Free Republic

The one said you could keep your insurance if you like it. The SOS blew that one out the water months ago … Now we find the promise doesn’t even apply to folks who supplement benefits with private insurance on Medicare Advantage programs.

Jonathan Blum, an acting director at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is apparently responsible for issuing a gag order against Humana, Inc., on Monday evening. Blum is a former staffer to Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee currently in markup of their own chopped salad version of the health care bill. Baucus has taken credit in the media for demanding CMS issue the unprecedented order.  CMS also changed their mailing guidelines to include a ban on any Medicare Advantage (MA) provider sending information or placing information on their websites regarding the non-partisan Congressional...

More Dem Censorship on Healthcare Debate by Connie Hair 09/23/2009 George Orwell call your office. Again. Was it only two months ago that Cong. John Carter (R-Tx) and a few other conservatives were protesting the Democrats’ censorship of their constituent mailings? Yes, it was. When Judge Carter tried to describe Obamacare as “government-run healthcare” the House Franking Commission told him he couldn’t use the term in a constituent mailing that would be mailed for free as are most constituent mailings. Not only could he not use those words, he couldn’t use the words “Democratic Party.” Now, the Democratic Party (i.e.,...

George Orwell call your office.  Again. Was it only two months ago that Cong. John Carter (R-Tx) and a few other conservatives were protesting the Democrats’ censorship of their constituent mailings? Yes, it was.  When  Judge Carter tried to describe Obamacare as “government-run healthcare� the House Franking Commission told him he couldn’t use the term in a constituent mailing that would be mailed for free as are most constituent mailings.  Not only could he not use those words, he couldn’t use the words “Democratic Party.�   Now, the Democratic Party (i.e., the Obama administration) wants to censor the mailings sent...

President Obama's diversity czar at the Federal Communications Commission has spoken publicly of getting white media executives to "step down" in favor of minorities, prescribed policies to make liberal talk radio more successful, and described Hugo Chavez's rise to power in Venezuela "an incredible revolution."

While Helen of Troy’s face may have launched a thousand ships, Joe Wilson’s two words have launched an armada of pundits and elected Democrats on a crusade as ill considered as the Christian Crusades. While the Crusaders carried red cross emblazoned white flags to send their message, today’s crusaders rely on main stream media to proclaim that infidels protesting Obama Care must be silenced. Like Pope Urban II did in 1095 A.D., today’s crusaders rely on distortions to motivate their believers. Congressman Hank Johnson, (D-GA), in remarks supporting a resolution of rebuke of Wilson’s outburst said, “I guess we’ll have...

Julius Genachowski, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, plans to propose a new so-called net neutrality rule Monday that could prevent telecommunications, cable and wireless companies from blocking Internet applications, according to sources at the agency. Genachowski will discuss the rules Monday during a keynote speech at The Brookings Institute. He isn't expected to drill into many details, but the proposal will specifically be for an additional guideline on how operators like AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast can control what goes on their networks. That additional guideline would prevent the operators from discriminating, or act as gatekeepers, of Web content and...

www.CitizenSoldierHandbook.com In this article, "China Could Undermine U.S.Military Power in the Pacific: Gates", you can see that the Socialist left-wing dictatorship of China is moving to assert its power on numerous levels in the Pacfiic region which will conflict with the United States. China is a left-wing socialist dictatorship which doesn't allow Free Speech, Free Press, property rights, Freedom of Religion, etc., When local elections are held in the outlying areas in a 'democracy experiment', communist party cadre are invariably voted out. The United States is a democracy with respect for human rights in the Press, Assembly, Religion, Self-Defense and...

This month, with Judge Hadjis’s Marc Lemire decision, the wheels fell off the CHRC racket “Nice to see you all,” said Athanasios Hadjis, the Canadian “Human Rights” Tribunal’s vice-chair (i.e., judge), as he surveyed his courtroom in Ottawa last year. “More of an interest than there was before.” Indeed. The packed benches that greeted him were a rare sight at a CHRT trial, and especially at the Marc Lemire trial, where the prosecutors—the Canadian “Human Rights” Commission—had demanded that everyone other than them be banned from the courtroom, including the defendant, who would be graciously permitted to watch proceedings by...

I hope this was an accident, a fluke that can be rationally explained. If not, then our news is being censored beyond the wildest excesses of the Soviet Union. And Google, which has already stooped to co-operating with China in similar censorship, may be a co-conspirator. On Saturday, September 12, 2009, President Barack Obama spoke before about 15, 000 people at a healthcare rally in Minneapolis. A few hours earlier, a crowd of between 70,000 and 1,200,000 citizens gathered in Washington, DC to protest excessive federal spending and intervention. I think we can safely conclude that any Tibetan monk or...

But Mr. Lloyd in the past has criticized corporate ownership of media outlets, saying it has led to conservative dominance of talk radio, among other things. He has called for a broader range of voices in the media and advocated taxing station owners to subsidize public broadcasters and local media.

Soon to be up on their site. A radio station tower in Whitehall, PA toppled after cables were cut. Tower owned by clear channel and it was suggested it was an attempt to knock off the air a conservative talk station.

Once Glenn Beck brought Van Jones to light, the Internet started looking into him. FOX news was the only major media even reporting on Jones. Free Republic and their learned participants added fuel to the fire of knowledge.

Chavez minister vows more Venezuela radio closings * Radio stations to be pulled after 34 closed in August * Critics say hits free speech, government says democratic * Anti-Chavez TV network in the spotlight over coup rumor CARACAS, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Venezuela will pull the plug on 29 more radio stations, a top official in President Hugo Chavez's government said on Saturday, just weeks after dozens of other outlets were closed in a media clampdown. Infrastructure Minister Diosdado Cabello closed 34 radio stations in July, saying the government was "democratizing" media ownership.....

He has been a voice in the wilderness for global warming realists, but now that he's taking on other issues put forth by President Barack Obama, some on the left's network, MSNBC, are suggesting Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., is putting the president's life at risk. Throughout the day of Sept. 3 on MSNBC, the place for liberal politics, a report from the Sept. 2 Tulsa World by Randy Krehbiel was cited and it was suggested Inhofe had gone too far with his criticism of Obama. Both MSNBC hosts David Shuster and Ed Schultz condemned Inhofe's comments that were very unfavorable...

Surprise. It's not just the Obama administration and the left that's using intimidation tactics to malign and suppress WorldNetDaily. Now a few Republican bloggers are using the same bullying tactics in an effort to put WND out of business by calling on Americans to, and I quote, "boycott any of those organizations that will not renounce … support for WorldNetDaily."

1st Amendment: Mark Lloyd, a disciple of Saul Alinsky and fan of Hugo Chavez, wants to destroy talk radio and says free speech is a distraction. The new FCC diversity "czar" says Venezuela is an example we should follow.When Mark Lloyd was appointed July 29 as the chief diversity officer at the Federal Communications Commission, a nation focused on ObamaCare and a deteriorating economy took little notice. But as angry constituents flood town hall meetings and call in to talk radio, a man dedicated to silencing them sits at the right hand of the president. They share a common hero...

Turns out Harry Reid was only joking when he told a media exec last week that he hoped the biggest paper in his state would “go out of business.” Over the weekend, Sherman Frederick, a columnist with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, reported that Reid made the comment to another higher-up at the 175,000-circulation daily during a Chamber of Commerce event last Wednesday. “Such behavior cannot go unchallenged,” wrote Frederick, CEO of the paper’s parent company. After 24 hours of silence on the comment, a Reid spokesman got back to POLITICO on Monday to say it was all a misunderstanding blown...

A revision to the Cybersecurity Act of 2009, the proposed Rockefeller-Snowe legislation in Congress, has drawn criticism because of concerns that it would give the president power to shut down the internet. The proposed law, introduced in April by Sen. John (Jay) Rockefeller IV, D-W.Va., and Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, originally contained a controversial clause that said: “The president may declare a cybersecurity emergency and order the limitation or shutdown of internet traffic to and from any compromised federal government or critical infrastructure information system or network.” The bill recently was revised, and the new language now reads: “The president...

A newspaper advertisement blaming President Barack Obama and Democrats for wrecking the economy is receiving complaints from some area readers and raising questions about the organization behind it. "Barack Obama and the Democrats did not inherit the bad economy; they caused it and made it worse," read the full-page ad, which ran Monday in The Gainesville Sun and last week in the Ocala Star-Banner. The ad also has run in other newspapers nationwide, including the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and Salt Lake Tribune.

Governments Use More Internet Political Filters Battles are playing out on the internet over control of information about political events. The latest evidence of these clampdowns comes in a report on the Middle East and north Africa by the OpenNet Initiative (ONI), a collaboration of researchers based in the UK and North America. Among the restrictions it reports are clampdowns on Facebook in Syria and the use of hidden cameras in Saudi Arabia's internet cafes. Most of these actions are aimed at stifling political debate. "Political filtering is the common denominator," says Helmi Noman of the Berkman Center for Internet...

When Obama appointed Cass Sustein to be in his Shadow Government to control the White House Office of Information, was it one more step in his effort to close down free speech on the Internet?

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court will cut short its summer break in early September to hear a new argument in a momentous case that could transform the way political campaigns are conducted. The case, which arises from a minor political documentary called “Hillary: The Movie,” seemed an oddity when it was first argued in March. Just six months later, it has turned into a juggernaut with the potential to shatter a century-long understanding about the government’s ability to bar corporations from spending money to support political candidates. The case has also deepened a profound split among liberals, dividing those who...

Legislation that would grant President Obama the authority to selectively shutdown Internet sites is advancing in the senate. The “Cybersecurity Act of 2009” would allow the President to “declare a cybersecurity emergency” relating to “non-governmental” computer networks and do whatever he feels is necessary to respond to the threat. Author of the bill, Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), declared that “recent events surrounding ‘town hall’ meetings on the President’s health care plan emphasize the need for this legislation. As we saw, access to the Internet enabled rightwing fanatics to quickly and inexpensively alert cadres of sympathizers who turned out to disrupt...

Live Nation has canceled the concerts of a controversial reggae artist who was scheduled to perform at the House of Blues. Buju Banton, known for singing violent anti-gay lyrics, was booked to perform at the House of Blues in Chicago Oct. 1. Live Nation announced late Thursday night that all scheduled concerts by Banton have been canceled, including in Chicago, Las Vegas, Dallas and Houston. Live Nation did not state a reason for the cancellation. Anyone who bought tickets can get refunds. Gay rights groups had been pressuring Live Nation to cancel Banton's concerts, calling his music "murder music." In...

Apparently there are still some Americans who believe in First Amendment Rights and are taking action against the Obama administration for violating the right to free speech with no interference from the government.

Internet companies and civil liberties groups were alarmed this spring when a U.S. Senate bill proposed handing the White House the power to disconnect private-sector computers from the Internet. They're not much happier about a revised version that aides to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, have spent months drafting behind closed doors. CNET News has obtained a copy of the 55-page draft (excerpt), which still appears to permit the president to seize temporary control of private-sector networks during a so-called cybersecurity emergency. The new version would allow the president to "declare a cybersecurity emergency" relating to "non-governmental" computer...

Poor, poor Harvard. The prestigious institution has once again found itself in the embarrassing position of defending a push for campus censorship. This round’s sad irony: student leaders are now the ones trying to throw the First Amendment out the school bus window. The Harvard Law Review, a student-edited publication claiming President Barack Obama and four current U.S. Supreme Court justices as alumni, recently endorsed a major screw up on its own pages after it ran an eight-page factually-void analysis of the nation’s latest First Amendment case law. The piece, authored and edited by unnamed students (consistent with the journal’s...

On this message board a poster started this thread: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=529543 and was threatened with being suspended from the message board for posting it. Then she went to discuss this in the section dedicated to discussing moderator actions and she was threatened with being banned. http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=529547 Then after that another poster defended her: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=529549 and a bunch of posters complained they rescinded the warning violation order but said that her thread wouldn't be reopened and not allowed to be posted because it was posted in the wrong subcategory. So she posted it into a different subcategory: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=529558 and a bunch of...

Inspired by Saul Alinsky, FCC 'Diversity' Chief Calls for ‘Confrontational Movement’ to Give Public Broadcasting Dominant Role in Communications Wednesday, August 26, 2009 By Matt Cover (CNSNews.com) – Mark Lloyd, chief diversity officer of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), called for a “confrontational movement” to combat what he claimed was control of the media by international corporations and to re-establish the regulatory power of government through robust public broadcasting and a more powerful FCC. Lloyd expressed his regulatory call to arms in his 2006 book, “Prologue to a Farce: Communications and Democracy in America” (University of Illinois Press). In the...

Rest of title: to Give Public Broadcasting Dominant Role in Communications Mark Lloyd, chief diversity officer of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), called for a “confrontational movement” to combat what he claimed was control of the media by international corporations and to re-establish the regulatory power of government through robust public broadcasting and a more powerful FCC. Lloyd expressed his regulatory call to arms in his 2006 book, “Prologue to a Farce: Communications and Democracy in America” (University of Illinois Press). In the book, Lloyd also said that public broadcasting should be funded through new license fees charged to the...

{{{DRUDGE POLL}}} CAN OBAMA'S PRESIDENCY BE SAVED? YES 8% 2,609 NO 90% 31,031 NOT SURE 2% 693 Total Votes: 34,333

The ABC television network is at it again. This time they're refusing to air an AD from the League of American Voters regarding Health care. The AD, which as put together by former Clinton advisor, Dick Morris has been running on local stations around the country, but when media buyers attempted to place the AD on ABC, the network refused the buy and the much needed revenue. The AD features a Neurosurgeon, Dr. Mark J. Cuffe, who runs down a litany of reasons why the current bills sitting in the House and Senate are not good for health care in...

ou don’t have to be a gutless coward to be a liberal, but it sure helps get your book published. Just ask Brandeis professor Jytte Klausen, whose book “The Cartoons That Shook The World,” will be published by Yale University Press. But, in modern liberal fashion, without the actual cartoons. That’s right: In a book Yale calls the definitive account of the infamous Danish “Mohammed” cartoons, the university press has censored all of the cartoons, along with other famous artworks featuring Mohammed. Reza Aslan, a Muslim scholar who read Klausen’s book, calls Yale’s decision “idiotic.” To put that idiocy into...

House Republicans this week accused Democrats of censoring GOP mailings to constituents on a variety of subjects and of imposing uneven requirements on the minority party’s mail. Democrats on the franking commission — which must approve all official mail — have blocked Republicans from using politically weighted descriptions of climate change legislation, the stimulus bill and other issues, according to e-mails obtained by Roll Call. Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas) said he went through seven drafts of his last newsletter, which included language about energy policy. “It’s embarrassing and unsupportable,” Culberson said, adding that requests for approval used to take a...

A guest post by conservative author and talk radio host Paul A. Ibbetson. "If discussions between the public and political talkers on these important issues, and others, are to cease from the conservative radio dial, it may come from the congressionally un-restrained and free-wheeling hands of the Czars. How so? Let me share it with you - while the sharing is still legal. For talk radio, this would come from the newly conceived position of the FCC diversity Czar..."

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Winnie the Pooh share a dubious honor: Anyone who depicts either of them with a swastika can be punished under the law. The Justice Ministry published the latest — and biggest — update to its list of extremist materials on its web site this week, and many of the 414 new entries are so vague or controversial that analysts say they threaten to discredit the list all together. The list is important because police officers and other law enforcement officials use it in street checks, apartment searches and criminal cases. Among the new entries, extremist...

The official story is that fear of Muslim violence drove Yale University Press (YUP) to censor the Danish Muhammad Cartoons and other imagery of Muhammad from an upcoming book about, well, the Danish Muhammad Cartoons. That's what Yale, its administration and press, says publicly, matter-of-factly, and, it seems, without shame. But it is a shameful thing. Yale's decision to censor pictures of Muhammad from an academic text about them is one of those watershed moments that history will record as institutional capitulation to Sharia (Islamic law) at one of the storied centers of Western learning, American branch. It also happens...

Grassley: FCC Diversity Chief May Stifle Talk Radio Tuesday, August 18, 2009 5:26 PM By: Rick Pedraza Sen. Charles Grassley is worried that Obama administration’s new federal communications "diversity" director may try to regulate talk radio with a "backdoor" method akin to the Fairness Doctrine. The Iowa Republican expressed his concerns because of a paper in which Mark Lloyd, the diversity director, alleged a “structural imbalance” in political talk radio and suggested increasing government involvement to regulate it. Lloyd co-authored the paper for the liberal Center for American Progress. Grassley sent a letter Friday to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski voicing...

Color of Change's Phony "Boycott" Continues to UnravelP&G Denies Pulling Ads; WalMart Pulls Its Ads from ALL Talk Shows; Sargentos Too Following on the heels of yesterday's denial by Best Buy of claims by Color of Change that they pulled their ads from the Glenn Beck program, today 2 more major advertisers denied CoC's take on events. DefendGlenn.com contacted officials at WalMart in Bentonville, including David Tovar, the representative quoted in Color of change's well-hyped press release. They confirmed that WalMart, which was not even a sponsor of Glenn Beck's show on FoxNews Channel to begin with, has pulled its...

So, the number of corporate sponsors that have pulled their advertising dollars from The Glenn Beck Program grew to 20 on Tuesday. Walmart, Best Buy and Travelocity joined the list of companies that, depending on your point of view, should be classified as either responsible corporate citizens or easily bullied cowards. The statements of the corporations themselves tend to confirm the second option. But first the background: Glenn Beck is a conservative commentator whose television show airs at 5 p.m. daily Eastern Time on the Fox News Channel, where it attracts an enormous (for cable, at that hour) audience of...

In yet another blatant example of Obama-bullying of conservative media sources, the White House has issued another threat against radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh. For the video of Rush describing the latest threats, click HERE. Of course, this may be only a precursor to an all-out assault on conservative talk radio through the FCC's new 'Chief Diversity Officer' Mark Loyd, who was appointed by Obama. I wrote extensively about Loyd and his views on

Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley has publicly released a letter he penned to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski regarding the July 29th announced appointment of new FCC Associate General Counsel and Chief Diversity Officer Mark Lloyd. In the press release accompanying the missive, the Senator said he was "concerned with the appointment due to Lloyd’s writings on political talk radio and the Fairness Doctrine."

Just got a missive — unguided missile? — from my pal Ted Nugent saying he’s been fired by the Waco Tribune-Herald, which has new owners as of a couple of weeks ago. I’ve contacted Carlos Sanchez, the editor of the Trib, and asked for his response, which I’ll post below when I receive it. (For now, click here to read his comments as published in the paper today.) Nugent’s email to me: Just been fired from Waco Trib. Now they will have to rely on their other New York Times Best Sellers, and array of clever and diverse journalists to...

We knew this was coming. We told you it would happen as far back as last year during the campaign. It is now official. Barack Obama has launched a full, frontal attack on conservative talk radio, and he is doing it without re-implementing 'the Fairness Doctrine.' But first, a bit of background.

The US government is covertly testing technology in China and Iran that will allow citizens to by-pass internet censorship set up by their governments. The "feed over email" (FOE) system will deliver news using a technology that evades web-screening technologies employed by restrictive regimes. According to a senior official at the Broadcasting Board of Governors, an independent US government agency responsible all international broadcasting sponsored by Washington, the system is now actively being tested in China and Iran. The news feeds are sent through email accounts including those operated by Google Inc, Microsoft Corp's Hotmail and Yahoo Inc. "We have...

Matt Cover at the Media Research Center's News Division, CNSNews.com, has a piece out today entitled "FCC’s Chief Diversity Officer Wants Private Broadcasters to Pay a Sum Equal to Their Total Operating Costs to Fund Public Broadcasting." This is insane. The "Chief Diversity Officer" in question, Mark Lloyd, is calling for the gross operating budget for every private radio station each year to be the fee (tax) they pay for their broadcast license for the year, with the monies going to the always liberal public stations. With whom they then must compete for listeners.

Mark Lloyd has recently been appointed “Chief Diversity Officer” at the Federal Communications Commission. Conservative groups believe his installation is merely another way to impose the dangerous principles contained in the Fairness Doctrine. Lloyd is a longtime Democrat activist who has strategized about ways to censor conservative media under the guise of “local accountability.” In 2007, he co-wrote a report that called for, among other things, the restoration of local and national caps on the ownership of commercial radio stations and fines for commercial radio station owners if their stations didn’t air enough “progressive” content. Those fines would go directly...

Over the weekend, Democrat congressional leaders Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer wrote of the recent protests taking place in town hall meetings around the country, “These disruptions are occurring because opponents are afraid not just of differing views — but of the facts themselves. Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American.”  The White House is concerned that their health care plan is not being accurately characterized.  They have even encouraged Americans who read or hear their friends and neighbors saying anything “fishy” to report them to flag@whitehouse.gov.Democrats’ concerns about allowing all viewpoints to be heard accurately would be a lot...

According to Democrats.com, Obama has pressured these companies into pulling their ads from FOXnews. Let's boycott these wimps and let them see that losing the mainstream dollar hurts more than losing the radical left dollar: Campbell Soup Chrysler General Motors Kellogg Kraft Foods Lawyers.com Nestle Pfizer Proctor & Gamble Progressive Insurance