A report condemning secondhand smoke was a hallmark of Carmona’s tenure.
Another report, on global health challenges, was never released after the administration demanded changes that he refused to make, Carmona said.
“I was told this would be a political document or you’re not going to release it.” Carmona said. “I said it can’t be a political document because the surgeon general never releases political documents. I release scientific documents that will help our elected officials and the citizens understand the complex world we live in and what their responsibilities are.”
He refused to identify the officials who sought the changes.
Carmona said he believed the surgeon general should show leadership on health issues. But his speeches were edited by political appointees, and he was told not to talk about certain issues. For example, he supported comprehensive sex education that would include abstinence in the curriculum, rather than focusing solely on abstinence.
“However, there was already a policy in place that didn’t want to hear the science, but wanted to quote, unquote preach abstinence, which I felt was scientifically incorrect,” Carmona said.
[AP]
ACLU sues city over Jesus painting
The American Civil Liberties Union sued the city of Slidell on Tuesday for displaying a painting of Jesus in a courthouse lobby, saying it violates the constitutional separation of church and state.
The ACLU sued after the Slidell City Court refused to voluntarily remove the picture and a message below it that reads: “To Know Peace, Obey These Laws.” The ACLU says the portrait — an image of Jesus presenting the New Testament — is a religious icon of the Eastern Orthodox branch of Christianity.
“We did not file this lawsuit because the ACLU is anti-religion … We did file this lawsuit because we believe this display is clearly in violation of the law,” said Vincent Booth, president and acting executive director of the Louisiana ACLU chapter.
The suit was filed on behalf of an unidentified person who complained to the ACLU about the picture. Named as defendants were the city of Slidell, St. Tammany Parish and City Judge James Lamz. St. Tammany Parish is being sued because it partially funds the court, the ACLU said.
On Saturday, Lamz said the picture would stay up unless a federal judge ordered it removed. He said he didn’t believe the portrait violates the Constitution, but the issue should be decided in federal court.
Lamz could not comment Tuesday because of the pending litigation, his office said.
Before refusing to take the painting down, Lamz consulted Douglas Laycock, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School who has argued before the Supreme Court.
Laycock said he told Lamz that the legal issues in the case aren’t clear-cut and could set legal precedent.
“I don’t know how far the two sides will want to push things,” Laycock added.
The painting has been on display at the courthouse for nearly a decade and hadn’t provoked any complaints prior to the ACLU’s recent objections, said Michael Johnson, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian civil rights group representing the city and parish.
Johnson, whose group is often at odds with the ACLU, said the painting sends an inclusive message of equal justice under the law. He said the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that similar displays in public forums are constitutional.
[AP]
Death Squads Reportedly Targeting Iraqi Adult Web Surfers
BAGHDAD — Dozens of Iraqi citizens have been murdered after using the Internet to access adult websites, according to Middle Eastern media reports.
“We have received information from many sources that militants are operating spies inside Internet cafes just to find out who is browsing sites they have deemed offensive to Islam,” Iraqi Aid Association spokesperson Fatah Ahmed said. The IAA is a Baghdad-based nongovernmental aid agency.
According to Ahmed, most of the killings and abductions have happened directly after the victim leaves an Internet café.
“It is very serious because in an Islamic country in which violence is spreading on a daily basis, people search for some entertainment and it is found today only on the internet,” Ahmed said. “There are no places to go, so young people are making friends via chatrooms, which are now also being condemned by Islamic extremists.”
One victim of kidnapping and assault, university student Ibraheem Abdel-Qahar, told Al-Jazeera that he was kidnapped after leaving a café, then blindfolded, transported to what he believes was a house on the outskirts of Baghdad, and then beaten and tortured.
“They told me to take off all my clothes and handcuffed me. They started to beat me and use cigarettes to burn my legs,” Abdel-Qahar said, adding that he was beaten with an iron bar, and forced to drink chicken blood and his own urine.
Abdel-Qahar said that he was desperate, shouting questions at his abusers as to why they were assaulting him.
“After three hours of continuous torture they told me that it was because I was watching non-Muslim sites on the internet,” Abdel-Qahar said.
Following six days of torture, Abdel-Qahar said he was dropped off near his home and told that if he was found surfing adult sites again he would be killed. The perpetrators also advised him to seek salvation in the local mosque.
Armed marauders have not spared the proprietors who operate Internet cafés, either; in February, Internet café owners Fadhel Ibraheem and Youssef Ala’a were tortured and beheaded, reportedly for allowing access to adult sites in their café.
“It wasn’t my brother’s fault,” said Yehia Ala’a, the brother of Youssef. “He was just offering the computers and Internet access for people to use. The people who search for the Internet entertainment just want to have some distraction in the middle of this hell and hypocritical society.”
The violence toward Internet café patrons and proprietors has not gone unnoticed in other segments of Iraqi society. Baghdad University Professor Hussam Abdallah said that the University offers access to the Internet, but does so “on the condition that the browsing is controlled, and pornographic sites are blocked.”
“We have also prohibited online chatting,” Abdallah said. “We do not want to give extremists an excuse to attack us.”
[XBIZ]
‘Bong Hits for Jesus’ case limits student rights
WASHINGTON (CNN) — The Supreme Court ruled against a former high school student Monday in the “Bong Hit 4 Jesus” banner case — a split decision that limits students’ free speech rights.
Joseph Frederick was 18 when he unveiled the 14-foot paper sign on a public sidewalk outside his Juneau, Alaska, high school in 2002.
Principal Deborah Morse confiscated it and suspended Frederick. He sued, taking his case all the way to the nation’s highest court.
The justices ruled 6-3 that Frederick’s free speech rights were not violated by his suspension over what the majority’s written opinion called a “sophomoric” banner.
“It was reasonable for (the principal) to conclude that the banner promoted illegal drug use– and that failing to act would send a powerful message to the students in her charge,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court’s majority.
Roberts added that while the court has limited student free speech rights in the past, young people do not give up all their First Amendment rights when they enter a school.
Roberts was supported by Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, Stephen Breyer, and Samuel Alito. Breyer noted separately he would give Morse qualified immunity from the lawsuit, but did not sign onto the majority’s broader free speech limits on students.
In dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens said, “This case began with a silly nonsensical banner, (and) ends with the court inventing out of whole cloth a special First Amendment rule permitting the censorship of any student speech that mentions drugs, so long as someone could perceive that speech to contain a latent pro-drug message.”
He was backed by Justices David Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
At issue was the discretion schools should be allowed to limit messages that appear to advocate illegal drug use. “Bong,” as noted in the appeal filed with the justices, “is a slang term for drug paraphernalia.”
The incident occurred in January 2002 just outside school grounds when the Olympic torch relay was moving through the Alaska capital on its way to the Salt Lake City, Utah, Winter Games.
Though he was standing on a public sidewalk, the school argued Frederick was part of a school-sanctioned event, because students were let out of classes and accompanied by their teachers.
Morse ordered the senior to take down the sign, but he refused. That led to a 10-day suspension for violating a school policy on promoting illegal drug use.
Frederick filed suit, saying his First Amendment rights were infringed. A federal appeals court in San Francisco agreed, concluding the school could not show Frederick had disrupted the school’s educational mission by showing a banner off campus.
Former independent counsel Kenneth Starr argued for the principal that a school “must be able to fashion its educational mission” without undue hindsight from the courts.
Morse, who attended arguments in March, told CNN at the time: “I was empowered to enforce the school board’s written policies at that time aimed at keeping illegal substances out of the school environment.”
As for Frederick, he is halfway across the globe, teaching English to students in China.
Now 24, he told reporters in March that he displayed the banner in a deliberate attempt to provoke a response from principal Morse, by whom he had been disciplined previously. But Frederick claimed his message of free speech is very important to him, even if the wording of the infamous banner itself was not.
“I find it absurdly funny,” he said. “I was not promoting drugs. … I assumed most people would take it as a joke.”
[CNN]
The Angelina Jolie Media Contract…
Here’s the contract that Angelina Jolie tried to get reporters to sign in advance of interviewing her in connection with “A Mighty Heart,” the star’s new movie about murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. The document, drafted by Jolie’s overzealous Los Angeles lawyer, triggered a boycott from several media outlets that refused to sign such a restrictive agreement. The document warned that any violations of its stipulations would cause “irreparable harm” to the 32-year-old actress and that she could seek to enforce its terms “by injunction or other equitable relief.” Jolie, who apparently was not willing to address questions about Brad Pitt and their familial brood, subsequently backed down on her demands in the face of a journalist revolt (the movie’s New York City premiere benefited Reporters Without Borders, a press freedom group). This is the not first time, however, that Jolie has tried to restrict the use of interviews. Click here to view an “interview agreement” circulated by her and Pitt’s publicists in advance of the couple doing press in Japan in connection with their 2005 film “Mr. & Mrs. Smith.” CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO SEE EVERYTHING
Angelina Jolie’s Freedom of Press, on Her Terms
Angelina Jolie’s true colors came out Wednesday as she promoted a film about freedom of the press and then tried to censor all her interviews.
Jolie is touting press freedom these days, playing the widow of murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in a new movie called “A Mighty Heart.”
But Jolie turns out to be a mighty hypocrite when it comes to her own freedom of the press. Her lawyer required all journalists to sign a contract before talking to her, and Jolie instructed publicists at first to ban FOX News from the red carpet of her premiere.
Ironically, Wednesday night’s premiere of the excellent Michael Winterbottom-directed film was meant to support an organization called Reporters Without Borders. Jolie, however, did everything she could to clamp down on the press and control it.
Reporters from most major media outlets balked Wednesday when they were presented with an agreement drawn up by Jolie’s Hollywood lawyer Robert Offer. The contract closely dictated the terms of all interviews.
Reporters were asked to agree to “not ask Ms. Jolie any questions regarding her personal relationships. In the event Interviewer does ask Ms. Jolie any questions regarding her personal relationships, Ms. Jolie will have the right to immediately terminate the interview and leave.”
The agreement also required that “the interview may only be used to promote the Picture. In no event may Interviewer or Media Outlet be entitled to run all or any portion of the interview in connection with any other story. … The interview will not be used in a manner that is disparaging, demeaning, or derogatory to Ms. Jolie.”
If that wasn’t enough, Jolie also requires that if any of these things happen, “the tape of the interview will not be released to Interviewer.” Such a violation, the signatory thus agrees, would “cause Jolie irreparable harm” and make it possible for her to sue the interviewer and seek a restraining order.
I am told that USA Today and the Associated Press were among those that canceled interviews, and eventually Jolie scotched all print interviews when she heard the reaction.
“I wouldn’t sign it,” a reporter for a major outlet said. “Who does she think she is?”
A call to Offer was apparently one that could be refused. He didn’t return calls. An associate, Lindsay Strasberg, said, before hanging up: “You’re a reporter? I can’t talk to reporters. Goodbye.”
So much for reporters without borders.
That’s not all: Jolie told Paramount Pictures publicists to ban FOX News Channel and all FOX News affiliates from covering the “Mighty Heart” premiere on the red carpet. It was only with the intervention of mortified Paramount staff that an FNC camera crew was allowed to be present.
Apparently, no one told Jolie of the highly positive review FOX News had given “A Mighty Heart” from Cannes.
Jolie is famous by now for directing press and selling rights to her photos. She has long been in business with People magazine, orchestrating photo shoots of her children. The money, she says, goes to charity.
This column reported a year ago, on June 8, 2006, about how Jolie and Pitt were responsible for the expulsion of journalists in Namibia where the couple went to have their child, Shiloh. Their bodyguards regularly got into fights with local photographers hoping to make some money from the couple’s colonial residency in their country.
After Shiloh was born, Jolie and Pitt gave a news conference, but limited it only to Namibian journalists. No reporters from neighboring countries were allowed.
The couple sat on the dais with Sam Nujoma, Namibia’s first president, aka dictator, who ruled for 15 years.
In 2002, Nujoma abruptly appointed himself minister of information and broadcasting. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Nujoma has routinely attacked reporters from his country calling them “unpatriotic” and “the enemy.”
During the time Pitt and Jolie were in the country, a former photographer for the Namibian, the daily newspaper, was arrested twice for trying to get a picture of the couple.
South African John Liebenberg was arrested on municipal property during the Jolie-Pitt stay and pronounced guilty of trespassing. His passport and camera equipment were confiscated as well.
Treatment of the press is so bad in Namibia, in fact, that an organization called the National Society for Human Rights was formed several years ago to protect reporters’ rights.
The NSHR, which is usually busy with more important matters, issued a statement on April 24 strongly condemning the deportation of foreign journalists from Namibia who wanted to cover the Pitt-Jolie visit.
“As the principal human rights monitoring and advocacy organization in this country, we strongly repudiate this unprecedented and blatant violation of the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech and expression, which includes freedom of the press and other media,” the statement read.
It’s a little unclear how Mariane Pearl, whom Jolie plays in “A Mighty Heart,” feels about her portrayer’s position on freedom of press for some, but not all. On Wednesday, I spoke to Jeff Julliard, the editorial director of Reporters Without Borders in Paris.
“Paparazzi should be allowed to do their job,” he said, adding that he condemned Jolie’s banning of FOX News and actions taken on her behalf in Namibia.
[Fox News]
Iran moves to execute porn stars
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s parliament on Wednesday voted in favor of a bill that could lead to death penalty for persons convicted of working in the production of pornographic movies.
With a 148-5 vote in favor and four abstentions, lawmakers present at the Wednesday session of the 290-seat parliament approved that “producers of pornographic works and main elements in their production are considered corruptors of the world and could be sentenced to punishment as corruptors of the world.”
The term, “corruptor of the world” is taken from the Quran, the Muslims’ holy book, and ranks among the highest on the scale of an individual’s criminal offenses. Under Iran’s Islamic Penal Code, it carries a death penalty.
The “main elements” refered to in the draft include producers, directors, cameramen and actors involved in making a pornographic video.
The bill also envisages convictions ranging from one year imprisonment to a death sentence for the main distributors of the movies and also producers of Web sites in which the pornographic works would appear.
Besides videos, the bill covers all electronic visual material, such as DVD and CDs. Other material, such as porn magazines and books are already banned under Iranian law.
To become law, the bill requires an approval by the Guardian Council, a constitutional watchdog in Iran.
It is widely believed that the drafting of the bill came about as a reaction to a scandal last year, when a private videotape, apparently belonging to Iranian actress Zahra Amir Ebrahimi and allegedly showing her having intercourse with a man, became available across Iran.
The videotape was leaked to the Internet and released on a black market DVD, becoming a full-blown Iranian sex tape scandal. Ebrahimi later came under an official investigation, which is still ongoing. She faces fines, whip lashing or worse for her violation of Iran’s morality laws.
The unnamed man on the tape, who is suspected of releasing it, reportedly fled to Armenia but was subsequently returned to Iran and charged with breach of public morality laws. He remains in jail.
In an exclusive interview with the British newspaper The Guardian early this year, Ebrahimi denied she was the woman in the film and dismissed it as a fake, made by a vengeful former fiance bent on destroying her career.
In recent years, private videotapes have increasingly been leaked to the public in Iran, riling the government and many in this conservative Islamic country, where open talk of sex is banned and considered taboo.
However, porn material is easily accessible through foreign satellite television channels in Iran. Bootleg video tapes and CDs are also available on the black market on many street corners.
[AP]
China Bars New Internet Cafes
BEIJING (AP) – China will license no new Internet cafes this year while regulators carry out an industry-wide inspection, the government says, amid official concern that online material is harming young people.
Investigators will look into whether Internet cafes are improperly renting out their licenses or failing to register their customers’ identities, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce said on its Web site.
“Industry and commerce bureaus at all levels must not license any new Internet cafes in 2007,” said the notice, dated May 30.
The communist government encourages Web use for business and education, but authorities are worried it gives children access to violent games, sexually explicit material and gambling Web sites.
President Hu Jintao has ordered Chinese authorities to clean up “Internet culture,” and the government launched a crackdown in April on online pornography.
China has the world’s second-largest population of Internet users, with 137 million people online, and is on track to surpass the United States as the largest online population in two years.
The government tries to block access to online material deemed obscene or subversive.
Internet cafes are hugely popular with customers who spend hours playing online games that link multiple competitors.
[AP]
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