John Ziegler Confronts Max Blumenthal at CPAC ‘09

Filmmaker John Ziegler had a contentious confrontation with Daily Beast’s Max Blumenthal. I spoke to Ziegler today and asked what happened.

Rep. Henry Waxman Wants To Apply Censorship Doctrine To The Internet

If Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) is not trying to investigate conservatives, he is trying to squelch their voices. Waxman has jumped into the so-called Fairness Doctrine discussion as of late. Waxman, however, has added another dimension to the issue recently…the internet (h/t The Prowler).

Media Research Center’s Jeff Poor spoke with FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell last year about the internet and the Fairness Doctrine. McDowell talked about a real possibility of internet content being regulated in the near future.

According to The Prowler, Waxman and his staff are already looking at ways to police content on the web. (Bolding is mine throughout)

Senior FCC staff working for acting Federal Communications Commissioner Michael Copps held meetings last week with policy and legislative advisers to House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman to discuss ways the committee can create openings for the FCC to put in place a form of the "Fairness Doctrine" without actually calling it such.

Waxman is also interested, say sources, in looking at how the Internet is being used for content and free speech purposes. "It’s all about diversity in media," says a House Energy staffer, familiar with the meetings. "Does one radio station or one station group control four of the five most powerful outlets in one community? Do four stations in one region carry Rush Limbaugh, and nothing else during the same time slot? Does one heavily trafficked Internet site present one side of an issue and not link to sites that present alternative views? These are some of the questions the chairman is thinking about right now, and we are going to have an FCC that will finally have the people in place to answer them."

Waxman and his staff are also thinking about creating congressionally mandated advisory boards to police both radio and TV programming:

One idea Waxman’s committee staff is looking at is a congressionally mandated policy that would require all TV and radio stations to have in place "advisory boards" that would act as watchdogs to ensure "community needs and opinions" are given fair treatment. Reports from those advisory boards would be used for license renewals and summaries would be reviewed at least annually by FCC staff.

What about policing internet content? According to The Prowler, the House Energy and Commerce Committee is already looking into this.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee is also looking at how it can put in place policies that would allow it greater oversight of the Internet. "Internet radio is becoming a big deal, and we’re seeing that some web sites are able to control traffic and information, while other sites that may be of interest or use to citizens get limited traffic because of the way the people search and look for information," says on committee staffer. "We’re at very early stages on this, but the chairman has made it clear that oversight of the Internet is one of his top priorities."

This is all hardly a surprise, as liberals have never liked that internet content is not regulated in someway.

Hillary Clinton made her views known on this issue back in 1998, when her husband was embroiled in the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. Matt Drudge reported on Clinton’s comments about regulating internet content.

Hillary Clinton Continued:

I don’t have any clue about what we’re going to do legally, regulatorily, technologically – I don’t have a clue. But I do think we always have to keep competing interests in balance. I’m a big pro-balance person. That’s why I love the founders — checks and balances; accountable power. Anytime an individual or an institution or an invention leaps so far out ahead of that balance and throws a system, whatever it might be — political, economic, technological –out of balance, you’ve got a problem, because then it can lead to the oppression people’s rights, it can lead to the manipulation of information, it can lead to all kinds of bad outcomes which we have seen historically. So we’re going to have to deal with that. And I hope a lot of smart people are going to –"

In 1999, then Deputy Attorney General (now Attorney General) Eric Holder talked about “reasonable restrictions” on internet content following the tragedy of the Columbine Massacre. VIDEO

Last November, I asked FCC Commissioner and Fairness Doctrine cheerleader Michael Copps about his thoughts on applying the Fairness Doctrine to the internet. VIDEO:

I think we do have to have an expectation that the internet, if that is going to become the primary vehicle for even broadcast over the years not tomorrow or the next day, but over the years, There has to be some discussion about how the internet encourages a civic dialogue that’s adequate to the needs of the country, but I think that’s way premature too say exactly this. We haven’t even teed up the question. I’m trying to get people to talk about it. If we can talk about it then maybe we can come up with some intelligent answers.

However, government regulation of private citizen’s speech is un-constitutional. Waxman and company may be biting off more than they can chew on this one.

Liberals only quieted down some about internet content regulation, when they found how the internet could benefit themselves in elections.

Angering a liberal base that enjoys reading websites like Daily Kos, Huffington Post, and Democratic Underground would be risky. After all, if Waxman is insistent that all internet content is to be policed for so-called balance, that should include liberal sites as well….right, Congressman Waxman?

Photo Credit: PBS

UPDATE 3/6/09 – A spokesman for Acting Chairman Copps has denied that any plans for regulating internet content is happening.

FNC Reports Rasmussen Poll: If Election Were Today GOP Would Pick Up 40 Seats(video)

During an interview with Virginia’s Democrat governor and DNC chair Tim Kaine, Fox News Channel’s Trace Gallagher reported Rasumussen’s latest poll, stating if elections were held today the GOP would pick up 40 House seats. Governor Kaine was later asked his thoughts on the Census being handled by the White House and he replied,

“The census is going to be done like its has been done every ten years, and I haven’t heard any credible arguments that there’s going to be done any way differently than what we’ve been doing in the past.”

How about Article I Section 2 of the constitution governor? Michael Barone of U.S. news and World Report put it best,

“Here’s an argument that it’s unconstitutional for the president to take over the Census from the secretary of commerce. It goes like this: Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution provides for an “actual enumeration” and a statute passed by Congress provides that the duties under this clause are to be performed by the secretary of commerce. Article I (as Joseph Biden didn’t know in debate) is about the legislative, not the executive branch. Hence, it is argued, the president can’t substitute a sampling for the enumeration required to be done by the secretary.”

The Democrats may be well aware as to how unpopular the so-called stimulus package is turning out for them, and controlling the census from the White House may be their only chance to keep the GOP from making big wins in upcoming congressional elections.

Obama Throws Biden Under The Bus At Presser

President Obama told the press yesterday that “not surprisingly” he didn’t know what Vice President Biden was talking about in regards to the 30% chance Biden gave the stimulus to fail. How many more times will Obama put up with anymore Biden gaffes before he begins to start rethinking the 2012 bottom ticket? Bets are on.

Deborah Burlingame: Obama Said He Was Not Worried About Safety Of U.S. In Bringing Gitmo Detainees To American Soil

Deborah Burlingame, a 9/11 family member who lost her brother Charles “Chic” Burlingame during the 9/11 attacks, spoke to media at the National Press Club today about her meeting with President Obama last week. Burlingame was joined by Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) and Move America Forward’s Melanie Morgan. Inhofe presented proposed legislation that would keep U.S. taxpayer funds from going towards transferring any detainee (like those in Guatanamo) anywhere in the United States or its territories for the purpose of housing and incarceration.

Burlingame relayed Obama seemed comfortable and not worried about security by having Guantanamo detainees in a federal lock up (emphasis mine):

He said he was not at all worried about the security of the American people in bringing the detainees here. Not in the least worried about that. His reasoning was this:

‘ Al Qaeda doesn’t have a conscience they’re not interested in going back and springing these guys. They’re forgotten once they are put away in our federal facilities. He said, furthermore there are so many soft targets in the United States, like a shopping mall, why would Al Qaeda go after a hard target like a federal lock up or military prison, when they could choose a soft target.’

Burlingame later added that Obama was “non-committal” about visiting Guantanamo Bay when she asked him.

Michael Steele Schools Geroge Stephanopoulos

Newt Gingrich Talks About Future of the GOP

Mother of Cole Victim On Obama:I Voted for Him, I Think I Made The Wrong Decision-Video

The AP reports,

The Pentagon’s senior judge overseeing terror trials at Guantanamo Bay dropped charges Thursday against an al-Qaida suspect in the 2000 USS Cole bombing, upholding President Barack Obama’s order to freeze military tribunals there.
The charges against suspected al-Qaida bomber Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri marked the last active Guantanamo war crimes case.

Diane McDaniels lost her son James when terrorists bombed the USS Cole On October 12, 2000. 17 American sailors died in that terrorist attack. McDaniels told Fox News Neil Cavuto that she refused an invitation to the White House to meet with President Obama today.

President Obama Backs Away From Tax Relief Campaign Promise-BEFORE/AFTER VIDEO

It did not take long for President Obama to go sour on tax relief. His so-called stimulus package is another way of telling 95% of Americans who were told they were getting a tax cut to read the fine print and cough up more money to Uncle Sam. Check out the video above which contrasts Obama’s tone on tax relief in October of 2008 and February 5, 2009 (yesterday).

Obama Launches His Faith-Based Office With a Dose of Secularism

President Obama addressed the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. this morning and used the opportunity to discuss the launch of the White House office of faith-based and neighboring partnerships. Obama stressed the inclusion of secular groups into his faith-based office by giving examples of his own life story. Could this office be a conduit for further government funded community organizing? The transcript of video highlights is below and bolding is mine.

This is not only our call as people of faith but our duty as citizens of America and our duty as citizens of the world. And it will be the purpose of the White House office of faith-based and neighboring partnerships that I’m announcing later today. The goal of this office will not to be [sic] to be to favor one religious group over another or even religious groups over secular groups. It will simply be to work on behalf of those organizations that want to work on behalf of our communities and to do so without blurring the line that our founders wisely drew between church and state. This work is important, because whether it’s a secular group advising families facing foreclosure or faith-based groups providing job training to those who need work, few are closer to what’s happening on our streets and in our neighborhoods than these organizations. People trust them, communities rely on them, and we will help them. We will also reach out to leaders and scholars around the world to foster a more productive…peaceful dialogue on faith.

Obama continues in another highlight here:

And if perhaps we allow God’s grace to enter into that space that lies between us.. then the old rifts will start to mend. New partnerships will begin to emerge. In a world that grows smaller by the day, perhaps we can begin to crowd out the destructive forces of excessive zealotry and make room for the healing power of understanding. This is my hope. This is my prayer. I believe this good is possible, because my faith teaches me that all is possible.

Obama talks about his own spiritual history:

Prime Minister Blair shared a story of his awakening to his faith. Perhaps like him, I was not raised in a particularly religious household. I had a father who was born a muslim but became an (atheist?). And grandparents who were non-practicing Methodists and Baptists and a mother who was skeptical of organized religion even though she was the kindest most spiritual person I’ve ever known. She was the one who taught me as a child to love and to understand and to do unto others as I would want done.

I didn’t become a Christian until many years later, when I moved to the south side of Chicago after college, and it happened not because of indoctrination or a sudden revelation but because I spent month after month working with church folks who simply wanted to help neighbors who were down on their luck no matter what they looked like or where they came from or who they prayed to.

It was on those streets in those neighborhoods that I first heard God’s spirit beckon me. It was there that I felt called to a higher purpose. His purpose. In different ways and in different forms, it is that spirit and sense of purpose that drew friends and neighbors to that first prayer breakfast in Seattle all those years ago.