Free Republic

Obama’s Brotherhood Confidante, Linda Sarsour, SCREAMS “Islamophobia”! Commentary By Adina Kutnicki

The issue of whether political speech is more important than religious speech was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in oral arguments Monday in a case involving a small church that is suing an Arizona town over a sign display code they believe violates their rights. Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court appeared to favor Good News Community Church and its pastor Clyde Reed over the town of Gilbert's restrictions on religious roadside signs. During the arguments, a couple attorneys wondered if Gilbert's code on roadside signs placed political speech above religious speech. Reed and his congregation were represented by...

The double standard laid bare. If you’re a devout believer of whichever faith and eager to see less blasphemy in the media, as many Americans are, there’s no other conclusion to draw here than, “I need to be much, much angrier.” The image of the prophet Mohammed, however, seems to occupy its own category, with its own rules. Last week, Baquet told me via email that as editor of the Times he had to consider “the Muslim family in Brooklyn who read us and is offended by any depiction of what he sees as his prophet.” [sic] When I...

Notorious French comedian Dieudonne was arrested Wednesday for condoning terrorism over a comment suggesting he sympathised with one of the Paris attacks gunmen, in a move that sparked a debate about free speech. Prosecutors had opened the case against the comedian on Monday after he posted on his Facebook page "Tonight, as far as I'm concerned, I feel like Charlie Coulibaly" -- mixing the popular slogan "Je suis Charlie" used in homage to the slain Charlie Hebdo magazine journalists with a reference to Islamist gunman Amedy Coulibaly. Coulibaly killed four Jews at a supermarket on Friday and a policewoman the...

Sony Cut 10-Minute Kim Jong-un Gay Orgy Scene From 'The Interview' Before Releasing It To Theaters Gay-sex scene depicting North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un was included in the film's leaked script, but did not appear in film released last week Sony staffers also say North Korean military insignia was removed from soldiers uniforms in the film The movie grossed just $1million on opening day By ASHLEY COLLMAN 28 December 2014 Sony producers censored The Interview when they released the controversial movie last week, editing out at least on racy scene depicting North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un participating in a gay...

Oh, the irony. After Sony cancelled the release of The Interview, a few theaters declared that they would show the 2004 hit Team America: World Police in its place as a protest against threats to free expression. That film also derided the government of North Korea, as well as the liberal Hollywood establishment that catered to anti-American despots in what was a prescient (if irreverent and very R-rated) satire.As if to emphasize the latter critique, two cinemas have announced that Paramount Pictures has forbidden them to show the film publicly: At least two movie theaters say Paramount Pictures has...

Brandon Raub is a veteran of the United States Marine Corps who decided to post critical opinions about Barack Obama on Facebook. What happened to him then will strike fear into the hearts of any good American and make them wonder what country they’re living in. According to the Rutherford Institute, Raub was arrested by “a swarm of FBI, Secret Service agents and local police,” and detained without charges for “mental evaluation.” The detention, it’s alleged, was done under a federal program codenamed “Operation Vigilant Eagle.” The program is intended to surveil former veterans who publicly express opinions critical of...

Yesterday, my girlfriend and I borded an Amtrak passenger train in Stockton to travel to visit her friends in Visalia for Thanksgiving. Amtrak offers its passengers free WIFI as part of their amenities on the trip. As part of the log on, it specifies that Amtrak block access to "offensive" web sites, but otherwise allows free access to the Internet. I agreed to their conditions and found myself connected. Four attempts to connect to FreeRepublic resulted in being notified that my browser could not connect to the server! Thinking FR might be down, I turned off my WIFI, and reverted...

President Obama is urging the Federal Communications Commission to exert more control over the Internet. “As it stands now, the whole web environment is chaotic and anarchic,” Obama observed. “Anyone can pretty much do whatever he wants. There is no perceived obligation to serve society’s broader needs.” For the time being, Obama disavowed his authority “to command this independent agency to extend its power over this medium. I am patiently waiting for them to do what they should. However, my patience is not infinite. I will act unilaterally if it becomes necessary that I do so to implement the change...

President Obama has come out in support of reclassifying internet service as a utility, a move that would allow the Federal Communications Commission to enforce more robust regulations and protect net neutrality. "To put these protections in place, I'm asking the FCC to reclassifying internet service under Title II of a law known as the Telecommunications Act," Obama says in a statement this morning. "In plain English, I'm asking [the FCC] to recognize that for most Americans, the internet has become an essential part of everyday communication and everyday life." "The decision is still up to the FCC" There's been...

ZeroHedge: Here's why Ebola is no longer in the news Forbes’ David Kroll – an adjunct professor at Duke University Medical Center - notes: The Associated Press and other press outlets have agreed not to report on suspected cases of Ebola in the United States until a positive viral RNA test is completed. In other words, the mainstream media has agreed not to report on any suspected Ebola cases. I guess the Ebola czar has been a busy boy, after all ... you know, preventing panic and all that.

On his Fox News show Thursday night, host Bill O'Reilly cited the Media Research Center study on the network evening newscasts censoring coverage of the 2014 midterms: "Eight years ago, the nightly network newscasts went full out to cover the campaigns, which Democrats were favored to win....But this time around, the graph is far different. At this point in time, ABC News did 36 election reports eight years ago. So far this year, zero, nothing. CBS, 58 in year 2006. 14 this year. NBC, 65 eight years ago. 11 this year. Simply stunning."

The Federal Election Commission deadlocked in a crucial Internet campaign speech vote announced late last week, leaving online political blogging and videos free of many of the reporting requirements attached to broadcast ads — for now. All three Republican-backed members voted against restrictions, but they were opposed by the three Democrat-backed panel members, including Vice Chairwoman Ann M. Ravel, who said she will lead a push next year to come up with rules for government political speech on the Internet. It would mark a major reversal for the commission, which for nearly a decade has protected the

After Pressure, Google Restores Blog Julio Severo in Portuguese By Julio Severo With no explanation or notification, Google made my blog in Portuguese (http://juliosevero.blogspot.com/) disappear in the first minutes of Thursday, October 23. After 24 hours of pressure from international readers, with no notification, Google made my blog reappear. People in Brazil and other nations began to question Google in social networks and also by contacting the company: “Why to suspend Blog Julio Severo in Portuguese on the height of the Brazilian presidential elections in the exact time Severo published an article instructing the Brazilian public that both candidates...

Blog Julio Severo in Portuguese arbitrarily shut down by Google in Brazil By Julio Severo In the first minutes of Thursday, October 23, Blog Julio Severo, established by me, Julio Severo, in 2005 to reach Brazilians with information usually unavailable to them, disappeared from the Internet, with no hacking attack involved. All that was evident, from my careful verification, is that such disappearing was provoked and decided by the owner of the Blogspot service, Google, which freely offers to the international public a free speech platform. The traditional address of my Portuguese blog is: http://juliosevero.blogspot.com/ The address is now...

Though the City of Houston has backed off its demand for local area ministers to submit copies of their Sunday sermons to the City’s attorneys, it is now demanding copies of any non-sermon speeches they may have made. Mayor Annise Parker, Houston’s first openly lesbian mayor, defended this blatant invasion of freedom of speech, arguing that “Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) is the law of this land. No one is entitled to speak out against the law, especially not church leaders.” “Churches have special exemptions from government taxes,” Parker pointed out. “As a quid-pro-quo for this benefit they ought to...

White House journalists are creating an alternative system for distributing their media “pool” reports in response to the Obama administration’s involvement in approving and disapproving certain content in official reports. A small group of reporters initiated an online forum this month in which they shared “pool” information among themselves, without White House involvement. The forum was set up by the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA), which negotiates with the White House’s press staff over access for journalists. Pool reports — those summaries of the president’s public appearances that go to the news media at large and are used in countless...

Officials with the city of Houston, Texas, who are defending a controversial ordinance that would allow men to use women’s restrooms now have demanded to see the sermons preached by several area pastors. The recent move came in a subpoena from the city to pastors for copies of their sermons and other communications in the city’s legal defense of a “non-discrimination” measure that allows “gender-confused” people to use public restrooms designated for the opposite sex. A lawsuit challenging Houston’s move alleges the city violated its own charter in its adoption of the Equal Rights Ordinance, which in May designated homosexuals...

The prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, voiced his disagreement with the censorship imposed on the speeches from participants at the Synod. According to reports, the German Cardinal told a Catholic Television network, present for some of the sessions, that “All Christians have the right to be informed about the intervention of their bishops .” Instead, for the time being, information on the Synod is provided by the Director of the Press Office, Father Federico Lombardi, assisted by an English-speaking priest and a Spanish-speaking one. In the briefing a generic panorama of the...

As if on cue, settled-science believer Auden Schendler delivered a punishing retort in The Aspen Times to my recent column “Inconvenient Truths Denied By Climate Faithful.” Archie Bunker-like in frustration, Schendler wants me to stifle myself. If I don’t “dummy up” like Archie’s wife, Edith, he suggests Aspen Times editors Think Again before publishing my commentary without peer reviews or risk “being complicit in promoting falsehoods.” Schendler calls this “ground-truthing of scientific claims,” noting that the Los Angeles Times doesn’t publish pieces that “deny established climate science.” Like Robert Kennedy Jr., who recently called for the jailing of treasonous nonconformists...