NOTICE AT MOZILLA/FIREFOX

HERE.

Snippet:

The internet we know and love is at risk. Help save it.

Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could profoundly affect the future of the internet. It's called the Stop Online Piracy Act.

The fact is that this legislation as written won't stop piracy. But it would pose a serious threat to social media and user generated content sites (like YouTube) across the internet. It could also undermine some of the core technical systems underlying the internet, creating new cybersecurity risks.

As a non-profit committed to keeping the web open and accessible to all, Mozilla wants to ensure that this legislation does not jeopardize the foundational structure of the Internet.

So we've done two things so far...

Read the rest HERE.

Every tyrant or wannabe tyrant must silence voices to stay in power.

DISSENTERS ARE "POLITICAL TERRORISTS"

(graphic courtesy of GM's Place - disseminate freely)
According to business columnist Steven Pearlstein, who wrote the following August 7, 2009 essay in the Washington Post:

Republicans Propagating Falsehoods in Attacks on Health-Care Reform

As a columnist who regularly dishes out sharp criticism, I try not to question the motives of people with whom I don't agree. Today, I'm going to step over that line.

The recent attacks by Republican leaders and their ideological fellow-travelers on the effort to reform the health-care system have been so misleading, so disingenuous, that they could only spring from a cynical effort to gain partisan political advantage. By poisoning the political well, they've given up any pretense of being the loyal opposition. They've become political terrorists, willing to say or do anything to prevent the country from reaching a consensus on one of its most serious domestic problems.

[...]

Health reform is a test of whether this country can function once again as a civil society -- whether we can trust ourselves to embrace the big, important changes that require everyone to give up something in order to make everyone better off. Republican leaders are eager to see us fail that test. We need to show them that no matter how many lies they tell or how many scare tactics they concoct, Americans will come together and get this done.

If health reform is to be anyone's Waterloo, let it be theirs.

As one who always reads Pearlstein's columns, which typically often sound financial advice, I have to say that I'm astounded as the position he has taken in this essay.

Those with concerns about ObamaCare are "political terrorists"? Perhaps Pearlstein is a covert disciple of Cass Suntein and Zephyr Teachout....

Read the rest at Always On Watch.

THE PLANS OF CASS SUNSTEIN

Based on his own words and statements of intent, Cass Sunstein, appointed to the shadowy post of White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, will likely have his eye on the Internet, particularly on us bloggers:

When it comes to the First Amendment, Team Obama believes in Global Chilling.

Cass Sunstein, a Harvard Law professor who has been appointed to a shadowy post that will grant him powers that are merely mind-boggling, explicitly supports using the courts to impose a "chilling effect" on speech that might hurt someone's feelings. He thinks that the bloggers have been rampaging out of control and that new laws need to be written to corral them.

[...]

Sunstein questions the current libel standard - which requires proving "actual malice" against those who write about public figures, including celebrities. Mere "negligence" isn't libelous, but Sunstein wonders, "Is it so important to provide breathing space for damaging falsehoods about entertainers?" Celeb rags, get ready to hire more lawyers.

Sunstein also believes that - whether you're a blogger, The New York Times or a Web hosting service - you should be held responsible even for what your commenters say. Currently you're immune under section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. "Reasonable people," he says, "might object that this is not the right rule," though he admits that imposing liability for commenters on service providers would be "a considerable burden."

[...]

"As we have seen," Sunstein writes, having shown us no such thing, "falsehoods can undermine democracy itself." What Sunstein means by that sentence is pretty clear: He doesn't like so-called false rumors about his longtime University of Chicago friend and colleague, Barack Obama.

He alludes on page 3 (and on page 13, and 14, and 45, and 54 - the book is only 87 pages) to the supposedly insidious lie that "Barack Obama pals around with terrorists." Since Sunstein intends to impose his Big Chill on such talk, I'd better get this in while I can. The "rumor," i.e., "fact," about the palsy-walsiness of Obama and unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers (Ayers referred to Obama as a "family friend" in a memoir) did not "undermine democracy," i.e., prevent Obama's election. The facts got out, voters weighed them and ruled that they weren't disqualifying.

Sunstein calls for a "notice and take down" law that would require bloggers and service providers to "take down falsehoods upon notice," even those made by commenters - but without apparent penalty.

Consider how well this nudge would work. You blog about Obama-Ayers. You get a letter claiming that your facts are wrong so you should remove your post. You refuse. If, after a court proceeding proves simply that you are wrong (but not that you committed libel, which when a public figure is the target is almost impossible), you lose, the penalty is . . . you must take down your post.

Such suppression of First Amendment rights would be challenged in courts of law, of course. However, the article points out the following disturbing reality:

How long would it take for a court to sort out the truth? Sasha and Malia will be running for president by then. Nobody will care anymore. But it will give politicians the ability to tie up their online critics in court....

If Suntein's proposals become reality, America as the beacon of freedom is finished!

"NO COMPROMISE..." IS BACK ON THE AIR

You may recall my posting last month about what happened to No Compromise, when Blog Talk Radio interrupted Tracy's interview of Philip J. Berg, who filed a federal law suit about Barack Obama's citizenship qualifications for the Office of President of the United States. Just a few minutes into the interview, Tracy's show was shut down, her account suspended, and the archives placed on hold, unavailable for listening. In fact, going to the show's web site resulted in the site-not-found message.

Now that the election is over, Blog Talk Radio has reinstated No Compromise:

An interesting turn of events occurred: The election is over, so I guess Blog Talk Radio decided it was safe for an outspoken critic of the Obamunist to have her show back. As if I, or anyone else could do any harm to the messiah! If he’s such a messiah why silence his critics? Wow, what a god he must be!...

Read more details HERE.

Perhaps Berg's law suit has no merit. Indeed, a ruling, a dismissal, has already been issued by a federal court, quite an unsatisfactory ruling which did not specifically address the Constitutional questions presented. Berg has now taken his law suit to the United States Supreme Court.

But whatever merit the law suit has or doesn't have isn't the point, particularly with regard to what happened to No Compromise. The point is this: Why the push to silence the discussion, particularly before the election? Also, are Obama's followers so maniacal that they have to silence even the asking of questions? Let's recall these words warning about the supression of free speech, from George Washington:

“If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”

I've been unable to confirm whether or not the Supreme Court of the United States is going to hear Berg's law suit. I have read, however, that Obama, the DNC, and all co-defendants will have to respond to Berg's writ of certiorari by December 1. Wikipedia says the following about writ of certiorari:

A writ of certiorari currently means an order by a higher court directing a lower court to send the record in a given case for review.

But suppose for a minute that Obama is indeed Constitutionally unqualified for the Office of President. Then what? After all, he won the election on November 4.

BLOG TALK RADIO SILENCES "NO COMPROMISE WHEN IT COMES TO BEING RIGHT"

October 13, 2008

Read this and weep. Full information from Tracy of No Compromise When It Comes to Being Right:

Dear Listeners,

I scheduled a show with Attorney Phil Berg who has filed a lawsuit against Barack Obama for not being a US Citizen therefore he is an illegal alien.

My show was terminated at the beginning of the show. Why? The BTR assistant Director of Customer Relations, Shannon Dingee-Kramer stated that my show was, "racially or ethnically offensive, defamatory, unreasonably violent, threatening, intimidating or harassing; 2. contains falsehoods or misrepresentations that could damage BlogTalkRadio or any other person;

In other words, those who claim to be for free speech are afraid of it when they see it. It might offend someone and that's far more important to protect than the American Principle of exercising the flow of speech in the arena of public ideas.

So I am officially off the air until further notice thanks to the Obamunists and Islamists who support him!

I want to thank all of you for your faithfulness to my growing show.

Kindest regards,

Tracy

Additional information HERE.

2008: The Year of Silencing the Voices - as I've been squawking about since the first of the year.

RELIAPUNDIT ADDS: UNBEFREAKINLIEVABLE!

OBAMA'S THUGOCRACY IS ALREADY IN FULL SWING - AND HE HASN'T EVEN BEEN SWORN IN!

More On Dr. Wafa Sultan

Additional information related to this posting here at THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS....

A little less than two years ago, Time Magazine published the following about Dr. Wafa Sultan:

By so sharply voicing her beliefs, Sultan crystallizes the mission for the rest of us who want to take the slam out of Islam.

Also in 2006, Time Magazine recognized Wafa Sultan as one in "The Time 100: The People Who Shape Our World."

Whatever happened to supporting Dr. Sultan, an American citizen, in her exercise of freedom of speech here in America? A bunch of cartoons got in the way?

Also see this March 11, 2008 article in the New York Times. Why isn't this information on the front page instead of buried in the "International" section?

...[C]lerics throughout the Muslim world have condemned her, and her telephone answering machine has filled with dark threats.

[...]

Perhaps her most provocative words on Al Jazeera were those comparing how the Jews and Muslims have reacted to adversity. Speaking of the Holocaust, she said, "The Jews have come from the tragedy and forced the world to respect them, with their knowledge, not with their terror; with their work, not with their crying and yelling."

She went on, "We have not seen a single Jew blow himself up in a German restaurant. We have not seen a single Jew destroy a church. We have not seen a single Jew protest by killing people."

She concluded, "Only the Muslims defend their beliefs by burning down churches, killing people and destroying embassies. This path will not yield any results. The Muslims must ask themselves what they can do for humankind, before they demand that humankind respect them."

[...]

Shortly after the broadcast, clerics in Syria denounced her as an infidel. One said she had done Islam more damage than the Danish cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad, a wire service reported.

DR. SULTAN is "working on a book that — if it is published...

Dr. Ibrahim al-Khouli, asked, "Are you a heretic?" He then said there was no point in rebuking or debating her, because she had blasphemed against Islam, the Prophet Muhammad and the Koran.

Dr. Sultan said she took those words as a formal fatwa, a religious condemnation. Since then, she said, she has received numerous death threats on her answering machine and by e-mail.

One message said: "Oh, you are still alive? Wait and see." She received an e-mail message the other day, in Arabic, that said, "If someone were to kill you, it would be me."

Dr. Sultan said her mother, who still lives in Syria, is afraid to contact her directly, speaking only through a sister who lives in Qatar. She said she worried more about the safety of family members here and in Syria than she did for her own....

The latest information I have is that our government will do nothing to protect Dr. Wafa Sultan, referred to by Robert Spencer as "a national and international treasure."

Dr. Wafa Sultan Under Death Threat

Read the information and take action HERE at Brigitte Gabriel's Act! For America.

Right here in America, Dr. Sultan and her family have had to go into hiding!

All because she spoke out against Islam on Al-Jazeera television and defended the republication of the Danish cartoons.

Here are the videos of Dr. Sultan's appearance on Al-Jazeera Television earlier this month: