Free Republic

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to re-write House rules today to ensure that the Republican minority is unable to have any influence on legislation. Pelosi’s proposals are so draconian, and will so polarize the Capitol, that any thought President-elect Obama has of bipartisan cooperation will be rendered impossible before he even takes office. Pelosi’s rule changes -- which may be voted on today -- will reverse the fairness rules that were written around Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America.” In reaction, the House Republican leadership is sending a letter today to Pelosi to object to changes to House Rules this week...

How much is a CEO worth? What is appropriate compensation for the leader of a large and complex organization? The standard reply has always been, “Let the market decide.” Lately, though, markets have proven themselves to be spectacularly ill-suited to be the last word on just about any issue. Even before Alan Greenspan recently and belatedly figured it out, “the invisible hand” and “magic” of the markets were mostly what their airy nomenclature implies: figments of irrational economic exuberance. Markets have never been stand-alone forces of nature; rather they are shaped, controlled and guided by human beings as fallible and...

People from across the country have been contacting Rep. Louie Gohmert wanting to know what they can do to support the Congressman's tax holiday proposal during Januray and February 2009 as an alternative to our government spending more on failed executive bailouts. Here's what we recommend: - Call your Congressman and urge them to support the plan. You can find your Representative by plugging in your zip code at www.house.gov and calling them through the Capitol switch board at 202.224.3121. - Contact your local media stations and urge them to push the issue. - Sign the online petition at RedState.com...

The Fairness Doctrine, which forced broadcasters to offer equal time to both sides of controversial issues, was abolished in 1987, paving the way for talk radio to take the opinionated -- and popular -- form it has today. Now, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and such influential Democratic senators as Barbara Boxer and Chuck Schumer are pushing for its return, or something like it. Could the equal-time provisions pull a Don Imus and make a radio comeback? It could, industry insiders say. And the government-mandated programing restrictions that come with it could hobble an already struggling industry. Talk-radio hosts are unlikely...

CORNWALLIS, Canada (AFP) – US defense secretary Robert Gates said the United States wants to send reinforcements to Afghanistan before elections next year, adding the ballot is "maybe the most important objective for us in 2009."

Will Dems Try To Revive Fairness Doctrine?Monday November 17, 7:18 pm ET David Hogberg Proponents call it the "Fairness Doctrine," while opponents dismiss it as the "Censorship Doctrine." Either way, the potential return of broad regulation of broadcasters' programming could be a volatile fight on Capitol Hill. Under the Fairness Doctrine, the Federal Communications Commission required companies that held a broadcast license to devote some of their air time to controversial public affairs. It required broadcasters to present contrasting views on those matters, although not equal time. **SNIP** With Democrats holding the White House and Capitol Hill, they have the...

An opening salvo in the upcoming bid to silence talk radio criticism of left-wing government programs and officials was fired by Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). Citing regulations that penalize lewd language, Schumer suggested that the “rude” language of commentators like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity merited similar government oversight and control. “The lewd language of pornography disrespects the body, but the rude language of Limbaugh, Hannity and their ilk disrespects the mind,” Schumer contended. “Limbaugh alone pollutes the thoughts of 20 million listeners a day. If the government can crackdown on the purveyors of pornographic filth it has to have...

SHANGHAI — China agreed on Thursday to loosen restrictions on foreign news and information providers inside the country, settling a trade dispute with the United States, the European Union and Canada. The agreement, which was signed in Geneva, allows international news and information agencies, like Bloomberg, Dow Jones & Company and Thomson Reuters, to more freely compete and sell their services inside China, where government controls were tightened in 2006.

According to some media observers, interim “Meet the Press� host Tom Brokaw has been showcasing – reluctantly, as he clearly covets a return to network news - candidates for the late Tim Russert's media chair. Witness the endless panels of NBC news correspondents every Sunday. Who's next? Are we really ready for blabber-wocky Chris Matthews - maybe even sports-hack turned petulant pol-wonk Keith Olbermann? Can any of the contenders for Russert's job be a new beacon for integrity and objectivity at NBC News?In this same vein, recall the recent suggestions by Democratic senators Clinton, Boxer and Feinstein that  - because...

President-elect Obama, The campaign is over. It is now time to focus on where our nation will go from here. We disagree on many things, but if we are to take you at your word, we agree in the fundamental importance of encouraging open and honest debate in a Democratic society. There are those in Congress, who do not seem to feel this way. We believe this to be the case due to the recent calls for reinstating the so-called 'Fairness Doctrine'. The Fairness Doctrine, is far from fair, it lies a great distance from liberty. It will be used...

My first vanity, but I do not care. The first battle to take back the country from liberal thought and rebuild the conservative coalition is THE FAIRNESS DOCTRINE. Somehow, someway TWENTY PERCENT of so called conservatives voted FOR Obama. NOTHING explains 20 percent of "conservatives" voting for Obama. Stay home? Maybe. But what in the HELL is a real conservative doing voting for the most liberal person in the Senate, and the most Liberal candidate ever? We conservatives have let the liberals take over the media, the schools and the cultural agenda. Now they have the media and the treasury....

Yes 36% 326 No 64% 570

"The Mark Levin Show” featured an excellent interview tonight with Brian Anderson, co-author of A Manifesto for Media Freedom, on the so-called Fairness Doctrine. The Fairness Doctrine is radical egalitarianism run amok. Liberals want to use it to muzzle talk radio, which is primarily conservative. The same people who support the Fairness Doctrine support “Network Neutrality,” which would lay the groundwork for a Fairness Doctrine for the Internet. Law professor Cass Sunstein, an Obama campaign adviser, supports it and wants to have it apply to opinion websites. Try to suppress your vomit when you hear liberals whine about “leveling the...

BEDFORD -- A plethora of advanced course offerings has Bedford County School Board members scratching their heads, trying to decide a fair way to rank students or whether to discontinue the practice completely. Parents reportedly have expressed concerns of inequity because of weighted course offerings through the Advanced Placement, Virginia Governor's School and Early College programs.....

September 2008 Killing talk radio by Brian C. Anderson, Adam D. Thierer On the lurking threat to the freedom of the airwaves. The Left has watched uneasily as power drains away daily from the CBS Newses and the Time magazines of the liberal mainstream media and flows toward a more politically pluralistic array of new media alternatives that range from (mostly) conservative talk radio to (Fox-dominated) cable news to the ceaselessly expanding (thoroughly bi-partisan) Internet. And make no mistake: liberals want to snuff out this exciting, democratic world of analysis and debate and return to the good old days, when...

Now that it is convention time he is taking a central approach, but will Pelosi let him stay there?

To protect free speech from the political whims of a few unelected bureaucrats in Washington, the Fairness Doctrine needs to be wiped off the books. These Members of Congress are hypocritical because they voted for a one-year ban on the so-called Fairness Doctrine but have thus far refused to sign on to the Discharge Petition in support of a permanent ban. If someone is going to support freedom of speech for one year they should support it permanently

We now know what Obama has in store for the American economy. Let's start with energy. His is the traditional Democratic tilt in favour of renewables, ethanol and conservation. But with the polls showing that more than 70% of Americans favour opening offshore America and federal lands to drilling, Obama panicked. He now says he will go along with a comprehensive deal that includes new taxes on oil companies in return for a relaxation of restrictions on offshore drilling, so long as it is done in an environmentally sensitive way, which means that there will be no offshore drilling. As...

Video Series about Silencing Christians - Speechless - episode #7 - re: the Fairness Doctrine - was just on with Janet Parshall - interviewing Mike Pense, Congressman, discussing a measure before Congress NOW to ensure the resurrection of the Fairness Doctrine does not happen. Link is to episode 7 of this series - yes you have to "sign in" to be able to access these episodes - but not a big deal. Point is: Fairness doctrine likely WILL BE brought back into play in the next Congress - and/or by the President - should that person be a Dem -...

First of all, let me say that I do not wish Ted Kennedy dead. I am not a fan of his but no one should wish such a thing upon another, regardless of past history. That said, Mr. Kennedy's recent diagnosis of a brain tumor brings up all sorts of political questions, many of which have been discussed here. One such issue is/will be will the Kennedy family pay estate taxes on Uncle Ted's fortune when he passes on? Based on recent family history, the chances of that happening aren't good. In 1994, during Ted's Senate run against Mitt Romney,...

So what’s the problem? Why all the anxiety? Why don’t Republicans in the House of Representatives accept the quiet assurances of the FCC and settle down? The answer, of course, is talk radio. It is the only form of communication that conservatives have through which they can certainly and consistently connect with the general public. Most major television and print media are dominated by liberals, but conservatives are successful on talk radio.

Pelosi: I Want to Bring Back 'Fairness Doctrine' Photo of Ken Shepherd. By Ken Shepherd | June 25, 2008 - 10:38 ET Over at HumanEvents.com, John Gizzi has House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on the record saying that the Democratic caucus, far from being agnostic on the so-called Fairness Doctrine, is actually interested in resurrecting it. What's more, Pelosi herself wants to bring back the policy that could literally silence conservative talk radio. From his June 25 article: At a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor yesterday, I asked Pelosi if Pence failed to get the required signatures on...

Has anyone taken a look at the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournement Telecasts? I'm not really interested in the games themselves but I am interested in the politics. Yesterday I was watching the UVa lacrosse game on ESPN2 and switched over to ESPN during a commercial. There was one of of the women's basketball games on. It looked to me like there were about 450 people in the stands, including mothers and bestfriends. The game that's on now (ODU-UCONN) has a little bit bigger "crowd"; maybe 1000. Obviously there is little interest in these games but ESPN is producing them and...

Provided that we are rich enough so that it doesn’t matter, the Democratic Party’s remaining Presidential Candidates have all promised to take things away from us for the common good. One of the first things these individuals both think should be taken away for “the common good” are the reductions that George W. Bush made in the Federal Income Tax Rates. Senator Barack Obama has the following to say about The Bush tax cuts. This year alone, the average person in the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans will receive more than $55,000 from the Bush tax cuts, while the average...

With all of the attacks on conservative talk show hosts and in the aftermath of an Air America smear on the Right, it's time to make sure that the Left cannot use the government to dictate political content on broadcast networks. A group of Republicans in the House have reached the same conclusion. They announced their intention to force a floor vote on a bill that will permanently bar any attempt to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine and make government the arbiter of political speech: Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) filed a discharge petition Wednesday to force a vote on legislation to...

The Democrat Party senior leadership is feeling a Rush. Rush Limbaugh, that is. Late last week, DNC Chair Howard Dean, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, his deputy, Sen. Dick Durbin and Senatorial Committee chair, Sen. Chuck Schumer, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi all signed off in some form or another direct mail fundraising plans that will feature Limbaugh for their national party. "'Don't let Limbaugh smear true patriotism,' that's the theme," says a DNC staffer. "We're not going to let Limbaugh determine what soldiers can talk and what soldiers can not." Bad grammar and ill-informed opinions aside, the DNC hopes to...

An Air America producer just sent over some transcript from an interview their Richard Greene (not our Richard Greene) conducted with Elizabeth Edwards, in which she questioned Rush Limbaugh's Vietnam exemption: My classmates went to Vietnam, he did not. He was 4F. He had a medical disability, the same medical disability that probably should have stopped him from spending a lifetime in a radio announcer’s chair; but it is true, isn’t it? If he has an inoperable position that allows him not to serve, presumably it should not allow him to sit for long periods of time the way he...

The People Must Demand The Fair Tax By Doug Patton August 28, 2007 Last year, during the United States Senate race in Nebraska, Republican challenger Pete Ricketts suggested that every option must be considered when looking at ways to reform our federal tax system. Among the list of alternatives Ricketts said should be on the table was a national sales tax known simply as the "Fair Tax." The Democrat incumbent, U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson, launched an attack on his opponent that was, at best, distorted and condescending, at worst, irrational demagoguery. One would have thought that Ricketts had suggested stealing...

Does adding 30% to the price of every house sold sound like a good idea to you? Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's unexpectedly strong second-place showing in the recent Iowa Republican straw poll is widely attributed to his support for the FairTax. For those who never heard about it, the FairTax is a national retail sales tax that would replace the entire current federal tax system. It was originally devised by the Church of Scientology in the early 1990s as a way to get rid of the Internal Revenue Service, with which the church was then at war (at the...

Talk shows pour fire on immigration debate August 7, 2007 BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA Staff Reporter/ecepeda@suntimes.com Depending on what side of the debate you're on, conservative talk radio shows are either to thank or to blame for the collapse of the Senate's most recent attempt at immigration reform. The backlash against the Rush Limbaughs, Laura Ingrahams and the Sean Hannitys of the broadcast world came just weeks before last Saturday's 20th anniversary of the FCC decision to abolish the Fairness Doctrine, which had required broadcasters to balance conservative and liberal views in their daily broadcasts. Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and...

The conversation now about revival of the Fairness Doctrine, buried by the Federal Communications Commission 20 years ago, shows no idea ever dies. Even the worst ones. The Fairness Doctrine's original logic was that broadcast media were transmitted over limited public airwaves. Therefore, the federal government had an obligation to ensure that competing views were aired. The FCC reasoned in 1987, when it closed the book on this doctrine, that emergence of cable to compete with broadcast had made media markets competitive enough to preclude government policing. If true 20 years ago, how much more so now. The Pew Research...

On PBS, 'Bill Moyers Journal' Devotes An Hour to Advocating Bush-Cheney Impeachment Posted by Tim Graham on July 15, 2007 - 07:15. PBS omnipresence Bill Moyers devoted his entire hour-long Bill Moyers Journal on Friday night to the need to impeach George Bush and Dick Cheney. The stacked hour had two guests, and both were aggressively pro-impeachment: John Nichols of The Nation magazine, author of the book "The Genius of Impeachment," and lawyer Bruce Fein, who Moyers labeled a "conservative," but he compared Bush to King George III, to Adolf Hitler, to the communist autocrats of the Gulag, and to, well,...

  Securing The AirwavesJuly 5, 2007 Last week sane Americans really angered those imbecilic, arrogant and entitled elitists in the Washington DC Amnesty cabal.  Any real American knew that the traitors promising to “secure our borders” were just self-interested serial liars. In reaction to the overwhelming grassroots outcry for sanity, those same liars are seeking vengeance on the not-so-silent majority by resurrecting the Fairness Doctrine. Introduced in 1949, and mercifully euthanized by the Reagan Administration in 1987, the “Fairness Doctrine” was a regulation that required broadcasters airing political opinions to give "equal time" to “opposing” views, with the FCC bureaucrats defining “equal” and...

Three Republican Senators, John McCain, John Thune, and Norm Coleman have stepped forward to introduce the Broadcaster Freedom Act, as questions linger about comments attributed to Senators Hillary Clinton and Barbara Boxer regarding re-imposition of the so-called Fairness Doctrine on broadcasters. The Fairness Doctrine is viewed by many on the political left as a way to muzzle or silence conservative talk radio. The battle for control of talk radio is on.

Anyone that has picked up a newspaper, or turned on a radio or television recently knows that liberals are once again mounting a campaign to subvert free speech, and eliminate conservative talk radio. With this in mind, Congressman Mike Pence (R-Indiana) announced on the House floor Wednesday a bill he plans to introduce that would prevent Democrat efforts to reinstate what is somewhat hypocritically called the “Fairness Doctrine.” What follows is the prepared text of Pence’s statement, as well as additional information supplied by the Congressman on a conference call held early this morning (emphasis added):... "The Broadcaster Freedom Act...

Perhaps conservatives could most easily balance the current argument by making certain that the discussion properly includes all segments of the over the air broadcast industry. Let's see. On CBS that would give Laura Ingraham and Katie Couric 15 minutes each in the early evening. Sean Hannity and Brian Williams could team up on the other network. If we put Mike Savage in with Larry King for an hour, we'd all have at least two reasons to never watch CNN ever again.

Clearly the objective is to sic the Move On.Org types to testify against renewal of stations once they are able to bring down the renewal years from eight to three and to reinstitute all of the regulations I experienced when I was in radio 47 years ago. I will bet you that the Democrats will win the Presidency next year because of the war. If they do, they can change regulations as soon as they take over the majority of the FCC. The other way they can do it would be to pass a bill. We need to educate Members,...

So, Miss Hillary and Miss Barbara are tired of that right wing radio and are thinking about how to legislatively "fix" the problem. Well, it seems the progressive left not only wants to muffle talk radio, but boost their own voices and not have to worry that no one wants to pay for their "product." On the Friday June 22nd Democracy Now! television program, hostess Amy Goodman interviewed Hannah Sassaman of the Prometheus Radio Project, which she hopes will help small, low-powered radio stations in urban areas spring up, and get "information" out to the community. Sounds like a good...

Last I checked, a free society is one that respects individual liberties and freedoms for everyone. It lets people decide on the kinds of cars they drive, where they work, the hobbies they enjoy and the entertainment that they watch or listen to. It is a nation void of unnecessary government control over every facet of their lives. The Fairness Doctrine destroys the very notion of a free society. A country where its government controls the content of ratio stations is a government that abhors the free market and cannot stand the thought that people, you and me, possess the...

You’re Listening to Radio Free Congress I had planned on talking a bit today about Venezuela. The president there doesn't like the way his media is covering him, so he's doing away with the free press. He's established rules on what he thinks is fair, and he’s denying licenses to television and radio stations that don't play by government rules. I can't criticize him now, though. After all, how would it seem for me to complain about another country, when our own congressional leadership is trying to put the same sort of rules in place here? To do so, they're...

A systematic approach to regulating speech at the hands of our federal legislators is well underway, and it presents clear and convincing evidence of the dangers that exist under a system of consolidated power in the hands of select lawmakers. This approach is cleverly termed the “Fairness Doctrine”, and it requires media outlets to provide equal time to all sides of any particular issue. Under this regulation of the press, the news accounts after the horrific September 11th attacks must be countered by representatives of the Taliban to ensure a “fair” and “equal” discussion of the terrorism that just killed...

The Fairness Commissioner will oversee the legislation that came into force on March 1 called, what else, the Fair Access to Regulated Professions Act, 2006. Augustine's job will be to see that the process of recognizing the qualifications and foreign credentials of immigrants is run, well, "fairly". For this task, the 69-year-old former MP will be paid $566 a day, up to a maximum of $110,000 a year. Obviously being fair is not expected to be a full time job.

Liberals worry about equality of outcome. They don’t worry about whether equality of outcome is merited; they just worry about equality of outcome. One of the worst things about the midterm election of 2006 could be the fact that liberals like Barney Frank of Massachusetts are now in a powerful position to inflict equality of outcome on the American People. The concept of equal outcomes seduces the vapid mind with a sinister charm. On the surface, it eliminates jealousy, envy and insecurity, and engineers peace among mankind. On the surface, so should Marxism and Fascism. In truth, equality of outcome...

The New York Times and Washington Post editorialize about America's "stinginess." Former President Jimmy Carter says when it comes to helping others, "The rich states don't give a damn." Standing outside the White House, the singer Bono told the press that America doesn't do enough to help the needy: "It's the crumbs off our tables that we offer these countries." It seems obvious to Bono and President Carter that America offers "crumbs" because the governments of most other wealthy countries distribute a larger percentage of their nations' wealth in foreign aid. Yes, the U.S. government gave out $20 billion last...

(COMMENT: Something Air America would just love...you can't win the minds of the people, run to government to make things "fair?" Just another thing to be on alert for...I don't see it happening, but the days of assuming are over) ................... CBNNews.com - WASHINGTON - A big Democrat win in this November's elections could jumpstart a contentious debate in Congress that has raged since the late 1980s. It's a debate that could let government decide what you can watch and hear on radio and TV. Whether it's Rush Limbaugh on the right or Al Franken on the left, Americans are...

Right brain area linked to fairness Bruce Bower The ability to control selfish impulses in order to reject an unfair deal depends on a specific right brain area, a new study finds. A team led by Daria Knoch of the University of Zurich focused on a game in which one person makes an offer to another person on how to split a pot of money. The second person can either accept the offer and pocket the offered portion, or refuse it, leaving both players with nothing. Responders typically reject offers of less than 25 percent of the pot, preferring zilch...

Prepared Remarks of Mr. David Burton Americans for Fair Taxation My name is David Burton. I am a partner in the Argus Group, a small public policy firm based in Virginia. I have a particular interest in, and awareness of, the problems of small businesses for a number of reasons. I worked for many years in my family’s furniture and pool table manufacturing business stopping only once I was well into law school. I worked as the CFO and general counsel of a small 80 employee multinational manufacturing company. I also regard small businesses and farmers as the greatest source...

As the Roman Catholic Church struggles to repair itself and its image in the wake of the sex abuse scandals, one of the more confounding questions church leaders face is what to do with priests accused of abuse. Some priests whose crimes fell within statutes of limitation are in jail. Some have been defrocked. But others — because they are elderly, because of the nature of their offenses, or because they have had some success fighting the charges — cannot be defrocked under canon law. These priests occupy a sort of shadow world, stripped of most duties but still financially...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - An Iraqi tribunal is incapable of fairly and effectively trying Saddam Hussein and six others on genocide charges stemming from an Iraqi campaign that killed an estimated 100,000 Kurds in the 1980s, a human rights group said Friday. New York-based Human Rights Watch said the Iraqi High Tribunal must "improve its practices if it is to do justice" in the trial scheduled to start Monday. The case involves Saddam's alleged role in "Operation Anfal" — Arabic for "spoils of war." The 1987-88 operation intended to crush independence-minded Kurdish militias and clear Kurds from the sensitive Iranian frontier....

PROPOSALS INVITED TOWARD A MORE CIVIL DISCOURSE RE RELIGIOUS FIGURES AT ODDS WITH VARIOUS SENSIBILITIES The current thread regarding Pat Robertson is but the latest in a long tradition of certain flavors of evangelical Christian and particularly Pentecostal/Charismatic religious figures being thoroughly shredded by what--90% or more of the posts--usually in the harshest, most hostile, even demonizing wording possible. It seems that when folks are perceived to be in such Pentecostal/charismatic categories, all bets are off, no holds barred--the most viscious attacks are the minimal Standard Operating Procedure. Instead of exhorting one another in Christian Love, the worst attitudes normally...