Congress Shall Make No Law...
Monday, November 22nd, 2004 03:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rolanni...respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
From alert reader joythree:
Right-Wing Chilling Effect Makes 'Reproductive Rights' Too Hot for Public Radio
Jim Lobe, OneWorld, US
"WASHINGTON, D.C., Nov 22 (OneWorld) The refusal by a North Carolina affiliate of National Public Radio (NPR) to run an underwriting announcement by a local group that carries out family-planning activities abroad is raising fears that the leadership of federal regulatory agencies may try to enforce a new kind of right-wing political correctness."
Full story here
It is worth noting that the actions of the radio station (WUNC) are self-censoring; that is, the station manager is afraid that the FCC will decide that discussion of "reproductive rights" constitutes a political statement, which WUNC, as a non-profit broadcaster, is forbidden to air. Should the FCC decide this, the station would be penalized retroactively, and the station manager is therefore in her judgment erring on the side of prudence in protecting her station from the possibility of punishment.
Congress therefore having made no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, you'd think I had no beef. And you'd be wrong. The present administration is establishing a mode of using its regulatory agencies to intimidate the free press and organizations dedicated to furthering equality and health.
In case it slipped under your radar, I give you the IRS investigation of the NAACP:
"The Internal Revenue Service has threatened to revoke the NAACP's tax-exempt status because the civil rights group's chairman, Julian Bond, "condemned the administration policies of George W. Bush" during a speech this summer, according to documents the group provided yesterday." Full story here.
Oh, and by the way -- the federal budget passed, with the anti-abortion language intact. And today, after hearing from Outraged Politicians(tm) yesterday that no one would "defend" language allowing two committee chairmen to access anyone's tax return, we have this which -- yep, you guessed, it, defends the inclusion of the language as a poor-but-honest attempt at "oversight" and asserts that "nobody's privacy was ever jeapardized."
And one more thing, while I'm on a roll. Rhode Island reporter Jim Taricani has been convicted of criminal contempt for refusing to name his source -- specifically who gave him an FBI tape showing a city official taking a bribe. Mr. Taricani faces up to six months in jail for honoring his duty to protect his sources. He will be sentenced on December 9. Full story here
From alert reader joythree:
Right-Wing Chilling Effect Makes 'Reproductive Rights' Too Hot for Public Radio
Jim Lobe, OneWorld, US
"WASHINGTON, D.C., Nov 22 (OneWorld) The refusal by a North Carolina affiliate of National Public Radio (NPR) to run an underwriting announcement by a local group that carries out family-planning activities abroad is raising fears that the leadership of federal regulatory agencies may try to enforce a new kind of right-wing political correctness."
Full story here
It is worth noting that the actions of the radio station (WUNC) are self-censoring; that is, the station manager is afraid that the FCC will decide that discussion of "reproductive rights" constitutes a political statement, which WUNC, as a non-profit broadcaster, is forbidden to air. Should the FCC decide this, the station would be penalized retroactively, and the station manager is therefore in her judgment erring on the side of prudence in protecting her station from the possibility of punishment.
Congress therefore having made no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, you'd think I had no beef. And you'd be wrong. The present administration is establishing a mode of using its regulatory agencies to intimidate the free press and organizations dedicated to furthering equality and health.
In case it slipped under your radar, I give you the IRS investigation of the NAACP:
"The Internal Revenue Service has threatened to revoke the NAACP's tax-exempt status because the civil rights group's chairman, Julian Bond, "condemned the administration policies of George W. Bush" during a speech this summer, according to documents the group provided yesterday." Full story here.
Oh, and by the way -- the federal budget passed, with the anti-abortion language intact. And today, after hearing from Outraged Politicians(tm) yesterday that no one would "defend" language allowing two committee chairmen to access anyone's tax return, we have this which -- yep, you guessed, it, defends the inclusion of the language as a poor-but-honest attempt at "oversight" and asserts that "nobody's privacy was ever jeapardized."
And one more thing, while I'm on a roll. Rhode Island reporter Jim Taricani has been convicted of criminal contempt for refusing to name his source -- specifically who gave him an FBI tape showing a city official taking a bribe. Mr. Taricani faces up to six months in jail for honoring his duty to protect his sources. He will be sentenced on December 9. Full story here
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Damnit I don't whether to cry,
Date: 2004-11-22 09:30 pm (UTC)Why can't fiction just sometimes come to life when you need it?
no subject
Date: 2004-11-22 09:53 pm (UTC)Meanwhile of course Robert Novak continues to be free despite leaking Valerie Plame's identity and not naming his source, who has still not been identified nor punished, despite our fearless leader's assurances that he was concerned about it.
Captain's Emergency planning session
Date: 2004-11-23 02:22 am (UTC)Unfortunately I cannot log on to livejournal because IE won't let me. I feel compelled to address the comment by "noiseinmyhead":
Blessings, Noise, you have successfully called a Captain's Emergency! Your Troops are your children and child-to-be. Perhaps your children are too young yet to read, so you may not have had the privilege of watching an Enlightenment unfold in your own family. In a county that voted 69% to 29% FOR Bush, I gloried in my daughters each deciding to vote for Kerry in spite of incredible peer pressure and outright lies disseminated through the public school system. Only one child is old enough to vote and she did so proudly. This despite my own constant grumbling that I was going to vote for Al Gore just so I could see my vote counted. (I live in Florida, 'nuff said.)
Don't you see, people, how terribly important we are as the footsoldiers that spread the messages of our favorite science fiction writers? Where would we have found a Jacques Cousteau without a Jules Verne? How would we have strived toward the moon without the writers from the Golden Age of Science Fiction? Contrary to the brainwashing of the Department of the Interior (Bush, et al), we read those articles and felt fear, rage, sadness, and determination! Edger sings healing and truth to our minds through the words so skillfully written by Sharon and Steve. Be proud that you have won free of their manipulations.
I am not a writer. I can only inspire through one-to-one contact. But I am proud to be a mother of two girls who should terrify Bush with their cold-eyed assessments of the future he is shaping with his unmitigated greed. It is through the Lensmen books by E.E.'Doc'Smith that I had my sense of Rightness, Honor, and Integrity honed to a fine edge. I own and will continue to collect works by my favorite authors as my contribution to enable their work to do the public speaking that I cannot do myself.
Think of these characters created by Lois McMaster Bujold: The Vorkosigans and Cazaril. None of them would be duped by the Dept of Interior. Why do you think Lois keeps quietly mentioning that no person can ever be found that voted for Steady Freddy but somehow he keeps being reelected as President of Beta Colony? Authors plant the seeds of assent (and ascent), dissent, inspiration, revolution, and evolution, and it is their readers who sow the fields. We may not be the generation that brings in the harvest, but we are the scarecrows and farmers who protect, disseminate, and culture the seeds. I apologize for my inane and stumbling attempt to say that, like Skull and Bones, we form an army of dragons. We nurture The Trees; WE Dare.
Neither compliant nor complacent, I am
joythree
Feel free to rewrite this, Sharon. I fear I am hopeless. I'm a fabulous reader, though!!